Celebrate National Day of the Cowboy with Carolyn Brown

National Day of the Cowboy is tomorrow, July 22. But we've been celebrating all week! You already met five romance writers who are crazy about cowboys. Joining us today another New York Times and USA Today bestselling author whose phenomenal contemporary cowboy romance is rocketing up the charts--welcome Carolyn Brown.

With more than 3 million copies of her books sold, Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and a RITA finalist. She’s won the National Reader’s Choice Award three times, the Bookseller’s Best Award and was awarded the prestigious Montlake Diamond Award for selling over a million books.  Her books include romantic women’s fiction, historical, contemporary, cowboys and country music mass market paperbacks. She and her husband, Charles, a retired English teacher, live in Davis, Oklahoma that only has one traffic light. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young. When she’s not writing she likes to sit in her 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.

Toughest Cowboy in Texas kicks off her new Happy, Texas series...

The Spark of an Old Flame

Last time Lila Harris was in Happy, Texas, she was actively earning her reputation as the resident wild child. Now, a little older and wiser, she's back to run her mother's café for the summer. Except something about this town has her itching to get a little reckless and rowdy, especially when she sees her old partner-in-crime, Brody Dawson. Their chemistry is just as hot as ever. But he's still the town's golden boy-and she's still the wrong kind of girl.

Brody hasn't had much time lately for anything other than ranching. Running the biggest spread in the county and taking care of his family more than keeps him busy. All that responsibility has him longing for the carefree days of high school-and Lila. She may have grown up, but he still sees that spark of mischief in her eyes. Now he's dreaming about late-night skinny dipping and wondering how he can possibly resist the one woman he can never forget...

Here's an excerpt...

Lila reached across his booth to pick up a one-page menu stuck between the salt shaker and napkin holder. Her arm brushed against his chest and more sparks danced around the café. Hoping that he didn’t hear the breathlessness in her voice, she straightened up to her full height and started reading. “We have chicken fried steak, grilled pork chops, breakfast served all day, burgers of all kinds and today’s lunch special was meatloaf and mashed potatoes. I think there’s a little more left if you are interested. I really thought you might have learned to read down there at Texas A&M.”

Brody laid a rough, callused hand on her arm. Pure electricity shot through her body.

“Are you still as wild as ever?” he whispered seductively.

“Oh, honey, you can’t even imagine what all you’ve missed out on the past twelve years.” The chemistry between them hadn’t changed a bit—at least not for her. She pulled her arm back and looked back down at the menu. “Want me to go on or have you heard something that appeals to you?”

He raked his fingers through his thick, dark hair. It needed a cut, but then maybe he wore it a little longer these days. “Just something to drink for now,” he said.

 She turned away from him and headed back to the drink station. With shaking hands, she poured the tea and lemonade, stirred and picked up the glass to carry it to his booth. When she took it to him, he motioned toward the other side of the table.

“Sit with me.”

“You’re a few years late with that invitation,” she told him.

“Ahh, come on, Lila,” he said.

Throw a plaid shirt over that dirty white T-shirt and he’d still be the boy who had broken her heart all those years ago. But she’d cried her tears and burned the bridges between her and Brody so bygones be damned.

He nodded toward the other side of the booth. “You’re really going to hold a grudge and not sit with me for five minutes?”

“I really am,” she said.

E.E.: Describe in your own words what makes a “cowboy” a cowboy?

Carolyn: A cowboy might have flaws because after all he is human and he is of the male gender. But he’s a special type because he’s kind, honest, respects women, would fight to the death for his friends or his family and he loves his mama.

E.E.: Why do you think the “cowboy culture” remains so appealing?

Carolyn: It’s honest living whether the cowboy is barely eking out a living on a rundown ranch full of nothing but mesquite bushes, cow tongue cactus and chiggers or a huge spread that has lots of hired hands helping him out. Folks like to read about men who work with their hands, who aren’t afraid of sweat and dirt, and who love living close to the land.

E.E.: What is it about cowboys that you find attractive, and/or inspiring? (Basically, why do you write stories featuring cowboy lore or American West historical or contemporary culture?)

Carolyn: Physically, the way they walk in cowboy boots. There’s just something about that swagger that makes a woman take a second look. But then add to that the way they tip their hat to a lady, and the way that those tight fittin’ jeans hug their bodies and they should give away those fans that we used to have in church with each cowboy romance purchase—remember those cardboard fans with the 23^rd Psalm on one side and an advertisement of the local funeral home on the other? That’s the ones I’m talking about.

E.E.: Who are some of your favorite cowboys (in history, literature, films, television, real life, whatever)? 

Carolyn: I absolutely love Timothy Olyphant as Raylan Givens in Justified; Tom Sellack in Quigley Down Under and Lee Majors as Heath in the Big Valley television series from years ago. I could go on and on but I expect that space might be limited.

 

What is it about cowboys that YOU find attractive and appealing? Leave a comment, and don't forget to enter the raffle!

Enter for your chance to win prizes in our Celebrate Cowboys giveaways. 

Winners announced Sunday, July 23 on this blog.

Tomorrow join USA Today & Publisher's Weekly Bestselling author 
Angi Morgan as she wraps up our week long celebration!

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Get Lost in Happy, Texas with the Toughest (and Sexiest) Cowboy

Get ready for brand new series and the Toughest Cowboy in Texas from New York Times Bestselling Author Carolyn Brown.

The Spark of an Old Flame

Last time Lila Harris was in Happy, Texas, she was actively earning her reputation as the resident wild child. Now, a little older and wiser, she's back to run her mother's café for the summer. Except something about this town has her itching to get a little reckless and rowdy, especially when she sees her old partner-in-crime, Brody Dawson. Their chemistry is just as hot as ever. But he's still the town's golden boy-and she's still the wrong kind of girl.

Brody hasn't had much time lately for anything other than ranching. Running the biggest spread in the county and taking care of his family more than keeps him busy. All that responsibility has him longing for the carefree days of high school-and Lila. She may have grown up, but he still sees that spark of mischief in her eyes. Now he's dreaming about late-night skinny dipping and wondering how he can possibly resist the one woman he can never forget...

Here's an excerpt

   Lila picked up a basket filled to the brim with hot French fries just as the door to the Happy Café opened. The hot western sun silhouetted the cowboy in the doorway, but she’d recognize Brody Dawson anywhere—in the darkest night or the brightest day.

   The energy in the café sparkled with electricity and her chest tightened. She gripped the red plastic basket to keep from dropping it and slowly inhaled, willing herself to take a step toward the table where a couple of old ranchers waited for their order.

   “Well, well,” Brody drawled. He closed the door behind him and slowly scanned her from the toes of her boots to her black ponytail. “The wild child has returned.”

   “But not for long, so don’t go getting your hopes up,” she smarted off right back at him.

   In a few long strides he slid into a booth and laid his hat on the space beside him. He filled out the butt of his jeans even better than he had when they were in high school and his chest was an acre wide. Lord, why couldn’t he have developed a beer gut and two chins?

   She carried the order to the other end of the café and set it down between Paul McKay and Fred Williams, two ranchers she’d known her whole growing up years.

   “I’d forgotten that they called you the wild child, Lila.” Paul grinned.

   “People change,” she said. “Anything else?”

   Fred squirted streams of ketchup across the fries. “Nah, we’re good for now. Might need some more tea before we leave. You should wait on poor old Brody. He looks like he’s spittin’ dust.”

   “Yeah. I’m dying over here,” Brody called from across the small dining room. “How about a glass of half sweet tea and half Molly’s fresh lemonade?”

   “Anything else, Your Highness?” Lila asked as she turned to face him and made her way to his table.

   His sexy grin and that twinkle in his baby-blue eyes made every hormone in her body beg for attention. But then she reminded herself that she didn’t have to impress Brody Dawson. She was not that girl anymore. Oh, but to kiss those lips one more time just to see if they still made her knees go weak. No! No! No! Yet her fingertips went straight to her lips to see if the memory made them as warm as they felt.

Meet Carolyn

With more than 3 million copies of her books sold, Carolyn Brown is a New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author and a RITA finalist. She’s won the National Reader’s Choice Award three times, the Bookseller’s Best Award and was awarded the prestigious Montlake Diamond Award for selling over a million books.  Her books include romantic women’s fiction, historical, contemporary, cowboys and country music mass market paperbacks. She and her husband, Charles, a retired English teacher, live in Davis, Oklahoma,, which only has one traffic light. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young. When she’s not writing, Carolyn likes to sit in her 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.

Website: http://www.carolynbrownbooks.com/

Blog: http://carolynlbrown.blogspot.com/

FB: https://www.facebook.com/carolyn.bro76

FB (Author's Page): https://www.facebook.com/Carolyn-Brown-198727816879253/?ref=bookmarks

Email: ccbrown66@att.net

Goodreads: Toughest Cowboy in Texas

Thanks, E.E., for asking me to stop by your site today and talk about my brand new hot off the press release, Toughest Cowboy in Texas. It’s the first book in the Happy, Texas series and will be followed by Long, Tall Texas Cowboy in September and Luckiest Cowboy of All in January. There really is a Happy, Texas out in the panhandle where the ground and sky meet each other on the flat horizon. It’s a part of the country that has stolen my soul and I love that area, so having the opportunity to set a series there was amazing.

I understand that you have questions for me. I’ve got coffee in one hand and a doughnut in the other so I’m ready.

E.E.: Here goes! I love listening to music while I write. Is there a playlist you’d recommend for reading your latest release?

Carolyn: Oh, yes, ma’am! I listen to country music when I’m writing and it means a lot to the characters who are living, breathing souls in my world when I’m telling their story. The songs that I listened to and mentioned in Toughest Cowboy in Texas include: “17” by Cross Canadian Ragweed, Blake Shelton’s “Boys Round Here” and “Straight Outta Cold Beer”; “If You’re Gonna Play in Texas” by Alabama; “Sideways” by Darryl Worley: “Red Neck Woman” by Gretchen Wilson; “Feels Like Love”, “Never Knew Lonely”  and “Which Bridge to Cross” by Vince Gill; “Heaven’s Just a Sin Away” by The Kendells; Jennifer Nettles, “Unlove You”; “Check Yes or No” and “So Much Like My Dad” by George Strait; Sammie Kershaw’s “Don’t Go Near the Water”; Tracy Bryd’s “Holdin’ Heaven”; Rascal Flatt’s “Broken Roads”; “H.O.L.Y” by Florida Georgia Line; and “Rockin Chairs,” By Dolly Parton. I have to admit that “17” was the one that was the theme song for the whole book.

E.E.: What sound or noise do you like?

Carolyn: I love the sound of the ocean. I can sit on the beach and listen to it all day. Some of my best stories are hatched when I’m listening to the waves splashing up on the sand.

E.E.: What’s your favorite movie of all time?

Carolyn: I love Steel Magnolias. There’s laughter and tears and it touches my emotions. I watched it three times in one day when it first came out.

E.E.: What’s your biggest vice?

Carolyn: Food wise that would have to be fresh bread right from the oven, slathered in butter with maybe either homemade strawberry preserves or else honey. But my biggest vice has to be my writing. When I first started in this business, I wrote under a pen name so that it could be my vice and no one would ever know who I really was. But my sister was so proud of me for finally getting published after twenty years of rejections that she fired an article off to three newspapers. It’s still my vice because I’m addicted to telling stories even though I now write under the name that’s on my birth certificate.

E.E.: Who is your favorite villain?

Carolyn: Oh, honey, that would be Boyd Crowder of Justified. I love Raylan Givens in that television series but it’s the first time I think I ever fell in love with the villain, too. Boyd was such a character that I didn’t even want to see the actor play another part in other movies or series.

E.E.: Fairy tale or action?

Carolyn: Depends on my mood and whether I’m reading or watching something. Got to admit that I do love a good romantic movie like The Longest Ride but then I really like something like The Shooter or the old Lethal Weapon movies, too. Reading wise, I’m an eclectic reader who will read anything from the back of the Cheerio’s box to Faulkner and love it all!

E.E.: Can you tell us about a real-life hero you’ve met?

Carolyn: In a heart beat! My husband that everyone knows as Mr. B. It takes a special person to be married to an author who always has voices in her head and who needs one more hour to write her way out of a scene. While I was getting established in my career he worked as a high school English teacher and then in the evenings took on other jobs so we could raise three kids together. He’s my real-life hero for sure.

Now it’s my turn. What is it about a cowboy romance that just flat out melts your heart?

C'mon, GLIAS readers, tell us why you love cowboy romances? Don't forget to enter the raffle for your chance to win one of two copies of Carolyn's new release, Toughest Cowboy in Texas.

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