AN INTERVIEW WITH DEBRA ULLRICK

Back with me, again, is romance author, Debra Ullrick to talk about her new novel, The Unexpected Bride.

Welcome, Debra, it’s so nice to have you back!

Thank you, Deborah. It’s a pleasure to be back.

I’ve read that you marvel at how the Lord turned you, someone who hated reading and English, into a novelist. Will you share the story of how that came about?

It’s a long story, but I’ll give you the nutshell version. Many, many years ago, my daughter brought home a Palisades romance book from the library. After she read it, she begged me to read it. I kept putting her off until I finally gave in and read it. From then on, I was hooked on Christian romance and read hundreds of them. One day, I asked the Lord to give me something to take the place of overeating. Shortly afterwards, while reading a book, a story idea came to me, and I wondered if I could write a book. In two and a half weeks, I had a 56K word story titled Lacy’s Luck. I didn’t know what to do with it, so I contacted an author and asked her if she could advise me on what to do with my story. Lynn Coleman told me about the (ACRW) American Christian Romance Writer’s group. (Now the ACFW) I think I was number 302 or something like that. The people there helped me so much. Especially one God-sent individual…Staci Stallings. She and her friendship have been the greatest blessing in my life. She’s taught me almost everything I know about writing and so much more. Staci literally saved my life. (A long story that will hopefully be in a non-fiction book one day.) And that’s how it all began.

On your Web site, you state that one of the things you love is watching Jane Austen movies. Which is your favorite?

If you will permit me to, I will answer which one isn’t instead. Northanger Abbey. I don’t care for that one too much. All the rest… well, let’s just say that I own every version there is, and that I’ve watched all of them anywhere from 30 to 70 times each. No exaggeration either.

Deb, please share with us about The Unexpected Bride.

I think the best way to share about it, is to show you the back cover blurb.

Here it is:

After the disaster of his first marriage, Haydon Bowen has no intention of marrying again. Unfortunately, his brother has some intentions of his own, and plans to see to it that Haydon finds happiness once more. So he answers a "groom wanted" advertisement—in Haydon's name—and sends Haydon to meet his new bride at the stagecoach stop!

For beautiful, cultured Rainelle Devonwood, any dangers she may face in the Idaho Territories are preferable to staying with her abusive brother. So even when Rainee learns she's a mistakenly ordered bride, she won't let Haydon drive her away. She's up to the challenge of life on the difficult, demanding frontier...and the great challenge of opening Haydon's heart again.

I love mail-order bride stories. How did you decide on the mail-order element in your book?

I decided on the mail-order element for the very reason you yourself stated…. I love them! *smiling*

After having written your contemporary novels, what made you switch to historical?

I really didn’t mean to switch. I wrote this story about seven years ago, and after Love Inspired bought it for their historical line, an idea for a sequel popped into my head, so I wrote it too. The Unlikely Wife is a mail-order bride story, too, that Love Inspired purchased. It will come out in January 2012.

So now, I write both historical and contemporary novels. In fact, Barbour Publishing recently purchased two novellas from me. A Log Cabin Christmas contains nine historical stories. My novella in this collection is titled A Grand County Christmas—set where I used to live and based on my Germans from Russia heritage. Christmas Belles of Georgia contains four contemporary stories. My novella in this collection is titled Loving Stetson. Both are scheduled for release in September 2011.

Was there anything special you discovered in your research for The Unexpected Bride that you’d like to share here?

Oh yes. I’d love to. I don’t want to give anything away, except, I knew my heroine was deathly afraid of pigs. So, when I came across a town that was informally called, Hog Heaven and Hog Haven, I just knew I had to use that town. Even though, I gave it a fictional name, a lot of the things in the story are actually factual.

What message do you want to get across to readers in The Unexpected Bride?

That when we pray, sometimes God answers us in a way that we think cannot possibly be Him. When that happens, we need to do like my mom says, “Trust Him, even when it’s the hardest thing to do at all, trust Him anyway.”

I’m curious, Deb—in one of your reviews, you stated you don’t like blood and gore, because you have a weak stomach. I would assume the monster truck and other auto competitions you are fond of can get a little gory. Am I right? If so, how do you handle it?

In all the years I’ve been around race cars, mud-bog racing, and monster trucks, I never once saw anything gory or bloody except for a minor scratch or cut. Thank You, Jesus. *smiling*
Now, on the ranch I worked on…gulp…I saw a lot of yucky, bloody, disgusting stuff which I never got used to. In fact, the very first time I had encountered blood was when my husband had to literally jack a calf out with a set of chains and pullers. When he did, I lost my cookies then. After that, most of the time whenever I helped my husband doctor an animal or graft a calf hide onto another calf or help the mama cow birth her calf, I didn’t have time to think about what we were doing. There was too much to do and not enough hours in the day. (The reality of ranch life.) While it got easier, I never got used to it.

What can we expect from you in the near future?

Hopefully oodles and oodles of historical, suspense and contemporary romance novels. And one non-fiction book.

As usual, Deb, it’s been fun chatting with you. Thank you for visiting again, and I wish you the best for all your books.

If you would like to win a signed copy of The Unexpected Bride, just use my Contact page and type “drawing” in the comments box. The deadline to enter is May 24th.

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