Can you tell us a little bit about your book? When did it come out? Where can we get it?
Hi, Marie, and thank you for having me. I’d love to tell you about my
VOW UNBROKEN. It’s a historical Christian romance set in 1832 Northeast Texas.
That’s where I live with my sweetheart and four grandsons. I put Susannah
Baylor, my heroine in VOW on the McAdoo Ranch in Red River County, but before
it was even Texas. In 1832, Mexico still claimed it. And guess what I found out
in my research. They were having fights in these parts because Mexico’s
President Bustamante banned any more white settlers from coming into Mexico!
Isn’t that fun?
Anyway, back to VOW
UNBROKEN—you have to keep me on topic, sorry—Howard Books, a division of Simon
and Schuster released it across the nation on March 4th and I’m so
excited, I can’t feel the ground under my feet! I imagine it’s available about
anywhere you buy books.
It’s the story of
conquering love. Guess that’s why they call it romance, right? My lady is a
young widow rearing two children and she’s had her best crop ever, but if she
doesn’t get it to market and collect a fair price, she may have to start
selling her land off. She hires a local man with a bad reputation to help
her—he was the only one left really—and is disgusted that he’s bringing his
flea-bit dog. He’s just as upset that she’s taking her children, but off they
go.
Is there anything that
prompted your latest book? Something that inspired you?
My agent inspired me to write VOW UNBROKEN! I met Mary Sue Seymour at
my writers’ group’s conference in Mount Pleasant, Texas. Since I moved out here
from Dallas, I was used to the big city traffic, so I volunteered to take her to the
airport for her trip home. On the way, she told me that historical Christian
romances set in the 1800s were the easiest for her to sell. She said, “Caryl, if
you’ll write me one, I’ll sell it.”
Wham, bam! I was
inspired! I dropped her off on Sunday for her flight back to New York and
started writing VOW on Monday! Oh, and I forgot to tell you, Mary Sue’s maiden
name was McAdoo! Was that a sign or what? It was as if God tapped us both on
the head with a velvet hammer and said, "Mary Sue, Caryl, pay attention. I have
a plan." That was at the end of April 2012. I sent the manuscript on July 7.
Mary Sue and I edited, she signed me to a contract in August and sold VOW
UNBROKEN to Howard Books in October. It was like a miracle dream come true.
Great! So, when did you know you
wanted to write? Or has it always been a pastime of yours?
English was always my favorite subject and I always loved writing. My
maternal granddaddy wrote a fantasy called LITTLE TOM and read it to my cousins
and me. He’d always tell us the best stories. Then my mother also wrote a book
SO YOU WANT TO KNOW GOD AND HEAR HIS VOICE, HERE’S HOW—neither was ever
published. Mama’s certainly would never have been able to keep that long title,
but their efforts made it seem not so far-fetched to think I could write a
book. I got to keep my title by the way, I was so glad of that.
So maybe I loved
horses more than writing because I spent much more time at the barn than
writing in my early adult years. I wrote poems and long, fun letters, but didn’t
write a book until the late 80s. My husband actually started the first book.
He’d read a terrible book called NOAH, but always says the author should have
called it JOE AND THE BIG BOAT because it didn’t follow scripture at all. He figured
if she could get published, so could he. He started writing, but he needed
me so we started writing together.
Thoroughly rejected,
we ended up at the DFW Writers’ Workshop and discovered we’d made every mistake
known to newbies. Published authors there mentored us and we learned the craft
of creative fiction. After six years, in ’99, the Republic of Texas Press
published our first book, a non-fiction antiquing guide, then the next year,
our GREAT FIREHOUSE COOKS OF TEXAS came out. For the next several years, we
averaged a book a year including four novels and three mid-grade chapter books
from four presses, but never hit it big until now.
For everything there
is a time under Heaven!
Do you have any favorite authors?
Besides my husband of forty-five years? Yes, I do.
Well, I always like to stipulate ‘favorite author that I don’t know personally
since I do know so many! But the author I love is Bodie Thoene. I devoured her
Zion series and every one made me laugh out loud and cry tears, sometimes so
many that I couldn’t read because the words were blurred. That to me is the
mark of a great book. Now VOW UNBROKEN does make me laugh and cry. I hope it
does for its readers, too!
Do you write in a specific place? Time of day?
No, not really. I write morning, afternoon, and night, and then sometimes in the middle of the night when I
can’t sleep. My computer has an armoire and I can look out the window at the
woods. We built our house THE PEACEABLE so far back in the trees, you can’t see
it from the road. It’s so quiet and peaceful. There’s nine hundred sixteen
acres in all, so I spend a lot of time outside, too. I still have my horse
Bliss. She’s a character in those chapter books, The River Bottom Ranch Stories
we call them.
I also write on trips
– like in the car or on the airplane, or sometimes at one of the grandsons’
games. They play football, basketball, and baseball so I’m on the road a lot
there, but I try not to get too engrossed at a game. But you’ve got to write
when the story strikes, right?
Hone your craft. Always, always be improving. Find a good read and
critique group and go regularly and read and listen to the comments and
suggestions. If they aren’t being tough on you, find another one. Steel
sharpens steel. Sometimes it hurts, I know. But don’t consider what you put to
paper as untouchable. You just can’t. I’ll leave you with a favorite quote my
husband says all the time. “Only God writes in stone. The rest of us rewrite.”
Thank you, Caryl.
Reader's here is the blurb for Vow Unbroken.
A spunky young widow hires a man with a bad reputation to help her get
her cotton to market on the Jefferson Trace, a hard stretch of land between her
farm on the Tejas prairie and the port where the buyers pay in gold coin.
Dangers and troubles are great, but not any worse than the trials that plague
her heart when she falls in love. She’s made a vow to God and is determined to
keep it, but will it mean she’ll always be alone?
Here is an excerpt.
He took the pinch of cotton Sue
offered and rubbed it between his short, pudgy fingers. “I’m truly sorry, Mis’ess
Baylor. Two cents is all I can pay.”
She seethed, but forced at least a
show of civility. “Mister Littlejohn.” She spoke in a stiff staccato. “A week
ago. Before everyone left. You promised three-and-a-half to four cents a pound!
You said depending on the quality. That is the main reason. The biggest reason.
That I didn’t go with the others.”
The man smiled. “Oh, I might have
said two-and-a-half or maybe even three, but things change. You know that.”
She couldn’t stand being talked
down to, especially by such a lying loafer.
“I wish I could help you, but two
cents it is. I mean, besides, anyone can see.” He held the sample up. “It’s
shoddy lint.” He shook his head. “Pardon me for saying, Mis’ess Baylor, but a
granger you are not.”
“Anyone can see its excellent
quality, you mean.”
A bit of breeze, a very little bit,
stirred the top layer of dust from the street; it cooled her skin, but her
insides still steamed.
He stuck out his bottom lip. “I’d
advise you to take my offer. I can pay half now, the rest when I return.”
Sue studied his face while a
hundred calculations ran through her mind. He certainly didn’t look like the
weasel he’d turned out to be. Her cotton was as good, if not better, than any
of the loads that left last Thursday. She reached up and massaged her neck,
then lifted her braid to let some air dry her sweat.
She glanced over at her wagons.
Levi had Becky laughing hard. The children would be so disappointed. Maybe if –
No. She would not allow this thief
to take advantage of her family. How could he even think to? The loathsome,
immoral oaf! She’d worked too hard getting her crop in. Everyone had, even her
nine-year-old Becky. Why, at two cents, she’d hardly realize any profit at all
after the extra seed and what she paid the pickers.
She squared her shoulders and determined
anew, faced him again. “I’ll accept three-and-a-half cents per pound. All cash.
Not a fraction less.”
“Two cents, ma’am. Half now, half
when I get back.” He jingled the coins in his vest pocket.
Perspiration trickled down to the
small of her back. The sun, though its climb had barely began, already shone
bright on the eastern horizon and heated the mid-September air so that every
breath scorched her throat. Much like Jack Littlejohn, it offered no mercy. And
like the air, her throat held no moisture, though she needed to swallow.
“You’re wasting my time. Good day, Mister
Littlejohn.” She whirled and headed toward her wagons. Her face burned, and she
knew full well that it had turned red. How dare that man! A grubby hand grabbed
her arm, and, whirling her around, jerked her to an abrupt stop. She yanked away
from his grasp and glared; she wished the fire inside her would somehow leap
forward and set the despicable excuse of a human being ablaze.
“Keep your cheating hands off me.”
He almost looked apologetic. “Be
reasonable, Mis’ess Baylor. Two cents is a right fair price. Besides, who else
you going to sell to?”
She swatted at a fly buzzing about
and adjusted her hat, never taking her eyes from the man’s. “I’ll burn my
cotton before I’d sell it to the likes of you.” She stopped next to her wagon
and faced the second one. “Levi, we’re going.”
“But Aunt Sue –”
Author Bio
With nine titles released by four
publishers, Caryl McAdoo now enjoys a thirty-year, overnight success with her
historical Christian romance VOW UNBROKEN set in 1832 Texas from Simon and
Schuster’s Howard Books. The novelist also edits professionally (since
2001—credits include several published clients), paints, and writes new songs. In
2008, she and her high school sweetheart-husband Ron moved from Irving in the
DFW Metroplex to the woods of Red River County. For more than ten years, four
grandsons have lived with Grami—as Caryl is also known—and O’Pa. The couple
counts four children and fourteen grandchildren life’s biggest blessings,
believing all good things come from God. She hopes that her books will minister
His love, mercy, and grace to all their readers. Caryl and Ron live in
Clarksville, the county seat, in the far northeast corner of the Lone Star
State.
Links:
Website: http://www.CarylMcAdoo.com
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CarylMcAdoo
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedIn.com/CarylMcAdoo
Amazon Author Pg - http://www.amazon.com/Caryl-McAdoo/e/B00E963CFG
Pinterest
- http://www.pinterest.com/gramilady
Simon
and Schuster - http://authors.simonandschuster.com/Caryl-McAdoo/411169289
Books:
Nice interview! Vow Unbroken sounds like a sweet story, and the cover is just as appealing.
ReplyDeleteYes, it does. It is a great cover, Linda! :)
ReplyDelete