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 ...