Interview with Carolyn Brown (The Lucky Series) w/ a Give Away!

Thanks Carolyn for taking time out of your busy schedule to visit Wendy’s Minding Spot and answer some questions.

Thank you so much for having me as a guest today. It’s a pleasure to be here. I love your logo: Living in a small town with big dreams and loving to read! I write about small towns because I truly believe they have a heartbeat and a pulse of their own, and folks who love to read … well, that’s why we write, so bless your heart.

1. Where did you come up with the name Luckadeau? It’s very unusual.

My husband used to talk about a family who lived way back in an obscure valley in the mountains of Pennsylvania and their name was similar. I changed the spelling and liked the way it sounded and looked on paper.

2. What is your work schedule like when you're writing?

I really like to write in the morning when things aren’t cluttered with the toils of the day. However, if a scene pops into my mind I’m quite adept at brushing the toils under the bed to visit with the dust bunnies. I write everyday in some form. It may be original writing, rewriting or proofing. My nephew told me it’s like a perpetual course in Comp 101.

3. What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I throw salt over my left shoulder, turn around three times and do a little jig to whatever country song is playing! Not true, but I might try it if it would help get the words from my brain to the computer. I do have a writing quirk though. I listen to country music while I write. It zones me right out there into la-la writing land. I used to listen to Floyd Cramer’s piano, now it’s the older ballads.

4. What author, not living, would you like to talk with?

Margaret Mitchell. Her book continues to live on and on! I’d love to sit and visit with her.

5. What do you read for fun?

Words fascinate me so anything I read is usually fun. I love O’Henry, LaVyrle Spencer, Leon Uris, Sue Grafton, Carl Hiaason, J.A. Jance, Randy Wayne White and that’s just the ones that come to mind. If you want the full list, we’ll have to send out for some doughnuts and hot chocolate.

6. What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

Let’s see, I had to learn to make soap and to make moonshine. I also had to take a wagon train of mail order brides over the Oregon Trail from St. Joseph, Missouri to California.

7. How many books have you written? Which is your favorite?

I’ve sold fifty two books but I’ve written a few more than that. To name a favorite would be as difficult as choosing which of my three children is my favorite. A story: When my children were young I heard the worn-out old line about how I loved this one more than that one because he had more chores, couldn’t go to the school dance, etc. You get the picture. So one day I set them all down and told them that I had to work and didn’t have time to love them all every day of the week. So they each got two days and their father got Sunday. It was my prerogative to choose the days and they could change at my whim and will. So it goes with my books. My favorite tends to be the one I’m working on at the time because those characters are so close to me. Tomorrow it will change!  

8. What is the most important idea or thought that you would like readers to have after reading your book?

To want more, to love the characters enough that they are real people to them and they want to know what happened the next week after THE END. One of my readers said once that she got so engrossed in the book that she wondered if those folks attended her church on Sunday. Now that’s honey in a writer’s ears, let me tell you!

9. What are you currently working on? And can we expect to see more of those hunky cowboys in your future works?

Getting Lucky, the third and final book in the Lucky Series, comes out Jan. 1, 2010 so there’s one more of those fine lookin’ Luckadeau feller’s stories to be read. And I’m currently working on The Honky Tonk series, my next one with Sourcebooks Casablanca! Yes, hunky cowboys and an old beer joint in Palo Pinto County, Texas called the Honky Tonk. Country music, boots, belt buckles, big hats, line dances, sassy heroines and good lookin’ cowboys. Four books which will debut with I Love This Bar next June, and follow with Hell Yeah, My Give a Damn’s Busted and A Honky Tonk Christmas (release dates still being determined, but I guarantee they’ll be in the Fall of 2010)!

The publisher is allowing me to give away one set of the Lucky Series (published to date) to one winner!  Lucky in Love and One Lucky Cowboy

 USA and Canada Only - Winner announced November 11th.  Leave a comment with your email for one entry, and blog about it (include the link) for an extra entry.