Mark Gilroy

Bringing Books to Life!

Kisses from Katie – A Story of Relentless Love and Redemption

The story of Katie Davis in Uganda.

The amazing story of an adoptive mother of 14 girls.

We moved to Brentwood, Tennessee, in January 2006. My youngest daughter, Caroline, was a junior in high school. You can imagine how nervous we were as parents on how the move would go for an almost-senior (and for the two other kids still in the house). Within days Caroline met two Katies who welcomed her to Ravenwood High School and made her feel as if she had grown up in their circle of friends. I’m still sighing with relief.

One of the wonderful Katies – Katie Davis – took a different path after graduation to say the least. She is now the unmarried mother of 14 young girls.

Is that even possible? Is this one of those stories about youth gone bad?

I need to give a warning to any potential readers at this point. Do not pick up Kisses from Katie if you live a comfortable life and don’t want anything or anyone messing up your comfort zone.

Katie’s story is a story of youth gone good. It is both heartwarming and heartbreaking – and in reading it you will never be satisfied with a status quo lifestyle again. If you have never felt a gentle nudge from God that you have something beyond yourself to accomplish in this world – or if you have suppressed and ignored the nudge – this book serves as a loud, clanging, blaring wakeup call to hear and embrace your call.

“Kids” can be idealists – and when Caroline told me Katie was going to do a yearlong mission project before attending college, I thought that sounded great – that it would be good for her. Little did I know … I did know Katie’s parents were quite nervous when she said the project would be serving in an orphanage in Uganda. After surveying the situation in Africa carefully, her dad reluctantly gave his permission for her to go – with the condition that she promise to come back in one year, enroll in college, and move on with her life. She was true to her word – but even as she attended classes the fall of her return, she was miserable, thinking only of her “girls” back in Uganda.

Katie – high school homecoming queen and student body president and honor student and girlfriend to a handsome, committed, spiritual, star athlete – had every reason to “come home.” But her heart was back in Uganda with the motherless children she had fallen in love with. Is it any wonder that the name she has been given by the people of her village is “Mommy.” Katie’s ongoing adventures in Uganda are  amazing and fit the adage that truth is stranger than fiction. In her case, it is not just stranger, but more incredible.

My family has been blessed by the Katie who befriended the “new kid” at school. We’ve been privileged to meet two of her daughters, Patricia and Grace. Most of all we have been inspired to step out of our comfort zone and to look around to see what God is doing in the world that we need to take part in.

I can’t recommend Kisses from Katie highly enough for the spiritual blessings you will experience reading this story of relentless love and redemption.

The Day Satan Called: A True Encounter With Demon Possession

By Bill Scott. FaithWords, a division of the Hachette Book Group. Published October 2011.

We live in a culture that is skeptical of most things spiritual – but that can’t seem to get enough of dark, scary, “spiritual” movies and books – from Rosemary’s Baby to The Exorcist and a host of annual releases. So what more can be said about demons and evil spirits?

I will establish up front that I am friends with the author of The Day Satan Called and worked with him on the editorial development of the project. But that doesn’t mean I can’t be a raving fan and recognize some special contributions to our understanding of the spirit world that Bill has made through this book, does it?

I met Bill Scott and his wife Janet about a year ago to discuss a couple publishing projects they needed to work on for an organization for youth they founded and run. In the course of the conversation Bill mentioned off-handedly that he had written a manuscript (with more than a little help from Janet) of his experience with a … witch … who he had invited to live in his home in order to help her … okay.

Suffice it to say I watched Bill just a little more closely to see what kind of guy he really was. What I noticed then and have seen confirmed over and over in the subsequent year is that Bill is direct and honest to a fault. I took the manuscript home and was transfixed – and terrified. That’s the first thing I would say about The Day Satan Called – it is a well-written, fast-paced, entertaining, and incredibly scary story. Bill seems to take you to the edge of the cliff at the end of every chapter. About the time you think what he lived through couldn’t get worse – it does.

I’m not going to give away any spoilers, but I’ll note that the book has a totally unexpected ending. The story is great but it is Bill’s observations that make this book special. In the process of looking back at how things started and ended, Bill asks and answers some poignant questions about demon possession: is it related to multiple personality disorder (MPD) – sometimes? All of the time? How much of what is called demon possession is someone’s personal fantasy or even a con game? Or both? How prevalent is demon possession in our society and how concerned should we be? With all the temptations in the world that seem to work so well with so many, why would Satan even bother with “possessing” some people? Can a Christian be demon possessed – or in the case of a person suffering from MPD, can one personality be redeemed and another personality be possessed?

I mentioned that Bill is honest and direct. He doesn’t claim to know all the answers to those and other questions, but he does a great job of presenting what happened to him – even the parts that are personally embarrassing that he’d rather forget – and reaffirming the scripture: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).

E-Book Inventor Passes Away – As His Invention Soars

Publisher’s Weekly reported today:

E-book sales rose 167% in June, to $80.2 million, at the 15 houses that reported figures to AAP’s monthly sales report and closed the first half of the year with sales up 161%, to $473.8 million.

But the biggest news in e-book publishing is that the inventor of the e-book, Michael S. Hart, passed away this past week on September 6, 2011.

What follows is an excerpt from the obituary for Mr. Hart written by Dr. Gregory B. Newby for Project Gutenberg.

Michael Stern Hart was born in Tacoma, Washington on March 8, 1947. He died on September 6, 2011 in his home in Urbana, Illinois, at the age of 64. He is survived by his mother, Alice, and brother, Bennett. Michael was an Eagle Scout (Urbana Troop 6 and Explorer Post 12), and served in the Army in Korea during the Vietnam era.

Hart was best known for his 1971 invention of electronic books, or eBooks. He founded Project Gutenberg, which is recognized as one of the earliest and longest-lasting online literary projects. He often told this story of how he had the idea for eBooks. He had been granted access to significant computing power at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. On July 4, 1971, after being inspired by a free printed copy of the U.S. Declaration of Independence, he decided to type the text into a computer, and to transmit it to other users on the computer network. From this beginning, the digitization and distribution of literature was to be Hart’s life’s work, spanning over 40 years.

Hart was an ardent technologist and futurist. A lifetime tinkerer, he acquired hands-on expertise with the technologies of the day: radio, hi-fi stereo, video equipment, and of course computers. He constantly looked into the future, to anticipate technological advances. One of his favorite speculations was that someday, everyone would be able to have their own copy of the Project Gutenberg collection or whatever subset desired. This vision came true, thanks to the advent of large inexpensive computer disk drives, and to the ubiquity of portable mobile devices, such as cell phones.

Hart also predicted the enhancement of automatic translation, which would provide all of the world’s literature in over a hundred languages. While this goal has not yet been reached, by the time of his death Project Gutenberg hosted eBooks in 60 different languages, and was frequently highlighted as one of the best Internet-based resources.

A lifetime intellectual, Hart was inspired by his parents, both professors at the University of Illinois, to seek truth and to question authority. One of his favorite recent quotes, credited to George Bernard Shaw, is characteristic of his approach to life: “Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress, therefore, depends on unreasonable people.”

Michael prided himself on being unreasonable, and only in the later years of life did he mellow sufficiently to occasionally refrain from debate. Yet, his passion for life, and all the things in it, never abated.

Frugal to a fault, Michael glided through life with many possessions and friends, but very few expenses. He used home remedies rather than seeing doctors. He fixed his own house and car. He built many computers, stereos, and other gear, often from discarded components.

Michael S. Hart left a major mark on the world. The invention of eBooks was not simply a technological innovation or precursor to the modern information environment. A more correct understanding is that eBooks are an efficient and effective way of unlimited free distribution of literature. Access to eBooks can thus provide opportunity for increased literacy. Literacy, and the ideas contained in literature, creates opportunity.

In July 2011, Michael wrote these words, which summarize his goals and his lasting legacy: “One thing about eBooks that most people haven’t thought much is that eBooks are the very first thing that we’re all able to have as much as we want other than air. Think about that for a moment and you realize we are in the right job.”

He had this advice for those seeking to make literature available to all people, especially children: “Learning is its own reward. Nothing I can say is better than that.”

Michael is remembered as a dear friend, who sacrificed personal luxury to fight for literacy, and for preservation of public domain rights and resources, towards the greater good.