How can death, betrayal, a rash proposal, and revenge lead to romance?

An abusive controller compels reluctant travelers westward. To flee her foul stepfather, Lilah proposes marriage to the wagon train scout, which only leaves Padraig thinking she’s a bit soft in the head. It’s 1855. Come join the journey along the Oregon Trail with Captain Cumby. Wagon Ho!

About the Author

Award-winning author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory, and her best-selling novels—over fifty published—delight Christian readers around the world. The prolific writer also enjoys singing the new songs the Lord gives her—listen to a few at YouTube. Sharing four children and eighteen grandsugars with Ron, her high-school-sweetheart-husband of over fifty years, she lives in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in far Northeast Texas. The McAdoos wait expectantly for God to open the next door.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW

INTRO:

Thank you, Ruth for inviting me to come and visit with you today! I understand you have a few questions for this Christian Texas author, so shoot! I’m ready if you are! 😊

What was your first published work, and how was it received?

My first book published was ANTIQUING IN NORTH TEXAS, a guide to antique shops within a fifty-mile radius of the DFW International Airport. My husband and I wrote it together. In the beginning, we would drive out to a little town and walk the Town Square hand in hand, taking our time perusing the stores.

We offered a five-star rating on the store and a one to five $$, rating the pricey-ness of it. We visited over six hundred shops before it was done. At the end we pulled up, He went one way, I went the other and we ate fast food in the car—not in the delicious, charming little family diners like before—on our way to the next town!

It was well-received by antique shoppers!

When you are writing, what does your daily schedule look like?

I’m a night owl and my husband goes to bed with the chickens, so he gets up before down and prays an hour or so then comes in and checks to see how our books did the day before, plays a bit of spider solitaire and the starts writing. I wake up, depending on when I went to sleep, much later than him!

He brings me my first cup of coffee, and as soon as I’m “awake-awake” I go to the computer to see what he’s written. As I read it, I add to it and write more at its end. That usually gives us close to a thousand words. Sometimes that’s it for the day and sometimes we keep going like that back and forth.

I love writing with Ron. Mine’s the only name on the cover because that’s what our Simon and Schuster and our New York agent advised. They said one name was better and it was better for it to be female. It works so well for us as I’m the one who never met a stranger and loves to visit. He’s more the strong, silent type!

When writing a book of fiction, what kind of research do you normally have to do?

Writing history there’s lots more research to get done. Our favorite way is to jump in the car and take off. We’ve driven to so many historical spots, including the length of the Oregon / California Trail and the Gold Rush museum at Sutter’s Mine on the American River.

LILAH is a Prairie Roses book which means it is a wagon train story. Those are bona fide covered wagon tracks in the photo! The little plaque in front of my arms marks them as the historical trail!

But most the time, we go to Google and search whatever we’re looking for. Today, I asked “When was Tiffany’s in New York founded?” Discovered in 1837 by a Charles Tiffany, so it worked for my story in 1860. My hero sent my heroine a necklace from Tiffany’s and Charles, the owner, helped him pick it out.

We’ve researched what plays opened in New Orleans in 1857 and what books published that year when a character is a reader, she needs books! I’ve looked up to see what toys children played with, slang used in that year, or how a wine barrel is made. I did research how men hunt for alligators in Louisiana but didn’t have to as to hunting wild hogs in East Texas! Both are in my books. 😊

I never liked history much in school, but I am fascinated with it now.

Where do you get the ideas for your stories?

Straight form the heart of God. He gives us every story idea. We’ll decide on the characters and give them names and discuss their backgrounds so we know where they’ve come from, then we sit down and start writing with nary a clue of how the story will end.

We never plan or plot or outline. We just write from Chapter One to its completion. And it always is resolved. That has to be God, wouldn’t you agree?

What is your favorite genre of fiction to write and why?

One of my early mentors back in the mid-90s told me, “Caryl, pic a genre!” But I truly just never did. That dear mentor was Jack Ballas, Berkley’s top selling Western writer. Since though, I’ve pretty well settled into historical Christian romance.

Maybe ninety percent of my books would fall into that category. I also write Biblical fiction, contemporary Christian romance, and for children and young adults. And Ron and I have talked about writing a cozy mystery series that will tie into the Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga series.

It was my new New York agent back in 2012 who told me to write a historical Christian romance set in the 1800s and she’d sell it! I did and she did—to Simon & Schuster less than six months after we met! That was VOW UNBROKEN, the first book in my Texas Romance Family Saga that covers over a century, 1832 to 1950, and five generations of three families, all in ten titles.

How do you insert the faith element into these stories so that it is woven naturally into the storyline?

Through our characters, the faith element is woven just as God weaves the tapestries of our lives. Some are fervent Christians; some are Sunday believers who don’t live the walk the rest of the week. Some don’t even acknowledge a God in the beginning, then some ae saved, and some choose evil.

Scripture is quoted, The Good News is shared and a salvation message offered just as might happen in your own life or your friend. People in the 1800s were just people like us with the same fears and worries, heartbreaks and triumphs In the end we all want to be loved, and that’s what my books are about.

EXIT

Ruth, I enjoyed visiting. Thanks again! I would love for y’all to contact me! Friend me on Facebook! Blessings to you and to all your readers!