Writing Stories that Give God the Glory
Every story Caryl McAdoo writes is a labor of love, meant to inspire and uplift. Through her unique blend of romance and Christian values, her books are written with one purpose in mind: to draw readers closer to God.
Welcome Dear Reader! Thank you for visiting!
I’m Caryl McAdoo and I’m so blessed that you’ve clicked over to my website to find out more about me and my writing! I love to share stories with you that honor God and give Him glory! The greatest reviews I receive are those where readers say that a story has brought them into a closer walk or relationship with God! Most make me cry!
My Writing – Epic Family Sagas Rooted in Faith and Legacy
My favorite is writing historical romance family sagas that span centuries and generations of characters, allowing me to revisit those folks I have come to love.
Texas Romance Family Saga
The TEXAS ROMANCE FAMILY SAGA series has ten novels and eight “companion” books. You see, I cannot stand for those friends (my characters) to truly be gone from my life, so I write ‘extra books’ with ancestors or descendants of the beloved families and call them “companions”! 😊
Each book is an invitation to step into a world where faith, family, and history intertwine, and I love welcoming you into these stories alongside me.
Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga
My second family saga series is the CROSS TIMBERS ROMANCE FAMILY SAGA which will probably end with eleven novels. It already has several companion books as well. Something else mentioned in reviews that I love to hear is how much the historical research I have don and include in the stories is appreciated!
Did you know that the ‘Cross Timbers’ describes a strip of land from southern Kansas, through Oklahoma, all the way to Central Texas. It includes areas of prairies, savannas, and woodlands and forms a boundary between the more heavily forested eastern part of the United States and the almost treeless plains of the West.
New Beginnings Family Saga
My third and newest is the NEW BEGINNINGS FAMILY SAGA with the third book launching in November 2024 (and it already has a companion book)!
Inspiring Stories for All Ages
I also enjoy writing BIBLICAL FICTION—love making those awesome heroes and heroines of the Bible come to life, both to me and my readers! I have some contemporary romance tales and a few non-fiction titles. Though young adults are a hard sell, writing for them, mid-grade readers, and preschooler’s picture books is also a lot of fun!
I’m so glad to meet you here and hope you’ll leave me a message! I love hearing from readers! BLESSINGS to you!
Family, Faith, and Following God’s Path
I was born in Long Beach, California, but got to Texas as quickly as possible at the too-young-to-remember-anything-else age of six months! All I know is being a Texan and I love Texas! Growing up in Northwest Dallas, as a seventh grader at Letot Elementary, a homework assignment required an essay on ‘What will you be doing in 2000?’ Looking into the future, I wrote about being an inter-galactically famous author, streaking from planet to planet, autographing books.
I met the love of my life at sixteen and married Ron McAdoo as soon as we graduated high school at the tender age of eighteen. God blessed us with four children, and they have blessed us with twenty-eight grandsugars—eight are great! Irving was our lifelong home until 2008 when she and Ron followed God’s leading to Red River County in far Northeast Texas. Life and family waylaid my dreams of being an author.
Family has always been at the heart of my journey, shaping both my dreams and my stories. Each blessing, from my children to my ‘grandsugars,’ has been a precious chapter in my life’s story.
Songs of Praise and Stories for His Glory
A proclaimed psalmist, I’m dedicated to serving God and love offering Him praise and worship. He frequently gives me new songs which you can hear on YouTube @CarylMcAdoo!
I believe all good things are from Him and “Pray my story (every one) gives God glory!”
A Blessed Life Filled with Family and Faith
God got busy blessing us right away with Matthew Ebeling the following June, less than a week after our first anniversary. His brother Gregory William arrived in September of the following year. Five years later, I had the daughter I so longed for, Cathryn Elizabeth. Then when she was seven, we were blessed with Russell Cloyd. Trips to Six Flags, water parks, baseball, and church filled our life as the years flew by in Irving, Texas.
Our children grew up, married, and blessed us with new names! As mentioned above, Ron and I are now Grami and O’Pa to TWENTY-EIGHT grandsugars at this writing!
Our Country Life
GI love gardening and taking care of my Nubian dairy goats and chickens. We incubate and raise the chicks, and I milk the goats! We love their milk, making cheese and goat milk soap! Ron and I are in our element living the country life! We can’t imagine ever going back to the big city!
Where Writing Began—and Ended—then Began Again
After a false start that included a 380-page handwritten manuscript rejected over and again, God directed Ron and I to the DFW Writers’ Workshop in ’93 where we discovered we’d made every beginner mistake a writer could! A few of the published authors saw something there, took us under their wings, and mentored us.
Six years later, a small regional press published our first co-authored non-fiction title ANTIQUING IN NORTH TEXAS followed the next year by GREAT FIREHOUSE COOKS OF TEXAS. Attending the weekly read-and-critique meetings, we averaged a title a year from four presses: the two non-fiction, four novels, and three mid-grade chapter books.
A New Chapter and Rediscovery of Writing
After one year of empty-nesting, we started over with a new ready-made family of four grandsons, ages six, four, three, and newborn, and writing took a back seat. Well, actually it pretty much went all the way to the trunk. The boys grew though and after the move to Clarksville, we founded the Red River Writers’ Workshop and resumed our writing.
A Divine Connection and a Major Milestone in Our Writing Career
In April of 2012, a major milestone in our writing career took place when we met Mary Sue Seymour at a small East Texas writers’ conference and wrote our first historical Christian romance set in the 1800s at the agent’s request. (By the way, God really got our attention when we learned Mary Sue’s maiden name was remarkably ‘McAdoo’! She offered representation in August, and VOW UNBROKEN sold in October to Howard Books, an imprint of Simon & Schuster. It debuted March 4, 2014.
Embracing a New Season: Going Indie
Six months later after VOW UNBROKEN launched, Simon and Schuster declined to exercise their option on book two. Friends expressed empathy, but we weren’t the least bit sad, knowing God had a different plan. That catapulted Ron and I into a new season. The day after we were contractually released from our obligation to the top-five New York publisher, we self-published book two in the “Texas Romance Family Saga” series, HEARTS STOLEN set in 1839-1844 and never looked back.
Two months later we launched our new Biblical fiction series “The Generations” with volume one, A LITTLE LOWER THAN THE ANGELS, the story of Adam and Eve, Cain, and Abel—but not the story you grew up hearing, though it aligns perfectly with God’s Word. That is most important to Ron and I.
I say “we” because every story, every title is a joint effort. Ron and I write everything together. The Simon and Schuster editor wanted one name on the cover, and we chose mine. It worked so well for us, we’ve kept the practice!
In the ten years since we went Indie, we have published SIXTY-THREE more titles for a total of seventy-three at the end of 2024.
Looking Ahead with Faith and a Pen in Hand
Ron and I still get up early every morning and after an hour or so of prayer, we write. We average a thousand words a day, but often do twice that many. We have nine new titles planned for 2025, and seven of those will be written by the end of 2024. We plan to continue writing until God opens the next door.
Believing we are fast approaching the End of this Age, that’s what we expect to happen as we have been waiting nigh onto fifty years for the vision God gave us back in 1975 to come to fruition! One day soon, we expect Him to open that door. Until then, we will continue to write and enhance our twenty acres in the woods we call home—The Peaceable Farm & Bookery—always looking forward to family and friends visiting.
BE BLESSED, Y’ALL!
