BLOGWORDS – Thursday 20 November 2025 – CHAT THURSDAY – CARRIE TURANSKY
BLOGWORDS – Thursday 20 November 2025 – CHAT THURSDAY – CARRIE TURANSKY
CHAT THURSDAY – CARRIE TURANSKY
Please give a warm feathered welcome to author and friend, Carrie Turansky.
rem: Hullo Carrie, and welcome. Tell us three random things about yourself.
CARRIE: I love to arrange flowers for weddings and special events. I’m the grandma to 12 amazing kids. I come from a family of artists, and I was an art major in college. I think that artistic eye still helps me today in my writing.
rem: What is your favorite quotation and why?
CARRIE: A wonderful author I admire, Robin Jones Gunn, says – “Our books are like paper missionaries sent out into the world to touch readers’ hearts and draw them closer to God. They go places I will never go and speak to people I will never meet.” I love that.
rem: What an amazing quote! When reading, what makes or breaks a story for you? Your fiction pet peeve?
CARRIE: If the characters are unique and grab me on the first few pages with their hopes and dreams, then I’m all in to follow them on their journey.
rem: Oh, yes, I have to see characters as real and genuine. What are you reading right now?
CARRIE: I just finished listening to My Beloved by Jan Karon, the latest, and maybe the last, in the Mitford Series. Also, I just finished reading The Tattooed Woman at the Well, a debut novel by my good friend, Terri McAdoo. She and I are members of our local ACFW group. It’s a great story about a young woman’s journey to faith, and she just happens to be a tattooed truck driver. I’m so proud of Terri!
rem: Sounds like a great book Tell us a little about your writing journey.
CARRIE: I’ve been writing since 2000 when I joined a writers’ group at our local library. Shortly after that, I joined American Christian Fiction Writers. I’ve learned so much from being involved with that wonderful organization. I’ve made special friends, and I met my agent, and my editors through ACFW too. My first novel was published in 2005, and I’ve had 23 books published since then.
rem: And lovely books they are, too. What genre(s) do you write and why?
CARRIE: I started writing contemporary inspirational romance, but in the last ten years I’ve been writing English historical and dual-time novels set in the Victorian and Edwardian eras.
rem: Two of my favorite things, story-wise—historical and dual-timelines. Tell us a little about your latest book? What is your current project?
CARRIE: My latest book is A Very English Christmas, which is a holiday novella collection with three stories set in different eras in England. Each novella features a famous British author as a secondary character. Carole Lehr Johnson includes Jane Austen as a friend of the heroine, I feature Charles Dickens, and Marguerite Gray includes Beatrix Potter. I also wrote the contemporary wraparound story that ties all the novellas together with a young heroine who visits her grandmother and helps in her antique and rare bookshop. An item that appears in each novella shows up in the antique shop, and the Grandmother shares the story behind the item and leads into the novella. It a cozy, romantic, and heartwarming collection that’s perfect for holiday time.
rem: How fun that all three stories are tied back to the wraparound. What is YOUR favorite part about the book or why do you love this book? Why should we read it?
CARRIE: My novella, A Victorian Christmas Tale, includes Charles Dickens, and it’s set during the time he is writing A Christmas Carol. My hero is his good friend and first reader, and the heroine is a young woman from a wealthy family who has a disability and must overcome a physical challenge. I loved learning about Charles Dickens life and writing at that time. His two previous projects had flopped, and his publisher was very reluctant to publish a Christmas story that included ghosts. Charles had to pay for the publishing expenses to convince them to publish it. It didn’t release until December 19th! But it was so successful it changed the way people celebrated Christmas.
rem: Thank you for the glimpse into Charles Dickens’ life. What is one take-away from your book(s) that you hope readers identify with?
CARRIE: In my novella the heroine’s parents disapprove of the hero because of his background, and it looks like that will separate them. But they purpose to pray and trust God with their hopes and future, and they receive their answer in a very surprising way. I hope readers will be encouraged to trust God with their struggles and believe He loves them and has the best in mind for them.
rem: I love when Father God answers us with a surprise—and I especially love it when it happens to fictional characters. One more and then we’ll close. Do you have a life Scripture?
CARRIE: The Lord is often showing me new Scriptures that are meaningful as I read and study the Bible, so I’ll share the latest that He has be weaving into my heart and mind: Ephesians 4:20 – 24
“Since you have heard about Jesus and learned the truth that comes from Him, throw off your old sinful nature and your former way of life which is corrupted by lust and deception. Instead let the Spirit renew your thoughts and attitudes. Put on your new nature, created to be like God – truly righteous and holy.” This verse had been helping me focus on the Lord’s work in my life and daily obedience to the changes and commitments He is asking me to make.
rem: Rather like my life Scripture, Romans 12:2. Anything you’d like to add?
CARRIE: Thank you for a chance to connect! I want to invite readers to visit my website, which is https://carrieturansky.com/ I have a free short story for you when you sign up for my author email newsletter. You might also enjoy looking at my bonus pages where you’ll find photos from my research trips to England, recipes from my books, links to podcasts and YouTube interviews, and of course more about each of my books.
rem: What a fun website, Carrie. Thank you again for chatting with us on my blog today!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carrie Turansky is the award-winning author of more than twenty inspirational novels and novellas and a winner of the ACFW Carol Award, the International Digital Award, and the Holt Medallion. She loved traveling to England to research her latest Edwardian novels including A Token of Love, The Legacy of Longdale Manor, and No Ocean Too Wide. Her novels have received stared reviews from Christianbooks and Library Journal. They have been translated into several languages and enjoyed by readers around the world. Connect with Carrie on her website, on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.
https://carrieturansky.com/
#Blogwords, Chat Thursday, Interview, Carrie Turansky, Robin Jones Gunn, My Beloved, Mitford Series, The Tattooed Woman at the Well, ACFW, A Very English Christmas, A Christmas Carol, Ephesians 4:20 – 24, Romans 12:2
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