Writing for the Lord: Three local authors to sign books at Cape Girardeau store

Joshua Grimwood, Melba Elledge and Sherry Elliott all write for the same reason -- to bring Christ to children.

The three authors will be available from 4 to 6 p.m. Friday and from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Nov. 22 at Gospeland Christian Outlet in Cape Girardeau to sign their recent books.

Jellybean Gumbo -- Joshua Grimwood's pen name -- has two books that have been published and others in the making. His book "Eelyk Flyks" follows Eelyk and his friend, Monkeyhead, as they find out what it means to use the Golden Rule of treat others as you would like to be treated. Another publication, "My Balloon Ride," is a story about Miss Dawson's class letting balloons fly one day and wondering what happened to them.

Grimwood's daughter inspired Eelyk Flyks when she brought home a construction-paper penguin from preschool.

"It turned into an imaginary world with real world lessons and morals," he said. "'My Balloon Ride' was inspired by a balloon we found in our yard."

Grimwood said he hopes "parents and their children will come to know how great the love of God is for them and the lesson taught in each book." He said God shows him the lesson as he works.

Sherry Elliott of Jackson called her first book "Turtle and Duck Find Joy." Turtle sets out on a journey to find something he desires more than anything else -- joy. He and Duck search for joy, but find the only true joy is through a relationship with Jesus Christ.

Elliott said she has always wanted to write children's books, but always put it off until she got older.

"Suddenly, getting older slipped up on me," she said. "And I hadn't put to good use the talents God had given me for writing and art."

Elliott said she was especially interested in joy because so many people think about it.

"I wanted to write and illustrate a children's book about the joy of knowing Jesus," Elliott said. Her main purpose in writing is to teach children about Jesus.

"The Bible instructs us in Proverbs 22:6, 'Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it'," Elliott said. She said her book is "literally circulating the globe -- what a miracle."

Eighty-year-old Melba Elledge of Advance, Mo., believes it's never too late to begin a project. She recently wrote and published her first children's book, "Little Birds in the Sun," and has already written an adult book, "This Little Mouse from Bollinger County," which is at the publisher's now. That book will be out in December or January.

"Children should always have good reading material in their home to read or have read to them," she said. "I decided to write the book 'Little Birds in the Sun' to tell the story of how a pair of robins built their nest in our back yard in the fork of a tree that had been cut back and where there were no leaves to cover the nest when the sun got hot."

Elledge said she hopes "the child learns to enjoy the beauty of nature and God's role in the behavior patterns of birds."

Grimwood, Elledge and Elliott all cite similar reasons for writing the type of literature they do. Their objectives are to teach children and parents a moral lesson about the joy of knowing Jesus Christ and that they can always depend on the savior when life becomes difficult.