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A Conversation with Kari Lynn Dell, Author of TANGLED IN TEXAS (with a giveaway!)

 

Welcome, Kari Lynn! What 5 things should readers know about you?

  • I am, in person, one of the least romantic, most logic-bound people you’ll ever meet. We don’t even celebrate Valentine’s Day. My husband hates watching movies with me because I insist on pointing out plot holes and illogical character arcs, but I am incapable of just letting it go.
  • I am currently, simultaneously addicted to astrophysicist Neil Degrasse Tyson’s podcast Star Talk and binge-watching the first season of Glee. I love me some show tunes and theories of relativity.
  • Ninety-nine percent of the scenes in Tangled involving Delon’s rehab were written from personal experience. I studied sports medicine in college and worked as a clinic-based athletic trainer in South Dakota and Oregon, spending my afternoons, evenings and weekends on the sidelines of local high school practices and games. Ask me about any sport, I’ve probably watched a thousand or so hours of it. Mornings I worked in the physical therapy clinic rehabbing athletes, just like Tori.
  • Also like Tori, I am obsessed with big rigs and would love to climb in and do a cross country road trip. Especially with someone who looks like Delon and has a chocolate stash. I would settle for my husband, though, who actually owns a commercial driver’s license. But sadly, not a truck.
  • I grew up as a rodeo rat, hanging out behind the chutes while my parents were competing. Beni Sanchez is a conglomeration of all the wise-beyond-their-years cowkids I’ve known. And been.

Fascinating! Thanks for sharing 🙂

 

Where did the inspiration for this book come from?

It all started with the George Strait song, I Can Still Make Cheyenne, about a professional cowboy who has been dropping in and out of a woman’s life as his rodeo schedule allowed. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sKXdnBGIcm0 ) Finally one day he calls to say he’s coming home and she tells him not to bother, she’s found someone new. I love that song. And it got me thinking—what kind of guy would take off for weeks and not even call, and what kind of woman would put up with him? What would happen if their paths cross again, years down the road when they’re both older and wiser and life has knocked them around some? My imagination took it from there, and Delon and Tori were born.

Oooh, I love that song too! Awesome inspiration!

 

How long have you been writing, and what (or who) inspired you to start?

I started writing in the late ‘90s. We were living in Oregon and I was working as an athletic trainer at Pendleton High School, so I had summers off. I’ve always done a lot of reading—anything and everything—but romance has been one of my mainstays. As a rancher and cowgirl it was natural for me to gravitate toward western romances, but what I found wasn’t the world I live in. The characters didn’t look the same or talk the same as the cowboys and cowgirls I knew. In many cases the rodeo or ranch setting was a backdrop, not a central part of the plot. So with an entire summer vacation stretching ahead of me, I decided to write my own. Much to my surprise, I was good at it—and I got hooked.

 

What are you working on right now? What can readers look for from you in the next year?

I am currently working on the fourth book in the Texas Rodeo series (due spring 2018), what I call Shakedown in Texas on the good days, and This Damn Book the rest of the time. It stars Wyatt, the best friend of the hero of the first book, Reckless in Texas, and Melanie, the lifetime BFF of the heroine of the same book. Which makes things complicated right off the bat because, as one character points out, “You two hooking up would be like dating your best friend’s sister.” And it just gets weirder from there.

My next release will be Tougher in Texas which is currently available for pre-order at all of the usual online outlets or your local indie bookstore. I don’t like to play favorites, but I have to say, Shawnee (who you meet in Tangled) is my favorite heroine to date. Imagine Melissa McCarthy as a cowgirl, at her outrageous, sarcastic best. Then throw her together with Cole Jacobs, who was diagnosed as autistic at the end of Reckless in Texas and treasures nothing more than his safe, predictable routines. Wow, were they fun to write.

I bet—and they sound like even more fun to read!

 

What are you currently reading, and what are your thoughts about it so far?

The last book I read was The Hating Game by Sally Thorne, and it was awesome. A great study in how to write a story that is very narrowly focused on the hero and heroine, especially for a someone like me who loves her secondary characters and sub-plots. As for what I’m currently reading—I am banned from my To-Be-Read pile until I survive the release of Tangled and get through the first draft of Shakedown.

That sounds like a plan! Maybe I should ban myself from my TBR until the end of the semester…? Nope, not that strong. 😉

 

If you had to “sell” your book in a single Tweet, what would you say?

Pro bronc rider Delon Sanchez lost everything when his knee was shattered. One person can help him get it back—the woman who broke his heart.

Perfect! Thanks so much, Kari Lynn!

 

 

Kari Lynn Dell is a ranch-raised Montana cowgirl who attended her first rodeo at two weeks old and has existed in a state of horse-induced poverty ever since. She lives on the Blackfeet Reservation in her parents’ bunkhouse along with her husband, her son, and Max the Cowdog, with a tipi on her lawn, Glacier National Park on her doorstep and Canada within spitting distance. Her debut novel, The Long Ride Home, was published in 2015. She also writes a ranch and rodeo humor column for several regional newspapers and a national agricultural publication.

 

Buy Links:
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Title: Tangled in Texas
Series: Texas Rodeo, #2
Author: Kari Lynn Dell
Pub Date: February 7, 2017
ISBN: 9781492631972

 

It took 32 seconds to end his career.

But it only took 1 to change his life.

Thirty-two seconds. That’s how long it took for Delon Sanchez’s life to end. One minute he was the best bronc rider in the Panhandle and the next he was nothing. Knee shattered, future in question, all he can do is pull together the pieces…and wonder what cruel trick of fate has thrown him into the path of his ex, the oh-so-perfect Tori Patterson.

Tori’s come home after her husband’s death, intent on escaping the public eye. It’s just her luck that Delon limps into her physical therapy office, desperate for help. All hard-packed muscle and dark-eyed temptation, he’s never been anything but a bad idea. And yet, seeing him again, Tori can’t remember what made her choose foolish pride over love…or why, with this second, final chance to right old wrongs, the smartest choice would be to run from this gorgeous rodeo boy as fast as her boots can take her.

 

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