Skip to main content

It’s Launch Party Time!

A Big Casablanca Welcome to fellow Sourcebooks romance author, Carolyn Brown!

Put on the music. Country music please since this is launch party for the Honky Tonk Series. Bring out the champagne!

Make it two bottles! Today is the launch party for My Give A Damn’s Busted and Honky Tonk Christmas so that calls for two bottles.

Everyone got a glass? Okay, hold ‘em up!


Here’s a toast to my publisher, Dominique Raccah; to my editor, Deb Werksman; my publicist, Danielle Jackson and all the rest of the Sourcebooks staff who made all this possible.

Fill ‘em up again.


Now here’s a toast to all my fellow authors who know what it is to produce a book from beginning sentence to end of story. With a special sip to Joanne Kennedy, my fellow western romance comrade in arms at Sourcebooks.

Fill ‘em up again.


Let’s have a toast to all romance readers! Without you folks writers would soon find themselves headlining the endangered species list and dear hearts, that’s one place I don’t want to find my name.

Fill ‘em up again.

Now, go on over to the food table and load up a plate. Need some sideboards? They’re right beside those cute little glasses of shrimp cocktail!

Let me hear a big hell, yeah from everyone who’s having a good time!

Well, that rattled the crystal chandelier so I guess this party is a big success.

I’m taking my champagne to that table over there in the corner where both my newest Honky Tonk books are stacked high and waiting for me to sign … don’t you just love the covers? Those are some sexy cowboys, aren’t they? And they ran around in my mind for months on end … no wonder I’ve got this silly grin on my face all the time.


Someone once asked me if I had a personal romance story that sparked my interest in writing romance. Drag up a chair and sit beside me while I sign these books and we’ll talk about that.

It was the mid-sixties and my BFF and her boyfriend got in this huge fight. He joined the army to get away from her, went through basic and his training and got sent to Germany. Then they decided they still loved each other, but alas, he was there and she was in Oklahoma so the letter writing began. Being her best friend I got to see all the pictures and he sent one home that had a whole bunch of downright sexy soldiers in uniform. I picked out the best looking one and my friend got his name, rank, serial number and address for me.

Pvt. Charles C. Brown, RA13792860, did not answer my letter. He wasn’t one bit interested in a sassy Tex-Okie Rebel; him being a blue blooded Pennsylvania Yankee and all.

Did I say he was the sexiest one in the picture? Well, I wasn’t giving up so I wrote to him again. Pvt. Charles C. Brown finally answered the letter but he didn’t tell his family that he was writing to a sassy girl who’d been born in Texas and lived in Oklahoma. No siree! They had already given him the pep talk about not falling for a foreign girl while he was in Germany and Tex-Okies were worse than that.

Two years later he proposed to me … in a letter, which I still have for proof in case he ever gets Alzheimer’s and declares it didn’t happen. I crawled on a Greyhound bus and went to Pennsylvania to marry him. I had an engagement ring on my finger but we’d never actually met or even talked on the phone … that was in 1966 and phone calls from Germany were too expensive to even think about. Internet and computers weren’t even in our imagination.

He was even sexier than his pictures and six weeks after he got home we were married. I was seventeen, just out of high school and he was twenty, just out of the army. Bets were laid as to how long the marriage would last with the odds going toward him filing for divorce in six weeks. Some folks lost a bunch of money because that was forty-four years ago.

And that began the personal romance story in my background. It takes a special man to be married to a romance author. When Husband and I married, he got home cooking and a clean house. Now days he eats fast food and dust bunnies tell him bedtime stories while I finish one more chapter.

So that’s my first romantic story. It’s not finished so I can’t actually write it. And would you look at all those folks beginning to drift this way to get their own signed copies of My Give A Damn’s Busted and Honky Tonk Christmas! Get out the drooling bibs … they’ll need them when they pick up the books and look at the covers.

You can always see what Carolyn is up to on her website: http://www.carolynlbrown.com. Thanks Carolyn, for joining us today! Leave a comment to be entered to win a signed copy of one of Carolyn's releases. US and Canada addresses only--we'll announce the winners in the comments tomorrow--be sure to leave your email address so we can contact you directly!

Comments

  1. Hi, Carolyn! I always smile whenever I see your photo. You have such spirit, and the way that you carry yourself is awesome! I believe that you were the same way as a child. If I were to see a photo from your childhood, I am sure that you would have the same strong, sure presence that you have as an adult. I'd bet the farm that the spark of mischief in your eyes has always been there! I so enjoyed hearing about your own true love story. I can see now where you find the inspiration for your characters and story lines! I loved your "Lucky" series, and I have truly enjoyed the first two "Honky Tonk" books. Please keep those great stories coming!

    gcwhiskas at aol dot com

    ReplyDelete
  2. Carolyn, I wanted to stop by and say CONGRATULATIONS on your book launches. I have enjoyed your series so much. I'm looking forward to reading Honky Tonk Christmas but at the same time I am not - I don't want the series to end. I understand you have something else in the works so I'll console myself with that and go see what Sharlene is up to. I enjoyed your love story very much and wish you many more years of showing everyone how wrong they were. :)

    Mason
    Thoughts in Progress

    ReplyDelete
  3. Good morning Virginia and Mason! Mercy but you ladies get up early. Virginia, I'm afraid that Momma should've named me mischief, at least for a middle name! Mason, darlin', readers not wanting a series to end is the highest praise for a writer so thank you! And yes ma'am, there are more on the way. In May, 2011, Sourcebooks will kick off a brand new cowboy series with LOVE DRUNK COWBOY. Life is wonderful!
    Carolyn Brown

    ReplyDelete
  4. Hey, Carolyn! Congrats on the new release. It's bound to be a winner!

    ReplyDelete
  5. It is not nice to get me drunk on champagne at work, Carolyn. I loved your personal love story. How wonderful to marry your pen pal! Congrats on the new release.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Carolyn, it's eight o'clock in the morning and I'm drunk as a skunk from all that toasting! Now I need to sit down and write and probably my characters will stumble around and get into trouble. I guess I should have used orange juice instead of champagne.
    Thank you for the special toast. We Wild West women have to stick together! I LOVED the story of you and Charles, and of course I love your Honky Tonk cowboys and can't wait for the next bunch. These two books came into our local bookstore yesterday so I'm running out and buying them TODAY. Hell, Yeah!

    ReplyDelete
  7. What a wonderful love story! Reminds me of Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning, American Style. ("I love your poetry, Miss Barrett, and I love you..." In the FIRST letter!). Congratulations on your double launch, and let's hear it for cowboys in love!

    ReplyDelete
  8. LOVE LOVE LOVE the covers of these books. Can't wait to read some more of my Mama Carol's books.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hello again,
    Cheryl, thank you! I'm still wondering about one of your heroes in chaps and boots!
    Olivia, I bet with those hot fellers in your band you could write just fine drunk as Cooter's owl ... just don't drive!
    Joanne, darlin' it'll take more than two or three glasses of champagne to put a western writer on her fanny ... but if you find yourself in jail after a barroom brawl call me and I'll bring my checkbook and bail you right out ... then we'll have another glass of champagne!
    Grace, that is soooo sweet! I'm not so sure it was love at first sight but it was sure enough lust at first sight when I finally met Husband! LOL
    Susan, here's hoping you enjoy the story as much as the covers!
    Hugs to everyone,
    Carolyn

    ReplyDelete
  10. What a fabulous story, Carolyn! Congrats on your book launch and your long, successful marriage!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Carolyn! What a fabulous true-life love story. My DH and I met and married four months later. Same bets on ours lasting, and it's been 30 years now. I am a firm beleiver in love at first sight, which is prob why my books abound with it! Great to meet you!

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Carolyn, *waves*

    I always loved your personal romance story. :D It warms the heart.

    I love your books and can't wait to read more~ Cheers!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Shana, thank you!
    Kathryne, me, too, on that thing about love at first sight. Chemistry is either there or it isn't and no amount of remixing it in the lab will work if it doesn't fizz on the first try!
    Nancy, it's wonderful to see you! Hope you enjoy the books! I do believe you've got another one coming next spring ... can't wait to read yours!
    Carolyn B.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hell, yeah!

    Great blog and I look forward to reading your books. They sound really entertaining!

    Ash

    ReplyDelete
  15. Happy launch party, Carolyn! And how fun to read about your personal happily-ever-after.

    My SO and I met in a corporate training/hot for teacher situation - of which I will say no more. ;-) Congratulations again, and thanks for the virtual champagne!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Ashlyn and Tamara, a big CONGRAT's on your Sourcebooks Casablanca sales! One thing about virtual champagne, there's no after effects! LOL
    Carolyn

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a great story, Carolyn! It's as good as any written romance, and what a great inspiration. I'm inspired. Good for you for not giving up. You knew what you wanted and you held on until you got it. And kept it! Congratulations!
    And with your character and wit, I know these books must be awesome.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Enjoyed hearing "your" story. We have some similiarities - bets were made on my marriage too (and of course they assumed I was probably in the family way) when I married my high school sweetheart - although I didn't have to travel because he was the new kid who had traveled the world and I live in PA. We've been married 41 years.

    Your books sound like great reads!

    ReplyDelete
  19. I'm I excited about your new releases? Hell, yeah! Thanks for sharing your own personal romance story - that's great!

    ReplyDelete
  20. Anita, that's me ... a rebel bulldog! Sometimes that's good ... sometimes it's just a mouth full of britches legs or fanny! LOL
    Catslady, Congratulations on your catch and keep!
    Amanda, glad to see you again. I still laugh about you almost spitting tea across the table in Orlando! Hell, yeah, we had a wonderful time, didn't we!!!
    Carolyn

    ReplyDelete
  21. Here's my, "Hell Yeah!" I've read the Honky Tonk series, and absolutely loved each and every novel. Awww...an author with her own HEA. It's nice to hear stories like that. :)

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi Carolyn :) Congrats on your latest release. I really enjoyed "I Love This Bar" and I'm looking forward to reading the rest of the Honky Tonk books.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Sara & Witchy Woman, An extra glass of champagne to you both for reading my books! Thank you!
    Carolyn Brown

    ReplyDelete
  24. Here's a hearty "Hell, yeah!" from me! What a great real-life romance story you have - no wonder you're able to write such great books. And I know from meeting you at RWA that you're a pro at enjoying a good party, so have fun at this one!

    ReplyDelete
  25. Thank you Abigail ... we all did have such a good time in Orlando, didn't we?
    CB

    ReplyDelete
  26. Carolyn, CONGRATULATIONS!!!!

    Meeting you was the coolest thing EVER! I had a blast and am happy, happy, happy for your success! Keep it coming! Hell Yeah!!

    Looking forward to next year's conference and more wild fun. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  27. Sharon, Hell, Yeah we had a fun time! I'm looking forward to next year, too! Maybe we'll both be in line for a RITA ... now, wouldn't that be too cool for words!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment