NY Times and USA Today bestselling author Carolyn Brown published her latest novel The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop few days ago. The initial response by the readers was very nice and averaged 4.4 Amazon stars from 20 reviews. “Great read”, “Another hit for Carolyn Brown” and “This is sure to be one of Carolyn Brown’s most memorable books,” are just part of the feedback about it.
We’ve got a great chance to chat with Lady Carolyn right after the premiere of next prominent story. It’s a really interesting interview, one of the best ever at Land of Books!

– Carolyn, what is your new book The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop about?
– Stella’s mama never should’ve put Stella on the church prayer list. With Stella’s twenty-seventh birthday coming up fast, Nancy desperately wants to see her daughter married and giving her grandbabies. Petitioning heaven seems like a surefire way to get it done. But in Cadillac, Texas, where the gossip’s hotter than the city’s famous jalapeño peppers, it isn’t long before all hell breaks loose.
Heather, the bossy leader of the church’s Prayer Angels, thinks a summer ball will get Stella and the town’s other single gals paired off. But nobody can tell redheaded spitfire Stella what to do—not her mama, not Heather, and not even the sexy beau Stella’s been seeing in secret. Together, Stella, her best friends Charlotte and Piper, and the loyal customers of the Yellow Rose Beauty Shop hatch a good old-fashioned scheme to sabotage the ball. But will it wreck Stella’s relationship with her mama forever? And what will the church folk think when Stella reveals the identity of her mystery man?
How did you decide to write the story?
This is actually the third book in the Cadillac Trilogy, following The Blue Ribbon Jalapeno Society Jubilee and The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off. I’d only planned on writing the first book but somehow my readers wanted more and there were more stories to be told in Cadillac, so I wrote a couple more.

– What was the biggest challenge during the write up process?
– Getting Agnes and the ladies out of my head when I went to sleep at night. They kept telling me version of what happened next in the book and sometimes I would wake up giggling. Okay, okay, I have voices in my head. Shhhh…don’t tattle on me!
– Tell us something more about your main character Stella? Is she close to someone from your real life?
– Stella has a stain on her reputation from back when she was a teenager. And in small southern towns, folks have memories that never forget such things. Because of that, she might be sassy but there’s still a little tiny bit of insecurity down deep in her heart that she needs to overcome. I wouldn’t say that she’s patterned after anyone in my real life but she was very real in my life when I was writing her story.
– How much time did you need to finish the story and to publish it?
– I wrote this story in about three or four months. I’m pretty focused and disciplined when I’m writing. I’m very glad that Montlake Romance published it. They have been awesome to work with through the process of covers, edits, etc.
– What is the secret of the success of your most popular book The Ladies’ Room?
– The Ladies’ Room is my first attempt at writing in first person. In my opinion, folks like it for many reasons. One is that they feel like they are getting to peek inside someone’s diary or journal. Another is that Trudy is not the typical thin or weepy heroine who is distraught over finding out that her husband has been cheating on her. And she’s forty, not twenty or thirty. She’s got real life experiences and problems that resonate with all women. I’ve had several women write to me to tell me that Trudy was their inspiration. And Billy Lee is certainly not the typical hero but again I’ve had lots of reviews and fan mail from folks wishing they could find their own Billy Lee.
– You are writing different genres. How tough is to switch between them?
– It’s not tough at all. I have tunnel vision when I’m writing. If I’m writing cowboy romance, then that’s what I see, feel, smell and think while I’m writing the book. Likewise with historicals or with women’s fiction.
– Why you don’t allow your husband to read your books before being published?
– Quite simply because I can’t afford a divorce! Seriously, he’s a 35 year veteran English teacher and we argue when he reads my manuscripts, plus he is a lot sappier than I am when it comes to plot.
– How your life changed after you became NY Times and USA Today bestselling author?
– It didn’t! Other than that extra line above my name on my books, not much changed at all. I’m still the same person.
– Who are you?
– I am a mother (three grown kids). I am a wife (49 years next month). I am a grandmother (and yes my grandkids read my books). I am a sister, a friend, a neighbor and an author. I love all the hats I wear.
– What are your writing habits?
– I’m an early riser so I crawl out of bed, stumble across the hall into my office and write one thousand words before breakfast. Then after Mr. B and I have breakfast and our morning coffee, I return to my office and write another two thousand words before lunch. After an hour off to enjoy lunch with Mr. B, I’m on the downhill slide of my five thousand word goal for the day. My granny told me that you could eat an elephant a bite at a time so I divide my goal into three sections. Sometimes if I’m on a writing roll, it can go beyond that but that’s the daily regiment. I have to get my work done before I can go outside in the back yard and watch my two tom cats chase butterflies and crickets.
– Are you satisfied by the sales of your books?
– Yes, I am. I have written for five publishing companies plus I have four self pubbed books on the market. Between lot of them, my sales have exceeded a million books so I have no complaints.
– What are you doing to promote your book by the best possible way?
– Right now Montlake Romance has chosen The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop as the number one selection for its Kindle Select 25 for this week. They’ve also had several ad campaigns and I personally have participated in giveaways and several blog posts. I also publicize on my website, blog post and both of my FB pages.
– When we will see your next novel and would you unveil something more about it?
– I have two books coming out in December. The Wedding Pearls is a romantic women’s fiction. Wild Cowboy Ways is the debut cowboy romance in The Lucky Penny Series.
The Wedding Pearls: Tessa Wilson’s life is all over the map. She may be clumsy, but this time she’s stumbled into a pickle by choice, not by accident. She’s agreed to take a month-long trip around Texas jammed into a ’59 Cadillac with a drama-loving teenager, two elderly spitfires, and—oh, yes—her biological mama who gave her away at birth. And the ride gets even crazier when hot-as-sin cowboy Branch Thomas crosses into her lane. They don’t call him the sexiest man in the Lone Star State for nothin’. As the miles pass and sparks fly between Tessa and Branch, her grandmother starts dropping hints about family wedding traditions. And as Tessa discovers the power of her budding friendships and the unbreakable strength of her newfound family of strong Texas women, she wonders if she’s also on the road to the biggest adventure of all: true love.
Wild Cowboy Ways: Allie Logan isn’t the type to land a hot hunk of cowboy. Truth is, she’s given up on dating since shedding her no-good ex. But the new owner of the most ramshackle ranch in Texas might just change her mind about that. He’s six-foot-plus of tall, dark, and charming-the kind of guy who could make a girl throw caution to the wind . . . or the kind of guy who could break her heart.
Blake Dawson hopes he can make Lucky Penny Ranch finally live up to its name, but the property needs a ton of work. Allie and her carpentry skills are his best shot at getting things in order. Besides the fact that her brown eyes and dangerous curves have him roped and tied. Now Blake only needs to convince her that a wild cowboy can be tamed by love-and she’s just the one to do it . . .
– If you may ask yourself one question in the interview what it will be? (Don’t forget to answer)
– Carolyn Brown, are you going to jump into another genre? And the answer would be…maybe! I’m thinking about writing a non-fiction book on the lines of what Erma Bombeck used to write. For fourteen years I wrote a humorous newspaper column that won many Oklahoma Press Association Awards. And sometimes I miss writing short, quirky, funny things. That’s one reason I started writing the A Little Sweet Tea and Sass with Carolyn Brown.

To learn more about Carolyn Brown check out her Website
Facebook
Blog

Take a look at her books
The Ladies’ Room
The Blue-Ribbon Jalapeño Society Jubilee
The Yellow Rose Beauty Shop
Daisies in the Canyon
The Red-Hot Chili Cook-Off