Fabulous Feature-Sylvia Bambola-Storytelling

Today we welcome author:

Sylvia Bambola

A commenter will win a copy of

Sylvia's book:

The Babel Conspiracy

International Readers invited to enter!

Scroll down to see how.

Mary here. I have a blessing for you. Sylvia's post really touched my heart. Talk about the heart of writing stories for God's sons and daughters. Her passion has stirred me. Created a longing to read her books and to sit down at a coffee shop for a 1:1 chat with her. I asked Sylvia, How has God led you on your writing journey? Here is what he said: 

He Filled Me With a Love for Storytelling

Long before I came to know the Lord, He filled me with a love for storytelling. 

When I was young my friends and I would sit around making up stories, usually scary ones. In eighth grade, I began my first novel, which was never finished. But the groundwork was laid.

God had instilled in me a writer’s heart.

Years later, after I came to the Lord and was a wife and young mother, I began writing in earnest. But my focus had changed. Not only did I want to write entertaining stories, I wanted to write stories that would touch hearts for Jesus. The two became inseparable. If a story couldn’t reveal something about God—His goodness, His mercy, His forgiveness, His tender heart for hurting man—if it couldn’t reveal some scriptural truth, I didn’t want to write it.

So began a process that never varied throughout my career. Each and every book began with prayer; with questions I would put to the Lord. “What do You want me to write about, now? What truth do You want me to illustrate?” Then I would listen. 

No Cecil B. DeMille type of voice ever answered, but I did get stirrings. Suddenly, ideas would bubble up like foam in a glass until they spilled over. Excitement would grow as one, single theme began overriding all the other ideas rolling around in my head. That’s when I knew. That’s the trail I would follow.

And that’s what would fill my heart until each story was finished. Refiner’s Fire was about the persecuted church, Tears in a Bottle detailed the horrors of abortion, Waters of Marah and Return to Appleton covered eco-terrorism. 

I began to see that God was directing me to cover some of the issues of the day. Even when writing my three historicals: Rebekah’s Treasure, The Salt Covenants, and The Daughters of Jim Farrell, the relevance to modern times was unmistakable. It was as though through story, God was highlighting various problems and issues. It was as though He was saying, “take a look at this.”

Have I gotten everything right? Probably not. And could my writing improve? Always. And with every book, hopefully. 

But after all these years, my desire remains the same—to write those stories that I believe God is revealing to me even amid the ever present temptation to follow trends, to pursue a more commercially prosperous route. And sometimes that pressure has been great. 

Trends and commercially oriented books are not bad, by the way, it’s just not my path, the one God has put me on, and I knew it.  Funny, the temptation always faded when I realized it was not the number of books I sold; a big or small name recognition; or my book’s place on the amazon charts. It’s—have I been obedient to the calling of God? To my assignment?

And that, friends, is the sum of it. Because there’s nothing I long for more than when I pass over to the other side, to hear Jesus’ sweet voice tell me, “Well done thou good and faithful servant.”

Love and blessings,

Sylvia

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Sylvia Bambola is the award winning author of eight novels. Her novel, Rebekah’s Treasure, won the 2014 Readers Favorite Bronze Award for Christian Historical Fiction and the 2015 Book of the Year Award, Christian Small Press Association, for Historical Fiction. The Salt Covenants was the 2015 Readers Favorite Bronze Award winner for Christina Historical Fiction.  She has two grown children, and teaches women’s Bible studies. 

   
Sylvia wants to hear from you! 
Contact her at:    

  

Facebook | Twitter | Website

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The Babel Conspiracy is a tale of intrigue and love. Two women engineers struggle to develop the world’s first nuclear-powered aircraft amid ever intensifying global terrorism and muddled personal lives. Trisha Callahan has an abiding faith in God, and “those roots of middy blouses and pleated skirts, prayer books and incense-filled churches went deep.” This faith is tested when she finds herself in love with a married man. Audra Shields sees herself as a modern Lady Chatterley, “liberated but not forsaking breeding, intellect, or femininity.” When she becomes involved with a dangerous stranger, she begins to question her lifestyle.

Both women try sorting out their personal problems while racing the clock to finish a project fraught with sabotage and murder. And who’s behind it all? When the Department of Homeland Security and the Mossad finally figure it out, the answer surprises everyone.

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Enter the contest to win a copy of Sylvia Bambola's book:

The Babel Conspiracy
All readers invited to enter!!
US AND INTERNATIONAL!
If US winner: choice of paperback or Kindle
International winner: Kindle

Here is how:

1. Leave a comment (and email address)

2. AND sign up to receive my newsletter -in the right column

    (subscribers to Mary Vee's newsletter will receive a special gift)

    AND/OR sign up to receive posts by email if you aren't already

Thank you, Sylvia, for joining us this weekend!

We enjoy chatting with you, Reader, and look forward to reading your comments and questions. Or at least your hi, hello, or hey.

Thanks for stopping by!

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