A NURSE FOR JACOB - Caryl McAdoo - One Free Book

Welcome back, Caryl.

Thank you so much for having me back, Lena! I love coming to visit with you!

You have a lot of books out now. What is your favorite setting to use in your books?

Yes, ma’am! At the end of 2020, I’ll have fifty-six titles published. Since 2015, I’ve averaged seven new titles a year. That’s a lot when you’re doing all the negotiating for covers, formatting, publishing and marketing by yourself . The only thing I have help with is, of course, the writing since Ron and I write together.

As for my favorite settings. That’s got to be Texas. Even my June 2020 release, KENTUCKY BRIDE, my heroine meets and falls for a Texas Ranger fighting for the Confederacy! I’m a true blue, loyal Texan by heart even though I was born in California.  

My Texas Romances Family Saga is set in Clarksville, seat of Red River County where we live now. This area is so ripe with history; it lent itself as a wonderful setting. And we know the land so well. That series has ten full-length novels and six Texas Companion Books of those families’ ancestors and descendants.

My characters travel and some even move to both coasts—San Francisco and New York. Some even went to Alaska, but Texas is always home.

There’s about to be five titles so far in my new Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga where each of the novels has Texas in its title. Those families came to Texas in 1840 from Tennessee. They’ve done some traveling, too.

A NURSE FOR JACOB, we randomly set in New Orleans and the Touro Infirmary or Hospital now. 

What do you look for when you’re shopping for a book to buy for yourself?

I must admit, writing seven titles a year leaves little time for reading, but God is slowing me down. He keeps having me remove things from my plate. The only blog I have left is my own at my website which I haven’t written for in a long time.

Many of my author friends send me their books for endorsements, but if the stories don’t hook me right away, I don’t finish them. When one does, I can’t put it down and get so far behind! I cannot remember the last time I went shopping for a book. I truly hate saying that.

I do understand. With my newest 3-book contract, I don’t have many other activities. Give us a little tour of the setting for this book.

The book opens when Lydia Andres, freshly graduated from the Harrows

School of Nursing, arrives at Touro Infirmary to begin her career. Ron and I have been to New Orleans once, and I don’t suppose we will ever go back. But it has been a setting where many of our characters go.

This is the first time a whole story—albeit quite short, the shortest we’ve written—is set there, but we don’t mention the seedy parts. Lydia meets her doctor and they start out being friends, going to the theatre and working together in New Orleans.

It's short because the authors who organized the collection set the lengths of the stories. When you sign up for a collection, you should adhere to the guidelines the leaders of that collection set. I prefer writing a long book.    

What other books do you have coming out soon?

On September first, I’m quite excited to release TEXAS TROUBLES, book five in the Cross Timbers Romance Family Saga I mentioned earlier and, it’s also in the third annual Thanksgiving Books and Blessings Collection which as you know, I organize each year. I was blessed for you to be a part of it the first year with ESTHER’S TEMPTATION!

TEXAS TROUBLES covers the Civil War period. What an oxymoron to call that war civil in any world. It actually opens in the summer of 1860 before the war started with a true incident of Texas history called Texas Troubles. Several towns burned on the same day: Dallas, Denton, and Pilot Point. Negro slaves were blamed and hung. Many say it was the beginning of the war.

The two young scallywag boys—if memory serves they were five and six in 1840, characters of GONE TO TEXAS, book one of the Cross Timbers series. Now they have grown into men, and they’re off to fight in the craziness—on opposite sides. It’s an epic story with two romances in its pages that is available on Pre-order nowhere:  https://www.amazon.com/Texas-Troubles-Timbers-Thanksgiving-Blessings-ebook/dp/B08DJ7YKS8
           

Please give us a glimpse inside your home.

Ron and I built a metal home on 34 acres I call The Peaceable. We still had the four grandsons when we moved in July of 2013. There’s two bedrooms and two baths downstairs and four cubicles upstairs, one for each boy. The last one left in 2017, so at age 67, we became empty nesters!

We didn’t put central heat and air in the house. So now, we only cool one room unless company comes—our bedroom. It has both our computer desks, a comfy TV watching, nap chair for Ron, a fireplace, and our queen-sized bed. This is where all the writing is done unless we’re traveling.

Here’s a photo taken from the living room door into our room. I sit at the big armoire desk in the far corner, Ron’s desk is on the wall to the right. 

We pretty much stay in there unless we’re eating or outside working in the yard. We eat in the dining room where I painted some fun woods with a deer, a couple of squirrels and a mama bird with a nest full of hungry mouths.

I’m trying to carve a yard out in the middle of The Peaceable’s woods. Ron wasn’t onboard at first. He liked the no-work “natural” look, but I kept working at it until finally, he agreed it was looking better and better and is helping me now.

After all, didn’t God first say to tend the garden? 
  

Is this novel part of a series or a stand-alone book?

A NURSE FOR JACOB, for me, is a standalone story. It doesn’t have any of my other books’ characters in it. Even though I love doing that. It is a part of a multi-author collection, “Nursing the Heart” in which all the stories are standalone from each other. The connection is that all the nurses have just graduated in the same class at the fictitious Harrow’s School of Nursing.

Tell us about the story.

The jacket copy goes like this: Physician heal thyself.
While physical wounds heal with time, a special balm is needed to heal those sick of soul. In the Civil War aftermath, two such people’s paths cross.

Recent graduate of the Harrow School of Nursing first class in May 1868,

Lydia Andrews arrives at the Touro Infirmary in New Orleans, hired on Clara Barton’s endorsement. There she meets Doctor Jacob Johnston, and both soon learn that love is the salve to soothe wounded souls.

Lydia had gone with her aunt and mother to get men off the battlefield near their home. They did what was needed in the field then got the men back to their house where they nursed them. One she nursed, she fell in love with, but he went back to war and was killed.

That and the joy of helping those wounded caused her to love nursing and submit to the school for admittance.

Please give us the first page of the book.

New Orleans, May 4, 1868

Lydia admired the two-story building from the corner of Gaienne and Old Levee Streets, strode up the walk, then stopped at the Infirmary’s front door and adjusted her cap. She smoothed her apron, ready to open the portal to her new life. The attendant at the admissions desk eyed her a bit too hard, then stood.

“May I help you, Miss?” The old lady’s tone implied she hated surprises and had a strong desire to know it all. Perhaps she loved order above all else.

Hopefully, a smile would soften her.

“Yes, ma’am. Might you please direct me to the matron? I’m Nurse Lydia Andrews from the Harrow School of Nursing, graduation class of 1868, reporting for duty, ma’am.” She almost started to salute, but instead, just smiled.

The woman didn’t seem amused or impressed.

“I believe the matron is expecting me, ma’am. She’s discussed me coming with Miss Clara Barton herself.”

A feminine wailing came from down the hall to the woman’s right and drowned out her response. The lady shot a furtive glance in that direction then looked back. “Uh . . .”

Another scream, that one louder than the first and even more painful sounding, caused Lydia to take a step toward the commotion.

“Ma’am? Is someone with her? Should I go see?”

The receptionist shrugged. “She’s been like that for a while now. Doctor Johnston should be here any minute. I’ve already sent word upstairs.”

“I see. Thank you.” Lydia did a quick sidestep. “I’ll just go take a peek and see if perhaps I may be of assistance.”

Another scream threatened to pierce the air asunder. She picked up her pace then burst into the exam room. The extremely pregnant woman lay on the table, her husband holding her hand. He appeared as though he might pass out any minute himself.

Lydia grabbed a stool, plopped down at the table’s foot, and threw the sheet back. The baby’s head had presented. Another contraction hit. The lady pushed, screaming again, but not as loud that time. The baby’s head didn’t move.

It took the poor woman three more contractions with Lydia helping to get the baby out. She cleaned the child’s mouth then swatted the little one’s bottom, being rewarded with a nice, healthy, albeit plenty angry, cry. As precious as anything could ever be, the newborn boy had been through quite the ordeal himself! And he wasn’t one little bit happy about it.

  

She laid him on his mama’s belly, tied off and cut the cord, then readied to receive the placenta. The afterbirth looked complete, but she saved it in case the doctor wanted to examine it. Another woman came in, took a quick look and ran out again. In mere minutes, she returned with water and towels.

It didn’t take long to realize the new mother was bleeding too much. The baby’s head had torn open a six-inch gash in the birth canal.  Lydia’s eyes searched those of the woman.

“Where’s Doctor James?”

The other lady, maybe twice her age, only shrugged. “I’m sorry, I have no idea. Two hours ago, he was in surgery. Two gamblers got into it, and he was working on the loser. Haven’t seen him since then.”

How can readers find you on the Internet?

I wouldn’t imagine that would be any hill for a stepper! I’m all over the internet! I have author’s pages at Amazon, Simon and Schuster, BookBub, All Author, Book Gorilla, and Southern Writers Magazine! Plus, I participate in all the social media sites! Here are those links and others!

Author Pages:

Amazon - http://www.amazon.com/Caryl-McAdoo/e/B00E963CFG

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/caryl-mcadoo?follow=true  

Simon & Schuster - http://tinyurl.com/S-SCarylsPage

BookGorilla - http://www.bookgorilla.com/author/B00E963CFG/caryl-mcadoo
Southern Writers Magazine - http://authors.southernwritersmagazine.com/caryl-mcadoo.html

Sweet Americana Sweethearts – http://bit.ly/2q0tcfFbit.ly     

Website: http://www.CarylMcAdoo.com    

Newsletter: http://carylmcadoo.com/sign-up-to-the-caryler/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC_1hQx6UZbWi3OYwmKKxh6Q  

                            (Hear Caryl sing her New Songs!)

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CarylMcAdoo.author

Blogs: 
The Word & the Music http://carylmcadoo.com/blog/

GoodReads:  http://tinyurl.com/GoodReadsCaryl

Google+: http://tinyurl.com/CarylsGooglePlus

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

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/CarylMcAdoo

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/CarylMcAdoo

Puzzle: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=01cec718487b

Thank you again for inviting me, Lena! Blessings to you and James!

And thank you, Caryl, for sharing this new book with us. I know my blog readers are as anxious as I am to find out what happens next.

Readers, here’s a link to the book.

https://amzn.to/3fbguA5

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