By: Marin Thomas
Congratulations to "Dena", the winner in Marin's giveaway. Thank you to all who participated!
Maureen, congratulations on the
launch of the Just Contemporary Romance site—this is going to be a great place
for fans of contemporary romance and I'm excited to help kick off a great month
of guest bloggers!
Yep, those words are responsible
for a spin-off series called The Cash Brothers that I'm writing for Harlequin
American Romance. The first book in the
series, The Cowboy Next Door hits store
shelves today! So why develop a series around the famous country western
legend, Johnny Cash? Here's my story and
I'm sticking to it…
I was in the middle of writing my
Rodeo Rebels series and
was about to begin writing the fifth book, A
Cowboy's Duty (Aug 2012) when one evening I was searching youtube
videos (I do this when I procrastinate) and came across Johnny Cash's… I Walk the Line.
After watching the video I
decided that the heroine in A Cowboy's Duty needed six crazy, funny, sexy
brothers… (I'm always thinking ahead to the next series I want to write for the
line.) I picked Cash to be the surname
of the six brothers and their sister. (Cash was their mother's maiden name) The
siblings' eccentric mother, Aimee loved listening to country music legends when
she was a teenager and later in life she decided to name each of her sons after
her favorite singers. In addition to saddling the boys with monikers that
caused a lot of playground fights, Aimee's lifelong search for the perfect man
left each of the boys with a different father.
The brothers include…Johnny Cash, Conway Twitty Cash, Willie Nelson Cash,
Buck Owens Cash, Merle Haggard Cash and Porter Wagoner Cash.
Back Cover Blurb:
July 2013
Hard-working cowboy Johnny Cash has always been a protector to his little
sister's best friend, sweet but tough cowgirl Shannon Douglas. It's pretty
crazy for girls to ride bulls-yet it's her life to live. Then he realizes he's
got some purely male instincts toward her, too. But absolutely no way can he
fall for his boss's daughter-if he loses his job, there'll be hell to pay at
home....
Shannon was raised to be strong and independent. She wants a national title so bad she can taste it-and she needs Johnny's help. His protectiveness drives her crazy...the same way his kisses do. But she's not about to hang up her bull rope because of him! Her heart says he's the one-but her own stubborn streak might push away the only man who might actually understand her.
Shannon was raised to be strong and independent. She wants a national title so bad she can taste it-and she needs Johnny's help. His protectiveness drives her crazy...the same way his kisses do. But she's not about to hang up her bull rope because of him! Her heart says he's the one-but her own stubborn streak might push away the only man who might actually understand her.
For Fun here's a little Johnny Cash Trivia.
Did you know…..
1) Cash was allegedly the first
person ever to be sued by the U.S. for igniting a forest fire. Cash would often take his camper, Jesse James, out to the
desert for methamphetamine binges. One time, the camper had an oil leak that
caused the Los Padres National Wildlife Refuge to catch fire. The blaze killed
almost every endangered condor in the refuge, to which Cash replied, “I don’t
give a damn about your yellow buzzards.”
2) Cash and his band mates were constantly stirring up trouble in the hotels they frequented while touring. In the late 1950s, Cash and his band bought 500 baby chickens and let 100 loose on each floor of the hotel they were staying at. Another time, Cash and Co. flushed cherry bombs down a toilet, destroying the plumbing system. Cash also stabbed a reproduction of the Mona Lisa that was hanging in a hotel because it didn’t quite reach his standards.
3) Cash never did a performance where he wasn’t wearing black. Cash started wearing all-black suits as a good luck charm, because he wore a black T-shirt and jeans to his first live gig. He once told Larry King, “[I've] never done a concert in anything but black. You walk into my clothes closet. It’s dark in there.”
4) Just a few weeks before the Air Force shipped him off to Germany, Johnny Cash met Catholic schoolgirl Vivian Liberto at a San Antonio roller-skating rink. They fell pretty hard for each other, a situation made even more intense by their separation over the next three years. In that time, Johnny Cash proposed marriage by phone and the two exchanged an astonishing 10,000 pages of love letters. Many of these pages were published for the first time in 2006, when Liberto wrote her take on the nasty love triangle between her, Johnny Cash and June Carter (as portrayed in the 2005 film Walk The Line which became Johnny's first No. 1 hit in 1956.) Incidentally, Liberto claims that Cash didn’t pursue June Carter at all as the film portrays, but that it was the other way around -- Carter relentlessly pursued Cash.
GIVEAWAY:
To celebrate the release of The Cowboy NextDoor, I'm giving away an autographed copy of
the book plus a set of six Johnny Cash hat buttons and ten
Johnny Cash Forever Stamps from the U.S. Postal Service. If you'd like your name entered into the
drawing for the prizes then go snag a piece of Johnny Cash trivia off the
internet and post it in the comment section of this blog!
The Cash Brothers have their own
FB page! If you want to keep up with all the books in the series as well as upcoming
contests and giveaways be sure to LIKE The Cash Brothers
page!
You'll find lots of great images
for The Cash Brothers on Pinterest.
Check out my boards for The Cowboy Next
Door and my Top Ten Johnny Cash
Playlist.
Visit me on the web… FB,
Twitter, Happy Ever After…The Cowboy Way and Goodreads. And don’t forget to sign up for my Monthly Newsletter to learn more
about my upcoming books, giveaways and monthly contests!
I love Johnny Cash... I had to come visit your post on that basis. Congratulations on the new release Marin!
ReplyDeleteLily M
Hi Lily! Glad to welcome another Johnny Cash fan...there's a lot of us out here! Thank you for the congratulations on my book release :-)
DeleteGreat post! Thanks for sharing! Your story sounds great!! Ill admit, im not much of a johny cash fan but my grandma and sister are huge ones!! Hes a trivia question for ya:
ReplyDeleteAn album recorded live at what prison hit the number one spot in 1968?
Thanks! That was fun! Have a great day!
shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com
Answer: Folsom. He did make another prison album at San Quentin, but it never was as big as the one at Folsom.
Hi Shadow--thanks for stopping by the blog and adding a trivia question on Johnny Cash! There's a youtube video of Johnny singing at the Folsom prison...you should show that one to your grandmother --she might get a kick out of watching his youtube performances.
DeleteGreat give away i love signed books Here was the best trivia and most important thing that happened to Mr Cash
ReplyDeleteQuestion: Where did Johnny Cash and June Carter meet?
Answer: Johnny Cash and June Carter met backstage at the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman Auditorium in the ’50s. At the time, they were both a part of the Grand Ole Opry cast, but married to other partners. In the ’60s they began performing as a duo, and by 1968 the couple married.
Hi Lora thanks for posting the great trivia question! There are some fans of Johnny Cash that say June Carter pursued Johnny relentlessly after they met and that she's to blame for the breakup of both their marriages.... They were quite a duo to watch!
DeleteLove the character names!! Sounds like your books are going to be a blast and I'm adding them to my TBR list!! Coincidently I've got a character whose dad was a huge Johnny Cash fan in one of the stories I'm writing :)
ReplyDeleteHi Jemi--thanks for stopping by the blog and for your kind words about my series! I love those old country and western legends...and it sounds like you'll have fun using Johnny Cash in the book your writing :-) I put Johnny in the same category as Elvis --you may not like his music but everybody knows who he was, lol!
DeleteWhat a fun idea for a book series. Johnny Cash might have produced some great music, but he was a bit of a rebel!
ReplyDeleteShelley...thanks for stopping by the blog and leaving a comment! You're right Johnny was a rebel and got into his share of trouble with the law! But that makes for a great stories when you get older, lol!
DeleteCan't wait to read about Johnny in this new book, just finished reading Dixie's story and thoroughly enjoyed it. Loved how Johnny was so protective of Dixie. I'm sure The Cowboy Next Door is going to be another winner. The rest of the Cash boys, well can't wait for their stories to come! Now in real life the Real Johnny Cash left quite a legacy!
ReplyDeleteHi Cinthia--thanks for taking the time to stop by the blog and leave a comment! You're right...the real Johnny Cash was a true "Bad Boy" in every sense of the word, lol! Thanks for the kind words about A Cowboy's Duty--glad you liked Dixie's story and I hope you enjoy Johnny's!
ReplyDeleteThis is a great idea. Can't wait!
ReplyDeleteQ: What was Johnny Cash's birth name?
A: Cash was named J. R. Cash because his parents couldn't think of a name. When Cash enlisted in the Air Force, they wouldn't let him use initials as his name, so he started to use the legal name John R. Cash. In 1955, when signing with Sun Records, he took Johnny Cash as his stage name.[19]
I didn't leave my email....Demiro1029@aol.com
Deletethanks again!
Hi Dena, thanks for stopping by the blog and leaving a tidbit of Johnny Cash trivia! He was an interesting man, wasn't he? Glad you liked the idea of my six heroes being names after country and western legends :-) I'm having a lot of fun writing these books and hope my readers enjoy them.
Delete