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| 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 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:
