6/23/2015

Get Lost in Smart, Sassy Southern Humor with Carolyn Brown

You've seen the phrase, "Don't Mess with Texas." 
In Cadillac, Texas, the signs read: "Don't Mess with Texas Mamas." 

YELLOW ROSE BEAUTY SHOP, the latest in NYT Bestseller CAROLYN BROWN's Cadillac, Texas series features a mama you definitely don't want to mess with--unless you happen to be her equally hard-headed daughter. Check it out...

Available for Preorder
Stella’s mama never should’ve put Stella on the church prayer list. With Stella’s twenty-seventh birthday coming up fast, Nancy desperately wants to see her daughter married and giving her grandbabies. Petitioning heaven seems like a surefire way to get it done. But in Cadillac, Texas, where the gossip’s hotter than the city’s famous jalapeño peppers, it isn’t long before all hell breaks loose.

Heather, the bossy leader of the church’s Prayer Angels, thinks a summer ball will get Stella and the town’s other single gals paired off. But nobody can tell redheaded spitfire Stella what to do—not her mama, not Heather, and not even the sexy beau Stella’s been seeing in secret. Together, Stella, her best friends Charlotte and Piper, and the loyal customers of the Yellow Rose Beauty Shop hatch a good old-fashioned scheme to sabotage the ball. But will it wreck Stella’s relationship with her mama forever? And what will the church folk think when Stella reveals the identity of her mystery man?

Here's a sneak peek:

If Nancy Baxter had known that she was turning loose a major shit storm, she would have never put Stella’s name on the prayer list down at the church in Cadillac, Texas. But she didn’t have the benefit of hindsight that hot southern night and she really did want Stella to get married. So when Heather, the president of the Prayer Angels asked if anyone wanted to add a name to the list she spoke right up and said, “Pray for my daughter. She needs a husband.”
The angels took their spirituality seriously so the praying began in earnest and before they were done God had been petitioned by a dozen women to send a husband to Cadillac and to ear mark him special for Stella Baxter. No one dared to ask why she needed a husband but they did have their ideas which turned into juicy gossip by the next morning.

The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop, coming out July 14, is the latest book in the Cadillac, Texas series, which includes The Blue Ribbon Jalapeno Society Jubilee and The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off.

Preorder your copy from Amazon or Barnes & Noble 


Meet Carolyn

New York Times and USA Today bestselling romance author and RITA® Finalist, Carolyn Brown, has published more than seventy books, including historical, contemporary, cowboys and country music mass market paperbacks. She and her husband live in Davis, Oklahoma. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young. When she’s not writing she likes to sit in her gorgeous back yard with her two tom cats, Chester Fat Boy and Boots Randolph Terminator Outlaw and watch them protect the yard from all kinds of wicked varmints like crickets, locusts and spiders.

Besides the beauty shop, here's where you can find Carolyn:


Now, on to the questions:

E.E. What sound or noise do you love?
Carolyn: I love the sound of a summer rain. I don’t even mind low rumbling thunder to go along with it. I can sit on the porch and be completely at peace with the world and everything in it during a nice slow summer rain.

E.E.: Do you write while listening to music?
Carolyn: I’ve been accused of pimping country music a few times. If my characters are at war with each other and take it out on me by not talking to me, then I put on some country music. It’s amazing what how that a little Blake Shelton or Conway Twitty can have them two stepping around in my head in no time. I’m partial to the traditional country music but I do love Blake and Miranda, Josh Turner, Billy Currington and several of the newer artists as well.

E.E.: What’s the first thing you do when you finish writing a book?
Carolyn: Start another one! When I finished The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop I jumped right into The Wedding Pearls, another women’s fiction book with lots of romance. Most of the time, I write THE END on the very last page, and then open up a blank page and write the title of the next book. I get really cranky if I’m not writing so it works best if I keep busy.

E.E.: Which of your characters would you most/least to invite to dinner?
Carolyn: Oh, I would love, love to invite Agnes from The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop for dinner. She and I got to be really good friends in The Blue Ribbon Jalapeno Society Jubilee and even better friends in The Red Hot Chili Cook Off, but we’ve become besties in this new book. She’s full of spit and vinegar and I want to grow up to be just like her.

E.E.: Tea or Coffee? And how do you take it?
Carolyn: Both, depending on my mood. Coffee in the morning. Hot, black and strong. A story about that: When I was a teenager my girlfriend and I decided that drinking coffee would make us oh, so mature. So we decided to learn to drink it and then we’d order it at a café and all the older boys would see how adult we were. We had visions of them strewing flowers at our feet and dueling over who got to take us to the prom. So I asked my granny if I could have coffee for breakfast and she poured me a cup brim full. I asked for cream and sugar and she shook her head. “Oh, no! Coffee is like life, child. You drink it the way it comes out of the pot. Life don’t get a dose of cream and sugar to make it all wonderful and neither does coffee. Either drink it like that or do with out.” Her coffee was guaranteed to melt the silver off the spoon so I did with out. I did not have roses thrown down to walk on that year or go to the prom either.

E.E.: If you could interview one person, who would it be?
Carolyn: Moses. Now that might seem like a strange answer but think about the stories he could tell—all the inspiration for books that could come out of interviewing him. He rescued all those people from Egypt and then was their leader for forty years. Think of the romance stories that went on during that time and the drama and the arguments and the marriages. Think of a young mother who just got her tent fixed the way she wanted it so the baby would sleep all night and then boom, husband come in and says it’s time to move again. I just think it would be amazing to sit down with him and talk to him.

E.E.: Do you read reviews of your books? If so, do you pay any attention to them, or let them influence your writing?
Carolyn: I do read reviews. Some influence my next books if they offer constructive criticism. Some make me laugh. Some bring tears to my eyes. Let me say right here that I truly appreciate every review, good or bad or anywhere in between, that my readers take time from their business schedule to write for one of my books. Readers are truly the wind beneath our wings and without them, we wouldn’t have a job. And I for one love my job so thank you to all my readers!


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24 comments:

  1. Good mornin' folks. I've brought Agnes and Stella along with me today so if y'all have any questions, please feel free to ask!

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  2. Hi Carolyn! Thanks for the great interview! Looking forward to seeing you in NYC at the RWA literacy signing next month! sharlenewegner@hotmail.com

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    1. I'm so excited that you will be there Sharlene!!

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  3. Will there be more books to this great series? I sure hope so.

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    1. Kim...one never knows. There is a new flower shop in town and the owner just might be able to stir up some trouble!

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  4. Carolyn, thanks so much for being my guest today on GLIAS! Love that story about your granny and the coffee! What a great life lesson. Sounds like your granny and mine could've sat on the front porch swapping stories.

    I'd love to chat with Moses, too. And Joshua. Must've been hard to follow in such big shoes, and with God always telling your not to be afraid! Ha!

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    1. Thank you for inviting me to prop up my feet today on GLIAS! My granny was blind so she saw things a bit different than most people and I bet she would have loved to sit on the porch with yours! She would have even supplied the coffee!

      Wouldn't it be fun to talk to those two and hear their stories. I drool just thinking about it!

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  5. Good morning my friend! Your interview & chat were fun way to start my day.
    Moses is an interesting choice for an interview.
    FYI readers you can also preorder The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop from audible.com too!
    Enjoy your day!

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    1. Good morning, Miz Cathy! I still count that day I crashed your book signing with those other awesome authors as one of the highlights of my life!

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  6. Hi Carolyn! Loved the interview. As always, you make me laugh. I love your down to earth approach to life, romance and writing. I'm looking forward to reading this book. Beauty shops are full of stories, some funny and some sad. For lots of women it's a social occasion. I look forward to seeing you in NY next month!

    Wishing you much success and happiness!

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    1. Hello, Linda...can't wait to see you. Save me a hug and a few minutes of time to visit! Thank you for your kind words. The Yellow Rose is the center hub for lots of good hot gossip in Cadillac!

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  7. Welcome back to GLIAS, Carolyn. Looks like another winner.

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    1. Thank you Angi!! I hope it hits the market like a bull and goes viral, but then I do dream big! It was such a hoot to write that I can't wait for my readers to get their hands on it!

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  8. Love your answer that when you finish one book you start another. I'm grumpy when not writing too. Hubby would prefer I do some housework and I try but it's not as much fun and my teenage daughter is like a tornado undoing all the cleaning anyway!

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    1. Everyone in the family knows that "between books" is not a good place for me to be. The characters in my next book are usually pushing me to finish the WIP so that I can tell their story! Glad that I'm not paddling this boat alone but have others helping me out!

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  9. Carolyn, Did you survive the OK flooding. Hope you didn't have any problems.

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    1. We has survived at our house but we are about five miles from the Washita River. Those close to it weren't so lucky. My brother in law helped move an elderly couple out of their house last weekend and waded water to his chest trying to rescue things for them.

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    2. And that is "we have survived"! The copy editor in my head is on break! LOL

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  10. I just can hardly wait!! I have loved these stories and I'm glad to see that Agnes will be back in the mix!!

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    1. Kelli Jo...Agnes is creating all kinds of havoc with Violet in this one...as usual! She, Stella, Charlotte and Piper are counting the days until their story hits the market!

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  11. nice interview

    bn100candg at hotmail dot com

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  12. I just can't wait to find myself back in Cadillac! I want to be just like Agnes when I grow up!

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    1. Agnes is a pistol, isn't she? I loved having her in my head when I wrote the trilogy!

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