Local resident’s 100 devotionals are published in new book

Longtime Steiner Ranch resident Carol Killgore recently embarked on a new challenge – getting her collection of Christian devotionals published.

Killgore shares how “Lessons from the Heart: Devotionals for Everyday Living” came about.

Tell us a little about yourself like: How long have you lived in Steiner and what do you do?

We have lived in Steiner since February 1999 first in the Plateau and then built in the Estates at Westridge, where we have lived since November 2003, 25 years total.

I work with a local financial technology and marketing services company, Kasasa, since 2016 as “First Impressions, HR Specialist”

What inspired you to write a devotional?

Since 2015, by the prompting of two dear friends (when God literally had put it on their hearts to reach out to me). It is then when I received a holy nudge to start writing what I saw, heard, experienced, and felt.  In that first year, I wrote over 50 devotionals and in 2016 more than 30.  It’s like I could not stop, because He kept on showing me things. To date, I’ve written, and shared on my Facebook page for inspiration to others, 105 devotionals, with 100 being included in my published book – “Lessons from the Heart:  Devotionals for Everyday Living”.

What has been the best part of getting your work published?

The best part about being published is the worldwide audience it will reach. “Lessons from the Heart:  Devotionals for Everyday Living” has received some very positive reviews on Amazon since coming out in April, and to hear the impact it’s making from friends giving to friends or family, and how they too have been blessed – well, that’s just all God! I feel it’s the gift that will keep on giving.

What has been the most challenging part of getting your work published?

I’d say there is something about going through the process!  The editing and work to get to the finish line was a bit more than I thought.  About seven months of back and forth with the publisher, some of the challenges I encountered was:

  • To add or not to add photos.  After spending weeks asking permission from various friends, editing photos for use as well as using the publisher’s pre-authorized Getty images, the book would have been quite costly to print in color, so I prayed about it became clear that I would not use photos, because “it’s what’s on the inside that counts”.
  • What size book do I want?  This too determined the cost to each reader, and I wanted to make sure it was affordable.
  • Accepting or denying the publisher’s edits.  I had to review very carefully each edit made by the publisher, accepting, or rejecting what I felt proper, as well as going back through each of the 100 devotionals, adding the proper bible versions I used as the location of each quote made. 

The end result was more than I could have asked for or imagined once the final printed publication came out!

What do you want to accomplish through this devotional?

I’m confident that these divinely inspired messages will serve as a beacon of hope to guide readers to embrace a life of faith, service and love by:

  • Shifting thoughts and routines from the familiar to His higher perspective;
  • Loving one another as He loves us;
  • Stepping out of a “me-centered” life into the lives of others;
  • Realizing the benefit of being in community, out of isolation; and
  • Slowing down, making time to take time.