Interview with Isabella Morganthal // Part One

Hey y’all!  How are you?!  I have a really fun interview here for you today, and it’s pretty sweet!  This is the first interview I’ve hosted here on the blog, so congratulations to Miss Isabella Morganthal for being my first interviewee! ;)  Bella is a 19-year old daughter of the King, and God has blessed me with her friendship for several years now.  I am honored that she has agreed to let me interrogate her with my questions :)

I am very excited to begin, so grab a snack, pull up a chair, and come join us!

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Sour Cream Girl:  Hello Bella!  Welcome to the blog!  Thanks so much for joining me for this interview; I am SO excited about it and can’t wait to hear all your answers! :)  To start, would you mind introducing yourself briefly to the blog readers?

Bella: Thank you for allowing me to join you! I am very excited too! :) Sure, I would be happy to introduce myself! I am 19 years old and the self-published author of 2 non-fiction books. I have been writing for ten years and love every minute of it! I have my own girl’s magazine ministry and I’ve also started my own YouTube channel where I have begun speaking videos.

Sour Cream Girl:  First, I’d like to start with a few fun “would-you-rather” questions… ;)  So, would you rather go hiking or biking?

Bella: Haha, this is fun! ;) Hmm, I would rather go biking probably. I am terrified of heights, so don’t think I would do well with hiking xD

Sour Cream Girl:  If you were in the Olympics, would you rather compete in gymnastics or diving?

Bella: Definitely gymnastics. =)

Sour Cream Girl:  Would you rather play tuba or organ?

Bella: I would have to go with organ!

Sour Cream Girl:  Would you rather eat cake or ice cream?

Bella: Ooh, such a hard choice! ;) I prefer cake!

Sour Cream Girl:  Would you rather never speak again, or have to say everything that comes to your mind?

Bella: That is so hard! I’d have to go with saying everything that comes to my mind because I might die if I could never speak again. :P

Sour Cream Girl:  Would you rather act or sing?

Bella: Sing! I love singing.

Sour Cream Girl:  Would you rather wear a fancy dress every day or sweatpants and a sweatshirt?

Bella: Another hard one! I might choose a fancy dress because I love dressing up. ;)

Sour Cream Girl:  Thanks so much for answering all those - that was fun!! :D  Okay, so getting on to more serious questions… as you mentioned, you have a magazine ministry for ladies.  Could you share a little more about that with us?  When did you start it, and why?

Bella: Sure, I would love to! I started my girl's e-magazine "The King's Princess" in January 2013. It is a monthly free e-magazine for young ladies of all ages to remind them that they are princesses of the King of kings and to encourage them to live that way as well. When I began the magazine in 2013, I had the idea that it would be fun to start a magazine and send to my friends so that I could have a way of inspiring people and let my writing be read. The magazine started with about 15 subscribers and I now have 53! I am so excited to see how God has used it over the years!

Sour Cream Girl:  Wow, that’s awesome that your magazine has grown from 15 to 53 in just 3 years!  It has blessed so many girls!!  Can you tell the blog readers how they can subscribe too?

Bella: Thank you! Sure! If anyone would like to subscribe to the magazine they can contact me through my website form at www.isabellamorganthal.weebly.com!

Sour Cream Girl:  Thank you!  I hope you continue to get many subscribers!  Now, as you mentioned above, you also are the published author of two books!  Can you tell us a little about your first book, I Dare You?  What is it about?

Bella: Sure! "I Dare You" is very close to my heart. This book is about inspiring this generation to stand up and do something big for God with their lives, especially while they're young. I talk about many issues wrong in our world today and ways that we can rise up and change it. The purpose was to encourage young people that if they live for Jesus, they can do big things for Him. :)

Sour Cream Girl:  Can you explain to us a little about the publishing process of I Dare You?  When and why did you first decide to look into publication for it?

Bella: The publishing process for "I Dare You" was not really as complicated as I thought it would be. :) I used CreateSpace, a self-publishing company of Amazon to publish and distribute my book. CreateSpace was wonderful and super easy to work with! I submitted to them the finalized copy of my book and the finalized copy of my book cover (after I had someone design it), and they did all the printing and sent me a proof to review. :) I decided to publish "I Dare You" because I have always wanted to make a difference in the world and inspire people. Yet I originally didn't want to publish this book because it was so personal, it was my heart on paper. :) Yet God asked me to publish it first anyway, above any of my other writings. So, even hesitantly, I did it. And it's amazed me to see how God has used this book He gave to me to change lives. :)

Sour Cream Girl:  Your second book, The King’s Princess, was a result from your magazine.  Can you tell us a little about this book too?  What is the main theme/purpose of the book?

Bella: Oh, yes, this book was fun! :) The King's Princess is a compilation of all my magazine articles I have written for my girl's e-magazine over the last three years. It includes articles on love, forgiveness, siblings, parent relationships, trusting God, and more! I also include all of my Bible Bee articles from when I participated in the National Bible Bee. The main theme is to inspire young ladies to live like the princesses of God that they are! :)

Sour Cream Girl:  Can you tell us how we can buy your books?

Bella: Absolutely! My books can be purchased directly through me which is often the easiest way to do it because then you can also get them signed. :) They are also sold on Amazon.com and my CreateSpace e-store! Those links are found on my website: www.isabellamorganthal.weebly.com 

Sour Cream Girl:  Now, you also had a blog and a YouTube channel that came with your books, so can you tell us more about them too? ;)

Bella: Oh, yes, my blog and YouTube channel have been so much fun and such a blessing :) My blog is: www.Jesusisworthitall.weebly.com and I began it over a year ago. It was more of a public way to share my writing and inspire the people reading. God has blessed my blog with over 400 views a week which totally amazes me :) I began my YouTube channel only a couple months ago to start the process of public speaking that I would like to be involved with one day. It was more of a way to connect with my readers through video and communicate things on my heart in a deeper way :)

Sour Cream Girl:  Wow, that’s amazing that you have 400 page views a week! (*insert heart-eyes emoji*) xD  And you also have a 3rd book in the process, correct?! :D  Can you give us a little sneak peek into what this book is going to be about, and why you are so passionate about the subject it focuses on? ;)

Bella: Haha, thank you!! xD Yes, I am so extremely excited about my 3rd book, Lord willing releasing October 2016! :D I would love to share more about this special book! This book titled “Worth it All: Running the Race of a Lifetime” is the story of my journey with the National Bible Bee. I participated in the Bible Bee for five amazing years of my life and made Nationals by the grace of God for four out of those five years. The journey God led me on to know Him better was something I would never trade for anything. He blessed me immensely during Bible Bee and at the end I was a true winner, even though I was eliminated from the competition. The Word of God in my heart and life made me—and all the other Bible Bee contestants—true winners. =) Although this book focuses on my Bible Bee race, it is also an encouragement to run the race of knowing God better and truly being able to count everything else in your life as loss compared to knowing Him.

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(To be continued… I plagued her with too many questions.)