Tangled Lives by Carol McClain
Where do you get your ideas for your books?
The ideas come from different areas. In two I wrote, setting played a heavy role. However, in the Treasured Lives series, the concept came from people I loved and the hard times they lived through.
Tangled Lives concludes the Treasured Lives series and was the most difficult book I ever wrote. My mind decided I’d follow my main character Roxie through her graduate studies into the wilds of the Adirondacks. Her sister Crystal stayed home as a schoolteacher and had married Jesse, Roxie’s longest-lasting love.
I wrote the original version for three months, and every episode I sent to my critique partners irritated and bored them.
Finally, I contacted my publisher and told her the story wasn’t working. Did I have a deadline? If so, could my due date be extended? Deb Haggerty is a gracious woman. She told me quality mattered more than time.
I scrapped my thirty thousand words and started a brand-new story which Deb said was one of my best.
I agree with her. My two protagonists are my most complex—loveable and troubled, competitors with each other and best friends. They’re human and show the power of God to heal and restore.
That said, where do your ideas for your characters come from?
I tell all my friends to watch out, if their lives and actions intrigue me, they’ll be in my book. In this case, Crystal is like my youngest granddaughter, especially earlier in the series. She’s never met a person who isn’t her friend. She’s funny and carefree. She loves with abandon—although Luciana doesn’t have Crystal’s mobility issues (she climbed stairs at seven months old!), she has her joie de vivre.
I’m embarrassed to say—I’m Roxie. Read the book. Her foibles are mine (sadly, I don’t have her talent).
What lesson has the Lord taught you recently?
Don’t be afraid to fail. Don’t quit. Failure can change the course of your life. Quitting locks you in the old routine which gives no new surprise—and that gets boring.
I mentioned that I scrapped over thirty-thousand words in Tangled Lives and started my story over. Because I did, I turned out a book loved by my publisher and my critique partners. (It’s good not to irritate those people whose job is to tear apart your book!)
I’ve “quit” writing after almost every book I’ve written, but instead of eating potato chips watching reruns of Bones (I don’t advise eating while watching that show), I’ve rallied myself, learned from what I’ve succeeded at and failed with, and have always written a book that was better than the last one published.
My characters failed—at least in their own lives. (You’ll have to read the book to find out what they did with failure.)
What is your writing strength?
I’m gifted with humor. This book doesn’t display humor as much as Book 1 in the series, but it exists.
The purpose of my next book, due out next year, is to make you laugh. Those critique partners I told you about? They laugh and giggle and send me smiling face emojis with each submission I send them.
Tell us about the featured book?
Tangled Lives is a contemporary novel. Two sisters love the same man. They share a past one can’t remember and the other can’t forget.
Tangled Lives is the third, and final installment, of the Treasure Lives series. The story follows the life of Roxie and Crystal Snow, two of the sisters found by Meredith Jaynes in Book 1, Borrowed Lives. The past tangles their future as they learn forgiveness and decide to follow their dreams rather than their prescribed lives.
Please give us the first page of the book.
Prologue
Childhood behaves like the morning mist. Children dance and delight, then grow and vanish into the light of their days. So many nights, I wished my girls would mature, would give me grandchildren, would give me a moment to myself. First, of course, go to college.
When the time arrived, and they left me, they took their magic. Without magic, the scent of childhood wafted away in the morning fog. How could I have understood, all those years ago, the bedraggled waifs I fostered would steal my heart? In my reluctance to mother the abandoned children, I never fathomed the temporary fostering would turn into everlasting love when I adopted them.
Once more, I bit back tears as Crystal Joy, my youngest girl, climbed into her car. Last week, we outfitted the Honda with hand controls, so she could drive despite her spina bifida. Parker and I watched as she drove away to the University of Tennessee to join her sister.
I imagined I heard her singing. Never was Crystal without a song even as a child. Back then she hammered on pots and Tupperware to make music. Her alto, always on pitch. Her fingers twitched on guitar strings or dulcimers. In the end, my youngest daughter settled on the violin. Never did the spina bifida slow Crystal down or make her feel inferior. Could a mother call one child perfect?
The dust from the road settled, and I stood next to Parker like the day Lisa Simpson tried to adopt Crystal’s sister.
Roxie.
Always the most sensitive. Perhaps the proverbial middle child. Sweet, insecure Roxie. Too independent and too needy. Her biological parents died of drug overdoses. Roxie had been old enough to understand abandonment, too young to realize her parents’ issues had nothing to do with her worth. Her oldest sister’s grandfather adopted her when she was eight. The hole bored through my heart. It compounded sweet Roxie’s belief in her lack of worth. Roxie believed I loved everyone more than her.
Parker looped his arm around me.
His closeness soothed. Always.
“Meredith, the girls will be home before you realize they moved out. Now’s the time for them to heal, live their passions, and find themselves.” He kissed the top of my head. “They’ll be okay.”
In Parker’s eyes, I hoped to see the truth of his words. This time, I didn’t run away and hide. I let God take my fears and prayed the sins of my daughters’ parents would no longer descend on their innocent offspring. I prayed the love of adoptive parents and a heavenly Father would redeem.
How can readers find you on the Internet?
You can find my latest book on Amazon at:
Tangled Lives book: https://www.amazon.com/Tangled-Lives-Carol-McClain/dp/1649499671/ref
My website lists my appearances, my releases with buy links, and my blog. You can find me at:
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I’m on Facebook as Author Carol McClain
Carol McClain is the award-winning author of four 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 stained-glass artist, a budding glass fuser. She lives in East Tennessee with her husband who finally gave into her dreams. They own five goats—three of them does who she milks from which she makes yogurt and cheese and butter. She’s raising bunches of chickens.
You can connect with her at carolmcclain.com.
She also can be found on Facebook at: https://www.facebook.com/author.Carol.McClain
On twitter and Instagram: @carol_mcclain
