Interview & Giveaway with Joanne Kennedy

Books-n-Kisses is please to welcome for the first time Joanna Kennedy to the blog.  We are excited to learn more about Joanne and share her and her newest book with you.. So enough of my talking lets talk Hot Cowboys……

Q1) Can you please share with us a little about yourself?

JK: I’m a romance writer who loves cowboys, horses, and the West. I’m lucky enough to have found my niche writing contemporary Westerns, and I find plenty of material here in my hometown of Cheyenne, Wyoming.

Q2) Have you always wanted to be an author?

JK: I’ve always loved books and I wanted to write, but like a lot of people, I talked about it a lot and didn’t actually sit down and do it until I hit my midlife crisis (it was a doozy!). I realized that if I didn’t make the effort, I’d never get it done—and I sat down and wrote the book that became Cowboy Trouble.

Q3) What is your most interesting writing quirk?

JK: When I write, I like to be surrounded by reminders of good times in my own life, so my office is scattered with odd little mementoes. There’s a wind-up chicken that poops out jellybeans, an elk vertebra, a plastic dinosaur, and a Chihuahua bobble-head, among other things.

Q4) Can you please tell us about your latest book(s)?

JK: Cowboy Crazy is about rodeo cowboy Lane Carrigan, who is the black-sheep heir to an oil fortune, and Sarah Landon, who manages publicity for his family’s company. Sarah thinks she left her small-town past behind, but when Lane goes public about his fight to save the town of Two Shot from his family’s development plans, she’s forced to return to her hometown and face some long-buried secrets.

Q5) How did you come with the idea for this story?

JK: I do a lot of traveling around the state of Wyoming, and I’ve watched a lot of small towns change as the mining industry goes through its boom-and-bust cycle. Lane and Sarah are both concerned about the town of Two Shot, but they’re on opposite sides: Lane wants to keep the town from changing, while Sarah wants the prosperity development will bring. They’re both right, and both wrong; part of the story is how they come to realize what the community really needs.

Q6) Can you share with us your current work(s) in progress?

JK: I just finished Cowboy Tough, which is about a rodeo cowboy who has to go home to help save the family ranch by turning it into a dude ranch. His first guest is a big-city artist who is leading a painting expedition, and his job is to guide them through the backcountry. It was a fun book to write because of the clash of cultures between the art world and the cowboy world.

Q7) Who is the one author that you would love to meet someday and why?

JK: I would love to meet Larry McMurtry. I think Lonesome Dove is the greatest Western ever written. I love his characters, his voice, and his ability to spin history into a story you can’t put down while respecting the reality of the old West. There’s no sugarcoating in a McMurtry book—he celebrates the real West!

Q8) What is the best piece of advice you would give to someone that wants to get into writing?

JK: Learn to accept and learn from criticism. No matter where you are in your writing journey, you can always get better. It’s easy to get defensive when someone criticizes your work, but take a step back, breathe deeply, and listen.

Q9) Can you share with us something off your bucket list?

JK: Okay, this is weird, but I have always wanted to get to know an elephant. I had a dream years ago where I was a mahout, riding my trusty pachyderm in the jungle. I worked with the elephant to move logs, and we were in perfect harmony. It was the best dream ever.

Q10 What is in your To Read Pile that you are dying to start or upcoming release you can’t wait for?

JK: I am really looking forward to Carolyn Brown’s upcoming women’s fiction book. She’s a good friend and a terrific person, and reading her books is just like sitting down and visiting with her. They’re funny and sweet and very entertaining.

Q11) Is there anything else you would like to add?

JK: Just a heartfelt thank you for taking the time to interview me! We writers owe a debt of gratitude to bloggers like you, who connect us with readers and help us add another level to the reading experience. And thanks to the readers out there, too, for inviting my characters into their lives.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Joanne Kennedy is the author of four contemporary Western romances for Sourcebooks: Cowboy Trouble One Fine Cowboy, Cowboy Fever, and Tall, Dark and Cowboy. She brings a wide variety of experience, ranging from chicken farming to horse training, to her sexy, spicy cowboy stories. She is a 2011 finalist in the prestigious Romance Writers of American RITA© Awards, for One Fine Cowboy. Joanne lives in Cheyenne, Wyoming, where she is working on her next book, Cowboy Tough (Fall 2012). For more information, please visit http://joannekennedybooks.com/. To purchase Joanne’s latest release, Cowboy Crazy, please visit ganxy.com/p/62834.

To purchase Cowboy Crazy by Joanne Kennedy, please visit ganxy.com/p/62834. 

COWBOY CRAZY BY JOANNE KENNEDY – IN STORES JUNE 2012

Sparks fly when sexy cowboys collide with determined heroines in a West filled with quirky characters and sizzling romance. Acclaimed for delivering “a fresh take on the traditional contemporary Western“ Joanne Kennedy’s books might just be your next great discovery! 

From stable to boardroom…

Sarah Landon’s Ivy League scholarship transforms her from a wide-eyed country girl into a poised professional. Until she’s assigned to do damage control with the boss’s rebellious brother Lane, who’s the burr in everybody’s saddle. He’s determined to save his community from oil drilling, and she’s not going back to the ranch she left forever. Spurs will shine in this saucy romp about ranchers and roots, redemption and second chances.

 Giveaway Time!!!

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