Before They Bloomed, Author Q&A with Ilona Sydelle

Today, we are excited to have author I. Sydelle with us who spoke to us about growth, her new book and the importance of family. Make sure to grab her new book Before They Bloomed, which was just recently released on March 1, 2024.

Tell us a bit about how you grew up and your childhood: I grew up in a middle class Christian family in Dallas Texas, working for my dad’s buy-one-give-one rainboot company and enjoying everything that came with it- whether organizing and packing boots, or joining on boot donation trips or events like Sadie Robertson’s Live Original Tour; writing, reading, attending church and church related events at least three times a week, hanging out with my cousins all the time – I have 35 cousins all from my dad’s side. We are a close and tight knit family, and my cousins have always been my best friends. I grew up traveling because my dad is from Romania and my mom is from Colombia, so summers and breaks were spent abroad with family. I grew up multilingual, speaking Spanish at home, Romanian with my grandparents and various family members, and my sister and I both attended a french school called Dallas International School. Family is and always has been a priority and most of my time was spent with my family, whether immediate or extended. I grew up with many pets, because my dad grew up on a farm in his village, and he was always bringing animals home. This is one of my favorite things about my childhood. We had rabbits, chickens, ducks, turtles, cats and dogs, all while we lived in the city. If I could describe my childhood in a sentence(ish) it would be Family-Parties, Roma, Travel, Animals, Literature, and Church. 

Inspiring biblical passage of the moment: I read Psalm 66 yesterday, and it was really good. It was a reminder of God’s wonderful-ness, a reminder of how He is worthy and deserving of all the praise. It’s just a psalm full of joy. I recommend anyone who is feeling down in the moment, or apathetic to read it. 

Congratulations on your new novel, Before They Bloomed. I read that you had been working on this since the seventh grade. What inspired this project? Thank you so much! So when I started writing it, it was kind of an experiment. I had always been a ‘good’ kid and I kind of wanted to live vicariously through my writing in a way. It started off as this girl who meets this guy and they runaway on an adventure together. But it didn’t get much farther than that. I wrote scenes here and there, but I didn’t really have any direction. In ninth grade, I started writing it again, and then it was like this revelation was downloaded onto my mind. I can’t say what, or it will spoil the story – but it had to do with abortion and the devastating affects abortion had on two separate families multi-generationally. I had always been passionate about the Sanctity of Life – even as a little five year old girl, my favorite song was “Lucy” by Skillet (it had always really spoken to me but I couldn’t figure out why. I was fifteen when I learned that Lucy was about the artist’s abortion). So the story evolved, from a rebellious little tryst to a message I wanted to convey. 

What would you like readers to walk away with after reading Before They Bloomed? My hope is that readers would walk away with a new perspective on the effects and realities of abortion on family or at the very least, plant a seed of questioning. For me, family has always been so important to me, but I never considered the effect that abortion could have on a family. I knew abortion was evil, I knew that it hurt women, but I never thought beyond that. I am sure a lot of people are in the same boat, and I want to bring awareness to that, in a way that isn’t condemning or preachy, but empathetic and hopefully, compelling.

When did you first encounter God and how did you encounter Him? I can’t remember my earliest encounter with God, the memories all blend together. I grew up in a home that did a very good job at fostering a culture of faith and relationship with the Lord. As early as I could read, I was encouraged to read the Bible.

My parents encouraged prayer and prayed with my sister and I at every meal time, every night before bed, and every morning as we were dropped off at school. But two examples that come to mind as transformative in my relationship with God, and discovering different sides of Him was once when I was eight and once when I was fourteen. The time when I was eight, I was reminded of God as a disciplinary Father. I had dug my fingers into red velvet cake while my dad was away at work, and when he got home he asked who had eaten it (knowing it was me) I had lied, telling him I didn’t know who did it. And I walked away. Too overcome with guilt, I turned around and ran back to him, confessing the truth and he explained to me how I had lied, and then encouraged me to go and pray to God for forgiveness. I got on my knees and prayed, confessing to what I did and asking for forgiveness. When I returned to my dad, he told me that even though he wouldn’t be around, God always would – so it wasn’t my parents that I should strive to honoring, but God.

And the second was the time I fasted and prayed for a bunny I didn’t think I would get – and did. I had found a free grey holland lop on craigslist, but when I contacted the lady she said the bunny was already claimed and that the bunny was being picked up the next day. I didn’t give up. I fasted dinner, breakfast, and lunch – praying and hoping they new owners would bail out. At lunch time, I called my father, and he told me that he had wanted it to be a surprise, but that he was on his way to pick up the bunny. I burst into grateful tears. Here, I saw God as merciful and compassionate and loving, hearing the smallest most ‘unimportant’ prayers and answering even that. 

How would you describe Jesus? I would describe Jesus as Holy, as Lord and Savior, and as a loving and deeply caring friend. His facets are infinite, and there is still so much to learn.

How has your relationship with Him changed you? If it weren’t for Jesus, I don’t think that I would have the joy and love and patience and empathy for people that I do. I think I would be angry and depressed and without purpose. I have seen bits of it, how my flesh reacts when I am not in the Word and not walking with Jesus daily. I know and understand that I’m not a good person, that I need a savior, and I am so grateful that He meets me when I am broken, when I feel helpless and abandoned. Fun fact, my name means joy. Ilo is the literal word for joy in finnish, and it was my nickname growing up. My mother had a dream before I was born and before she knew my gender that she was going to have a little girl who always smiled and was always happy. As a child, the name rang true. As I got older, I have seen how the devil has tried to rob me of my joy. It is only through Jesus where that is able to be fully restored and made new. And for that, I am so grateful. 

“If it weren’t for Jesus, I don’t think that I would have the joy and love and patience and empathy for people that I do.”

What has been the darkest time in your life, and how did you see God in it? Goodness, I’ve had dark seasons and tough times in my life, mainly mental. I’m lucky and blessed that I haven’t experienced anything completely shattering yet – but the last two years were really hard on me (and my family).

We really were being attacked on many angles, but for me personally I was struggling. I entered college young, joined this organization that was good for a season but not for beyond it – though I stayed. And as a result, I became a shell of myself, and I didn’t grow. Instead, I regressed. I let go of all of my giftings and passions that the Lord gave me – I stopped writing altogether. I stopped playing piano. I stopped caring about anything. I became very depressed and isolated, and I began to spiral, riddled with anxiety.

During this time I stopped reading my Bible consistently, I stopped going to church – making excuses that I had to do things for the organization that I was in. I stopped prioritizing the Lord, and I began spending time with people that weren’t sharpening me and leading me closer to God. I was in a Jonah season, honestly. During the summer of 2023, my family told me something has to change. They told me they no longer recognized me. July 2023, we were leaving church as a family, and I started crying in the backseat. God touched my heart that day, and I made a conscious decision to repent and change. That day led into a semester of growth and pruning, new friends, leaving the organization, consistently going to Church, reading my Bible daily, talking with my sister consistently, and leaning on my family more. It wasn’t a radical change, it took time – but I am so glad that I am not in the same place that I was last year. 

What has helped you grow spiritually in this season? Not necessarily a what, but a who. My sister has helped me grow a lot spiritually, as we encourage each other in our daily Bible reading, as she holds me accountable and I her, as we have deep conversations. My sister has such a zeal for the Lord, and what comes out of her mouth is such encouraging and uplifting things – it encourages me and pushes me to be better and grow in my relationship with the Lord. 

Just read/currently reading (and what has it taught you?): Honestly, I love to read, and I have a book sitting on my nightstand – but these two months have been a whirlwind and I cant remember the last real book I read. I’ve just been reading the Bible. This morning, I was reading from Luke, from the Passover to Crucifixion, and because we’re going through the New Testament as a family, I had already read the story twice before in the past eight weeks. But what stuck out to me this time was when Jesus asked Judas “are you really betraying the son of God with a kiss?” And I just thought – wow, this was such a powerful line. The audacity of Judas, the humbleness and all-knowingness of Jesus, but the disappointment. It is such a powerful trope as well that can be used in movies and novels, but it also really happened in real life. It really struck me. 

Top three essentials: Ack, this topic is so broad. But I will go with what I have on me constantly when I’m out for the day. My phone, my airpods, and a chapstick. It sounds really shallow, but my phone is a literal power tool. It has everything – the Bible App, my Notes app, Spotify, Gmail, Instagram. Plus 99% off my work is online, with both of my jobs and my writing, I also have my money on it. My airpods because I am a music fiend, I love listening to podcasts, and when I have to do calls. And chapstick because I used to get a hard time as a kid for never using it – so lesson learned. 

How did God speak to you recently? So recently, I’ve been so content because God brought me out of an old season and into a new one – and everything was going so well. And I was praising the Lord all the time, and telling my family how grateful to God I was. Then three weeks of mental and emotional turmoil hit, and I was in a lump. Stressed out all the time, sad. But even through this time, I kept on reminding myself that God was still good. And He is, I have no reason to be ungrateful. But what I was taught during this time, is to be content in all the circumstances – not just when everything is going amazingly good. And when I feel pressed and stressed, that is the moment I should praise God the loudest, and lean deeper into Him. Doing this builds resistance, I believe, against temptation and the devil. 

“But what I was taught during this time, is to be content in all the circumstances – not just when everything is going amazingly good.”

Hobby: Writing, reading, listening to music, piano. I am trying to get into running. I hate running, and I haven’t started yet BUT my goal is to turn running into a hobby. 

Top three practical tips for staying spiritually strong: Get in the Word – first and foremost. The Bible is the living and breathing word of God. If you want to know Him better, you have to understand His heart – and His heart and his plan for His humanity is written out fully in a book that was given to us – the Bible. Pray daily, have open dialogue with the Lord. Whether this is praying for others, thanking Him in the morning and the evening, praying out loud is extremely effective. Because speech is powerful. It is one thing to think something, it is another to say it aloud.

Prayer edifies and instills faith, because like Proverbs says, the power of life and death are in the tongue. And lastly, being conscious of what you’re giving most of your time too. Because that is what influences you. Are you listening to music or watching movies more than you’re spending time with God, reading your Bible, worshipping Him? The truth is, you can’t serve two masters – just like Luke says. Both are vying for your attention, and one is going to win. I find this in my own personal life, I say I want a deeper relationship with the Lord but I’m filling my head with junk, and it’s not a viable way of staying spiritually strong. An easy example, is wanting to get fit and lose weight. You can go to the gym, or you can continue to eat junk and watch TV. But don’t expect to get fit and healthy by eating junk and not being active. The same way goes with your relationship with God. 

Favorite person in scripture? I feel like if I don’t say Jesus it’s almost disrespectful, considering He is quite literally the star of scripture. But I would probably say Joseph. Joseph is a type of Jesus after all. I admire him because he walked in so much favor from God. Even when the world was against him, betrayed by his brothers, falsely accused and thrown in prison  – he didn’t turn from God. And God rewarded his faithfulness, and restored everything back to him and more. His story is another beautiful trope or archetype that has such a powerful message and I want to see more in writing (and in real life)

What do you want people to learn about God when they look at you? Oh, this is a deep question. When people look at me, I hope that I don’t turn people away from God. I don’t want people to look at me and think, it’s another self righteous Christian following a strict God who doesn’t care about fun or life. I hope that people can learn that God is a Father, someone they can run to when they feel like they have nobody else, when they feel like there is no hope. Or, I hope that they can learn that God is a joyful God, who wants to see His children full of joy and wants what’s best for them. I hope that I can radiate so much happiness and joy even in the hard times that people go, wow, I want that for my life too.

How do you engage with your community? Currently, I am interning with a non profit called Christians Engaged. We are a non-partisan, non-denominational organization that encourages people to pray for their elected officials, vote in every election based on biblical values, and engage civically. I also babysit, a lot for my family. I love children, and spending time with my baby cousins. I remember all the special memories and time that my uncles and aunts poured into me, and I want to return the favor and be there now that they have kids. I love going to the young adults worship night at church weekly, communing and worshipping the Lord together with my friends. And when my sister and I go out to coffee shops, we love making conversation with the people around us. Though, I will be honest – she does that more than I do. It is something she challenges me in, making conversation with strangers and turning them into friends. 

Favorite holiday? My favorite holiday is probably Christmas. Holidays are huge in our family, and I have a big family – my dad is one of twelve. I have so many special memories of gathering with all of the cousins, family gift exchanges, eating traditional food, and starting our own cousin tradition of Desert baking competitions. Not to mention the Christmas Eve tradition with my father, when he’d take me to Half Price Books for a book and a journal. The tradition is fifteen years strong and we haven’t missed a year since it started. And ending the night as a family, going to candle light service and coming out of the service on Christmas day – where we would go home and open one gift and eat a late Christmas Eve dinner. Christmas is just so special for me and my family and I have always loved it. 

A goal you have? One of my goals is to open up a personal school house one day. Whether this is in another country or in a small town. I want to homeschool my children and I think that there is a shift taking place in how we view systemic education. I think that there will be a greater demand for homeschooling, or local schooling. I would love to open up a concentrated schoolhouse, small and local, for families in the neighborhood who want to homeschool but do not have the time. 

A special tradition you and your family engage in or keep: My all time favorite tradition is the Half Price Books tradition that I touched on in an earlier question. That is where my love for reading was fostered. I got my first copy of the Chronicles of Narnia there, and honestly, that book is probably the reason I am a writer today. It lit my imagination and inspired me to write my own stories (which were all heavily influenced by Narnia at first), and it snowballed from there. The tradition expanded to inviting my sister once she was old enough to read as well. 

Question you will ask when you get to heaven? Honestly, I don’t know if I’ll ask a question. I think that I will be so overcome by God’s holiness that I will fall down to my knees and worship. But after that, I’d probably ask to give Jesus a hug. 

Thing you want to raise awareness about: I’ve always been passionate about the pro-life movement, and the Sanctity of Life is something I forever want to raise awareness about. But something currently that I want to raise awareness about is the gravity and dangers of giving children access to internet and technology at a young age. I truly believe it has a negative developmental impact, not to mention the unfettered access and exposure to inappropriate content (content that is inappropriate for anyone, any age).

What does your morning routine consist of? My morning routine consists of getting up between 4 am and 6 am (it really depends on the day and my motivation for that morning) brushing my teeth, making coffee, doing my daily Bible reading – this year my family and I are going through the entire Bible, but to stay on track were reading 5 chapters daily. A psalm and proverb every day, and then one chapter from the Old Testament, Middle of the Bible (starting in Ecclesiastes) and the New Testament. After this, I try to do a workout, and then I take a shower and get ready for the day, feed my animals (I have two rabbits, a gray maine coon cat mix and a pomeranian) and then I make breakfast. After this, I have to get started with the day.

What is on your nightstand? On my nightstand, I have my Bible, my phone (its bad I know, but I love listening to instrumental music going to sleep, having an alarm, and having quick access to note a story idea) a candle, a book called the Night Circus, a proof copy of my Before They Bloomed book, a journal, normally a water cup of some sort, and a picture of my sister and I. 

Define Christianity in a sentence: I would define Christianity as a daily, cross-bearing walk with Jesus Christ, the son of God, who sacrificed his life for my sins so that if I repent, I may be born again. 

For more Ilona:

Instagram: @ilonabistrian; @isydellewrites

Tik Tok: ilonabistrian

Website (in the works): isydelle.com

Link for books and articles: https://linktr.ee/isydelle

Get your copy of Before They Bloomed here.

Until next time, keep witnessing!

XX