Amanda McIntyre's Between the Pages with Carolyn Brown

Welcome to between the Pages!! Today my guest is Carolyn Brown! Well-known for her wonderful storytelling about cowboys, women's fiction, and small town life! We love having this prolific writer stopping by to share what's next for readers!

A little bit about Carolyn: 
Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today, Publishers Weekly, and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and a RITA finalist with more than ninety published books, which include women’s fiction and historical, contemporary, and cowboys-and-country-music romance. She and her husband live in the small town of Davis, Oklahoma—where everyone knows everyone else and knows what they’re doing and when—and they read the local newspaper on Wednesday to see who got caught. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young.

Amanda: How many books have you written? 

CAROLYN: Small Town Rumors is my 91st published book. There are two cowboys already written and another women's fiction, all written and waiting in the wings so that's 94 written to date.

AMANDA: Wow!! Congratulations! So, whats ahead for Carolyn Brown in 2018? 

CAROLYN: Cowboy Honor, the second book in the Longhorn Canyon series will arrive in September and then in 2019 my readers can look for Cowboy Brave, the third book in that series; The Magnolia Inn, a women's fiction story; Cowboy Brave and Cowboy Rebel, the fourth and fifth books in the Longhorn Canyon series; The Perfect Dress, a women's fiction book; and an as yet untitled women's fiction book. Right now I'm working on The Perfect Dress and when it's finished I'll dive right into Cowboy Rebel.

LET'S DIVE IN TO THIS BOOK RELEASING JULY 3! Do you have your copy? I do!

SMALL TOWN RUMORS by Carolyn Brown

AMAZON

From New York Times bestselling author Carolyn Brown comes a funny heartache of a novel about overcoming the past, confronting the future, and defying all expectations.

Everyone is talking about Jennie Sue Baker and the mess she made of her life in New York. The former high school queen bee—and wealthy darling of Bloom, Texas—has returned home after all these years, riding on a common bus and bearing two bounced alimony checks. In a town that thrives on gossip, Jennie’s fall from grace has shamed her mother, set the town buzzing, and caused old, jealous enemies to whisper in delight. They say she’s taken a job as a housekeeper, gotten a garage apartment, and might be crushing on Rick Lawson, a simple farmer with modest dreams.

As romance starts to bud, Jennie relishes what it means to follow her heart, find real new friends, and finally be herself—regardless of all the lying town chatter. But fate has another twist in store. Rumor has it that Jennie now stands to lose what matters most…unless she can convince Rick of one true thing—and that’s love.

CHATTING WITH CAROLYN ABOUT SMALL TOWN RUMORS:

AMANDA: What characteristic do you love/hate most about Jennie Sue Baker?

CAROLYN: I hate that she put up with her ex-husband’s mental abuse as long as she did but I love that she finally takes control of her life. I like her big heart and the fact that money and prestige aren’t high on her list.

AMANDA: What makes your hero lovable in this story?

CAROLYN: He's a broken hero who needs fixing and no one has been able to do that. He’s kind, gentle, and sweet but he’s got an inner core of strength. Jennie Sue helps him find that strength to overcome his not care about the wounds he received fighting for our country.

AMANDA :What tradition was important for you to teach your children, and/or grandchildren?

 CAROLYN: Family! Plain and simple. In today’s high tech world too many times family values get pushed aside for speed, one line text messages and fast phone calls. Someone asked me once what my secret was for having a close knit family. My answer was that it’s simply, “home in time for supper.” It didn’t matter how many kids had come to our yard to play or where my three kids were, when it was supper time, they were to be sitting around the table with me and their dad. It was our family time to talk about school, jobs, food, the books we were reading or whatever was on our minds that day. Just our family and an hour or even longer if the conversation went that long to stop and pay attention to family.

AMANDA: Small town or city life?

CAROLYN: Small town, hands down! I love small towns and write about them in most of my books. They have a heartbeat and pulse of their own. An example: A few years ago my sister passed away here in our small town (one traffic light and a population of under three thousand). We didn’t cook a meal for a week and ate leftovers for a week after that. Small town folks might be nosy but they take care of each other. Here in our part of the world, we tell folks that everyone knows what everyone is doing, with whom and where they are doing it and we all read the local paper just to see who got caught.

AMANDA:  Sunrise or sunset?

CAROLYN: Either or both. Texas has the most beautiful sunsets and sunrises I’ve ever seen.

EXCERPT:

Jennie Sue Baker could almost hear the rumors buzzing around the small town of Bloom, Texas, when she stepped off the Greyhound bus in front of the Main Street Café that Monday at noon. On a slow day, gossip hung over the town like smoke in an old western honky-tonk. On a good day, in the opinion of the community, it obliterated the sun.

Today would definitely be a good day for Bloom, but to Jennie Sue, the target of all those rumors, it would be downright miserable.

She wiped sweat from her brow and then picked up the single suitcase that the driver set out on the sidewalk beside her. Glancing around as the bus pulled back out onto the highway, she expected to see her mother’s pearly-white Cadillac parked nearby, but it wasn’t anywhere in sight.

She set the suitcase down and seriously considered sitting on it. It wasn’t her mother’s fault—not really, because she hadn’t called her until an hour ago, and Charlotte was never on time for anything except her hair appointments. That was because the beauty salon was the breeding ground for the best talk in town.

Well, her mama had better hurry, because Jennie Sue Baker sitting on a suitcase on Main Street would stir up more than anything the beauty shop could dream up.

The smell of greasy burgers, bacon, and fries wafted across the street from the café. Her stomach reminded her that the package of crackers from a vending machine she’d had for breakfast had long since disappeared. Dragging her suitcase across the street, she was so focused on the café that she didn’t notice the vehicle pulling up to the curb only a few feet from her. When the driver honked, she jumped and glared at the car before she realized that it was her mother. She couldn’t see Charlotte’s face through the tinted windshield, but she could sure enough feel the icy-cold aura coming from the car when she opened the back door and shoved the suitcase inside.

“I’ve come up with a perfect story,” Charlotte started the moment that Jennie Sue was buckled up.

Jennie Sue wasn’t surprised at the first words out of her mother’s mouth, but she was disappointed. “Hello to you, too, Mama. It’s really good to see you. You look as beautiful as ever. Has it really been six months since I’ve seen you?”

“Don’t sass me,” Charlotte snapped. “We talk and text every week. And speaking of the last time I saw you, it doesn’t look like you’ve done anything to lose that extra ten pounds you’re carryin’ around.”

“I’d been in the hospital. Besides, I like food,” Jennie Sue said.

“Evidently,” Charlotte sighed. “Do you like looking like a homeless woman, too? When word gets out that you came in on a bus dressed like that, I won’t be able to hold my head up.” She eased the car out onto the street. “I bet Cricket was watchin’ from the café. Nothing escapes that girl’s eye.”

“I’m not a movie star, Mama, and I didn’t see any paparazzi fighting to get pictures of me. This is Bloom, not Los Angeles. I’m not that important.” She shifted in her seat.

HOW ABOUT YOU? 

SMALL TOWN OR CITY LIFE FOR YOU?

Share in comments why you love one or the other and be entered to win A DIGITAL COPY FROM AMAZON OF SMALL TOWN RUMORS!!

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Be sure to check out Carolyn's magnificent stories by following her!!

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Email @ ccbrown66@att.net

 July 3, 2018