Melissa Lenhardt’s Sawbones trilogy is a continuous adventure – one critic advised “consider the series like reading one as a 1200 page epic “ with a difference – it’s the historic Western frontier told from a woman’s viewpoint. That’s unusual in a genre once described to Melissa as “romance for men.”
Hi there, I’m your host Jenny Wheeler and Melissa talks about the three book saga that traces the life of a woman doctor in New York who is wrongfully accused of murder by powerful interests. She'sgot no choice but to run or to face the very real threat of execution.
We’ve got three E-books of the first book in the series – called Sawbones - to giveaway in our Mysteries Alive draw.
ENTER DRAW TO WIN MELISSA'S BOOK
You’ll find a full transcript of our chat and links to Melissa book on our website, the joys of binge reading.com
Binge Reading on Patreon launched now!
It's been a long build up but we're going live with our Patreon launch with this episode! You can now get access to extra bonus content by supporting the show on Patreon for as little as a cup of coffee a month. Details on our BingeReading on patreon page, patreon.com/thejoysofbinge reading.
Six things you’ll learn from this Joys of Binge Reading episode:
How Melissa was inspired by a precious bond with her FatherHer 'unfinished' mystery series - #3 still comingDelving into sensitive cultural historyWhy she writes Westerns from a women's perspective The writers Melissa admires mostMelissa Lenhardt's next big project
Where to find Melisaa Lenhardt
Website: https://www.melissalenhardt.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mellenhardtauthor/
Twitter: @melenhardt
What follows is a "near as" transcript of our conversation, not word for word but pretty close to it, with links to important mentions.
Introducing Author Melissa Lenhardt and her feminist Westerns
Jenny Wheeler: And now here's Melissa. Hello there, Melissa. And welcome to the show. It's great to have you with us.
Melissa Lenhardt: Hi, Jenny. Thanks so much for inviting me. It's really exciting. I feel like I'm getting out into the world again with the events and podcasts. I'm thrilled to be with you today.
Texas author Melissa Lenhardt - feminist westerns
Jenny Wheeler: Particularly in your part of the world. It's been a little bit shut down for a while. Hasn't it?
Melissa Lenhardt: It has. Right. But I'm in Texas and so we're completely open, which is good and bad, I guess. It has this false sense of security that everything's back to normal here, but I know that it's not back to normal here even, but in the world especially. It's like we're living in a little bubble.
Jenny Wheeler: Has it restricted your promotion work of some of your books? You've got a stand alone novel recently published, haven’t you?
Melissa Lenhardt:Yes, I did. That was last August. it did restrict us quite a lot. I had a couple of podcasts. and I did a video book launch, but there wasn't a whole lot of promotion with it. Some online, but it was sad. I usually try to go to the bookstores here in Texas and around, and I wasn't able to do that. So it wasn't nearly as exciting as other launches for sure.
Jenny Wheeler: We're going to be talking about your Sawbones trilogy today, because this is part of a wider promotion for our current Mysteries/Westerns Alive Giveaway.
We're calling it because this is a historical Western, but it's very alive. It's the Sawbones trilogy. You've got the three books, Sawbones, Blood Oath, and Badlands.
Sawbones' protagonist - a woman doctor on the run
Sawbones is the story of a New York physician called Catherine Bennett. who goes on the run when she's wrongly accused of murder. It's been described as “Outlander meets Post-Civil War.”
And I questioned that a weeny bit, because Outlander makes you think it might be a dual timeline, which it isn't, but of course it has got this wonderful love story at the center of it. And I guess that's the parallel.
Did you think that was a fair description when you saw it on the reviews that came up?
Melissa Lenhardt: That was how I pitched it a little bit. Some people get really mad. I was seeing some reviews, that said things like “This is nothing like Outlander.” And, “This is not time travel.” Right? But you take the time travel out of the first book of Outlander, and it's basically a stranger in a strange land story. A woman is thrust into this world, into this culture, that she knows nothing about.
Right? And she's got to learn to survive on her wits and she's thrown into in the middle of this war basically. And Catherine or Laura - I really think of her as Laura, (because she has to change her name to survive)- but Laura is thrown into the beginning of what's called the Red River War.
A stranger in a strange land - similarities to The Outlanders trope
There’s a lot in that, and there's the love story in the middle of it. In general plot, there are a lot of similarities, but a lot of people can't see past that one particular one. The time travel.
I guess it depends. When you think of Outlander is the first thing you think of time travel, or is the first thing you think of Scotland and all of that conflict. Because when I think of Outlander, I don't really think of time travel.
It affects the things that she thinks about and her character - in what her character does and everything like that. Yes. When I think of Outlander, I think of Scotland and France, and then going to the islands in America. I don't think of the time travel aspect of it.
To me it's this all-encompassing historical fiction., with this woman who is highly intelligent and she's thrown into this situation that's completely foreign to her.
She has to figure out how to survive and how to get out of the situation she finds herself thrust into. I feel like there's a lot of similarities. Some people don't agree, and if you pick it up and you're expecting time travel you will be disappointed.
Jenny Wheeler: The stranger in a strange land aspect of it certainly does resonate. And it is a wonderful story. I mean, I got completely caught up in the love story. And, without any giving away anything I was really hoping it was going to continue right through the whole series. You'd have to read the books to see what happens, but it is a wonderful love story.
Fighting the stereotypes about women doctors in 19th century
Catherine as you say, has to change her identity, she becomes Laura for a lot of the books. She's a woman doctor. And even in that period, she faces extreme prejudice against female doctors.
I looked it up actually. And the first woman doctor in the U S graduated in 1849, and this book is set in the early 1870s. 20 years later, but they're still not accepted. When she gets accused of something very serious, she's at a huge disadvantage at being able to stand her ground and defend herself. It's natural that she might feel she's got no choice, but to just get out of town
Melissa Lenhardt: Absolutely. And I try to put into the paradynamics just as far as the corruption of big cities and the corruption of New York. This was a very wealthy family that was accusing her and they had judges in their family. To stand trial and get convicted, they would do something to her.
They didn't have a habit of hanging women back then, but she would have been sent to an asylum or something possibly, who knows. She really did feel like she did not have a choice. Standing and fighting against such powerful people was going to be pointless, when you can start over in the West, which is what everyone did.
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