BIG NEWS and SPRING BREAK SALES...

Yesterday, The Wedding Pearls, went to 1400 Wal-Mart stores across the nation. I'd love to know where the stores are so if you find one in your local Wal-Mart post a picture of it on my Facebook page!

There's a big Spring Break Sale going on for the next week! Choose a book. Choose several books. Go to the beach. 11 books to choose from! Curl up in your favorite recliner. Enjoy the week and the 99 cent price! Available at all your ebook markets, Amazon, B&N, Kobo, etc.

Lucky in Love
One Lucky Cowboy
Getting Lucky
I Love This Bar
My Give a Damn’s Busted
Honky Tonk Christmas
Love Drunk Cowboy
Red’s Hot Cowboy
Darn Good Cowboy Christmas
One Hot Cowboy Wedding
Mistletoe Cowboy


And keep a watch on the blog site because there's more big news on the way!

Then and Now...

Mr. B and I were discussing the differences in barbecue sauce and he asked, "Just what's in it anyway?"

The question took me back to an old Home Economics book where I'd written the recipe for Clay Potts barbecue sauce so long ago that the ink was fading. And right there in black and white were other things our teacher tried to teach us girls, to help fit us into our upcoming wifey mold.

We were on the verge of a new era in those days. We burned our bras. We burned our bridges. We burned candles at both ends. And more than making barbecue sauce got changed by the time we got finished with the female revolution.

Back then we simmered barbecue sauce all day. Now we chase through the grocery store after a hectic day at work, grab a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's Barbecue Sauce to pour over the chicken when we get home.

Back then it was paradise for the male gender and if they'd known what burning bras, bridges and candles at both ends would cause, I have a feeling they would have hidden the matches and thrown out all their cigarette lighters.

Here's the way it was then when the wifey mold was still being used and now--after reality set in.

Then: Have dinner ready. Plan ahead, even the night before to have a delicious meal on the table when he walks through the door. Now: Make reservations ahead of time. If your day becomes too busy just leave him a voice message regarding where you'd like to eat and what time he is to be there. This lets him know that your day is crappy and he can stay on hold for thirty minutes to make reservations. Plus it gives him the opportunity to do something nice to change your mood. Flowers are nice. Something from the jewelry store is even nicer.

Then: Prepare yourself. Take 15 minutes to rest so you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair and have a sweet attitude. He has just spent the day with a lot of work-weary people so smile and be interesting. Now: A quick stop at the massage place on your way home will do wonders for your outlook and will keep you from becoming irritated when you walk into the house and hear, "What's for supper?" Don't forget to use his credit card.

Then: Clear away clutter. Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives. Gather up school books, toys, paper and anything else that would be lying about. Now: Call the housekeeper and tell her that any miscellaneous items left on the floor by the children can be placed in the Goodwill box in the garage. You've told them a hundred times to keep things picked up so that you don't fall over them when you walk through the door. Any kid that whines can go in the box with the items.

Then: Prepare the children. Daddy is coming home. Wash their hands and faces and comb their hair. Change their play clothes into something nicer so that Daddy will be pleased. They are little family treasures and should be taught early that Daddy is the head of the household and everything should be done to make his life easier. Now: Send the children to their rooms to play on their techie-toys. They may be gifts from God but even He has a sense of humor and is fully well capable of sending gag gifts.

Then: Minimize the noise. At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of washer, dryer or vacuum. Turn of the television even if the cartoons are on and remind the children of the above rule. Little treasures from heaven should be seen and not heard. Greet him with a warm smile and be glad to see him. Now: Forget any attempt to minimize noise. Tell him you're doing the laundry, the kids are fighting because they have to fold two loads and he can run the vacuum. After that you will share the supper and homework duties.

Then: Some Don'ts. Dont' greet him with problems or complaints. Don't say a word if he's late for dinner. Count this as minor compared to what he had to endure that day. Now: Don't complain if he's late for dinner; simply remind him that the leftovers are in the fridge and you left the dishes for him to do. Or if you think that he's lying about working late and you definitely smell perfume on him, then nail his pork chop to the garage door, put his green beans in the dog bowl and his ice tea in the water dish. Write a note in lipstick on the garage door window that his dinner has been served and he can use the garden hose to get the perfume off him before he can come through the door.

Then: Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in his most comfortable chair. Have a drink eady for him. Offer to take off his shoes and massage his feet. Speak in a low, soft pleasant voice and allow him to relax and unwind. Now: Tell him there's a clean blanket in the dryer and if he's making martini's bring one to you on the deck.

The goal back then: to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can relax. The goal now: to try to make things amicable without reminding him that the world does not revolve around him and Monday night football.

Hindsight, they say is 20/20! I wonder what the male population, that was so ready for a double income family, thinks when they look at a box of matches these days!

Snakes...

Last night we were having supper at a local diner and saw lots of our friends there that we hadn't seen in years. One of them mentioned a newspaper article I'd written years ago when I wrote a weekly humorous column. My family knew to run and hide and the days that my column hit the newspaper but friends...well, I did kind of sneak upon them from time to times. This particular article concerned Miz Mona Ozbirn's husband and my son, Lemar, who was a local policeman at the time. She asked if I could locate it so I thought I'd share it with y'all today. First of all, I should mention that this all went down twenty one years ago and that the amazing Miz Auda is no longer with us. We miss her ready smile here in Davis, Oklahoma!

June 15, 1995

My policeman son who had such a good time a few weeks ago when he captured a mean, vicious squirrel told me about another culprit that had the audacity to upset one of Davis's fine citizens. Seemed my son was minding his own business--patrolling the streets to keep them safe--when a call came that a snake ahs slithered uninvited and unbeknownst to Auda Ozbirn right into her house.

Now there are only two things in this world my son is afraid of and a snake is both of them. It wasn't easy for him to undertake the job,, but not being one to shirk his duty, he went over to Auda's house and hoped maybe they were wrong.

They weren't!

She told him it was a rattlesnake and it was doing a belly dance in her bedroom. He went on down the hall toward the bedroom. He was still hoping maybe she was wrong and it was a big mouse toting a baby rattler.

It wasn't!

There was a feller already checking things out in the bedroom Seemed he and several others had made sure it wasn't a raspy cricket or a "funny noise" or even a tree limb scratching the window screen. Now I won't call any names since this is a small town but that feller is Auda's son and he owns P&M Wrecker and Auto Center.

He asked my son if he was afraid of snakes.

"Yep," Lemar was very honest.

"Then jump right up here with me," he said and motioned for my son to stand in the middle of Miz Auda's bed with him. So here were two grown men, one in a police uniform complete with a gun and handcuffs, the other in some kind of garb that included a pair of yellow gloves. I'm not real sure if they were oven mitts or those kind that folks use to wash dishes.

However, neither of them were real excited about hopping down off that bed and checking behind the bookcase where the rattling noise was coming from. It sounded like the snake was about ten feet long and had a hankering for a supper of sautéed policeman's ankles or maybe grilled wrecker driver's toes. Maybe if they waited the varmint would die of starvation before they got him uncovered.

It didn't!

Someone handed Lemar a plastic back scratcher. He commenced to drag one book at a time off the bottom shelf with his handy-dandy claw. He said he'd flip a book and jump back, expecting the snake to jump out and chew his leg off any minute. Suddenly, they could see a portion of it lying there all coiled up and the man whose name I won't mention told him it was not a rattle snake.

"Then it must be a cobra, because there are only two kinds of snakes. If it ain't a rattler, then it is a cobra for sure," Lemar said as he reached out his claw to pull off another book. Now he did not know that the back scratcher had a battery hiding somewhere in the handle and the next book was one of those thick tomes. So he held on a little tighter and hit that button that made the whole thing vibrate in his hand.

He just knew that rattling cobra has jumped right up there in his hands. He threw the back scratcher at the wall and started off up the hall in a dead run--just about the time that Miz Auda came down the hall toting a big, oversized butcher knife. It was a no-win situation. Face the knife or the snake!

They managed to send that "rattlin' cobra chicken" snake off to eternity. And if the cruelty to animals want to come to Davis, Oklahoma and fuss about the way that they cut that snake's head off with Miz Auda's butcher knife, they can crawl up on their high horses and trot right on down here. In Auda's son's opinion and my son's opinion there ain't no wrong way to kill a ferocious snake!

And that folks is a true story! Snake killed. Not a bullet wasted and a little soap cleaned the knife up right fine for the next snake that had the audacity to slither into Miz Auda's house.

'Fessin' Up...

I got this little tidbit on FB and decided to post the answers on my blog today. Time to 'fess up to what some things that you might, might not or could care less about me!

Bath or shower? A bath with all the trimmings--oil, bubbles, candles, a good romance book, the whole nine yards and no one knocking on the door to ask questions, either!
Straight or curly hair? Straight
Favorite movie? Do I have to choose just one? How about three. Remember I'm a very eclectic reader and movie viewer. Steel Magnolias, The Shooter and Sweet Home Alabama (I love the scene where she decks her future MIL and tells her that nobody talks to her mama like that)
Favorite holiday? Thanksgiving
Android or iPhone? Neither. I still use an old flip phone and it works just fine!
Texting or call? Call me please.
Facebook or Twitter? Facebook
Favorite type of food? Doughnuts with maple icing
Dream job? I'm doing my dream job. I'm writing books and loving every minute of it.
Favorite pizza? Pizza Hut
Favorite cake? Texas Sheet Cake with a scoop of ice cream to cut the sweet!
Talking or fighting? Talking
Night or day? Depends on whether my characters are talking to me.
Summer or winter? Spring
Wine or whiskey? Jack Daniels
Makeup or no makeup? None whatsoever.
Favorite TV show? Justified (I almost cried when it ended)
Hair up or down? Up
Jeans or leggings? Jeans
Painted or non painted nails? Most of the time, non painted.
Favorite color? Depends on what it is...in clothing, black or royal blue; in a guy's eyes, green with little yellow flecks; in decorating my house, gold with lots of accent colors.
T-shirt or dress shirt? Tshirt
Flip flops or sneakers? Flip flops
Big purse or small? Depends on where I'm going. Sometimes I like my big Coach bag, sometimes the smaller one works
How many tattoos? 0
How many piercings? I HATE NEEDLES...no tats or piercings.
Diamonds or pearls? Neither. I like fire opals.
Favorite animal? Cat
Rap or country music? Country 100%
Sports or couch? Couch 

So what surprised you in those answers?

Road trip for upcoming series...

This past week Mr. B and I carved out three days for a road trip to do some research for another cowboy series. The Lucky Penny books are written and it was time to think about "what happens next." So we packed our suitcases and headed to the Texas Panhandle. Actually to the little town of Happy, Texas where the series will be set on a big ranch out to the east of that little town.

I learned a long time ago not to write about a place that I had not seen with my own eyes. In Emma's Folly, the characters were swimming in a lovely little clear creek that flowed through the land up around Dodson, Oklahoma. When I went there to look at the place that creek was brick red at the bottom of a six foot drop off of nothing but red clay soil. Taught me a valuable lesson!

We took off with no reservations and armed with my Texas road map. That would be the one that is ripped down the middle of one fold and has writing all over it from past series. I still don't like a GPS because I'm prone to change my mind about which direction I want to go at the last minute, and Edna or Gertrude or whatever her name is doesn't understand that and keeps yelling "recalibrate" or is it "reset."

I thought I remembered a fairly good hotel in Vernon, Texas from research on a previous book and sure enough I was right! I'd thought about characters for a couple of hundred miles and was coming up with a fairly good premise for the new series so the day had been a good one.

We left early and headed north to Happy, to the Palo Duro Canyon to take pictures for another project I'm working on, and then we started back to Lubbock for the night. That's when a little county road called out to me from my wrinkled map and we decided to go east rather than south. I don't think we passed more than a dozen cars in a hundred miles but it was such a peaceful ride over to Childress where we found a hotel room with no problem.

The pictures that Mr. B took for me as I threw out plots and honed in on something that would work for this new series which will debut in about year...anyway, the pictures are gorgeous and I have to share some of the sunsets, sunrises and photos of the land where my soul finds peace. I absolutely love the flat country where the land stretches on forever and ends where the sky begins. In another life, I'm sure I owned one of those huge ranches!

One Texas Cowboy Too Many...is that possible?

TODAY!

Leah Brennan and Rhett O'Donnell's story is on the shelves!

They've waited 14 months for their turn but they're swearing that their story is even better than Finn and Callie's and Jill and Sawyer's. I'll let you be the judge of that!

_________________________________________________

Leah has always been the good girl of the Brennan family, groomed to become the matriarch of the clan. When a dark-eyed, tattooed, ponytailed bad boy saunters into her life, Leah knows he’s off-limits-but his mesmerizing gaze makes her forget everything she used to think was important. As town-wide tension rises, Leah wonders if love really can conquer all…

And the whole town’s taking sides
When Rhett O’Donnell roars into Burnt Boot on a hot July evening, the first thing he sees is a beautiful blonde. She puts a little extra giddy-up in his heartbeat, but when Rhett’s desire throws him into the middle of a love triangle and a hundred-year-old feud, he realizes that winning his cowgirl’s heart will be a lot more complicated than he thought.

---

REVIEWS!!

“Brown revisits the small town of Burnt Boot, Tex., for the third installment in her Burnt Boot series (after The Trouble with Texas Cowboys). School teacher Leah Brennan is immediately attracted to Rhett O’Donnell when he rides into town on his motorcycle to help his cousin Sawyer with Fiddle Creek Ranch. Rhett is equally enamored with the beautiful blond. But he doesn’t realize that he’s also riding into the age-old feud between the Brennans and the Gallaghers, another family in town. As romance between Rhett and Leah blossoms, she exercises independence from her fiercely controlling grandmother, but Granny Mavis doesn’t like Rhett and insists that if Leah continues to see him, she’ll be thrown out of the family home. Brown’s latest is filled with quirky characters and a healthy dose of humor, as the feuding families constantly try to outdo one another with their crazy antics. Yet the highlight of the novel is the sweet and sensual romance between Leah and Rhett.”

~ Publisher’s Weekly

An intense feud between two families and a contentious love triangle make up Brown’s latest. Readers will fall in love with Rhett and Leah and their genuinely sweet, sizzling chemistry. A delightful story with a charming, laid-back cowboy and a good blend of humor and sexy tension makes this one entertaining read.

New cowboy Rhett O’Donnell rides into town on a tricked-out motorcycle and schoolteacher Leah Brennan’s heart skips a beat. Rhett is intrigued by the sweet Leah, even though she’s off-limits due to a town feud. But Rhett’s not going to let a feud stop him from pursuing her. For Leah, the more she’s around Rhett, the more her heart changes.

~ RT Reviews (Top Pick 4 1/2 Star Review)

“The Brennans and Gallaghers have been feuding for decades, and Leah Brennan doesn’t see it ending any time soon. Her childhood crush on Tanner Gallagher is as forbidden as it gets. As the future matriarch of the Brennan ranch, she knows indulging in it could get her banished. When Burnt Boot transplant Rhett O’Donnell bumps into Leah at the town store, she soon forgets her infatuation with Tanner for the longhaired, motorcycle-riding rancher. Though Rhett isn’t part of the family feud, Leah’s attraction to him brings forth a flurry of threats from Mavis, the head of the Brennan clan. Leah’s budding relationship with Rhett makes her believe she can live without her flawed family, but can she turn her back on all she’s known? Brown (The Trouble with Texas Cowboys, 2015) has built the Brennan-Gallagher rivalry throughout the Burnt Boot series, and fans will be excited to learn the inner workings of their ever-burning hatred. The large cast of characters can be daunting, but ultimately it makes the book a richer reading experience.”

~ Booklist

I can't wait to hear all of your reviews on this book!

HOLD THE PRESSES:
An amazing review just in from Fresh Fiction!!
AND an interview at Harlequin Junkie!
AND a 5 STAR TOP PICK from Night Owl Reviews!