📍Book Tour with Guest Post & Giveaway ➱ Toward the Light a coming-of-age memoir of trauma, resilience, and the courage of simply staying by Deborah Svec-Carstens

 WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR

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Toward the Light: A Year In Paris

By Deborah Svec-Carstens

 Book Summary

What happens when the City of Light turns dark?

At twenty-two, Deborah Svec-Carstens leaves small-town Iowa for Paris, hoping a year abroad will bring adventure, independence, and a fresh start. But just as she begins to feel at home, a morning run ends in sexual assault.

Every instinct tells her to leave. Instead, she chooses to stay.

As the months pass, Deborah leans on an unexpected community of friends, wrestles with questions of faith, and finds purpose in caring for Lily, the young girl entrusted to her care. Slowly, she discovers that healing is not a destination, but a path taken one step at a time.

Set against the cafés, parks, and neighborhoods of Paris, Toward the Light is a coming-of-age memoir of trauma, resilience, and the courage of simply staying.

Spiral Staircase Press (September 15, 2026)

Audiobook: 979-8-9958853-2-0

ASIN: 979-8-9958853-0-6

ISBN-13: 979-8-9958853-1-3

Print length:  308 pages

Purchase a copy of Toward the Light

Amazon:  https://www.amazon.com/Toward-Light-Paris-Deborah-Svec-Carstens/dp/B0HCGM39NR/

Barnes & Noble:  https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/toward-the-light-deborah-svec-carstens/1150945556?ean=9798995885313

Bookshop.org: https://bookshop.org/p/books/toward-the-light-a-year-in-paris-deborah-svec-carstens/1499e712ad63e4b6?ean=9798995885313&bkshp-astro=t

Books-A-Million: https://www.booksamillion.com/p/9798995885313

You can also add this to your Goodreads reading list 

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/256239924

Excerpt

My jet-lag fog and doubts lifted at the sight of the Eiffel Tower, L’Arc de Triomphe, and other landmarks. I twisted my head in every direction and leaned close to the windows. The driver watched me through his rearview mirror. I probably looked like a dog running back and forth across the back seat, but I didn’t care. I was in Paris. I had made the right decision. The car stopped in front of an unremarkable, five-story apartment building six blocks away from the Arc de Triomphe. White shutters in need of a fresh coat of paint framed the windows on the upper levels. A restaurant and a foreign currency exchange were located on either side of seven-foot-tall, dark green, wooden double doors—nearly the size of an entrance to an ancient cathedral. The driver set my bags on the curb. I rifled through unfamiliar currency to find what I owed. Unsure of whether to tip, I added a few francs to the total, depleting what I’d exchanged. He drove away, and I stared up at the building that would be my home for the next ten months. Luggage in one hand, I used the other to punch in the door code Claudette had given me. When I heard a click, I pushed open one of the heavy doors and stepped over the threshold into a shaded courtyard with no grass and only a few flowers in the windowsills. A stranger. An outsider. Entering the unknown. I had arrived.

Guest Post

Content note: This post references sexual assault and an eating disorder.

Releasing the Shame After an Assault

It was my fault.

I’d been running in the park alone.

Earlier in my run, I’d seen the man who assaulted me.

I should have known he was going to rape me.

These were the lies I told myself in the aftermath of a sexual assault in my early twenties. 

I’d been living in Paris for two months when it happened. A recent college graduate from small-town Iowa, I’d come to Paris in search of adventure and independence. In those first weeks, I’d struggled with loneliness and homesickness as I figured out how to live with and work for a French family, caring for their six-year-old daughter. The assault happened just as I was beginning to feel at home.

After the assault, the woman I worked for asked me, “Didn’t you know no one should run in the Bois de Boulogne alone?”

No, I didn’t. 

Shame haunted me.

I kept the assault hidden from most people, including my parents and friends back home.

I convinced myself I was “over it.” I wasn’t. At the time, I didn’t know that trauma lives in the body and that there is no “getting over it” or “moving on.” Only moving forward.

Three years after the assault, shame took the form of an eating disorder. Treatment forced me to reckon with the assault—to name it and talk about it, including in a therapy session with my parents. Still, the circle of people who knew about it remained small. Shame lingered.

In my forties—two decades after Paris—I started writing about my experiences there, curious whether there might be another layer of healing to uncover.

When I got serious about turning what I’d been writing into a memoir, I joined a critique group led by my writing coach.

At first, the group thought I was writing a memoir about being a nanny in Paris.

I kept the hardest part of the story from them for months.

During one of our meetings, they offered feedback on a scene that detailed my frustration with playing Barbies for hours on end. 

“I laughed out loud when I read this,” one of them said.

“I can’t wait to see where this story goes,” said another.

I locked eyes with my writing coach, who knew about the assault. She smiled and nodded. It was time. I couldn’t keep the truth a secret from them any longer. 

Heat rose to my cheeks. I took a deep breath and began.

When I finished, the room went silent. Finally, someone spoke.

“I’m so sorry that happened to you,” she said.

“You are brave for wanting to tell this story,” said another. She stood to offer a hug.

Only after I’d told my writing coach and the group what had happened could I write the chapter detailing the assault.

As I wrote my story and shared it with a circle of women I knew would safely hold it, I began to release the weight of shame I’d carried for so long. Getting the story out of my body and onto the page helped me gain some distance from it.

As that circle has widened—at one point to an audience of more than 1,200 people at a storytelling event—talking about my experience has become easier. 

Today, my desire to share my story outweighs moments of vulnerability. I tell it in the hope that it might help someone tell theirs, whether to a friend or family member, a therapist, or a wider audience.

It was not my fault.

About the Author, Deborah Svec-Carstens

Deborah Svec-Carstens, JD, MTS, is a writer, book coach, spiritual director, and former lawyer whose work explores healing after trauma, embodiment, and spirituality. Her debut memoir, Toward the Light: A Year in Paris, traces her search for meaning and connection in the months after a traumatic assault in Paris in her early twenties. 

Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in bioStories, the Brevity blog, the Des Moines Register, and Ember & Vine Nonfiction Anthology. Her work has received recognition from Writer’s Digest, WOW! Women on Writing, and Memoir Magazine. 

Deborah writes The Spiral Staircase on Substack and offers workshops and presentations. She lives in Central Iowa with her husband, where she writes and accompanies others in their journeys of healing and story.

Website: https://deborahsveccarstens.com

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/Deborah.SvecCarstens.Author/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/deborah.sveccarstens/

Substack: https://deborahsveccarstens.substack.com/

Book Giveaways

Don’t miss the book giveaway! The winner will receive the Toward the Light: A Year in Paris. Enter at The Muffin from October 19 to November 1

https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com/2026/10/toward-light-blog-tour-giveaway.html

#TowardtheLight #booktour #giveaway #comingofage #memoir #deborahsveccarstens #wow @deborah.sveccarstens @wow_womenonwriting

Blog Tour Calendar

October 19th @ The Muffin

Join us as we celebrate the launch of Toward the Light: A Year in Paris by Deborah Svec-Carstens. Read an interview with the author and enter the giveaway.

https://muffin.wow-womenonwriting.com

October 20th @ Guatemala Paula Loves to Read

Looking for a new memoir? Read an excerpt from the debut memoir by Deborah Svec-Carstens, Toward the Light: A Year in Paris.

https://guatemalapaula.blogspot.com/

October 22nd @ All Things Writing

Author Deborah Svec-Carstens shares her writing experience in Writing About Trauma, Not Reliving It.

https://www.caitrincking.com/blog

October 27th @ A Wonderful World of Words

Deborah Svec-Carstens writes about the journey to release the shame after her assault, including writing her memoir Toward the Light.

https://awonderfulworldofwordsa.blogspot.com/

October 30th @ Nikki's Book and Movie Reviews

Stop by for a review of Toward the Light by Deborah Svec-Carstens.

https://nikkitsbookreviews.wordpress.com

October 31st @ Boots, Shoes and Fashion

Meet author Deborah Svec-Carstens in today's interview.

https://bootsshoesandfashion.com

November 2nd @ A Storybook World

Find out the meaning behind the title of Deborah Svec-Carstens' memoir Toward the Light.

www.astorybookworld.com/

November 4th @ Words by Webb

Jodi shares her thoughts on Toward the Light by Deborah Svec-Carstens.

https://www.jodiwebbwriter.com/blog

November 6th @ Book Reviews From an Avid Reader 

Today Joan is reviewing a memoir of trauma and hope by Deborah Svec-Carstens: Toward the Light.

https://www.bookwomanjoan.blogspot.com

November 11th @ Some Thoughts: Everything Creativity

Author Deborah Svec-Carstens writes about The Keys to Memoir: Journals, Photos, Letters, Music and More.

https://www.kaeceymccormick.com/blog

November 14th @ World of My Imagination

Celebrate National Memoir Writing Month with Nicole's review of Toward the Light: A Year in Paris.

https://worldofmyimagination.com/my-blog/

November 15th @ Some Thoughts: Everything Creativity

In a memoir mood? Today Kaecey review Toward the Light by Deborah Svec-Carstens.

https://www.kaeceymccormick.com/blog