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The worst of times calls for the best of friends in this sassy
novel about starting over, from New York Times bestselling
author Carolyn Brown.
Dear friends and army wives Diana, Carmen, and Joanie have been
through war, rumors of war, marital problems, motherhood, fears, joy, and
heartache. But none of the women are prepared when their daughters decide to
enlist in the army together. Facing an empty nest won’t be easy. Especially for
Carmen. With emotions already high, she suffers an even greater blow: divorce
papers. Diana understands the fury and tears. She’s been there.
With nothing to lose and no one at home, the girlfriends
impulsively accept an unexpected offer from their elderly neighbor. The
recently widowed Tootsie has an RV, a handsome nephew at the wheel, and an aim
for tiny Scrap, Texas, to embrace memories of her late husband. Still grieving,
she can use the company as a balm for her broken heart. So can the empty
nesters.
Embarking on a journey
of hope, romance, and healing, Diana, Carmen, and Joanie are at a turning point
in their lives. And with the open road ahead of them, it’s just the beginning.
Here's an excerpt
Over the past thirteen years, the ladies who lived on
the same block in Sugar Run had been through wars, rumors of wars, death,
divorce, fears, and joys, but nothing had prepared Carmen, Diana, and Joanie
for the day they walked away from the army recruiter’s office in downtown San
Antonio. Each of their daughters had enlisted and would leave in less than an
hour, heading to Fort Sill, Oklahoma, for basic training. Backs straight, the
three mothers managed to keep smiles on their faces until they were all inside
Diana’s van, and then the waterworks started.
“I need a drink.” Diana wiped
at the never-ending tears with a tissue, then passed the box around.
“This is ten times—no, a
hundred times—worse than when Eli deploys. But, good God, Diana, it’s eight
o’clock in the morning. If we start drinking now, we’ll be passed out by noon,”
Carmen sobbed as she blew her nose and tossed another fistful of tissues into
the plastic trash bag Diana kept in the van.
Diana pushed a strand of red
hair away from her wet cheeks. “Passed completely out sounds good to me, and if
you’ll remember, we always have mimosas when the guys leave on missions.”
Joanie took a compact from her
purse and checked her reflection, then broke down into more weeping. “Zoe
doesn’t look a thing like me. She’s got Brett’s dark hair and blue eyes, and since
she’s got nurse’s training, they’ll probably send her to some god-awful
country. She took ballet, for God’s sake, and she was a cheerleader. She
doesn’t belong in a foreign country seeing soldiers with their legs blown off.”
“In the words of Jimmy Buffett,
‘It’s five o’clock somewhere,’ so let’s go to Diana’s.” Blotches spotted
Carmen’s translucent skin from crying so hard. Several strands of dark-brown
hair had escaped her ponytail and hung limp like a frayed flag of victory on a
rainy day. “At least Zoe will be able to tell you where she’s going. Natalie
passed that language test with flying colors. She’ll be put somewhere to
translate, and you know what that means. Everything will be classified, and she
won’t be able to talk about it.”
Diana started the van and then
laid her head on the steering wheel. “This is worse than kindergarten, isn’t
it?”
“Yes,” the women agreed.
“We were able to pick them up
at the end of the day back then,” Joanie sighed.
Carmen stared at the front of
the recruitment center. “I wanted one more glimpse of her, but I guess they
went out a back door. I prayed every day from the time that Natalie was born
that she’d do anything rather than join the service. I didn’t care if she
flipped burgers at the local McDonald’s for the rest of her life, but, oh, no,
she made her daddy proud. He’s over there in God knows where, doing God knows
what, and I’m the one left at home with the empty nest,” Carmen declared. “And
yes, I need a good stiff drink. Maybe two or three.”
“That would be great. I’m not
ready for an empty house.” Diana sniffled as she put the van in gear and headed
north toward Sugar Run, population 3,412, according to the city-limit signs on
either end of town.
Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal,
Publisher’s Weekly and #1 Amazon and #1 Washington Post bestselling
author and a RITA finalist. With more than 90 books on the market, she’s a
recipient of the Bookseller’s Best Award, and the prestigious Montlake Diamond
Award, and also a three-time recipient of the National Reader’s Choice Award.
Carolyn and her husband live in
the small town of Davis, Oklahoma, where everyone knows everyone else, as well
as 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.
When she’s not writing, Carolyn
likes to plot new stories in her backyard with her tom cat, Boots
Randolph Terminator Outlaw, and watch him protect the yard from all kinds of
wicked varmints like crickets, locusts, and spiders. Visit her at
www.carolynbrownbooks.com.
Website: https://bit.ly/2TtQUeI
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thecarolynbrown
Instagram: https://bit.ly/2FApe47
FB (Author’s Page): https://bit.ly/2GZ2HAz
Thank you for inviting me to stop by Get Lost in a Story to talk
about The Empty Nesters. Let’s sit on the porch and have a glass of icy
cold sweet tea while we visit. I understand y’all have some questions you’d
like to ask.
E.E.: What are your favorite television series?
Carolyn: Designing Women, The Golden Girls and Justified.
You might think that’s a strange combination, but it’s not really. All three of
the series are centered around friendships, and that always appeals to me.
E.E.: What’s something you’d like to tell your fans?
Carolyn: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. For reading my
books, for talking about them to your neighbors and friends, for writing
reviews, and for sending me sweet notes after you’ve read them. Y’all are
appreciated so so much.
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 confess that I’m nosy by nature, so I do read my reviews.
If a review has good, constructive criticism, I take it to heart. If there’s
just plain old nit picking, I ignore it—an example of one that I ignored was
when a reviewer gave me a one star review because of the cover on The Barefoot
Summer. According to her the story was excellent, but her contention was that
people got parasites by going barefoot, and I should have enough sense not to
use a cover like that. As my mama used to say, “’nuff said’.”
E.E.: Which already filmed movie represents your
writing style?
Carolyne: Probably The Longest Ride or The
Notebook. I would love to see The Empty Nesters made into a movie. I
can visualize Swoosie Kurtz playing Tootsie!
E.E.: What’s the first thing you do when you finish
writing a book?
Carolyn: Straighten up my office. Put away all the notes I
have scattered from one end of the room to the other for the book I just
finished. Then the next morning I open the notebook for the next book, and get
started on it.
E.E.: What can we look for next from you?
Carolyn: I just finished writing the seventh book, Cowboy
Strong, in the Longhorn Canyon series, and the edits on The Banty House,
a women’s fiction book. They’ll both be out in April/May 2020. But next on the
publishing schedule is:
Christmas with a Cowboy,
Sept. 24
The Family Journal,
(my 100th novel), November 12
Cowboy Strong,
Jan. 28, 2020
Wildflower Ranch
(a novella), Feb. 4
Thank you, again, to the folks who asked questions. Join
me on my Author’s FB page today, August 20th, from 11 to 12 central standard time if you
have anymore questions!! https://www.facebook.com/carolynbrownbooks/
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