Shannon here: Caryl McAdoo shares insight into her latest Historical Romance, Mae from the Prairie Rose Collection. Comment or answer the question in this post to enter the drawing for an e-book copy of her first Rose, Remi. Deadline: May 10th, 11:59 pm central time. Here’s Caryl:
The Three Maes
Good morning, afternoon, evening, and night! I hope your whole day is blessed! I’m so happy to be back to the Inkslinger blog on account of I love its hostess with the mostest! I was wanting to share the Mae characters—yes, plural Maes—from my next book, soon to debut on my 75th birthday, May 3rd!
It is book number 53 in the Seventh Annual “Prairie Roses Collection” which is a multi-author project, or MAP in the publishing business. 😊 It’s where a group of authors get together and each writes a story around a theme. The theme of my Prairie Roses MAP is strong heroines on a covered wagon journey!
Some years, we’ve only had four authors, some years, twelve, but the books in the collection are numbered from our first releases back in 2019. Mine was REMI that year, and since, I’ve written LILAH, RUTH, JO, AVA, NORA, and now MAE for 2025. Each of my seven Roses are so different! I hope you’ll enjoy them all.
Our elder Mae is a grandmother living in the east, mother to three sons who have gone off on a business trip via steamboat to California leaving their wives and daughters behind. When they write home—it took forever back them to get a letter across the country—her life forever changes.
The second and third Maes are her granddaughters, Priscilla Mae and Josephine Mae born within a week of each other and the latter parents didn’t know the baby’s cousin was also given Mae as a middle name after her grandmother. So in the story, we have two cousins coming of age who are ready for romance . . . or at least, they think they are.
That letter Mae and Isaiah received from their sons asked them to come west to California to share the wealth they’d discovered by prospecting for gold. The patriarch of the Bellamy family decides to take his wife, daughters-in-law and granddaughters west, and so an the journey begins.
I thought you might like to ask Priscilla (nicknamed Missy and her grandmother’s favorite) and Josie (the more grounded of the two and her grandfather’s favorite) a few questions to get to know my young heroines. Are there any questions?
- Missy, are you open to your own romance?
Oh, yes, I am always open to romance. I have to be, you see, because all the men and boys have swooned over me ever since I can remember. I hope to marry one of the wealthy gold miners my father spoke of in his letter. I deserve to be lavished in all things expensive. I expect to have my pick of the men once we arrive in California.
- Josie, what’s the number one quality you’d require in a mate?
Well, the most important thing for me would be that the man I marry is a Christian. God hates divorce, you know, so I plan to grow old with my husband, and to navigate life successfully, a relationship with Father God is essential. Pops taught me that and showed me the Scripture to back up the things he said.
- Missy, where is the best place you can think of to find a mate?
Certainly not on this awful God-forsaken wagon train. That’s why I suggested a pact with my cousin . . . that we both wait until we get to California to fall in love—I did it mostly for her own good but thank Heavens, she agreed. The gold fields are the perfect place for the both of us to find rich husbands who can spoil us silly!
- Josie, what would be the best gift a potential mate could buy for you?
Oh, I hadn’t ever thought of such a thing, but . . . if I were to . . . I think it would be something of nature. Flowers, perhaps. Or . . . something that would reflect my love of the Lord, that would be nice. It would mean so much more if he made it rather than bought it, too. A gift my potential mate had taken the time to craft himself would hold so much more meaning.
- So, here’s a question for the both of you, what type of character traits are you attracted to?
Missy: He needs to be rich and generous with the money, especially with me. You’ve heard the saying, ‘happy wife, happy life’? I could never be really happy with a poor man who couldn’t afford to keep me in the manner I’ve always dreamed of. He should be handsome and kind I suppose . . . and a hard worker . . . a man not satisfied with status quo, if you catch my drift.
Josie: The ideal man for me will be a lot like Pops . . . intelligent, entrepreneurial, kind, and considerate . . . patient. He would always put pleasing God first and foremost with his family coming next—before his work. I’m not so enamored with money as my cousin, but he should be able to provide the necessities of life, and I’d hope he wanted lots of babies. I want lots of children and can hardly wait to be a mother.
- And Grandmother Mae—the girls call you Lolli, correct?
Yes, that’s right.
- Would you mind answering a question since you are the Mae both girls are named after? We were wondering what type of husband you hope for your grandsugars.
More than riches and the like, I pray they will marry a man who will love them like my Isaiah loves me . . . like Christ loves the Church and gave Himself for her. If a man loves his wife like that, she will honor and respect him to the utmost. I couldn’t ask for more than that. I want my grandsugars to be loved as I have been since the day I married Isaiah.
Caryl again now:
I thought you might like to have a short excerpt from MAE 😊
Excerpt:
Oz asked if he could have a private moment with Josie.
She turned to Pops for the answer. He stood and took Dori from Josie’s lap.
“Don’t go far.”
Her heart pounded in her chest and her mouth went suddenly dry. Why all of a sudden was she reacting that way? Because something was afoot?
It had to be. She just knew it.
Oz escorted her out aways but stopped while still within clear view just out of the cookfire’s bright light. “Josie, Dori and I . . . We love you, and we want you to have this.”
Holding his fist out toward her, he kept his fingers down and waited for her palm to come beneath his before unclenching them and dropping their contents into her hand.
It felt practically weightless.
Carefully, she grasped the delicate gold chain and lifted it up. Dori’s cross with the rose in its center!
“Oh, no, Oz. I can’t take Dori’s cross necklace. She loves it too much.”
“Look a little closer. It’s engraved on the back, and your chain is longer.”
She flipped the golden cross over. Reading down, the word FOREVER had been etched into the cross,
Giveaway
and its ‘O’ was shared. Going left to right, it spelled LOVE.
“Oh.” Upon closer inspection she could see the chain was much longer than Dori’s. “It’s so very beautiful. I love it, Oz.” She held up the two ends toward him. “Would you please put it on for me, kind sir?”
“My pleasure.”
When he took the ends, she turned her back. His hands brushed her neck as he draped the necklace over her head. It fell onto her dress, reflecting the flickering fire. How she adored it! She held up her hair for him.
Her heart had somewhat settled from beating so loudly, but the dry mouth remained. She could barely swallow waiting for him to get it clasped.
“There you are.”
Josie faced him again. Would anyone ever gaze into her eyes the way Osmond Ellison did right that minute? His love for her shone through so evident.
With all her heart, she wanted to kiss him, thank him for being so sweet and kindhearted, but would that be a sin? Most likely Pops had his eye on her though. The way he agreed to letting her have a private moment with Oz . . . It certainly seemed planned.
Caryl again: I hope you will enjoy MAE as much as all my other Prairie Roses stories which have a large majority of 5-Star reviews and ratings.
Thank you, Shannon, for having me as your guest at the INKSLINGER! I’ve enjoyed the visit as always!
Question for Readers: If you lived back in the mid-1800s, would you be willing to follow your husband west knowing the two-thousand-mile journey would be hard and dangerous? It would mean leaving a lot behind and starting over. Would you be up for it or try to talk him out of it?
About Caryl: Award-winning, hybrid author Caryl McAdoo prays her story brings God glory. Her best-selling, award-winning novels garner hundreds of 5-Star reviews from readers around the world. Her popular historical Christian romance family sagas top the favorites list, but she also writes Christian contemporary romance, Biblical fiction, historical mystery, and for young adults, mid-grade booklovers, and preschoolers’ picture books . Fans often count Caryl’s characters as friends. The prolific writer also loves singing new songs the Lord gives her as much as penning tales—hear a few at her YouTube channel! Married to Ron almost fifty-seven years (in June—the 22nd), she has four children and twenty-eight grandsugars. The McAdoos live in the woods south of Clarksville, seat of Red River County in Northeast Texas, waiting expectantly for God to open the next door.
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About the book – Mae:
A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry: but money answereth all things.” – Ecclesiastes 10:19
When the Bellamy brothers’ ship is stranded in San Francisco during the Gold Rush, what seems like a disaster turns into an unimaginable blessing—gold! Striking it rich, they send word for their parents, Isaiah and Mae, to sell everything and journey west with the wives and daughters they’d left behind. But the trek is fraught with hardships and danger—treacherous terrains, illness, accidents, and granddaughters who think they are all grown up and in love. It tests their faith and physical endurance. Travel with the Bellamys on the California Trail to reunite with their loved ones and claim a future in the untamed West!
A perilous journey, an unyielding faith, and a family’s quest to reunite in the land of gold.
There’s still time to pre-order and save before the price goes up on launch day!
Interested in the entire series? Or Caryl’s other titles? Get your copy/copies now!
Mae – Prairie Roses Collection
Interested in Caryl’s other titles:
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