Ready, Set, Honky Tonk
- Maggie Shayne
- Aug 6
- 4 min read
The countdown begins!
HONKY TONK COWBOY
How we got here
Ethan Brand was named after Garrett Ethan Brand, the sheriff of Quinn County, Texas, a wedge of small towns including the town of Quinn in the part of West Texas that bridges grasslands and desert. The sheriff had helped his mamma out of a jam once, and she'd fallen in love with the small-town, the ranch, and the family and had named her baby after the man who'd helped her. Later, when running for her life, she'd left her little baby boy on the doorstep at the Texas Brand, with a note asking the man for whom she'd named her son to care for him as he would his own. It turned out to be her dying wish.
Sheriff Garrett Brand lived up to it, adopted his namesake, and for most of his childhood, the second Garrett Ethan had been called Bubba.
That story kicks off the original series, The Texas Brand, with the very first Brand book ever, The Littlest Cowboy.
That series, The Texas Brand, grew into 9 books, and spun-off two sister series, The Oklahoma Brands, and The McIntyre Men.
It wasn't until his teens that he'd started asking the family to call him Ethan, and not one of them took him seriously. Now, he's known to the world as country singer Ethan Brand with one bonafide hit, and he's on the road most of the time in the quest for a second. He comes home for holidays and special occasions, like his cousin Maria's weddings--the one she ran away from and the one that took, with a likeable nerd named Harrison, not Harry (who calls him Ethan, not Bubba.) (Harrison Hyde and the Runaway Bride.)
But then he met an angel. Lily Hyde, Harrison's sister, and therefore, absolutely off limits. His cousins were like his siblings. It would be like seducing a sister-in-law. When it went bad, as it for sure would, it would send ripples of harm through the entire family, and in their family, family was everything.
So no, he can't have a fling with Lily Ellen Hyde. And yet he can't seem to stay away from her.
Honky Tonk Cowboy is on sale TUESDAY, August 12th
In the days before a new book drops, I'm always so excited I can barely sit still. I think it must be the way a painter feels before she lets another set of eyes see her completed art. Or, maybe not exactly, since my stuff is seen by at least two editors. But I bet a painter gets feedback at some point? Yes? No? 🤷♀️
Still... it's a nerve-wracking time for me. I bet my blood pressure is up. I'm trying to exercise more to counter that, (and to be frank, because I'm a month out from my annual checkup) The challenge is, I'm also writing Book Three, (Deputy Brand Gets Her Man) and it prefers to be written while I'm cozy with a blanket in my lap and a cup of decaf by my side, or on nice days when there's not too much smoke from the wildfires in Canada, outside by my little waterfall in a cushioned chair. It most decidedly does not want to be written at my stand-up, treadmill desk. No it doesn't. ,
And yet, I'll be on that treadmill writing before this day is out. I want to live long and that's part of the deal. Sigh.
I'm having a lot of fun creating Willow's story. It's flowing more easily than any book has flowed in quite awhile, just really spilling out of me as soon as I put my fingers to the keys, even if my feet are on the treadmill. It feels like the tale is a wild horse I'm riding, and it's all I can do to steer her, to keep her more or less on the trail as she barrels ahead. Every now and then she takes the bit and gallops off-road and through the brambles, creating her own route to where we both want to go. I barely know what to expect next. But it will be a fun ride.
Counting down,
There's Wednesday, that's today as I post this. Then there's tomorrow, which is Thursday. Then the weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday. Monday is the final day of waiting, because sometime overnight Monday night into Tuesday, probably at midnight EST, Honky Tonk Cowboy will be born into the world.
If you pre-ordered in E, it will be on your device when you wake Tuesday morning. If you pre-ordered in paperback, the stores try to time the shipments to arrive on release day, so may it be so for you.
Baby Bubba is all grown up, and he's met his match in Lily Ellen Hyde.
Read The Opening Scene, which includes a significant reveal (if you read Book 1.)
Pre-order the book in paperback or ebook at these retailers:
Visit the series page for info on Book 1, Harrison Hyde and the Runaway Bride, and the OG Texas Brand series. (The tales of the ElderBrands, if you will.)
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