Introducing Tracy Traynor and Grace in Mombasa

By Tracy Tranory @tracy_traynor

Hello, my name is Tracy Traynor. I’m an indie-author and I love to write stories.

From a very early age I used to spend immeasurable amounts of time day dreaming; now I spend every minute I can at the computer putting day dreams to paper and creating stories, which I hope people will enjoy reading.

Grace in Mombasa is fictional, but was inspired by a woman I met in Kenya called Moira Smith. I met Moira twice in 1991, and she made such an impact on me I have not been able to forget her, and over the years I began to imagine what her life might have been like. I would be driving to work and suddenly she would appear in my mind and I started to create a fictional life for her.

I did a lot of research and the book is filled with facts, at the end of the book I mention the things that happen in Grace’s life that were the real things that happened to Moira.

This is a life – and therefore a story in two halves. The first half of her life was spent in England, and so the book’s first part is her life during World War 2 in England. The second half of the book is set in Mombasa.

Moira was an amazing woman who dedicated her life to helping the Kenyan people who came into the Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, a place where people believed they only went to die. She inspired me, and I hope I have done her story justice so that it might inspire others.

To continue with Moira’s good works for the people of Mombasa, I have hooked up with Barnabas Trust Outreach Mombasa, and I am donating 50% of all sales to them.

Sean McIntyre Missionary to Kenya with Barnabas, and minister at AOG Colchester, gave me this endorsement:

The story of Grace captures the experience of many others who, though quite ordinary by themselves, find that the love of God propels them towards quite extraordinary endeavours. Tracy is the author of Grace's story but the inspiration was Moira Smith and the author of her story was none other than God himself, described in the Bible as the 'author and finisher of our faith'. I commend Tracy's book "Grace in Mombasa" to you in the hope that, inspired by the story of Grace and Moira, you will become hungry for a story of your own and that you will turn to the great author of all our lives. He already has a story prepared for you!

The first person to read the book, besides the editors, is Wendy H Jones, Author and member/webmaster of the ACW Scotland – Association of Christian Writers. Here is her endorsement:

Tracy Traynor’s writing transports you from World War 1 and 2 England to the courts of heaven, via Mombasa. With characters which pop off the page and straight into your heart, this is a book you will remember for a long time.

To tempt you to buy the book, please find the blurb below.

Inspired by true events. Grace in Mombasa is an intriguing historical saga of betrayal and loss, romance and heartbreak, and one woman’s journey in faith.

From the day she was born, Grace Clifton has navigated a life of loss and heartbreak, without a mother to guide her and through the ravages of two World Wars. With England in the midst of a Second World War, Grace, experiences the excitement of love and romance, but all too soon it turns to heartbreak. Through it all, Grace is sustained by her unwavering faith in God, but when all she holds dear is ripped away from her, Grace is left devastated and doubting everything she’s ever believed in.

As the world slowly recovers from war, Grace too begins the process of healing from bitterness and the deep wounds inflicted by life. However, her steadfastness to God is lost and she determines never to pray again. When an unexpected opportunity comes up in Kenya, Grace seizes the chance to escape the memories, hoping to find a purpose and build a new life for herself. In the city of Mombasa, Grace soon begins to realise she can’t ever distance herself from life’s complications, but if she’s prepared to open her heart, maybe her shattered faith will once more bring her hope, love and the healing that she desperately needs.

Grace in Mombasa is a story about a woman with amazing faith that is shattered when her life falls apart, but will God simply let her go? If you like heartfelt dialogue, stories seeped in fact and history, and memorable characters, then you’ll love Tracy Traynor’s moving and inspirational novel.

You can find Grace in Mombasa online at:

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Amazon Australia | Amazon India

About Moira Smith ... the inspiration behind Grace

Moira Smith was born in 1912, in England. On 25th July 1953, aged 41, she boarded the ship SS Uganda and set sail for Mombasa, Kenya.

She spent her years on the island helping people who came to the Mombasa Coast General Hospital, in any way that she could - and by taking every opportunity to spread the gospel. She never got to retire in the convent. She died in the hospital in the mid 1990s, where her last action was to give away the medicine that people brought in for her to the other patients.

Moira's ashes are buried in the compound of St Peter's Church, Nyali, Kenya.

Find Tracy Traynor online at:

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Snowflake Tiara... in Kenya?

My most recent book, Snowflake Tiara, co-written with Angela Breidenbach, released a few weeks ago. It contains a pair of Christmas romances not only set firmly in Montana, USA, but also meant to highlight Montana's 125th year of statehood as well as the 150th anniversary of its capital city, Helena.

Please don't make me turn in my Canadian card!

Admittedly, it seems very strange to showcase Helena, Montana, as thoroughly as I did in my contemporary novella, More Than a Tiara. While my story hinges on Angela's historical novella (set in 1889 as Montana becomes a state), its purpose is to spread awareness of needs in a far greater capacity.

One thing Angela's character and mine have in common is their compassion for children in need. In 1889, Helena was the last stop for the Orphan Train. Any unclaimed children were dropped off here. When Calista meets a mistreated six-year-old indentured servant from a brothel, Calista knows she must do something, not only for little Lea, but for all the children she sees on the streets.

Fast-forward 125 years. Calista's 3x great-granddaughter, Marisa, also has a heart of compassion for kids. This was primed during her years of modeling shoots in glamorous locations, like the beaches of Kenya, where she became acquainted with missionaries working among the Masai. Now that she's back on the family farm near Helena, Marisa and her mother open part of their property to young moms on social assistance, teaching them to grow and process some of their own food. At her core, Marisa has been challenged to meet the needs of children.

It's a sad fact that there are kids without nutritious food to eat all over this planet. Without safety. Without nurturing and love. And, in many cases, without people who care. It's so easy to be overwhelmed by all the need. I know. I'm there, hardly knowing where to start, knowing the problem is too huge for me. But not too big for God.

A vintage postcard from my father's collection
Snowflake Tiara is a pair of long novellas with a wintery Christmas setting. You'll enjoy cocoa and gingerbread cookies, sledding and skating parties, decorations and Christmas trees, and harps, penny whistles, and flutes playing Away in a Manger and other carols.

But throughout both tales of beauty, talent, and pageantry, you'll be reminded of children around the globe whose needs are much more basic. Like the little Lord Jesus, many little ones have no crib for a bed. The prayer in Away in a Manger asks God to bless all the dear children in His tender care. It's my prayer, too.

How can we help? This is my question for you today. I'm offering one ebook copy of Snowflake Tiara to someone who replies by comment before the end of the month. This isn't a competition or a "look at me and what charities I'm involved in" request. I'd like a thoughtful discussion of the topic.

The story's tagline? Is all about the children.

What if you were caught doing something good, but the man you loved didn't see it that way?

The Debutante Queen by Angela Breidenbach ~ 1889 (Helena, MT): Calista Blythe enters the first Miss Snowflake Pageant celebrating Montana statehood to expose the plight of street urchins. But if her hidden indentured orphan is discovered, Calista’s reputation and her budding romance with pageant organizer, Albert Shanahan, could both unravel. Will love or law prevail?

More Than a Tiara by Valerie Comer ~ 2014 (Helena, MT): Marisa Hiller’s interest in competing in Miss Snowflake Pageant for the city of Helena’s 150th anniversary is at zip zero zilch when she discovers the official photographer is Jase Mackie. Can Jase make amends for past mistakes and offer her, not only a tiara, but a partner in her crusade to help needy children and families?

Interested in reading Snowflake Tiara? I'm offering one reader a digital copy, your choice of mobi (for Kindle) or epub (for most other ereaders). If you'd like to put your name in the hat, please add your email address with your comment no later than Tuesday, September 30, replacing @ with (at) and .com with (dot) com.

"Void where prohibited; the odds of winning depend on the number of entrants. Entering the giveaway is considered a confirmation of eligibility on behalf of the enterer in accord with these rules and any pertaining local/federal/international laws."

Valerie Comer's life on a small farm in western Canada provides the seed for stories of contemporary inspirational romance. Like many of her characters, Valerie and her family grow much of their own food and are active in the local food movement as well as their church. She only hopes her creations enjoy their happily ever afters as much as she does hers, shared with her husband, adult kids, and adorable granddaughters.

Valerie writes Farm Lit where food meets faith, injecting experience laced with humor into her stories. Her debut novel, Raspberries and Vinegar: A Farm Fresh Romance, was awarded Best Contemporary Romance published in 2013 by The Word Guild.

Christian Fiction for Kenya

This blog is not about the sort of Christian fiction you can pick up in a bookstore in Australia or America. You can’t download it to your Kindle or Nook—yet. I recently had the opportunity to teach a fiction-writing workshop in Nairobi, Kenya. I worked with some delightful and enthusiastic writers.

The proud graduates of a previous workshop
display their certificates.

Anna is an enterprising business-woman who runs her own small publishing company. She does activity books for children and has produced a number of small books for schools at the request of government projects or NGOs (non-governmental organizations such as World Vision). Word searches of key terms, mazes or “find the differences” in two pictures are interspersed with information about drought management or children’s rights.

“I like what I write to be meaningful,” she told me. She recently did a short non-fiction book about the causes and prevention of child sex abuse.

“This could be effective as a story,” friends told her.

So in our workshop Anna worked on a story of a fourteen-year-old, abused by her step-father. The girl now sees his eyes turning toward the younger sister she wants to protect. The idea is to expose the symptoms of child-sexual abuse and explore options for escape in a Kenyan context. The old writing exercise of thinking about what is in your character’s pockets led to a business card of someone who frequents the restaurant where the step-father waits tables. He hopes this man will finance his dream of setting up his own food business, but if the truth of what the step-father has done comes out, the deal will be off.

Another workshop participant, Shaleen, is not a romance writer. She doesn’t even READ romance, but a publisher who had seen some of her work in a local children’s magazine sent her guidelines, asking her to consider writing a romance set in Kenya with Kenyan characters for a closely-defined, urban, black, middle-class, female audience. When a publisher approaches you, well, it’s worth taking a good look even if you have never considered romance before. Anna brought Shaleen several romance novels from a used bookseller on the street, and we plunged into developing an idea Shaleen can take to the publisher, complete with the masquerade ball Shaleen is scheduled to attend next month.

Workshop participants
critique one another's work.

Not everyone who would have liked to participate was able to get off work. Saturday afternoon James dropped by to talk. He writes and produces children’s television programs, but his passion is books, not TV. In fact, his boss has allowed him to produce a popular program on children’s books and reading that is seen all over East Africa. On the side, James has begun going into the juvenile prison to promote reading and literacy among 12- to 17-year-old boys awaiting trial—some of them for years. He is passionate about God, books and at-risk kids. With his lively sense of humor, I encouraged James to think about writing books for the boys he works with.

“Some writers I know put pictures of real children over their desks,” I told him. “They tell themselves, ‘That is who I’m writing for’.”

His eyes got big. “Yes! I can do that!”

Bookstores and street stalls are thriving in Kenya. Kindle makes it easy to download the latest Western titles. Although they aren’t cheap, the price is better than paying for international shipping. (Kenya has the forethought not to charge duty on books.) But, as in other regions of the world, readers hunger for books about characters just like themselves. Who knows? Someday you may be downloading the work of one of these enthusiastic Kenyan writers to your own e-reader.

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LeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. This was her fifth writing workshop in Kenya. She wrote about a previous workshop on this blog. Read about her Not-So-Ordinary World and discover the international settings of her books at www.leannehardy.net .

A Kenyan Childhood Turned to Fiction

LeAnne Hardy: As we continue our celebration of one year of writing about international Christian fiction on this blog, let's take a look at someone who has been writing about Africa for a long time.  Shel Arensen grew up in Kenya and is a second generation missionary there.  His father, Ed Arensen, founded Today in Africa Magazine in the 1960s and Shel  was managing editor from 1981-1994 when he turned the magazine over to Kenyan editors he had trained. Shel still edits a history magazine called Old Africa. Shel has also written nine adventure stories for young people and an adult novel about a Third Culture Kid—one who has spent a significant part of his or her formative years in a culture different from the parents’ home culture.

Shel, how did you get interested in writing fiction? 

Part of the Arensen family when Shel was in seventh grade.

SA: As a young boy growing up in the 1960s, I watched my father involved in producing magazines and the process fascinated me. In sixth grade I remember writing a short adventure story in school about a shark attack on the Indian Ocean. In university I studied journalism and in 1977 I took a break from school and worked as a newspaper reporter in Alaska. This taught me the fundamentals of writing. But I really started writing fiction in 1985 when living in Oregon doing my master’s degree in journalism. I had three young sons and they missed Kenya. I missed Kenya. So I wrote my first children’s adventure novel, The Secret Oath, and read it to them chapter by chapter in the evenings so we wouldn’t be so homesick for Africa. It took nine years for that book to be published as the first in my Rugendo Rhino series.

LH:  I'm partial to The Rugendo Rhinos having first read it when my children were young.  How much of your own childhood or that of your children is in these stories?

SA: The Rugendo Rhino series is set in rural Kenya at a mission station much like the one where I grew up. As a young boy, three of my friends and I formed a club and built a tree house. We watched our fathers and mothers in their ministry to the church. My father was a publisher, another father was a doctor, another father was a builder, another father was a Bible school teacher. We also had Kenyan friends in the community around the mission station.  I could tell you the real story for about 80 per cent of the various scenes depicted in my books. Some are based on things that happened to me (falling off the top of a Land Rover), or to my children (bike diving into the river, climbing Mt Kenya) or my dog (trapped in a snare).  I take the real events I remember and weave them into the fictional plot. The result is a story that really did not happen, but could have happened. And the scenes in the story are true to life even though the story is fiction.  I don’t know if I have special ability to observe, but I have vivid memories of my years growing up in Kenya. Flying ants, the sticky mud when it rained, stinging nettles in the ravines, the trees, birds, the smell of the market, thieves stealing clothes off the clothesline, finding poacher’s snares in the forest. All these elements and more form the setting for the Rugendo Rhino books.

Shel on mom's lap (left of pole), Lake Victoria, circa 1957

LH:  Have your adult missionary experiences among the Dorobo people contributed as well?

SA: Yes, I used my relationships with the Dorobo people, where we have been planting churches for the past 19 years, to describe missionary work – learning language and culture, making friends, sharing Jesus with those who have never heard. The Poison Arrow Tree (book one in the Rugendo Rhino series) and The Runaway (set to be released by Word Alive in 2011) both describe missionary trips to the Dorobo living in the forest.

LH: Was it hard to interest an American publisher in a series of books set in Kenya?

SA: Yes. My first attempts to market my first two titles met with standard answers: No one wants to read about missionary kids and their friends in Kenya; and boys (my primary target audience) don’t read. But finally a publisher in Oregon who loved the outdoors gave the books to his son, who hated to read. His son read my manuscripts and loved them. The publisher (Questar, which later merged with Multnomah Books) said if I could add a third title, they would publish the series.  I quickly wrote a third book and the series was launched in 1994.

LH:  The books have been recently re-published by Word Alive, Nairobi, for Kenyan readers.  What adjustments did you make to target a different audience?

SA: Quite a few. To keep the price reasonable, I actually had to cut the books from 30,000 words down to 20,000 words. I also changed two characters who were North American missionary kids in the original books and reworked them as Kenyan boys. My editor also questioned various American slang phrases, which I had to adjust. We added a “List of Hard Words” to the end to help those reading English as their second (or third) language.

LH:  What do you hope for readers to get out of an adventure series like Rugendo Rhinos?

SA: First, I want to attract young boys and girls to enjoy reading. I feel the Rugendo Rhino books really capture a child’s interest and they are pulled in to find out what happens next. Through the books, I also show how children can make a difference by learning to pray, to trust in God when hard things happen.

LH:  How different was it writing your adult novel, Dust of Africa?

SA: The Dust of Africa dealt with how an MK manages the transition between cultures. This was a much more personal topic. I often struggle with knowing who I really am and where I really fit. Am I American just because I carry an American passport? I slip in the metaphor of dust at the beginning of the book. It took over ten years of fitful writing to complete the book. Sometimes I had to get away from it. Sometimes I wondered whether anyone really would read it. But I have enough friends who grew up “between worlds” as I did as well as four children. So in the end I determined to finish it and have it self-published to coincide with my daughter’s graduation from high school.

LH:  I imagine that you have met a lot of people who identify strongly with the emotions of your characters who are marked forever by their African experiences. 

SA:  Yes, one man wrote: I don’t know how you did it, but you wrote my story. Another asked in consternation: Did you get into the secret files from my missionary school in Africa? How did you know all those things I did? A woman wrote that after reading the first few pages, she had to put the book away. It evoked too many memories (feelings she thought she’d buried) of being left at a boarding school. But after several days she eventually picked up the book and finished it and said it helped her in processing her own life history.

LH:  What has been the response of black Kenyans to your writing?

SA: I met up with a young Kenyan girl in Nairobi who loves the Rugendo Rhinos and wants me to hurry and write some more. Another young boy was given the book Test of the Tribal Challenge, which describes a rite of passage called “The Twelve Tasks of Manhood.” His parents designed a rite of passage for him styled after the plot in the novel, including a climb up Mt Kenya.

LH: Have you met many African writers of inspirational fiction?

SA: I have worked with Mwaura Njoroge, who has written several novels about faith in the African context, exploring issues such as how to choose a marriage partner. We also co-wrote a historical about the controversy over female circumcision called Against the Traditions.  But there aren’t many African writers using the medium of inspirational fiction.

LH:  What do you have in the works that we can look forward to?

SA: The Rugendo Rhino series is contracted through nine titles, one brand new called The Runaway. I have a half-written murder mystery series called the Birder Murders about a group of bird watchers who solve mysterious murders using their knowledge of bird behavior. And I’m doing background research for a three or four book saga on the growth of Kenya as a nation drawing on memories of Africans, British settlers, Asians and missionaries.

LH:  I'm sure your work on Old Africa has given you lots of fascinating contacts for that  series.  We will look forward to it.  Thank you for sharing with us today.  May God use your writing to impact people in Kenya and beyond.


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LeAnne Hardy's children attended boarding school on the same compound where many of Shel Arensen's books are set.   Her own books for young people come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will impact lives. Visit her at www.leannehardy.net .

New Writers In Kenya by LeAnne Hardy

Aspiring Kenyan writers

Not everyone writes for an American audience.  A group in Awasi, Kenya, aspires to write for the children and young people of their own community.  That community experienced terrible violence following the disputed elections of December 2007.  Children who survived are scarred inside and out.  These Christians long to see them grow up without the animosities of their parents that led to violence against other ethnic groups.

On a day in mid-August I marveled at the patchwork of vivid green, sugar cane plots below me as I flew over Western Kenya.  The plane banked for a view of the harbor on Lake Victoria before landing in the city of Kisumu. 

Morrice Okeh and a friend picked me up at the airport. I met Morrice last year at the Litt-World conference for majority-world Christian writers and publishers.  When he heard about the writing workshop I did in Nairobi in April 2008 to produce stories for children affected by violence, he begged me to come to Kisumu where the violence was at its worst.

For an hour we drove east from Kisumu on a narrow, paved road with no shoulders, to the town of Awasi.  There I met for a week with fifteen students  to study plot, character development, and the use of dialog and the senses to develop scenes.  One was a widow with ten children, another an orphan with a seven-year-old daughter. 

Working in small groups

A pre-school teacher proved to be a gifted storyteller.  Two of the young people were the most effective writers.  Tracy wrote about teens bringing about reconciliation in their divided school.  Charlton wrote a rich account of the horror of fleeing a burning house and the joy of finding the character’s mother was alive and looking for him. The group has aspirations of printing their stories locally to circulate among their friends.  I left my postal address and e-mail and hope they will stay in touch, but Facebook from a cell phone is less than ideal for editing.

“Is it true that there is a law in America requiring every father to provide a new house for each of his sons?” someone asked as we sat around on the final afternoon.

“Uh…no.”

“Is it true that America is so crowded that the only way a son can have a home is to add another story to his father’s house?”

Again I answered, “no.”

I was reminded of nineteenth century myths that the streets of America were paved with gold.  They must have seemed no more far-fetched to those immigrants than these questions did to my new Kenyan friends.

“Do you mean to tell me that you have two daughters and no son, but your husband never took a second wife?”  This from the mother of a delightful seven-year-old girl.  How could I explain how much my husband adores his daughters and how little he cares that neither is a boy?

My students could only ask questions.  I had the privilege of being immersed in their world for a few days. 

I stayed in the home of Morrice’s father, Bishop Vincent.  Most of the time he was busy with a district church conference, but his wife was extremely gracious with the little English she knew.  Morrice’s  wife, Quinter cooked for us on a wood fire in an outdoor kitchen to keep the heat out of the house.  Her little daughter was tied to her back.  She served me their own eggs, papaya and bananas, homemade chapattis and mandazis (fried bread), as well as tasty stews with rice and ugali (the local cornmeal staple.)  No meal was complete without chai—hot tea boiled with milk and water.  Fortunately for this soft-stomached foreigner, the bishop has a fetish for boiled water.  I filled bottles daily to take with me to class.

The house was built of cement blocks, not as cool as the mud brick houses of Morrice and his married brothers that circled the courtyard.  I slept beneath a treated mosquito net to avoid malaria.  The spotlessly clean floor was cement, polished with red wax.  The lounge was lined with couches (4!), love seats (1) and armchairs (7), each draped with a matching embroidered cover—a suitable receiving room for a bishop.  A tiny pink and white lamb wandered freely in and out.  After I scratched his delicate neck, I had a friend for life.

“Are there mad people in America?”  my new friends wanted to know.  “Are there poor people in America?”

One of my students

Western Kenya is the homeland of Barak Obama’s father.  Needless to say, my president is very popular there.  “Is it true that many Americans believe that Barak Obama will be the one to fulfill the prophecies and unite the world?”  This question was asked with a hopeful smile, not the horrified accusation of anti-Christ that I have heard on the lips of right-wing detractors.  Peace and unity are very attractive to people who have seen their community torn apart by ethnic violence.  It would be a great honor for one they consider their own to accomplish that hitherto unattainable goal.  May their writing impact the next generation in their community with the gospel of peace.

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LeAnne Hardy has lived in six countries on four continents. Her books for young people come out of her cross-cultural experiences and her passion to use story to convey spiritual truths in a form that will impact lives. Visit her at www.leannehardy.net or find out more about her recent trip to Kenya on her blog.