Friday, January 12, 2018

The Story Behind the Story by Caryl McAdoo and two book #giveaway

Today we welcome Caryl McAdoo to my blog. Caryl is giving away two books - see bottom of  post for more information. To enter, answer Caryl's question (at the end of post) and include contact information. USA only.  Please follow Caryl at her sites (links included) and comment if you did so you get extra entries. Also included are tweets to tweet for extra entries.

The idea for SON OF PROMISE, my 31st published title, came to mind at Early Morning Prayer. We’d started going to a small full gospel church close to home in Irving in 2006, and the men had started the prayer group seven mornings a week from six to seven. My husband walked around the sanctuary praying, and the Lord dropped the opening scene of the story on him.

Because we’d taken in four grandsons (ages six, four, three, and newborn home to us from the hospital in 2002), our time to write had dwindled. Plus at that time, our gusto for writing had dwindled as well since not much had happened with our first books—nine published at that time by four houses. There proved little reward for all the time spent.

Ron said, “Lord, what’s the deal? What’s this about?” And the Father responded, “You’re going to need it.” The characters in the scene, Travis and Emma Lee Buckmeyer, were major-minor players in the first historical romance we’d written quite a while before that one—back in the nineties—titled CHIEF OF SINNERS. They’d married in that book.

So when he came home that morning, he told me about what God had shown him, and I loved the idea! We wrote a couple of hundred pages on it, then put it aside when we moved the little boys, about ten horses, about eighty Nigerian dwarf goats, and several chickens, cats, and dogs to Red River County in 2008.

Didn’t write much for a while there with barns, corrals, loafing sheds, and fences to build, plus a living to make, so it sat in the recesses of our computer, filed away until—praise the Lord—against his fervent arguments, I talked him into forming the Red Rivers’ Writers Workshop in our new home, Clarksville, Texas. That’s where we started reading Son of Promise for critique.

We met a local writer, a history teacher, who’d done tons of research and would read at the meetings. He also went to the North East Texas Writers’ Organization (NETWO) and told us about it. Since a writer can only not write for so long, we got serious and plunged headlong into NETWO. At their twenty-eighth annual conference, we met New York agent Mary Sue Seymour.
She loved the writing of what we pitched (CHIEF OF SINNERS), but wanted a female protagonist. She told us to write her a historical Christian romance set in the 1800s and she’d sell it. Putting SON OF PROMISE aside aside again, in nine weeks, we wrote VOW UNBROKEN—now book one in the Texas Romance Family Saga—and sent it off.

She sent a contract to represent us then kept her word, selling the manuscript to Simon and Schuster two months later. VOW UNBROKEN debuted in March of 2014. Both Mary Sue and our S&S editor only wanted one name on the cover, and preferably a woman’s. My big, strong and silent type husband didn’t mind taking the backseat at all.

The youngest grandson sure did though! He started doting on his grandfather, bringing him water, asking was there anything he could get him. Then one day when I twirled around in my office chair to ask Ron a story question, Benjamen (about ten at the time) interjected, “Don’t help her O’Pa! Your name isn’t on the cover!”

We stayed busy writing and publishing twenty more titles in the next two years—able to get them into the market so quickly because after that first book to Simon and Schuster, we went Indie, publishing our stories ourselves. When we wrote VOW UNBROKEN, first in the Family Saga set in 1832, we used several of the surnames from our CHIEF OF SINNERS which became the last in the series, book ten. VOW’s hero is Patrick ‘Henry’ Buckmeyer.

In preparation of what we were going to do after CHIEF launched, we got out SON OF PROMISE and finished it a few months ago. It’s set in a neighboring county in the Texas Hill Country, has Henry’s grandson as its hero—son of David Crockett Buckmeyer—Travis Wayne Buckmeyer.

And THAT is the Story behind the Story.
Genre:Historical Christian Women’s Fiction
ISBN-13: 978-1979-8823-85  /  AISN:B0775ZWNRN
ISBN 10: 1979-8823-8-X
https://www.amazon.com/Son-Promise-Caryl-McAdoo-ebook/dp/B0775ZWNRN

Launch : January 15, 2017

No Series, but :
Companion Book of the TEXAS ROMANCE Family Saga



Jacket Copy:
Be it known, your sins will find you out, but God’s mercy endureth forever!

Can a wife find the grace to forgive when her husband withholdsa truth? Travis Buckmeyer has a secret son, and the time to tell his sweet wife arrives. He hates breaking Emma Lee’s heart—shehasn’t been blessed to carry a baby to term. Every miscarriage made the telling harder, but his clock’s run out. He’s going for his son and praying he won’t lose her.
    Cody knows who his mother claims his father is, but he’s only interested in getting sprung from reform school then boosting enough from the do-gooder to bust out on his own.
     Can Travis find redemption, Emma Lee forgiveness, or Cody the love he’s longed for?


Excerpt:Lightning lit the dark sky, revealing a pale slender thread dipping out of an ugly boiling mass of blackness.
“Papa! Did you see that? What was it?”
“Where? What?” The truck slowed.
“Over there. Watch. It's real white. Like God's finger coming down out of the storm.”
He pulled the truck up on the side of the gravel road and watched the sky intently. Electricity rolled again through the black clouds.
“There.” Sandy pointed.
The truck leapt forward, and he gunned it when he shifted into second. “It's a twister. Watch it, Sandra. Tell me which way it's going.”
Almost constant flashes confirmed the finger had grown thick and black. “It looks like it's coming straight at us, Papa.”
He glanced over his shoulder. “Oh my God.” He skidded to a halt, grabbed Sandy's arm, and pulled her out of the truck. A deep rumbling like a herd of trains running side by side drowned out every other sound.The roar deepened as though the trains raced to Hades with the devil as engineer.

Reviews:

The coming of age story, Son of Promise, by Caryl McAdoo, grabbed this reviewer from the very first sentence. Mrs. McAdoo does have a way with words. Her writing echoes the wide rangeland of Texas enabling the reader to dive into the waving grasslands and lose themselves in the story. [It’s] laced with Scripture passages, prayers, visions, and other gifts of the Holy Spirit giving this book a decidedly Christian and Pentecostal flavor.

This book has no on scene intimacies or cursing. It's not sanitized in that its characters are tempted, fail, then repent, learning from the experience …a story of redemption, and conquering familial love; of truth, and lies; and of moral choices resulting in consequences. It contrasts life lived by instinct with a life lived by faith. Kept this reviewer awake far past her bedtime. Buy it, you’ll not be sorry.     – Cass Wessel

http://www.wordsabouttheword.com/blog----book-reviews/consequences-last-for-a-lifetime
Son Of Promise opens up in Texas in the very early 1950’s, McAdoo brings in some of the former characters from previous books, although it is a stand-a-lone novel. I loved the history of Texas during this era and especially the colloquialism. A child born from a one night stand when Travis Buckmeyer was just a young unmarried man is now introduced into his family. It takes the Buckmeyer family a lot of faith in God and doing the right thing. This story shows that the love of God within can overcome all obstacles. Your past does not determine your future. Such a gentle story of faith, love,forgiveness, and yielding the sinful man to a higher power.
–Judy Schexnayder

Tweets:(Help spread the word! :)
#NewReleaseSON OF PROMISES #ChristianFiction #Historical #Womenshttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0775ZWNRN


SON OF PROMISE #NewRelease 5-Star #Historical #Womenshttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0775ZWNRN


@CarylMcAdoo #NewReleaseSON OF PROMISE#ChristianFiction #Historicalhttps://www.amazon.com/dp/B0775ZWNRN





Bio: Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory, and a quick scroll through her novels’ rankings by Christian readers attests to the Father’s faithfulness. She loves writing almost as much as singing the new songs He gives her—lookher up on YouTube to hear a few. Her high school sweetheart husband won her heart fifty-one years ago, andnow they share four children and seventeen grandsugars. Ron and Caryl live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in far Northeast Texas, waiting expectantly for God to open the next door. 

Links:
Author Pages:
     Simon & Schuster - http://tinyurl.com/S-SCarylsPage
     Sweet Americana Sweethearts - bit.ly/2q0tcfFbit.ly

                         (All First Chapters offered here)

YouTube:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_1hQx6UZbWi3OYwmKKxh6Q
                   (Hear Carylsing her New Songs!)

Blogs: 
    The Word & the Music
http://carylmcadoo.com/blog/
    HeartWings (Devotional) - http://www.HeartWingsBlog.com
    Stitches Thru Time (Misc.) -   http://www.StitchesThruTime.blogspot.com
    Sweet Americana Sweethearts (Historical) -
http://www.SweetAmericanaSweethearts.blogspot.com

GoodReads:http://tinyurl.com/GoodReadsCaryl


LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/caryl-mcadoo-00562323



Puzzle:https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=10dafee7870e






At the end of the links where it says PUZZLE ----that's a fun link to a puzzle of the cover.

I'd be happy to giveaway a print copy of VOW UNBROKEN (book one) and an eBook copy of SON OF PROMISE.

Please use those author links and follow me, though it isn't necessary to win. 

Please answer this question: Have you ever had a project it took you ten-plus years to finish?

You're all invited to my Launch Party for this book at Celebrate (you can get the link off my FB page or website!

5 comments:

Marilyn R. said...

Enjoyed the interview with Caryl McAdoo. I learned some new tidbits. I have an autographed copy of Vow Unbroken from 2016 CFRR. I'm starting to read Son of Promise today for a review.
marilynridgway78[at]gmail[dot]com

Anonymous said...

I always learn something new about Caryl. She is delightful and loves the Lord with all of her soul! I admire that in her. Thank you formthe giveaway opportunity.
perrianneDOTaskewATmeDOTcom

Unknown said...

This is a new author to me, but sounds like a really good book! Would love to win a copy! Thanks for the giveaway opportunity!
jtabalk(at)hotmail(dot)com

Marilyn R. said...

I've never had a project that I can recall that took 10 years to complete.

I do not need to be enter in the giveaway since I have copy of Vow Unbroken and an ARC e-copy of Son of Promise.

lollipops said...

congratulations to Annonymous

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