Dyslexia Overcomer Molly Noble Bull Shares

Author Molly Noble Bull

Molly Noble Bull and I are both represented by Joyce Hart, CEO of Hartline Literary Agency, so I get to keep track of her busy writing life via our email loop. But this is our first time having her visit with us! Welcome to Overcoming With God, Molly! We appreciate your willingness to share your testimony of overcoming with our readers.

Molly: Thanks, and it’s great to be here. I write novels, and my one and only non-fiction book, so far, has the word Overcomers in the title—The Overcomers, Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities. (Note: OWG blog included a previous post about this book in 2012, with Margaret Daley. Click here.) 

Yep, I am dyslexic. How did I overcome this disability? Through faith in our Lord, Jesus Christ. 

Like many parents, my parents thought I was a genius. I talked early, had a big imagination, made up stories that adults liked, could draw well for a pre-school child, created poems that my mother wrote down and kept for safekeeping, and I could carry a tune at an early age. But after I entered first grade, nobody thought I was a genius. If my classroom had been equipped with a basement, I would have been below ground level, scholastically. 

In the fourth grade, we had those old fashion desks you see in old movies that were nailed to the floor, and we were seated in alphabetical order. My last name was Noble, and I always sat in the middle or at the end of the line of desks, giving my daily panic attacks time to grow as I waited for my name to be called. Even though I read below a First Grade level, I was expected to read my history or geography books on a Fourth Grade level before the entire class. If I could have fallen through the floor, I would have. 

Today, I write books that other people read. God is good. 

They didn’t know much about dyslexia back then. I thank the Lord for two Fourth Grade teachers who told me I was talented at a time when I needed to hear it the most, and God became my best friend. As a Christian wife, mother and grandmother, I believe that one way I can go to all the world with the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to write books. I hope I am writing them right. 

My books come in the form of books and stories for children, scary historical novels, westerns, and none of them are available in large print. However, The Rogue’s Daughter is available in audio but only through The Society for the Blind of Texas, and all my books are available as e-books. You can read the first part of many of my books by visiting my website, clicking on the address listed at the end of this interview and clicking Molly’s Free Downloads. If you are a home-school parent or guardian, you can also download a sample of two study guides for teachers and students connected with two of my novels—Gatehaven and When the Cowboy Rides Away.  

Parents and others can learn a lot about learning problems from the point of view of those who experienced such problems by reading, The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities. I wrote it with four other published novelists, including Margaret Daley. I would also like to suggest The Gift of Dyslexia by Ronald D. Davis. According to Davis, dyslexics are talented and gifted people. 

I have a Texas cattle ranch background, and I write Inspirational historical novels that sometimes win contests. When the Cowboy Rides Away won the 2016 Texas Association of Authors contest in the Christian Western category and was a finalist in the 2016 Will Rogers Awards for western writers in the Inspirational category. 

When the Cowboy Rides Away

(Set on a cattle ranch in South Texas—1880) 

 Maggie Gallagher, twenty-one, runs the Gallagher Ranch in South Texas and has raised her little sister and orphaned nephew since her parents and older sister died. The novel opens two years after Maggie loses her family members.

Out for a ride, horseback, she discovers Alexander Lancaster, a handsome cowboy, shot and seriously wounded on her land. Kindhearted and a Christian, Maggie nurses him back to health despite her other chores. How could she know that Alex had a secret that could break her heart? 

My western novella, Too Many Secrets, will appear in The Secret Admirer Romance Collection to be published by Barbour Publishing on May 1, 2017. But it can be pre-ordered at Amazon and other places now.    

My novella, Too Many Secrets, is one of eight novellas in The Secret Admirer Romance Collection, May 1, 2017. 

Too Many Secrets by Molly Noble Bull

Frio-Corners, Texas—1895 

Abigail Willoughby hides her feelings for Luke Conquest, the handsome cowboy who introduced her to her mail-order husband. How could she have guessed that her future husband was a ninety-years-old man?  

Contact information: 

Website: www.mollynoblebull.com

Amazon: http://bit.ly/mollynoblebull

Blog: http://writersrest.blogspot.com

Facebook: facebook.com/molly.n.bull 

Twitter: Mollyauthor

Pinterest: Molly Noble Bull 

Goodreads: Molly Noble Bull  

GIVEAWAY: We're giving away an ebook copy of When the Cowboy Rides away. Molly’s question to the reader: How important is the first sentence of a novel to you? How about page one?

The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities

The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conqured Learning Disabilities

The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities

By Molly Noble Bull, Margaret Daley, Ginny Aiken, Jane Myers Perrine, and Ruth Scofield

(Westbow Press, 2011)

This book shares first person perspectives on coping with having a learning disability.  Our featured author this week, who has also been a teacher of special needs students, shares her own journey. 

I recommend this book for parents of children with learning disabilities, persons diagnosed with learning disabilities, and for teachers.   It is a great resource for what it is like to experience these difficulties first hand and to overcome them, with God’s help.

My own husband and my son both had problems with reading and both received vision therapy and special education services. I thank God that our son, now 10, who didn't read two years ago by himself, now is reading at the 11th grade level. And my husband is a successful marine engineer despite his early difficulties. Margaret’s comments paralleled much of what my husband has said to me over the years. I really appreciate her sharing her experience with others.

Thank you, contributors to “The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities” and keep getting your message out there!

 

Giveaways: In addition to Margaret’s giveaway and our OTT-WGH giveaway of one of Margaret’s fiction books (choice of book and format) we will be giving away a copy of The Overcomers: Christian Authors Who Conquered Learning Disabilities to a reader who would be one of the people I recommend this book to in particular.  

Interview with Margaret Daley

Margaret Daley

Margaret Daley is the author of Shattered Silence (Abingdon Press, October 2012) and Saving Hope, the first two books in the Men of the Texas Rangers Series (and of many other books!) She just had a Love Inspired release September, 2012--A Mom's New Start. I met Margaret through ACFW where she is president of the organization. In fact, she should be in the midst of wrapping up at the conference and heading back home, so I hope she'll be able to pop by a little, but I imagine she'll be spending a lot of time in airports today and unpacking tomorrow!

Margaret, welcome to Overcoming Through Time.  Would you share either the most difficult thing in your life you have had to overcome, with God’s help, or the most tragic situation or circumstance one of your characters has had to get past?

I have a learning disability (auditory processing disorder) and struggled to learn to read. I don't hear sounds like others do. Nothing is wrong with my hearing. It has to do with how my brain processes what I hear. I could never learn to speak a foreign language even though I love to travel. I still have problems with my auditory processing and have to compensate for it.

What is your favorite bible verse and why?

That is hard because there are so many verses I love. "And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love." 1 Corinthians 13:13

I write romantic suspense and this verse is about how important love is in this world. To me God is love. He is the best example of what love means.

Shattered Silence

Disability friendliness:

Is this latest release available in audio format or do you have any other works available on audio?  Do your e-books have audio capability? Do you have any in large print?  All of my books are available in large print. I'm not sure about ebooks that have audio capability.

What has been the most important thing you hope your readers will get from your books and why?

Hope. Through the Lord there is always hope. Along with that goes trust in the Lord. When you trust in Him, you can let go of worry. When you don't worry, hope has a tendency to grow.

A Mom's New Start

As you researched your books, did you learn anything that particularly touched your heart?

The plight of these children who are taken by human traffickers--the life they endure touched my heart, and I needed to let others know about their situation. Our children are our future, and we need to protect them.

In this latest work, do you have any topics useful for bibliotherapy, or therapeutic influence through reading about a disorder or situation?  

In my Overcomers (a non-fiction book with other Christian authors) I discuss what I went through as a child with a learning disability (at the time that wasn't addressed in school). I talk about compensating skills I developed and still use today. I also talk about what I tried to teach my students with learning disabilities to help them compensate in school. I not only had a learning disability, but I taught high school students with learning disabilities.

Thank you Margaret for agreeing to answer these questions.  Have a blessed day and keep on writing!!

GIVEAWAY:  Leave a comment and your email to be entered in this week’s contest.  Drawing will be late Saturday.  Your choice of Margaret’s books, choice of format*. Void where prohibited by law. *International winners will only receive the book in ebook format not as a paperback.  

Second giveaway this week: Margaret is giving away a paperback copy of Shattered Silence, her October release!

Carrie Fancett Pagels Interviews Regina Jennings

Regina Jennings

REGINA JENNINGS is the author of Sixty Acres and a Bride. Her 2013 book, Love in the Balance is available as a pre-order through Amazon!

Regina, welcome to Overcoming Through Time – With God’s Help.  We appreciate your willingness to share your testimony of overcoming with our readers.  Would you tell us about the most difficult thing in your life you have had to overcome, with God’s help?

Thank you for inviting me and thank you for the opportunity to share my testimony over my daughter’s struggle. First off, I’d say she’s really the one doing the overcoming with God’s help, but a Momma can’t stand by when her child is hurting without joining in the fight.

Our daughter was our first child—a delight and a joy, but by the time she was three years old we realized that she had some unique challenges. She suffered from migraines, slurred speech and walked on her toes. As she reached school age her physical and learning delays became more pronounced leading us to choose homeschooling in order to personalize her education. This year she is a senior, but I think I’ve received as much of an education as she has. She is now a lovely seventeen-year-old who is starting training as a nurse assistant this year at the local vocational training center, and we couldn’t be more proud. She has worked very hard to get where she is. Watching her struggle has taught me the meaning of overcoming. It’s made me realize how God can use those who rely on Him instead of relying on themselves.

What is your favorite bible verse and why?

I Corinthians 1:27-29 - But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen, and the things which are not, to bring to nothing the things that are, that no flesh should glory in His presence. (NKJV)

God is interested in His glory, not ours. He will use the humble before the proud. This is a comfort when I’m afraid that I can’t do something. When I doubt that I can write another book, when I’m afraid I won’t be able to balance my responsibilities, I can rest in His strength. The inspiration and the ability come from God.

Sixty Acres and a Bride

Disability friendliness: Is this latest release available in audio format or do you have any other works available on audio?  Do your e-books have audio capability? Do you have any in large print? 

Sixty Acres and a Bride has recently been purchased by Thorndike Press to be printed in a large print format. It is also available from DoubleDay Book Club in large print.

Sixty Acres and a Bride is also available on several ebook formats where you can enable the text-to-speech option and adjust the font size.

As a side note, because of my daughter’s learning disabilities we have been greatly blessed by our local library for the blind. If you have connections with a library for the blind, please request a recording of Sixty Acres and a Bride and perhaps they’ll make one.

What has been the most important thing you hope your readers will get from your books and why?

First off, I hope they will be entertained. I want them to be drawn into the story, love the characters and be satisfied with the ending. Secondly, I hope my stories add something to the way they view God’s world. Whether a character helps them understand a family member better or a description makes them look at the world in a new light, I hope that some time, years from now, someone might think, “That reminds me of this book I read…”

As you researched your book, did you learn anything that particularly touched your heart?

I knew from the beginning that I wanted to explore the themes of the Ruth and Boaz story from the Bible, but I needed to find a historically accurate setting.

While researching I stumbled  upon a tiny town in Texas named Prairie Lea. I also found a snippet reporting that many families left Prairie Lea after the Civil War to live in Mexico because of the violence and lawlessness of Reconstruction. This was the perfect set-up for a “Naomi” to return to her homeland with her foreign daughter-in-law, but it also showed the desperation of the times. They must have believed that Mexico offered more of a chance for prosperity and safety than the United States. Unfortunately, many of them gave up on property which the cattle drives would make profitable within a decade if they would’ve stuck it out.

Do you have any topics useful for bibliotherapy, or therapeutic influence through reading about a disorder or situation? 

I hope that readers will finish Sixty Acres and a Bride with an increased understanding and patience for immigrants and other cultures. I’ve traveled outside the U.S. on mission trips, traveled away from the tourist spots and resorts, and have made my share of social blunders and broken taboos. If you ever spend a full day with no one else who speaks your language, you’ll soon find yourself reduced to caveman grunts and gestures. Not exactly sophisticated.

Viewing 1878 American culture through Rosa’s eyes was very fun for me. Although she could speak English I still had a blast coming up with her mishaps in Victorian-era Texas. I hope to write another non-Anglo heroine someday.

Thank you REGINA for agreeing to answer these questions.  Have a blessed day and keep on writing!!

Thank you, Carrie, for inviting me! It’s been a blessing and an honor to visit!

Regina's books can be purchased through CBD, Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and other book stores.  

GIVEAWAY:  Leave a comment and your email to be entered in this week’s contest.  Drawing will be late Saturday.  Regina's debut book in your choice of format* or her upcoming 2013 release as a paperback pre-order. Void where prohibited by law. (*International winners will only receive the debut book in ebook format not as a paperback and are not eligible for the 2013 book.)