Thank you for the invitation to stop by This Book For Free today for a visit. I’m settled into the corner of the sofa over here and I’ve got a cup of coffee in one hand and a double fudge cupcake in the other. Hell, Yeah, the second book in the Honky Tonk Trilogy just hit the bookstores last week. Life is good so let the questions begin!

Shoshana

1. If you can have Christmas in August, what (or whom!) would you like to have in
your stocking, and why?
I want one of those RITA statues for any one of the Honky Tonk Series. I’ve been a good little writer, Santa, darlin’, and I won’t be greedy and ask for two of those lovely ladies. I’ll let you decide which book wins it and could you please give me the grace to walk up the steps to receive it without falling. I’m more than a bit clumsy. There will be a cold longneck bottle of beer and pretzels on the bar for you … my lips are sealed … Mrs. Claus or all those millions of children will never know about the beer or that you stopped long enough to rest your aching feet at my kitchen table.

2. If you’re going to be stuck in an island for some time, what are the three items you must have? (This is assuming that you have food and shelter and don’t have to worry about dying.)
My lap top with internet. One of those big umbrellas that stick in the sand so I don’t burn to a crisp. And a box of romance books to read when I’m not writing.

Virginia C

3. What’s the very first book that made a lasting impression on you from your
childhood?
I lived with a blind grandmother when I was a little girl and at night we listened to her “talking books” which were these big records that had someone reading books to us. Or else I read my library books if she wanted to talk to her friends on the telephone. I’m not sure I could ever choose one book in amongst all those. Everything makes an impression on me.

4. What’s the last book you read that made you cry?
I love LaVryle Spencer and she made me cry in every book she wrote. Can I have a coupon for a lunch with her in my Christmas stocking, too? Did I hear big a hell, yeah?

Estella

5. How do you decide on the names for your characters?
If I’m writing historical fiction I go to the top 100 names during that time frame. If I’m writing contemporary it’s pretty much the same only in the year that my character was born. But sometimes a name pops into my head and that’s it no matter if was popular or not. Like Jezzy Belle in Hell, Yeah … or Travis … and of course, Cathy! The names fit their personalities. Jezzy couldn’t have been a Sue, or a Darlene. It just wouldn’t have worked like Jezzy.

6. What do you enjoy doing in your spare time?
I love to cook and sit out in my fabulous back yard and listen to the birds sing in the late evening. Both cooking and sitting on my patio with a cup of coffee or a can of Diet Coke clears my mind and gets me ready to write the next scene or chapter or even book.

Chey

7. Do you get to choose your own titles?
Titles are something my editor, the Sourcebooks staff and I all work on together. I absolutely loved the titles for the Honky Tonk Series. That Hell, Yeah cover just pops off the book shelf at the readers, doesn’t it?

8 . How much input do you have in your covers?
I’ve been very fortunate that the folks at Sourcebooks read about my characters before they design the book covers. They take the information I supply and come up with those gorgeous covers which are BYOB … that means Bring Your Own Bib to the book store because there will be drooling!

Caffey

9. If you could meet any author from the past that inspired you to become an author, who would you like to meet and what would you like to ask them? That would have to be Margaret Mitchell and I’d like to ask her why in the devil did she stop at one book?
There were many more stories that could have spun off of Gone With The Wind and I’m
just sure I would have loved every one of them!

Pam S

10. What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
When I’m buying a cone I like that soft vanilla with a curl on the top. When I’m treating myself for finishing a difficult scene, it’s pecans pralines and cream right out of the half gallon with a spoon and standing at the kitchen bar. When I’m brave enough to step on the bathroom scales, it’s orange sherbet because it has less calories.

11. What is your most memorable vacation?
Well, I just came home yesterday from the RWA Convention in Orlando, Florida and that was pretty awesome. But in all my travels my favorite … remember now, I’m a romantic at heart … had to be on my 30th anniversary when my husband took me to Panama City Beach, Florida to celebrate and instead of a card he drew this big, enormous heart in the sand and put Happy 30th right in the middle of it.

Meredith Miller

12. Have you had any “real life” adventures that have influenced your characters or plots?
Oh, my yes. Those are the spice of a story and breathe life into it.

13. What is the strangest question someone has ever asked you in an interview?
That would be whether I’d written anything I wouldn’t want my mother to read. My mother read everything I wrote as long as her eyesight was good and until she took her last breath, anyone who came into her nursing home room got a full report on how many
books I’d sold, where they could buy them or check them out of a library and what month the next one came out. And if they didn’t want to be scolded the next time they entered her room, they’d have danged sure better come prepared to tell her that they’d read my books. She would have loved the cover for Hell, Yeah!

Terri C

14. When did you know you wanted to make a career of writing?
I do believe it was when I was four. All those beautiful words in those books had to be exciting. When I was five I learned to read and from that moment I was going to grow up and write.

CherylS22

15. What is your favorite writing environment?
When the nest was finally empty of kids and grandkids, I converted a small bedroom into an office. That’s my favorite place to write, surrounded by all my book covers, matted and framed around me, my notes thrown haphazardly around and a window where I can see the squirrels playing in the pecan tree right outside.

KarenK

16. Who are your most favorite authors?
If we’re going to get into that we’d better refill our iced tea glasses and put out another platter of cookies because the list is long. I love LaVyrle Spencer, Sue Grafton, Randy Wayne White, Nora Roberts (of course), Leon Uris … as you can see, I’m an eclectic reader.

CrystalGB

17. Who are the biggest supporters of your writing?
My husband, bless his heart! It takes a special man to be married to a writer. When we married, I tailor made his clothes; put three hot meals on the table plus cakes, cookies and pies for in between meal snacks; and kept a clean house. Now he wears clothes off the rack, eats fast food and dust bunnies tell him bedtime stories while I finish one more scene. He also monitors the phone and lets only important calls through to me … like when the youngest granddaughter said her first words!

LilMissMolly

18. What do you enjoy reading?
I will read anything from the back of the Special K box to Faulkner and love all of it. I love a good romance that makes me sigh, puts a wee tear in my eye, and gives me the giggles until I get the hiccups. I love a good mystery that makes me hold my breath and try to figure out whodunnit. Or a good old fashioned shoot-’em-up western. Any day with a book in my hands is a good day.

Aurora M

19. What book was your earliest memory?
Well, there was See Jane Run in the first grade when I was five. But I suppose you mean romance book? I remember the summer I found Victoria Holt and then Janet Dailey. I think I’m dating myself here.

20. If you could have any other job what would it be?
I can not think of another job that I would want other than being a writer. I can work in my pajamas on my own hours in my own house. It don’t get no better than that.

HELL, YEAH BY CAROLYN BROWN – IN STORES AUGUST 2010
She’s finally found a place that feels like home…
When Cathy O’Dell buys the Honky Tonk, the nights of cowboys and country tunes come together to create the home she’s always wanted. Then in walks a ruggedly handsome oil man who tempts her to trade in the happiness she’s found at the Honky Tonk for a life on the road with him…

He lives the good life…
Gorgeous and rich, Travis Henry travels the country unearthing oil wells and then moving on. Then the beautiful blue-eyed new owner of the Honky Tonk beer joint becomes his best friend and so much more. When his job is done in Texas, how is he ever going to hit the road without her?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Carolyn Brown, an award-winning author who has published 36 romance novels for the library market, credits her eclectic family for her humor and writing ideas. She was born in Texas but grew up in southern Oklahoma where she and her husband, Charles, a retired English teacher, now make their home in the town of Davis, Oklahoma. They have three grown children and enough grandchildren to keep them young. Visit Carolyn Brown’s at http://carolynlbrown.com/.

Giveaway:
Thanks to Danielle and Sourcebooks. There’s two winners for Carolyn Brown’s brand new novel, Hell Yeah.
US and Canada addresses.
Contest ends August 30.
Fill in this form and leave a comment below to win.

For your comments, you can ask Ms Carolyn some more questions. It’s quite an honor to have Carolyn visit and mingle with us.

Tags: Carolyn Brown