Friday, February 14, 2014

My Journey to Publication by Carole Towriss


Carole Towriss
Those of us who have been writing for a while know that it takes tenacity to keep moving down the road to publication. It’s rare that an author experiences overnight success and makes it “big.” Can you accept that? Author Carole Towriss understands what it takes. Today, she shares her personal journey and what she’s learned along the way. 
~ Dawn



My Journey to Publication
by Carole Towriss

“Remember that I have commanded you to be determined and confident! Do not be afraid or discouraged, for I, the Lord your God, am with you wherever you go." Joshua 1:9, Good News Translation

Four times in the first chapter of Joshua God tells Joshua to “be strong and of good courage.”

I'm sure you don’t want to hear that that doesn’t necessarily mean He has called you to be a best-selling author of millions of copies of dozens of novels. Maybe it does—but you’ll never know unless you keep writing and finish that manuscript.

I started my first book over twenty-five years ago. I got stuck in the research—no internet then, and most of the books I needed were out of print. We were trying to get pregnant and that took a lot of my time and emotional energy, so I put it away for about twenty years. I took it back up again around four years ago, and found an online critique group. I hadn’t heard of ACFW, so this was a secular historical fiction group. I must have submitted that first chapter seven or eight times. 

One lady was so patient with me—I would see her pages in my inbox and literally not open them for three days because I knew they’d be covered in red track change boxes. A couple times they even made me cry. But she taught me POV. Well, I finally got it figured out, finished the manuscript and went to Mt Hermon. I submitted three pages to an agent who told me if it were Amish fiction she could sell it in a heartbeat, but alas, I wrote biblical fiction. She asked for the full but I never heard from her again. I did get published with a small publisher about a year later.

A couple months ago a sweet lady told me when she read my book it brought her to tears. When she got to the part when the hero finally realizes that all the hard parts of his life had been ordained by God, and were necessary for the huge task God had for him, she cried. She’d experienced some very difficult things and felt that message was for her.

I’ll probably always be a small fish in the big publishing pond, but that’s OK. I’m where God wants me, doing what He wants me to do. And that’s enough. I don’t know what’s God’s plan is for you, specifically, but He does. And I have no doubt He’ll take you there. All you have to do is be determined, and trust in Him.


Tweetables:

It’s okay to be a small fish in a big pond if that’s where God wants you. Click to tweet.

God has a specific plan for you, and he’ll take you there. Click to tweet.




Kamose, once Egypt’s most trusted soldier, no longer has a country to serve or king to protect. Moses insists God has a plan for him, but Kamose is not so sure. Tirzah’s cruel husband died shortly after they left Egypt. She escaped his brutality, but now she’s alone, and once they reach their new land, how will she survive? Gaddiel, Tirzah’s brother-in-law, is chosen as one of the twelve spies sent to scout out Canaan. He’s supposed to go in, get information and come back, but all he really wants is to bring down Joshua.



Carole Towriss grew up in beautiful San Diego, California. Now she and her husband live just north of Washington, DC. In between making tacos and telling her four children to pick up their shoes for the third time, she reads, writes, watches chick flicks and waits for summertime to return to the beach. She is the author of biblical novels In the Shadow of Sinai and By the Waters of Kadesh.

You can learn more and connect online with Carole here: