Melissa Lenhardt--The Feminist Western

DEBORAH CROMBIE: Having grown up in Texas, with an uncle who was a famous Texas writer and historian, I rebelled by turning all my imaginative passion to the other side of the Atlantic. I didn't read westerns, or watch westerns, and am abysmally ignorant about John Wayne movies. And I'm ashamed to admit that I'm probably the only person who neither read nor watched Larry McMurtry's Lonesome Dove.

HOWEVER, thanks to Melissa Lenhardt, I am now a western convert!! I am totally hooked on her SAWBONES trilogy. (Maybe the reason I never liked westerns was because none of the main characters were women?)

 

Melissa changes that. Here she tells us what inspired her.

MELISSA LENHARDT:  When I woke up on June 20, 2008, I had no idea my life was about to change irrevocably. It was the next to last day of our vacation in Hawaii, and all we had on the agenda was hanging out on the beach. It was the first day we weren’t scheduled to the hilt, and we were all looking forward to a casual day, and capping off our trip with a luau on the beach that night.

After breakfast, I went to a photo shop. I don’t even remember why, but my boys were nine and six, so I have a pretty good idea why I was taking my own sweet time returning to the room. When I saw my husband on an adjacent trail with a panicked expression on his face, my first thought was the boys. Then he said, “You need to call your mom.”

Let’s be honest; no one ever thinks they’re going to get The Call while they’re on vacation, but we still dutifully give our itineraries to our loved ones and, in my case, call your parents earlier in the week to let them know to call my husband’s phone if they need me because mine wasn’t working. Just in case. You never know.

My dad died suddenly that day. We had no time to prepare, and we didn’t know how to grieve. All I knew is that one minute my soul was full, and the next a part of it was gone, and would never return. I spent the rest of the summer in a fog, watching Westerns on TCM and AMC, trying to touch a piece of him, no matter how ephemeral. Bud Boetticher, James Stewart, John Ford, John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, Randolph Scott, and Anthony Mann helped keep the sorrow at bay, at least for an hour and a half at a time. Lonesome Dove was my father’s favorite, and I dutifully watched, then picked up the book for the first time. I loved it, naturally; McMurtry is a master, after all. By then, I’d watched enough Westerns focusing on the men that I was ready for a female-centered story with some grit that didn’t revolve solely around romance. When I didn’t find it in literature (Lord knows it doesn’t exist in the movies or television), I decided to write my own.

Writing was a hobby in 2008. I had no designs on getting an agent, let alone getting published. Lord knows I had no idea this book would get published. I’m a little embarrassed to admit how many iterations this story went through. Sawbones was the book that taught me how to write, how to finish, how to edit, how not to give up. There was something about Laura and her story that resonated with me, so I doggedly kept at it. I’ll confess, as time went on and I read more on women in the West, and their lack of representation in history books, I had a strong desire to shatter a few myths about the West. And, I didn’t want to let my dad down.

Badlands, the third book in the Sawbones series, was released nine years, almost to the day, since my dad died. A decade. Hard to believe so much time has passed. It’s even more difficult to believe the story I started to feel closer to my dad, to honor him, ultimately led to a new career as a professional writer, to meeting so many wonderful writers and readers and publishing professionals. I wish I could have one day with my dad, to hug his neck, hear him call me “Bug." I want to tell him how he’s inspired me, how the memories of his love, his never-ending encouragement, his belief that I could do anything I set my mind to, has led to an exciting new chapter in my life. I can't imagine ever being able to answer, "Which of your books is your favorite?" with anything other than, "SAWBONES, hands down."

DEBS:  Here's how the story begins, in 1871: When Dr. Catherine Bennett is wrongfully accused of murder, she knows her fate likely lies with a noose unless she can disappear. Fleeing with a bounty on her head, she escapes with her maid to the uncharted territories of Colorado to build a new life with a new name. Although the story of the murderess in New York is common gossip, Catherine's false identity serves her well as she fills in as a temporary army doctor. But in a land unknown, so large and yet so small, a female doctor can only hide for so long.

Catherine/Laura's story continues in BLOOD OATH and BADLANDS, and, yes, she does come to Texas in SAWBONES, and I'm now fascinated not only by her story but by my own state's too long neglected (by me) history.

READERS, were you bitten by the western bug? What were your favorites? And did you long to see strong women characters?  

Melissa Lenhardt writes mystery, historical fiction, and women’s fiction. Her short fiction has appeared in Heater Mystery Magazine, The Western Online, and Christmas Nookies, a holiday romance anthology. Her debut novel, Stillwater, was a finalist for the 2014 Whidbey Writers’ MFA Alumni Emerging Writers Contest. She is a member of the DFW Writers’ Workshop and president of the Sisters in Crime North Dallas Chapter. Melissa lives in Texas, with her husband and two sons.