{"id":26847,"date":"2024-07-04T23:33:26","date_gmt":"2024-07-04T23:33:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-author-bethany-turner-receives-colorado-book-award\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T05:46:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T05:46:08","slug":"cortez-author-bethany-turner-receives-colorado-book-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-author-bethany-turner-receives-colorado-book-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez author Bethany Turner receives Colorado Book award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Bethany
Bethany Turner poses with her new book \u201cCole and Laila Are Just Friends\u201d during her book signing on June 8, at Amy's Bookcase Paperback Exchange in Farmington. (Curtis Ray Bennally\/Special to Tri-City Record)<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A romantic comedy set in the fictional Colorado community of Adelaide Springs was recognized at the annual Colorado Book Awards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other<\/em> by Bethany Turner<\/a> of Cortez was named one of the best romance books by Colorado Humanities and Center for the Book during the 2024 Colorado Book Awards on June 21 at the Tivoli Turnhalle Theater at the Auraria Higher Education Center in Denver.<\/p>\n

The book, published by Thomas Nelson\/HarperCollins<\/a>, is the ninth novel written by Turner, who previously worked in the banking business.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was a vice president of a bank raising young kiddos, who are now adults,\u201d Turner said. She reached a point in her life when she began evaluating what she wanted to do next.<\/p>\n

Turner had been writing for enjoyment for about 15 years. \u201cIt really was just stress relief and a creative outlet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were going through this incredibly stressful time at the work, at the bank,\u201d Turner said. \u201cI had time for nothing else, and after my family would go to sleep I would just write, because I needed to do something to clear my head.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner began sharing her stories with people and received positive comments.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt wasn\u2019t the path I meant to go on, but it\u2019s the path I\u2019m on now that\u2019s for sure,\u201d she said. Her writing career took off when she was signed by Thomas Nelson\/HarperCollins.<\/p>\n

Turner said she is \u201cin the real publishing world, but very local,\u201d having lived in Cortez for more than 20 years.<\/p>\n

\"Author
Author Bethany Turner discusses her new book with Amy Henkenius, owner of Amy's Bookcase Paperback Exchange, on June 8 in Farmington.<\/span>Curtis Ray Benally<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In fact, her two newest books are set in a Colorado town, which she based on Creede, Colorado. Adelaide Springs has a population of 350 and is trying to remain a place on the map.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was very different for me. It was the first time I\u2019d written small town, first time I\u2019d written fictional town. I absolutely fell in love with Adelaide Springs,\u201d Turner said. \u201cIt was very different for me to do it in Colorado. As soon as I did, it was obvious to me this is why all the Hallmark movies take place here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner said she has nothing against Hallmark movies, but did say her stories are \u201cmore intricate than that and have a few more layers.\u201d<\/p>\n

In writing about a location, she discovered Adelaide Springs became \u201creally another character in the book, a mountain town offers that I think in a way a lot of other places don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner also found that once Adelaide Springs became an important location, the characters had more depth as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are these characters who are side characters who became so important to me. They were every bit as rich to me as my leads. It came from the understanding of how small towns work,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other <\/em>follows the story of Brynn Cornell and Sebastian Sudworth. Brynn was just named the host of the No. 1 morning show in America when \u201cshe gets caught on a hot mic kind of tearing down her little hometown,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

The only way to salvage her career is for Brynn to go back home and basically \u201ceat crow,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

This is where she meets Sebastian, who is \u201con the other end of the journalism spectrum, a Pulitzer Prize-winning writer. \u2026 He\u2019s been out of the picture for six years,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s going back to Adelaide Springs to salvage her career and Sebastian has gone there to escape his career,\u201d Turner said.<\/p>\n

From this book came Cole and Laila are Just Friends, <\/em>which hit the bookshelves on June 4. Also set in Adelaide Springs this follows the love story of Cole and Laila, who are friends of Brynn and Sebastian.<\/p>\n

Both books are billed as \u201ca love story\u201d in the titles and Turner said that was done because that is what they are. They are not your typical romance.<\/p>\n

\u201cActually we originally had it as a romance, and then we were very careful,\u201d she said, adding it was changed to love story because \u201cthere\u2019s just some connotation with the word romance, which is silly to me, which at the same time I get it.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is \u201cromantic tension,\u201d and she does \u201clike a little bit of steam,\u201d Turner said. \u201cIt\u2019s really about these characters and their journey. I do keep it clean, but I don\u2019t think clean needs to mean boring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Turner, who is a fan of movies and television, also adds a good deal of pop culture to her books as well.<\/p>\n

Brynn and Sebastian Hate Each Other <\/em>and Cole and Laila are Just Friends<\/em> are available locally at Amy\u2019s Bookcase Paperback Exchange in Farmington and Maria\u2019s Bookshop in Durango. They also can be purchased at Barnes and Noble and online.<\/p>\n

For more information about Turner and all of her books visit her website at https:\/\/seebethanywrite.com\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Former bank vice president releases 10th novel<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26848,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-26847","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26847","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26847"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26847\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79493,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26847\/revisions\/79493"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26847"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26847"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26847"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=26847"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}