Outlaw Muse by Lauren Linwood-Review and Guest Post with the Author

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date October 9, 2013

Separated from her twin during the Orphan Train selection, schoolmarm Serena Sullivan searched for her brother Bill over fifteen years. Just as she gets a lead on his whereabouts, she is railroaded by a crooked sheriff and set to hang for the murder of the sheriff’s best friend.

English playwright Daman Rutledge has come to the American West on business for his brother when he witnesses a woman about to be executed. On impulse he rescues the beautiful stranger and goes on the run with her. Along the way Daman finds the muse he’s been missing and loses his heart to the raven-haired beauty with haunting amber eyes.

As they try to outrun the long arm of the law, Daman seeks to prove Serena’s innocence before it’s too late

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Lauren Linwood’s talent for writing wonderful romantic stories has just surpassed itself! This is an incredibly vivid romance set in the American Old West. The characters are wonderfully written and intensely believable. From the authentic scenery to the setting of the times this tale is a masterpiece of both romance and the old west. If we did stars…this would be a five star from me!

While I’ve never been particularly fond of western stories, I have to say this one tweaked my interest and held me captive all night. It’s a page turner from the beginning to the very end. I’ve become a Linwood fan and will continue to read her wonderful stories for as long as she wishes to put them on “paper” or screen…whatever!

The story begins in America – 1859, with the sad reality of poor Irish-American children being put on an “orphan train” and sent to new families willing to “adopt” (a polite word for child slavery for the most part) children left homeless and some parentless from the cities. Linwood did an excellent job writing the experience of these children as well as the often too true nature of those that adopted them. The main character children Serena and Bill Sullivan are such orphaned twins. Promises made to their dying mother that they would remain together were of course, not the case.

Serena a lovely girl of ten did her best to keep her brother with her, but due to having a club foot which most felt limited his ability to “work” the farm kept him from being selected and they were immediately separated. Serena was taken by a morally dark German farmer and his wife and son. She was immediately made to work and at night was forced to “please” the man and later his son as well in the pleasures of the flesh (at the age of 10, unfortunately not abnormal for this period). This horrible nightmare of a childhood is treated admirably by Linwood and revealed slowly through Serena’s memories.

The story continues, now in 1874 – London, with the sad story of a playwright who just couldn’t commit to love losing the lover and friend of long standing to a titled man willing to give the lady love, marriage and a family. Daman Rutledge, third son of an English Earl and therefore having to make his own living, lost his ability to write when his ex-friend/lover died in childbirth sometime after leaving him. Do to the death of his father and his second half-brother, his only sibling left asked him to see to some family business in Texas for him.

While on his brother’s business, Daman learns to adjust to the place and the work as he helps on a cattle drive from Galveston, Texas to Abilene, Kansas. Linwood gives just enough flavor of the times and the trip to let you get to know the characters and the secondary characters are unique and add their own touch to this well told story.

The really interesting things begin to happen quickly now, as Daman looking for a “quieter” place to stay than the rowdy cow-town, goes to a place not far away, the small farming community of Crombar Creek. When he arrives he witnesses a hanging in progress of a beautiful young woman, he hears many women telling the crowd that the woman did nothing wrong and that the man had also forced himself on them over the years as well…during the growing unrest of the crowd and the confusion, Daman makes the most fortuitous decision of his life. He shoves the sheriff (the guy you’ll love to hate) about to hang the woman, off the platform and proceeds to cut her down and throw her over his shoulder and runs off with her in his wagon.

That’s the setup…the rest you really must read for yourselves! Do yourself a favor and don’t miss this wonderful rollercoaster ride of adventure, romance, love and so much more. Even if you are not normally drawn to western stories, this will thrill your romantic soul! We have found a talented treasure in Lauren Linwood and I wish you as much enjoyment as I’ve had reading this latest offering!

Copy supplied by the author for an honest review.

Reviewed by Georgianna

Researching Historical Romance

I’ll admit it. I’m a nerd. I was the girl who liked school. Really liked it. The priority for most kids on a school day is to see their friends—then think (or worry) about school stuff. I loved seeing my friends, but I really enjoyed learning. And nothing fascinated me more than history.

I soaked up all the fun stuff, especially about US presidents. Did you know that Grant got a speeding ticket for racing his horse and buggy too fast down the streets of Washington, D.C.? Or that Taft’s 300+ pounds didn’t fit inside the White House bathtub, so they installed a larger one!

And Garfield could write the same words in Latin with one hand and Greek with the other . . . at the same time. Naturally, I also learned about political history and economic policies and felt a thrill when I connected those things to the big picture.

I realized my first dream when I became a history teacher (bet you didn’t see that one coming!). I loved watching documentaries or scouring biographies to look for interesting tidbits to share with my students that would help bring history alive to hormonal, self-centered teens.

And when I came up for air from all of the grading and lesson planning and parent conferences, I learned by reading historical romances that I could have my cake and eat it, too. Historicals not only told great love stories in long-ago places, but I actually learned a few things as I read (and sighed and lusted after the hero).

Writing my own historical romances, I wanted to bring that air of verisimilitude to my novels – but I don’t want to preach to my readers and insert dry, boring facts simply because it’s historical romance. My goal is to integrate facts from the past and let them add depth and texture to an interesting plot and great romance.

Researching for my novels is a pleasure. Sometimes I have to limit my research time because I get so caught up in it—and my editor is waiting for a book—so I need to put in the writing time.

I’ve read biographies and history books, along with newspapers. Watched documentaries. Studied old photographs online. Read letters. Looked at maps. Found brochures. Gone to museums. Research opportunities are endless and all around if you’re willing to dig deeply and utilize a variety of sources.

For my October release, Outlaw Muse, I spent time reading about the orphan trains that took children from the ages of 5-18 out west to start a new life. I found emigration rosters with children’s names and ages and pamphlets about foster care for these orphans, along with photographs of them, their faces both hopeful and fearful at the same time. I incorporated bits and pieces of this as my heroine and her twin brother ride the Orphan Train to Missouri as children, hoping to be adopted by a wonderful set of parents and find a stable family life.

While researching aspects for A Game of Chance, my January 2014 release, I had to understand different poker hands since my hero is an ace gambler. About the only thing I knew about poker hands came from playing Yahtzee with my daughter when she was young. I learned the difference between a flush (any five cards of the same suit) and a royal flush (an ace-high straight of the same suit and the rarest hand in poker). I also studied maps of San Francisco in the 1870s to learn where the best-known gaming halls were located. I wrote about the death of one character, so I even researched cemeteries to see where she might be buried.

For A Change of Plans (coming sometime in 2014), my heroine Maggie is a dime novelist. I found all kinds of facts about dime novels and the publishing world at that time. Maggie writes under a man’s pen name, as many women of that era did. She wants to write a novel about cowboys on the cattle trail and interviews my hero Ben, fresh off a cattle drive from Texas to Kansas. Through their dialogue, I’m able to drop several interesting tidbits about what it’s like to be a cowboy riding along the ChisholmTrail.

History is full of untold stories, and I mine research and treasure it as a Forty-Niner might a precious gold nugget, for those nuggets help bring life to my characters and plot!

A huge thanks for The Reading Café having me back today after they were so kind to interview me for my May 2013 medieval historical debut, Music For My Soul. And yes, I did enough research in that era to write several more medievals! Authors learn to work smart as well as hard, and hopefully one day I’ll be sharing more stories from medieval times with you.

Lauren

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As a child, Lauren Linwood gathered her neighborhood friends together and made up stories for them to act out, her first venture into creating memorable characters. Following her passion for history and love of learning, she became a teacher who began writing on the side to maintain her sanity in a sea of teenage hormones.

Lauren’s novels focus on two of her favorite eras, medieval times and the American Old West. History is the backdrop that places her characters in extraordinary circumstances, where their intense desire and yearning for one another grows into the deep, tender, treasured gift of love.

Lauren, a native Texan, lives in a Dallas suburb with her family. An avid reader, moviegoer, and sports fan, she manages stress by alternating yoga with five mile walks. She is thinking about starting a support group for Pinterest and House Hunters addicts.