Enter drawing to WIN _Sanctuary_ or _The Winter Pearl_!

Leave a comment at the bottom. I'll draw two names on Tuesday.

Sanctuary by Molly Noble Bull is the first of three long historical novels in the Faith of Our Fathers series about the Huguenots. It was published in trade paperback on September 15, 2007 by Tsaba House, who has contracted Molly to write two more historical novels in this series, a short contemporary novel and two non-fiction books.

Molly, what a gorgeous cover! Tell us about the series.

Sanctuary tells the story of Rachel and Pierre Dupre, who leave France in 1740 in search of a safe place to live and eventually settle in Scotland. Their descendants, called Huguenots, finally immigrate to South Carolina. Along the way, they discover the meaning of faith and the true place of safety.

What made you decide to write Christian fiction?

Years ago, I read secular romance novels by the dozen, and this was after I was saved. To learn to write, I would tell myself. I’d be reading along and all at once I knew the hero and heroine were leading up to a sexy scene.

So I would think, I’ll just skip this part and go on. But I never knew how many pages to skip. Sometimes I didn’t skip enough and started reading again after the characters had hopped into bed. Then I would stop reading and skip a few more pages.

This is my paperback book, I would think, and I declare that the hero and heroine didn’t jump into bed though unmarried. They didn’t curse a few pages back either.
I kept on playing these silly games a while longer. Then one day I realized I was editing too much of the book. I’d had enough of that and wasn’t going to do it anymore. I haven’t read a secular novel in years, but if I read one now, it would probably be a Harlequin romance that was so old the paper was falling apart. The cleaner books were written back in the fifties and sixties where everybody smoked but sex and petting scenes were sometimes taboo.

When did you sell your first story?

I was teaching in a public elementary school when I sold my first short story. I sold my first novel to Zondervan in 1985. Soon after that, I sold a second novel to Zondervan. They also purchased a third novel, but it was never published. I was informed that Zondervan had stopped published romantic fiction, but I got to keep my advance.

In 2004 The Winter Pearl came
out from Steeple Hill in trade paperback. Steeple Hill
published it again in 2007 in mass-market paperback.


What is your non-fiction about? I love research so much, sometimes I think
I should write non-fiction.

One is about marital problems: how to prevent them and how to put the pieces of a broken marriage back together.

I am a dyslexic, and along with four other dyslexic fiction authors, I am writing a non-fiction book titled The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Dyslexia. But a publication date won’t come until the book is finished.

What are you reading, now?

Strange, now I read mostly non-fiction. Learning how to write fiction has made me picky, I guess. But if I do go into a Christian bookstore, pickup a novel and the first sentence doesn’t grab me, I put the book back on the shelf and get another one.

Right now, I am reading a non-fiction book by Joel Richardson titled Anti-Christ: Islam’s Awaited Messiah. As a fan of Bible prophecy, I was always told that number 666 would come out of the old Roman Empire. But Richardson has a whole new slant on this topic, and his book has kept me up nights, reading.

I would enjoy that one. I love to read Bible prophecy, and recently enjoyed The Ezekiel Option by Joel C. Rosenberg

Tell us more about yourself and your walk with the Lord.

I was born in Kingsville, Texas, and I met Charlie Bull, my future husband, in college. Though we have had problems—even marital problem, we worked them out, and Charlie is the only man I have ever been married to. I am the only woman he has ever been married to, and we are still very much in love. We have three grown sons and four grandchildren.

We lived in the Texas hill country for years. Now we have moved back to Kingsville where our children and grandchildren live.

What is the most important, interesting, or exciting thing the Lord has done in your life?

The Lord constantly amazes me. Life with him is always exciting and fun. He’s like a really good friend, and sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that He’s not just my best pal, He’s the King of the Universe.

My husband and I were never heavy drinkers, but when we first got married, we went out dancing and drinking maybe once or twice a month. Then we were invited to join a locally prestigious dance club that I’d been hoping to join for several years. Soon after I was saved, we went to a huge dance club party. Everybody was drinking, and some were flirting with people they weren’t married to.

By that time, I knew Jesus lived in me. I remember thinking, what is a nice person like Jesus doing in a place like this. Then I realized He was there because I brought him. Needless to say that was the last time we ever went to one of those parties, and I never regretted that decision a bit.

How would you answer those who would say Jesus went to the sinners?

Are you talking about Jesus eating and drinking with sinner? If so, I didn’t attend those parties in order to save souls. Before I was a Christian, I went to eat, drink adult liquids and have fun. But as a Christian, I didn’t want to take Jesus to a place he might not want me to be.

What would you like to share with other writers to improve their writing or careers?

I visited my area ACFW chapter in San Antonio recently, and they were getting ready to pitch their manuscripts to editors at the conference in Dallas. I reminded them that an editor might request that they tell in one or two words what their books are about and that they should prepare an answer ahead of time.

I explained that The Winter Pearl was about forgiveness. Sanctuary is about forgiving the unforgivable.

Great themes, Molly. Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. And for giving away a copy of each book.

Thanks for inviting me, Margo, and I hope you will invite me back soon. But before I go, I wanted you and your readers to know that my next historical in the series isn’t finished yet and probably won’t be published until 2009 or 2010. However, my short contemporary novel will be published next year.

Runaway Romance is actually two short contemporary novels under one cover and will be published by Tsaba House in trade paperback in the summer or fall of 2008.

My novel, Alyson, is a lighthearted romance set on a Texas ranch and has a Cinderella plot with a twist. Author Teresa Slack wrote the other Runaway Romance novel, and I think her title will be Kyla.

The current spin is that successful authors stick to one genre and might wonder why my books are all over the map: historical novels, contemporary romances, and non-fiction books. I have even had a couple of Chicken Soup-type short stories published in the last few years.

So, why all the different types of books?

The only answer I can give is that I write what interests me, and I write what the Lord tells me to write.

Molly's wonderful testimony and excerpts from her books can be found on
her website.

To win a copy of Sanctuary or The Winter Pearl, please leave a comment. I'll draw a name next Tuesday!