When Reads the Heart with Carole Towriss


When I released my first indie book, I sent my street team a necklace along with the advance reader copy. The pendant, a gift from the hero to the heroine, figured prominently in the book. She had never had a home or family of her own, and desperately wanted one. The pendant symbolized love, family, belonging—and home. 

One of my team members lost almost everything they owned a couple weeks after the book released in a massive fire that completely destroyed their barn and house. Thankfully, their entire family of eight, and all their animals, managed to escape. A week later she sent me this email:

Hi Carole,
I wanted to write and let you know what a blessing your book has been to me through this week.  When we left for church Sunday morning I decided to take my necklace off that I wear every day and replace it with your carnelian one.  While I'm sad to lose the other one (it was a mother's necklace with all my children's names on it - that did need to be replaced anyway to add our two newest daughters), the carnelian has been such a wonderful reminder to me of God's presence in our lives.  Like the quote I posted earlier in the week from your book, the fact that God is our dwelling place - not our home on this earth that I loved! - has been so comforting!  I'm sure you had no idea how God would use your book, but I wanted you to know I believe he had you write it at least in part for me!!  

Then she asked me for another signed copy, which of course I was delighted to send her!

I always pray for the readers God has in mind as I write my books. Most of them I will never know. I will never meet them, never know their stories. This time, I was privileged to hear how God used the verses he gave to me as the theme to minister to another’s heart:

Lord, You have been our dwelling place throughout all generations. ~Psalm 90.1

An unapologetic Californian, Carole Towriss now lives just north of Washington, DC. She loves her husband, her four children, the beach, and tacos, though not always in that order. In addition to writing, she binge-watches British crime dramas and does the dishes for the fourth time in one day.
Find Carole at the following links:
on Twitter: @CaroleTowriss

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