Local Catholic mother of seven conquers doubts to publish first novel, 'Emma's Hero'

Carrie Walker hopes book, borne of her friendship with a mother struggling with a baby's health, inspires readers to aid others

ALLEN PARK — “I always say God signs His work,” said Carrie Walker, whose novel, "Emma’s Hero," was published March 19. The inspirational Christian novel, published by Mountain Brook Ink, is about how one life can affect so many others.

Walker's first book is available on Amazon.

Walker, a wife, mother of seven, and parishioner at St. Frances Cabrini Parish in Allen Park, sees many small God “signatures” throughout her life. Both she and her husband Brian are degreed engineers. While he still works in the field, she gave up her career to become a mother.

“I had always planned to stay home with the kids when we started having them,” Walker told Detroit Catholic. “But who would have thought I would go to engineering school for four years and then end up writing books?”

The Walkers married young — she was 20 and he was 22. Since then, they have brought five biological children into the world and adopted two more. Walker’s distinctly Catholic worldview permeates her writing, a gift she came to appreciate later in life.

Her high school teacher told her she should consider being a writer.

“But I didn’t have a story to tell,” Walker said. “It was kind of something in the back of my mind, but not something I was really seeking. I am not going to try to write a book if I don’t have something to write.”

It was during the early years of her marriage, when she and her husband were balancing a “crazy” schedule of work, school and youth ministry, they both would joke, “Maybe I will write a book someday.”

Walker met her husband in her high school youth group at her parish at that time, St. Albert the Great in Dearborn Heights. After they married, the youth group would become an even bigger part of their lives. They learned the ministry had lost its leader, and one of the teens of the parish suggested they should run it.

Their pastor, Fr. Dan Zaleski, was supportive of the idea.

“When we came forward, he said 'yes' right away. Later he told us he had been praying for someone from our community to fill that position,” Walker said.

“It was the Holy Spirit,” she added. “We could have always said no. We had a million things going on. I don’t know what spurred us to just say, ‘Sure.’ But it was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.”

The idea for Walker's novel came from her connection with one of the young people she worked with during her decade of youth ministry.

“One of the kids I had ministered to as a teen, now an adult, had given birth to a baby with a (possibly fatal birth defect). She was caring for the baby by herself. Every day, she didn’t know if the baby was going to live. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like to be by herself caring for this baby,” Walker said.

Walker went to visit the woman in the hospital. “I looked at the baby and thought how many lives has this baby touched, and her mom probably doesn’t even know it? Probably tons.”

That experience planted the seed of a story.

“I didn’t know what the story would be yet. But it wouldn’t leave me alone. And I could feel it,” she said.

Walker has always loved to read. Early in her marriage, she devoured nonfiction books about the saints and other Catholic writings. But after she became a mother, she said she still wanted to read edifying material, but something that did not require too much “thinking.”

“When I had my seventh child, I wanted to be inspired, but I needed something easy to read," she said. "I had no bandwidth. I had all these children, and some were in school, and I had a baby waking up all the time. Then I stumbled upon an inspirational fiction book series. I thought, ‘This is perfect for me right now. The stories are clean, there are spiritual messages in them.’ And a number were very inspiring.

“If I ever write, I thought, I would write something like this," she added. "A story that is positive and inspiring, with God’s grace woven throughout.”

During the next six years, as she wrote and rewrote her first novel, she discovered she loved writing. She learned to hone her craft, attending online and in-person writers’ conferences. She joined writers groups to get feedback on her work. Walker then submitted her manuscript to the American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) First Impressions Contest and won. She was also a semi-finalist in the ACFW Genesis Contest.

Her next challenge was to find an agent, but her efforts were in vain until she attended a writers conference in Grand Rapids.

“Ironically, I went to all these conferences to meet agents and pitch my story idea. None of them panned out. But at this conference I went to, he was teaching a class I chose to take. I showed up a few minutes early and no one else was there. He asked me what I wrote and I told him. He ended up asking me to send him my stuff.”

“This is just God laughing at me,” she remembers. “I’m going all over the place trying so hard to find an agent. And God drops him in my backyard.”

Her agent submitted her work to several publishers, but it took quite a while before anything happened. “The publishing industry is very slow,” said Walker. “I just thought no one was going to take it.”

She remembers the week she heard from Mountain Brook Ink asking her to sign a contract to publish her manuscript.

“It was the week Roe v. Wade was overturned. Literally that same week I heard back. I can’t get a much clearer sign than that.”

Walker's second novel in the series is scheduled to be released in February next year. A third novel is pending. She's also written three other manuscripts, intended as standalone novels, but hasn't yet sought a publisher for them.

She doesn't know how many people will pick up "Emma's Hero," but she hopes those who do find it inspiring and edifying in their own journeys.

“I hope whoever is supposed to read it reads it,” she said. “I let the mother who inspired the story read it. She said she wishes something had been written like this when she had her baby.”

At the back of the novel are questions to stimulate discussion for book clubs, but Walker hopes these clubs will do more than that.

“The only reason Emma (the character in my story) made it through her challenges is because people helped her.”

If a book club does decide to read "Emma's Hero," Walker suggests participants could also host a baby shower or solicit donations for local crisis pregnancy centers.

“I would be happy to highlight the showers on my website or social media," Walker said. "I can even send them some author swag to try to encourage participation. I really would love to see people do that. I feel like this book is supposed to do something. I don’t know how it will all manifest. But I would love that idea.”

Walker also would love for more Catholic authors to enter the writing field. She suggests prospective authors not only start writing, but connect with other writers through conferences and writers’ groups.

“I think there are things you learn when you are interacting with other authors and with publishers that give you motivation," she said. "There are a number of resources you can find to help you. I found a number of books to help me write.”

Her advice for those worried they don't have the creativity to write?

“Who needs creativity? Just take notes," Walker said. "If you walk through your life, you interact with people, you observe, and you listen, you get all you need. God will give you your story.”