A Chat with Carol McClain
Don’t think you know the craft. Don’t publish your first work until it’s been vetted by experts.
Today, self-publishing is so easy, and too often we rush to birth our baby. My first book was well received, luckily. The second, not so much. These early works can chase potential fans away from your work.
Today, those first books are off the market.
I’ve grown as and author. I’ve seen where I was arrogant about my budding skill (Much like my students who begged me to read their books. (Perhaps they taught me more than I taught them.)
Keep writing. Keep reading authors you admire. For inspiration, I read Lisa Wingate and Susan Meissner. I see how they handled situations, and I grow from understanding their skill.
That is great advice. Words I wish I had been given when I first ventured out in writing and publishing.
How do you handle writer’s block or moments of creative doubt?
I quit.
Then the urge hits me, and I write a few lines. I fall in love with writing and keep on doing it.
Then I quit again.
I wish I could tell you how many times I’ve quit. Had I kept writing, would I have 18 books instead of eight to my name.
I pray. God consistently tells me to write, so I do.
One surefire way to find my way through writer’s block is to write anything that comes to my head. I fill up pages with nonsense that pertains to my storyline. Then I delete the pages and start again. Through this process, a new idea always comes along, and my story progresses.
My creative doubt is never fully healed. I read greats like Francine Rivers and Lisa Wingate. The Hunger Games captivated me. Steven James and Harlan Coben keep me flipping pages.
However, at craft shows, people seek me out. Some are thrilled they found me again. So, I have to trust that since through prayers, God directs me to write … then I’ll keep working to produce the best work I can.
The themes I write about—forgiveness, seeing how we are all, as humans, the same, the healing found in Christ—these themes would change their lives. That they would love Jesus with all their being.
Thats all any of us Christian’s Authors could hope for.
Now, lets talk about your book, Honeymoon’s Over.
If I know you, beware. In some form you may end up being the inspiration for my book. My current work, Honeymoon’s Over, is a work of humor as well as theme. I am a humorist. Even my most serious work is comical. So, as you read remember, the characters are viewed through the healing eyes of laughter.
In Honeymoon’s Over, my spark of inspiration was my brother and his new wife.
When Art married Kathy, he moved his Antifa-loving, vegan son in with him and my new sister-in-law. She had gluten issues, and his son, as a vegan, ate only gluten—glued the globs to every surface of their kitchen!
My brother’s daughter didn’t like his new wife—perhaps jealousy dominated her.
His wife also had an aging mother with dementia, and an adult son with OCD.
Add to the mix, three needy dogs
On top of everything, this union was viewed through my lens of humor. How could it succeed?
Don’t worry. It did.
The marriage was loving and successful despite these issues. And Kathy is the greatest woman.
I love that. Are there any secondary characters in your book that hold particular significance to you? If so, why?
I love Dean—my protagonist’s aging father. Smart, independent, but failing, Dean reminds me of so many great humans whose greatness becomes mired in the threads of dementia.
My mother, because of heart valve issues, became beyond forgetful. She had been a physical therapist, but in her last days couldn’t remember she lived with my sister and not in her assisted living facility. She’d ask the same questions. She’d assume the nurse lived down the hall. Her iPad became a mystery. Obviously, this was a horrible plight for a brilliant woman.
However, her state offered a lot of humor. If we don’t laugh in our trials, they will defeat us. Dementia or Parkinson’s’ or stroke—bad happens to us all, and we need to love those afflicted as we do the unblemished youth.
I want the world to see that older people—our elderly people—are not disposable. They didn’t live useless lives. My mother (and my character Dean) still have wisdom and love to give. They still need our compassion and care.
In Honeymoon’s Over, I chose Northport, NY just because …
I grew up on Long Island and then moved upstate. When I came back, I always stayed with my mother in Northport. I know the area well. That Northport sits on the shores of the Long Island Sound—one of my happy places—I put the book there.
Family is one of the most important things in life (if you’re not growing up in abuse—I know that exists). However, what’s most important is your marriage. In Matthew 19: 5, Jesus repeated Genesis 2:24, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh (.)” My characters need to learn this despite their fierce love for their family.
As someone who a married young and just celebrated 25 years of marriage, I second this statement, Carol.
With that, our interview has come to an end. Thank you so much for joining us, Carol. I hope this tour blesses you and that your book ministers to the hearts of it’s readers.
Readers, please continue to read more about Honeymoon’s Over and Carol McClain. Then, when you hit the end of th blog, please be sure to enter the giveaway.
Grace and Peace,
Melissa
About the Book
Book: Honeymoon’s Over
Author: Carol McClain
Genre: Contemporary Christian Fiction
Release date: September 27, 2023
Honeymoon’s Over
For better or worse.
Easy vows for newlyweds Chantel and Charlie. Having been widowed, they knew the worst of love was years away. Furthermore, at fifty, they wouldn’t live long enough for the bad to blossom.
Then they came home from their honeymoon.
Chantel’s pregnant daughter Sissy, living with them during her husband’s deployment, must remain on bed rest. Histrionic and bored, she’s a … challenge.
Chantel’s vegetarian son Graham moves in for a few weeks to help with his sister, but something doesn’t seem right. He never got along with his military-loving, meat-eating sibling. He didn’t have ulterior motives for coming to help, did he?
Charlie’s married daughter, Margo, could certainly enumerate the issues these adult children her father’s new wife had. On top of everything, how could her father have chosen that woman?
Then there’s Charlie’s father—lost in old-age absentmindedness. Certainly, he was only forgetful.
Thank heavens for jobs they love that get them out of the house. Except …
Should they have vowed for worse or better?
Click here to get your copy!
About the Author
Carol McClain is the award-winning author of five novels dealing with real people facing real problems. She is a consummate encourager, and no matter what your faith might look like, you will find compassion, humor and wisdom in her complexly layered, but ultimately readable work.
Aside from writing, she’s a skilled glass artist who has just made a foray into creating high-end jewelry. She’s also an avid hiker. She teaches Bible studies and mentors teens.
She lives in East Tennessee with her husband and too many animals to mention.
More from Carol
Disclaimer #1: Beware.
If we get to know each other, the humor of your life is liable to become fodder for my work. (Of course, with permission. Occasionally!) But don’t worry. I don’t write suspense, so you’ll never be in danger.
Background:
My brother married a widow when they were in their fifties.
He was a meatatarian. “Vegetables have rights,” he’d declare as he reached for a second round of bacon. He’d then heap on fried potatoes. The tubers were his nod to vegetables.
His wife was gluten intolerant and a health food lover of all foods green.
When he moved in with his wife, so did his vegan son who lived on gluten (and very few veggies). Gluten found its way onto her countertops, her refrigerator shelves, and dishes he didn’t wash.
Her son lived with her as well and came arrayed with the eccentricities my nephew lacked. The two sons made a complete, chaotic pair.
Add to them a diabetic mother who was starting dementia and my bet was on the fact this marriage was doomed.
Fortunately, I’m not prophetic. They remained happily married—despite my brother’s eating predilection. However, their situation made me laugh and became the fodder for Honeymoon’s Over.
Disclaimer #2: no HIPPA rules or privacy issues or personal matter have been disclosed. Names have been changed to protect the guilty (just don’t read the dedication, then the name change is mute.)
Disclaimer #3: If you’re expecting a sad, tearjerker, you’ll be disappointed. Oh, you will cry—tears of laughter. You’ll chortle throughout Honeymoon.
Blog Stops
Girls in White Dresses, January 8
Babbling Becky L’s Book Impressions, January 9
Stories By Gina, January 10 (Author Interview)
Jodie Wolfe – Stories Where Hope and Quirky Meet, January 11 (Author Interview)
Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations, January 11
Artistic Nobody, January 12 (Author Interview)
Texas Book-aholic, January 13
Guild Master, January 14 (Author Interview)
Truth and Grace Homeschool Acdemy, January 15
A Reader’s Brain, January 16 (Author Interview)
Back Porch Reads, January 17 (Author Interview)
For Him and My Family, January 17
A Modern Day Fairy Tale, January 18 (Author Interview)
Locks, Hooks and Books, January 19
Fiction Book Lover, January 20 (Author Interview)
Simple Harvest Reads, January 21 (Author Interview)
Giveaway
To celebrate her tour, Carol is giving away the grand prize of a $50 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter
Thank you for the interview
I like the interview, especially how the author finds the humor in situations that could make us cry instead.
An interesting chat thank you.