Author Carolyn Brown: The Last of Spikes & Spurs and Giveaway

It’s always a hoot to welcome bestselling author Carolyn
Brown back to Thoughts in Progress because I know it means she has a new book out and lots of fun things to share with us. However, today’s return comes with a bit of sadness as her latest release, COWBOY SEEKS BRIDE, is the last installment in her tantalizing Spikes and Spurs series.


But with that sadness, Carolyn always brings joy. Thanks to her and the lovely Danielle at Sourcebooks, I have a giveaway to offer today to a lucky winner. Please see the end of the post for details.

First, let’s take a peak at what COWBOY SEEKS BRIDE is all about:
    He's Tough as Nails and Ready to Ride...     Rancher Dewar O'Donnell is just an old-fashioned cowboy at heart, and he can't wait to reenact the historic Chisholm Trail ride with his buddies. The trial-run cattle drive for a reality TV show sounds like a great time—until H.B. McKay pulls up in her slick red sports car...
    She's Way Out of Her Element...     Haley McKay is a feisty, high-powered businesswoman with the power suit and stiletto heels to prove it. She's keen to research her company's hot new idea for a reality TV show—but mount up with a bunch of modern-day cowboys? Are they kidding?
    It's too late to back out now, so Haley sets out to prove that it will take more than snakes, storms, and stampedes to make her back down.
    Besides, sleeping under the stars with Dewar O'Donnell could prove mighty interesting...

I hear Carolyn coming in, let’s see what she’s up to. I think she has a trip planned for us. Hi, there Carolyn, what’s up?

Y’all are cordially invited to come on over to my house today where we’ll be havin’ dinner…just to be clear, that would be the noon meal in this part of the world. It’ll be put on the bar at, you guessed it, twelve o’clock sharp and we’ll serve it up buffet style. 

Menu includes sweet tea with lots of ice because it’s hotter than the devil’s spiky little tail, mashed potatoes, fried squash, fried chicken, a nice big garden fresh salad with endive and fresh tomatoes, black eyed peas and a choice of hot yeast rolls or cornbread—or both if you’d like cornbread with your peas and maybe a hot roll when you go back for a second plate of fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. No one is counting how many plates you use up so don’t be shy. Dessert is your choice of pecan pie and/or fresh peach cobbler, with or without homemade ice cream.

While we’re eating we’ll gather around the ten foot dining room table and talk about COWBOY SEEKS BRIDE, the seventh and last book in the Spikes & Spurs series that started with LOVE DRUNK COWBOY in May, 2011. 

Dewar and Haley’s story was such fun to write. Next time the O’Donnell’s gather up to sing out under the shade trees in Ringgold, Texas (population less than 100), they’ll have a wild tale to tell about herding those cattle all the way up through Oklahoma to Dodge City, Kansas.

What’s that? Someone has a question down at the end of the table.

What is it that I like about country living that makes me continue to write about it? 

Well, darlin’ a few years ago I went to a little school auditorium up in Coleman, Oklahoma to see Jerry Clower. Some of y’all might not have ever heard of that fellow but he was one of my favorite comedians from the time I was just a teenager. Believe me, it was a big deal for me to get to sit up in the bleachers in the old gym and listen to him. I even bought a brand new pair of boots to wear that night.

After he’d entertained us with his stories about Marcel Ledbetter and Uncle Versy, he had a little time left before his car arrived to take him to the Dallas airport and on back to Mississippi where he lived. He opened up the floor for questions and someone asked him why he always talked about the country life and why he loved it more than city living.

His answer was that in the country folks know their neighbors and they take care of their friends. When his mama passed, the family all came home to her house and not one relative cooked so much as a biscuit during their time of mourning.

That kind of sums it up. In the country, folks might know everyone and get into their business and offer up advice when it’s not even asked for. But when babies are born, when folks pass on, when there’s sickness or joy, folks are there with food and a helping hand. And believe me not a dime passes hands for what’s done, either. Friendship is a priceless commodity like love. Country living has a heart beat and a pulse of its own and once you partake of it, you will come back for a second helping sometime. It might just to be for a visit, but you’ll get to cravin’ the slow simple lifestyle and nothing else will satisfy that itch but a day or two in the country.

That’s the way things are done in the Spikes & Spurs series down in Ringgold, Texas. Cash and Maddie O’Donnell are that kind of folks and they’ve raised their kids that way.
 
So it’s no wonder that Dewar has trouble wrapping his mind around falling for a city girl. And it’s no wonder that it’s difficult for Haley, being a city girl, to admit that she could fall for a country boy with values and a lifestyle so very different from hers. But the heart wants what it wants, and it don’t give a damn whether the body that houses it lives in the country or in the city.

What is it that appeals to y’all about country living? Or maybe we can take it a step on up the ladder and ask what is it about country living and cowboys that makes reading about them exciting to you?

While you’re thinkin’ on that, does anyone need a refill on their sweet tea while I’m up and checkin’ on the ice cream freezer?

Carolyn, thanks for the invite and dinner. Fine as always, but like your books. I have to agree with you and Jerry Clower (a funny man) about country living. It can’t be beat.

Now, for those who don’t know Carolyn let me share a bit of background. She is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author with more than sixty books published. She writes bestselling single title cowboy and country music mass market romances, as well as women’s fiction. 

Born in Texas and raised in southern Oklahoma, Carolyn and her husband now make their home in the town of Davis, Oklahoma. Look for THE COWBOY’S CHRISTMAS BABY in stores this October! 

For more information on Carolyn and her writing, please visit www.CarolynLBrown.com. 

Here’s what some others have to say about Carolyn:
    "Lazy drawls and pointy-toed boots are at the heart of Brown's Texas-set romance...the couple's relationship is hot as the Texan sun." — RT Book Reviews, 4 Stars
    "Funny, frank, and full of heart...One more welcome example of Brown's Texas-size talent for storytelling." — USA Today Happily Ever After
    "Alive with humor...Another page-turning joy of a book by an engaging author." — Fresh Fiction

COWBOY SEEKS BRIDE can be found at these locations: Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-Million, Indigo/Chapters, IndieBound, Discover a New Love, and Sourcebooks.

GIVEAWAY DETAILS:
Now for the giveaway, thanks to Carolyn and Danielle. I have 1 copy of JUST A COWBOY AND HIS BABY (the book directly preceding COWBOY SEEKS BRIDE in the Spikes & Spurs series) to giveaway. The contest is open to residents of the US and Canada only.

To enter this giveaway, please send me an e-mail (mcbookshelf@gmail.com) with the subject line, “Win JUST A COWBOY.” Your message should include your name and mailing address. And, just so you know, I don’t share this information with anyone other than the publisher nor use it for any other purpose. The deadline to enter this giveaway for a chance to win a copy of JUST A COWBOY AND HIS BABY will be 8 p.m. (EDT) on Thursday, Aug. 29.

Thanks for stopping by today. Well, what’s your thoughts on country living?