Carolyn Brown sits for an Interview
There are certain people one meets during their lifetime who instantly impact, and then leave an indelible stamp upon your mind. Carolyn Brown is one such person. Dubbed the “Hell Ya!” cowgirl at the 2010 RWA (image to right), Carolyn’s spunk and energetic personality gave additional life to an already lively party. None of us will forget it, I assure you! Yet the true mark upon me was created by her kindness and warmth. I am blessed to have Carolyn as a friend, and thrilled to welcome her here today.
Take it away Carolyn!
Carolyn Brown is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author and a RITA finalist. Her books include 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.
Visit Carolyn on her website: www.carolynlbrown.com
Facebook Author Page
Amazon Author Page
Goodreads
An Interview With Carolyn Brown ~
Q. What are your favorite books to read?
A. I love mystery books… Sue Grafton, J.A. Jance, Carl Hiaason and Charles C. Brown (Husband) are a few of my favorites.
Q. Tell us about where you grew up. Share a favorite childhood memory. Which high school group did you fit in to?
A. I grew up in the little southern Oklahoma town of Tishomingo, Oklahoma. My mother was a single mom and that was frowned upon in the late 50’s and early 60’s and I didn’t fit into any high school group. It wasn’t their fault but mine. Why fit in with one little clique when you could be friends with everyone?
Q. Where do you live now? What do you like and dislike about your part of the world?
A. I live in another small town in southern Oklahoma. Husband’s teaching brought us here and we’ve been in the same house for more than 30 years now. I don’t ever want to move simply because it would take a year to clean the closets and the garage. I love our little town but when the red cedar is blooming it’s sure tough on allergies. Thank goodness for A/C or I might not like the summers here but since my office is in the house and I can work in my pajamas…hey, it’s not a bad deal. And I don’t have to shovel snow in the winter…well, not very often anyway.
Q. If you could live anywhere in the world besides where you now reside, where would it be?
A. Laguna Beach, Florida. Husband and I go there every Christmas for a couple of weeks. It’s our Christmas present to each other. I love the sound of the ocean and the sand between my toes.
Q. Do you have a “day job” other than writing? What “day jobs” have you had in the past?
A. I’m very fortunate in that I get to do what I love which is write all day every day. But past jobs…I was a waitress, a fry cook, a teacher’s aid, managed an apartment complex for HUD, worked in a newspaper doing everything from writing obits to advertising and also wrote a prize winning humorous column for 14 years…oh, and I almost forgot that I was a concession stand attendant at the local theater in Tishomingo.
Q. Do you have any favorite TV shows?
A. NCIS, CSI, Criminal Minds, Hart of Dixie, Justified, and I loved Roseanne.
Q. What kind of movies do you like to watch? Can you name your top five favorite movies of all time?
A. My movie watching is as eclectic as my reading. I enjoy mysteries but I’ll read anything from Faulkner to the back of the Cheerios box. My favorite movies…Steel Magnolias, Something to Talk About, The Shooter, Home Alone, and Pretty Woman.
Q. You are forced to live on a desert island for six months. Food and bare survival equipment will be provided but that is all. You can take one person and five items to relieve the boredom and enhance the experience. Who is the person and what are the items? Why?
A. I’d take Husband because he’s one of the only people I know who wouldn’t bug me while I was writing a couple of books during that six months. My five items: My lap top; a composition book (I still take notes in long hand); my Bible (some of the best love stories in the world are in there); an ink pen, and a camera.
Q. Do you have a favorite quote or inspirational saying?
A. This, too, shall pass.
Q. Do you have any tattoos or atypical piercings? If you had to get a tattoo, what would it be and where would you place it?
A. Oh, honey, I’m too afraid of needles for any of that. They have to promise me a lollipop at the doctors to get me to take a shot. And my doctor keeps the needle behind his back so I can’t see it.
Q. Do you have any phobias?
A. I have acute musophobia. That’s fear of mice…they are only slightly smaller than King Kong and they roar like a lion in my imagination.
Q. What is your writing environment like?
A. I have a small office in my house, right across the hall from my bedroom. The walls are covered with framed covers of all my books…all 67 to date but by the end of next year there will be 75. Husband says that in five years I may have to expand the room. Let’s hope so!
Q. What is your fashion or accessory weakness?
A. Shoes! I love pretty shoes but alas I can no longer wear four inch heels but hey, they now make blinged out flip flops and they are so comfortable. Good-bye heels. Hello, flip flops!
Q. If you knew you had only a month left to live, what would you do?
A. I would go to that secluded beach with Husband and simply enjoy the time with him.
Q. What is your idea of perfect happiness?
A. Inner peace. When there’s inner peace there is perfect happiness.
Carolyn’s “Off the Cuff” Choices ~
Tea or Coffee… coffee
Chick flick or Mystery… mystery
Beach or Mountains… beach
Porsche or Silverado… Silverado
Dog or Cat… Cat
Summer or Winter… Summer
Paperback or Kindle… paperback
Facebook or Twitter… Facebook
Salad or French Fries… Salad
Apartment or House… house
Beer or Wine… wine if I must, but I’d rather have Jack Daniel’s with two cubes of ice
Forgive or Get Even… depends on how mad I am
Cake or Pie… pie
Sunlight or Rain… rain
Waffles or Pancakes… waffles
Optimist or Pessimist… optimist
Target or Nordstrom… Target
Wallflower or Life of the Party… somewhere in between
Christmas or Halloween… can I have Thanksgiving instead?
Daisy or Rose… daisy
Listener or Talker… I do try to be a listener, but I don’t succeed to well
Survivor or American Idol… The Voice
Edward or Jacob… Jacob
Leather or Lace… Lace
High Maintenance or Easy Breezy… Easy Breezy
Carolyn’s Latest Novel is “How To Marry A Cowboy”
She’s running from her past
Mason Harper’s daughters want a new mama in the worst way, and when a beautiful woman in a tattered wedding gown appears on their doorstep, the two little girls adopt her-no ifs, ands, or buts about it. Mason isn’t sure about taking in a complete stranger, but Lord knows he needs a nanny, and Annie Rose Boudreau stirs his heart in long-forgotten ways…
And he’s the perfect escape
Annie Rose is desperate, and when a tall, sexy cowboy offers her a place to stay, she can’t refuse. After all, it’s just for a little while. As she settles in deeper, her heart tells her both Mason and her role as makeshift mama suit her just fine. But will Mason feel the same way once her nightmare past catches up with her?
An Excerpt
“Gabby, come quick! Hot damn, Daddy done got us a new mama!”
The sound of a little girl’s running feet pounded through her head like a longhorn cattle stampede, and her eyes snapped open to see two little blond girls with tangled hair flying out to the sides of their heads as they jumped up and down on the wooden porch, giving Annie Rose the mother of all headaches. The bright morning sun rising above the trees out there on the horizon stung so bad that she frowned and quickly shut them, hoping it was all a bizarre nightmare.
The faint smell of a ranch that wafted to her nose on the morning breeze was one of her favorite scents in the world, but even that wasn’t comforting under the circumstances. She felt the rumbling purr of a big yellow cat who had apparently curled up in the curve of her body sometime during the night. Sudden fear, not of the cat, but because she’d slept past daylight, put her into flight mode, and she pushed the cat to the side and sat up.
The porch posts tilted off to the left, and the little girls went fuzzy. She shut her eyes again and muttered to herself, “Where am I? I’ve got to find an airport or a bus station.”
“More important, who are you?” a deep man’s voice asked, half-gentle, half-suspicious, and Annie Rose opened her eyes again to look into the concerned green eyes of the handsomest man she’d ever seen in her waking moments.
She glanced down at the torn and dirty bridal gown and the suitcase sitting off to one side of the swing, and it all flashed through her mind like a dying woman’s last visions—the terror that gripped her so hard that it nauseated her, the drive across the northern part of Texas, and the last time she checked her rearview to be sure she wasn’t being followed. Looking up to see the tree coming right at her, the impact when her left front bumper hit and bark flew, then the long, greasy slide into the muddy water. It was all there in vivid color, right along with Nicky standing across the room from her with a telephone to his ear.
Maybe if she faked amnesia it would buy her a couple of hours. That’s all she needed to get cleaned up and get out of here. People did get amnesia. She’d seen it a few times when she was working as a nurse. What she’d dealt with lasted only a day or two, but she’d read case files where it had gone on for much longer. If she could buy herself time to change and catch a ride, that would work out perfectly.
Some of Carolyn’s novels ~
Hi Carolyn nice to meet you 🙂 Thanks for a lovely interview Sharon and Carolyn.
You sound like lot of fun and so do your books. I will have check out “How to Marry A Cowboy” 🙂
I enjoy these interviews so much. It is good to know that real, down-home gals with long-term marriages are writing such genuine romances. I live a bit of a distance south of you (Ecuador) but I am an Oregonian born and bred with an Oklahoma Dad.
Thank you again Sharon for introducing me to another author that I need to add to my towering TBR pile. Any recommendations on which book I should get first?
Joy, if you want sweet romance with a little humor, try The Ladies’ Room; if you want women’s fiction with lots of humor try The Blue Ribbon Jalapeno Society Jubilee; if you want a spicy cowboy, start the Cowboys & Brides series with Billion Dollar Cowboy and if you like that one, you can go through the series and wind up with How to Marry a Cowboy. The complete list of my books is available on my website…the Booklist page…www.carolynlbrown.com
Thank you so much for stopping by!
From one Okie to another, great interview! I live in Lexington and have a great friend who lives in Davis so I know exactly where you’re talking about (and understand the allergies!). We had the storms last night, but it’s sunshiny this morning. You’ve got an incredible collection of books! Wow! I’m going to go get my Nook and look some up. Thanks for sharing!
Stephanie, thank you! Wow we are almost neighbors…’tis stills storming here in Davis. My poor tom cat, Boots, is terrified of thunder so he’s hiding under a shed and refuses to come inside. The other tom cat, Chester Fat Boy, is quite content to sleep on his soft blanket and leave the storm outside! Thank you so much for stopping by and happy reading.
Sharon, thank you so much for letting me prop up my flip flops at your site today. It’s always a pleasure to get to visit with you! It’s thundering and raining in southern Oklahoma this morning but in cyber world, the sun is shining and I’d love to visit with you all on the front porch. So drag up a rocker and let’s talk.
It is my great pleasure, Carolyn! You can sit on my front porch anytime, virtual or reality. I have a fabulous front porch attached to my Kentucky home, and two back yard lounge areas too! Sweet tea is readily available 🙂
We had those storms last night, then apparently sent them your way. Rain or shine, there is fun to be had. Hell Ya!
Hell, yeah! Love the picture of us at that party…that was my first ever conference!