Loosing the Lightning is a story of innocent love, given and received. It is a story of betrayal and retribution, of lost belief in authority figures and cover-ups, of lies and deception versus loyalty and obsessive love. It is also the story of blind trust and revelation. Will it be a story of strength and happiness? Meet Lily, a child growing up in the deep south of the 1940's. A carefree, innocent and happy child she was. Then imagine innocence lost. Lily's innocence is lost at age five and she endures this abuse until she gains the courage and strength to confront him years later. The sexual abuse dictates everything about her life. She is afraid she won't fit in or have any friends because she thinks she will look different somehow. when she is older, she's afraid to date, worrying first that no one would want her. She is ever fearful that someone will find out her dark secret. The secret she keeps behind tight lips that don't smile as often as they did before she was defiled. She loves her strong, proud mother and protects her with her silence. She knows for her mother to find out would hurt her and Lily can't do that. So she keeps her secret and suffers her pain and shame alone. Growing up is a sometimes fearful time for Lily. She's lovely, even as a child, and catches the eye of more than one predator. Her dating years are a fearful time for Lily. She is pursued by boys her age and older. As that era dictated, girls must be virginal when they marry so she told each boy, each one ever intent on being the one to score with her, that she was a virgin and intended to stay that way. In college she meets the man she will marry. She is greatly dismayed to later learn he is a spousal sexual abuser. She has survived the horror of being sexually abused as a child only to become ensnared in a pervert's web. She loves him obsessively and tries to make the marriage work by being a submissive wife in every way. He betrays her often but it is his final betrayal that is devastating. she has to somehow get her life together and survive this unexpected turn. Will Lily ever find the elusive happiness she has been denied since she was an innocent child of five and evil was her companion?
About the Author: Lyla Faircloth Ellzey grew up in Florida and received her BA in English/Speech at USF. Her M.ED. came from UF. She has been primarily a short story writer, winning several awards in this category. Her second book, "She is Woman: Courageous, Compelling and Captivating (And Sometimes Outrageous!)" is a collection of twenty-four short stories about twenty-four very different women whose stories are also completely different, each dealing with a wildly varied topic. "Loosing the Lightning," a story of sexual abuse and spousal sexual abuse is fiction and is her first novel. Lyla lives in a retirement community with her husband Frank in Tallahassee, FL. Retired now, Lyla participates in many activities. She is a member of the Board of the Tallahassee Writers Association. While writing and reading are passions, she also enjoys acting in the film projects of FSU Film School students. As a member of the Players group in her retirement village, she acts in plays they perform. Foreign travel is a major fun activity and she and Frank have now visited five of the seven continents and such exotic places as China, Egypt, Peru and the Amazon, Africa, Russia, the UK, Turkey, Greece, and most eastern European countries. She and Frank have five children between them and four grandchildren whom they love to spoil. Now Lyla is busily working on a third fiction novel about Dissasociative Identity Disorder and she continues to write short stories. Perhaps a new short story book is in the works as well!