Historical Christian Romance

My new favorite genre!

Once upon a times, at a critique group far, far away–well three hours one way, too far for me for weekly meetings–a mentor I loved and respected imparted to me his wisdom saying, “Caryl, pick a genre.” 🙂 That was prolific western writer Jack Ballas. I’d written a Biblical fiction, a thriller, a mystery, a mature inspirational romance, a World War Two novel, three mid-grade chapter books, a Texas firemen cookbook, an antique guide, and stared even more. How could I choose?

My world spun on, after a year’s empty nest, the Lord saw fit to give us four more little boys to rear. Too soon, we moved away from the DFW Writers Workshop to Red River County and putting words to paper–or computer monitor as the more accurate case–took a back seat. Never for long though, Ron and I founded the Red River Writers Workshop and began again. There, a local history teacher and writer told us about the North East Texas Writers Organization that met about thirty minutes away, so we joined that group, too., in January.

That April, the group hosted it’s twenty-sixth annual Writers’ Round-up Conference, and invited Mary Sue Seymour of the Seymour Agency in New York. Gung-ho new member, I volunteered to be her gopher which included going for her at the hotel and carrying her to the Civic Center in Mt. Pleasant, Texas. When she stepped off the elevator, she hugged my neck and told me, “You’re the first McAdoo I’ve ever met who wasn’t family.” I considered God hit us over the head with a velvet hammer.

LADIES PAY ATTENTION I HAVE A PLAN

So, to make a long story short, she loved the pre-conference chapter I’d sent in and told me, “If you’ll write a historical Christian romance set in the 1800s, I’ll sell it.” I did, and she did–to Simon and Schuster. The opportunity to extol God and write of His love and grace and principles cf His Word caught my fancy like a hen on a June bug. I loved it, and it literally poured onto the page. ninety-three thousand-plus words in nine weeks. She sold it in two months. Miracles all the way around!

Vow Unbroken opened the floodgate, and now I love the genre, though not just the genre, I love the community and the colleagues. We’re all Christians, none are offended when you speak of the Lord, Prayer requests come in daily. There’s so much sweetness and kindness going around–just as you might expect from His children! 🙂

Mary Sue said one of the characters, either the hero or his  heroine,  had to be lost–a heathen–to keep the tension building 🙂 Not hard at all.

Once, I was blind, but now I see. I was lost, but now I’m found. Are you lost? Is there an emptiness inside that nothing has filled? E’me! We’ll have a talk!