Celebrate Lit Blog Tour - Texas Wildflowers by Caryl McAdoo (Giveaway)

9/21/2022

Raise up your children in the way they should go,
and when they are old, they will will not depart from it.

Getting them old is the key! Maisie Lowell and Rayne St. Laurent, both as beautiful as a wild Texas prairie rose, were born to privilege, reared in the fanciest hotel west of the Mississippi, and used to having their ways. In 1875 Dallas, Texas, the best friends determine to choose their own life paths to peace, love, and joy regardless of what their parents consider right or wrong. Do their choices and what their parents think have to be so different?

Genre: Historical Christian Romance
Release date: September 3, 2022

Click here to get your copy!

Interview with Caryl

#1. How long did it take to finish writing this book?
I started TEXAS WILDFLOWERS in May because I needed its ‘ first chapter’ to go in the back of my May release JO, book twenty-three in the Prairie Roses Collection. I always like to add a sneak peek for readers of my next book by doing that!

So, TEXAS WILDFLOWERS was completed in July, but it only took fifty-one days to write it at 65,000+ words. I was also writing episodes for WAGONS WEST during that time, wrapping up the 100,000+ word epic adventure written in episodes rather than chapters for Amazon’s new Kindle Vella program and starting its Season Two, SETTLERS & TOFFS.

#2. What drew you to write in this particular genre?
The mid 1800s was such a wonderful time in American history, a slower time when God and family values were the most important things in life, a gentile time when women were modest, considered treasures, and set on pedestals by the men who loved them. The era brought great adventures and was such a romantic time! I have adored all my research of the period including a drive along the Oregon/California Trail.

I also love historical romance stories because they are never outdated as their contemporary cousins are so quickly!

#3. Do you have favorite character(s) in this book?
Though she’s not the heroine, I have loved Rosaleen Fogelsong Nightingale Baylor since my very first Indie novel HEARTS STOLEN (2014) book two in the Texas Romance Family Saga series. Yes, she crossed over to appear in TEXAS WILDFLOWERS, book eight in the Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga--the mother of one of my heroes Bartholomew Baylor, conceived when Rose served as the captive third wife of Comanche war chief Bold Eagle.

Rose is also known as Sassy, by her five brothers and her grandsugars as well. She’s like one of my all-time favorite heroines, and her story, HEARTS STOLEN is in my favorite top three of my sixty-plus published titles. It was a pure joy to resurrect her in these stories!

#4. Tell us a little about yourself, your family, friends.
First, I belong to my Heavenly Father. Next, I have been married to my high school sweetheart Ron for fifty-four years and adore being his wife. He is the most Christ-like man I’ve ever known, not perfect, mind you, but certainly close in my eyes. Then comes our four children I am Mama to, three sons and a daughter, and those beloved ones gave me twenty-four beautiful grandsugars to love. They bring such joy to my life!

Ron and I live tucked away in the woods on twenty acres I named The Peaceable about five miles south of Red River County’s seat, Clarksville, Texas. We await with great expectancy God opening the next door to fulfill our purpose in His Kingdom!

I am blessed to have many, many wonderful friends! I’m part of a ‘Dinner & Bridge’ club, Ladies’ Bible study, and crafting group where I’ve met friends. Several of my neighbors are very good friends, and I’m thrilled to claim a multitude of online friends all around the world!

#5. Share with us a thought, Bible verse, whatever is on your mind/heart.
It isn’t an option. God’s Word says “in this world”—and we are all in this world—“you WILL have tribulation!” The rest of the verse is so important, But be of good cheer for Jesus—our, Lord, Savior, Advocate, and Redeemer—has overcome the world.

This means . . . Stuff is going to happen! But No matter what it is, we can trust Jesus to take care of it. We can TRUST Him to keep us. He is so very trustworthy, y’all and if you can only do just that, life will be fear and worry free which leads to His wonderful peace that passes all understanding!

More from Caryl

As I write this, Texas wildflowers adorn hills and pastures and create beautiful ribbons along highways and byways! I love flowers! I love Texas! And I love Texas wildflowers! In my new novel by that name, the dear best friends, Maisie Lowell (Morgan and Charity’s third child and only daughter) and Rayne St. Laurent (daughter of Quincy, and stepdaughter of Priscilla, both of QUINCY & PRISCILLA fame) are growing up and becoming intensely interested in boys—or men as they see it.

It’s so fun when I think of it, because they are seventeen, and Ron and I were sixteen when we met and fell in love. Things are so different today. My oldest grandsugar-daughter married last year at the age of 30, and a grandsugar-son at the age of twenty-six. By then Ron and I had three children and eight years of marriage under our belts!

Isn’t it fun to think that only a hundred years ago, daughters were treasured and when men were ready to find a wife, they came courting, never spending any unchaperoned time alone with the young woman he wanted to get to know. My how things have changed as the Spirit of Anti-Christ is loosed in our world, and love, romance, and families have certainly suffered for it.

This is one reason why I love writing historical Christian Romance, telling tales of sweet and modest young girls with parents who watched and ruled over them until they married. At twenty-four or five, a young lady loomed close to being a spinster! I had so much fun with Maisie and Rayne in TEXAS WILDFLOWERS!

I think you will love them, too! TEXAS WILDFLOWERS is book eight in the Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga, and I believe you’ll enjoy books one through seven just as much! In all my books God is highly praised and ways for us to live abundant lives as He promises are included for readers.

My author’s motto is “Praying my story gives God glory!” If that doesn’t happen, I’ve failed my Father, but do I worry about that? I do not! God is on the throne and in control. He’s the one who gives me such wonderful, fun stories to share with you all! Enjoy TEXAS WILDFLOWERS and be blessed!

Anyway, we have been talking about writing this book for years, coming across little clues for the story in Scripture studies now and again over that time. At last, God released us to write THEN JUDGEMENT based on the twenty-seventh verse of Hebrews, ninth chapter:

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment.”

I love searching the scriptures and telling a story that strictly adheres to God’s Book, His Living Word, the Holy Bible. I love His stories and so understand that His Word is bread to our souls, feeding us wisdom and knowledge of our Creator and His everlasting, never-ending love for us!

Creating Biblical fiction tales carries a lot of responsibility that I truly enjoy taking on, being a guardian of the Truth. I love to bring characters from those days gone by so long ago to life on the pages of my books! I do feel a bit like John when he said this, writing of our Savior.

“And there are also many other things which Jesus did, the which, if they should be written every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that should be written. Amen.” John 21:27

Biblical fiction could easily become my favorite genre—if it isn’t already. I do write more historical romance stories set in the 1800s (a favorite time period) in Texas (my favorite state)! And as much as I love that research . . . nothing compares to digging into the Word!

I pray you will enjoy living through the three days that Jesus did not spend in the tomb! May my story cause you to dig a little yourself, checking out our theory! I know this to be Truth:

“So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.” Isaiah 55:11

Hallelujah! Glory be to His Holy Name! The righteous run into it and are saved! There is no one like unto Him! He alone it the Great King over all the earth! Worthy to receive glory and praise!

As always, I’m ‘Praying my story gives God glory!’
Blessings, y’all!

Caryl McAdoo

Award-winning author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory, and her best-selling stories—over sixty published—delight Christian readers around the world. The prolific writer also enjoys singing the new songs the Lord gives her; you may listen to a few on YouTube. Sharing four children and twenty-four grandsugars (six are greats), Caryl and her high-school-sweetheart-husband of fifty-three years Ron live 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.