Richard E Kelly

Esther Royer Ayers, the author of “Rolling Down Black Stockings”, and I were invited to participate in the 2009 Tucson Festival of Books, which is sponsored by The Arizona Daily Star in association with the University of Arizona. This is quite an honor for both of us as they have invited only 300 writers and are expecting over 50,000 people to attend. An hour has been allotted to us on Sunday, March 15 at 4:00pm. After the session there will be a half hour for us to sign our books.

Esther and I have chosen “Two Remarkable Stories of Growing Up in Cults – Told with Compassion & Humor” as the title of our presentation. The format will be a lively interactive discussion between us talking about growing up in two totally different cults – Old Order Mennonites and Jehovah’s Witnesses – with surprising and shocking commonalities between these two very unique and secretive groups.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting with a long-time Tucson book club called “Books with Rose Mary.” Rose Mary Blaha had only a few days ago read “Growing Up In Mama’s Club” and wanted her group of passionate readers to know about my story. She gave my book a five-star review on Amazon.com, saying she could not put the book down.

Our meeting started promptly at 4:00 pm at Applebees near the Tucson Mall. Rose Mary introduced me to the group, telling me that I should tell a bit of my story. It took only a few minutes, before it was non-stop questions and interesting observations. Liz Leggett wanted to know how my negative experience with religion as a child had impacted my view of religion today and asked how she could get a copy of the book. Mary Letts was curious about why the Club believes only 144,000 will go to heaven. Jan Graunke grew up in Grand Island, Nebraska, which ironically was the city my sister, Mary Lyn, was living in when she was murdered. Sophie Katz and Betty Griffis shared their thoughts about organized religion and both purchased copies of my book. Prudy Cain mentioned that alot of people claim to be agnostics but on their death bed, most of them are praying to a Higher Power. She also commented that she was looking forward to reading my book.

All in all, it was fun to be the center of attention for an afternoon and I look forward to getting feedback on my book from the ladies in “Books with Rose Mary.”

Randy Watters, at FreeMinds.org, is now stocking copies of the new revised and expanded third edition of Growing Up In Mama’s Club. Randy has been helping ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses for over twenty years adjust to a non-mind-control world. His ministry has been fearless in bringing the real truth about the heavy-duty brainwashing and checkered history of the Club. If you haven’t already done so, you might like to check out his site. You can also save ninety-nine cents by ordering Mama’s Club from Randy.