AUTHOR FAVOURITES: TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT by LORRIE FARRELLY

 Lorrie Farrelly is the award-winning author of not only westerns but romance, time travel, suspense and paranormal books. She tells me a favourite of her books is TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT.

Lorrie is a finalist for the Orange Rose Award in romantic fiction. Her novels have been awarded Readers' Favorite 5-Stars. TERMS OF SURRENDER is a MEDALIST in the 2014 READERS' FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS and a FIRST PLACE WINNER in the 2014 LARAMIE AWARDS for Western and Civil War fiction. TIMELAPSE is also a 2014 READERS' FAVORITE INTERNATIONAL BOOK AWARDS honoree, as well as a GOLD MEDALIST in the 2014 AUTHOR'S CAVE BOOK AWARDS. It is the TIME-TRAVEL NOVEL WINNER in the 2014 CYGNUS AWARDS for Sci Fi and Speculative Fiction. Her short story THE LONGEST WAY HOME from A COWBOY CELEBRATION is a Western Fictioneers 2015 PEACEMAKER AWARD winner.

TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT is the second book in the ‘Terms’ trilogy. In book one, TERMS OF SURRENDER, we meet former Confederate Army officer MICHAEL CANTRELL. In an attempt to find himself after the Civil War Michael journeys to Wyoming Territory and marries ANNIE, becoming the stepfather to her son ROBERT.

We flash forward almost 20 years and ENGAGEMENT shows us Robert in 1885, now a doctor with a practice in Colorado, a widower with a small daughter. He stumbles across a damaged woman, TESS RUTLEDGE, and her small son. Taking them under his wing, he brings them back to the Cantrell family ranch. But Tess’s cruel and abusive husband pursues, and he’s hired a professional killer to ensure that, if he can’t have Tess, nobody can… Meanwhile Robert has an unlikely guardian angel: the ghost of Michael’s dead brother, killed in the Civil War.   

The most celebrated ‘doctor’ in the Old West was DOCTOR JOHN HOLLIDAY, (1851-1887) who, as ‘DOC’ HOLLIDAY, was the famous/ infamous associate of WYATT EARP. Holliday wasn’t even a doctor, of course, he was a dentist!

I was going to incorporate an overview of medical practitioners in the Old West into this blog but decided it’s such a big subject it requires a blog entirely of its own. In the meantime I would refer you to KEITH SOUTER, who is a part time doctor and medical writer and also novelist. He has written non-fiction (health and medical guides) thrillers and also westerns under the pen-name CLAY MORE. Keith regularly posts and blogs about the practice of medicine in the Old West on Internet Forums such as Western Fictioneers. Keith also writes as KEITH MORAY and you can find out about him, in his various writing incarnations, here: https://keithmorayauthor.com

REVIEWS:

Among many reviews acclaiming TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT:

‘A powerful story. It incorporates love, danger, and excitement, with a soupcon of the paranormal.’

‘A fast paced romantic thriller!’

‘A historical romance that provides plenty of suspense and drama, along with a twist of supernatural flair makes for a page-turning read. … there is a richness in detail. The author is a true wordsmith…it can easily be read as a stand-alone work.’

‘Lorrie Farrelly has created characters that are so real and a story that captured me from the very first page. TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT has so much - suspense, drama, historical romance.’

‘Wonderful romance with a paranormal element.’‘I thoroughly enjoyed this book, and in fact found myself shedding a few tears in a couple instances!’

‘This is a great book to sit in front of a fire with a cup of hot chocolate.’

‘It is a refreshing story of a couple of good people meeting in a bad situation and doing what they can to rise above it.’

‘A treasure of a read.’

‘A good historical romance that promotes the values of love, family and courage.’

‘Enchanting.’

‘Stimulating Reading.’

‘A beautiful story!’

 

OTHER LORRIE FARRELLY NOVELS:

Here’s an AUTHOR FAVOURITES BLOG I wrote about TERMS OF SURRENDER: https://andrewmcbrideauthor.blogspot.com/2020/03/review-of-terms-of-surrender-by-lorrie.html 

From my review of TERMS OF SURRENDER:

‘Perhaps the best aspect of this excellent novel is how the trio of brother, sister and damaged stranger bond against their enemies, while Farrelly’s writing skills provide the necessary edge. Recommended.’

 

Other reviews of TERMS OF SURRENDER:

‘Descriptions are evocative and compelling... Readers can expect to find humor, violence, gritty action, and exquisitely-wrought tension throughout… (This) is for readers who seek more depth and layers in their stories.’

‘Another beautifully crafted tale by Lorrie Farrelly… a mixture of passion and nail-biting suspense.’

‘From the first chapter, I was captivated by Ms. Farrelly’s wordsmith skills, as well as the verisimilitude and historical accuracy she brought to the narratives and dialogue about the War, the soldiers and their language.’

‘I remained captivated by superb characterization and narrative.’

And here’s an AUTHOR FAVOURITES BLOG I wrote about TIMELAPSE: https://andrewmcbrideauthor.blogspot.com/2017/09/author-favourites-timelapse-by-lorrie.html

TIMELAPSE is an alternate-reality, time-travel romantic thriller about how an event in 1902 created a nightmarish future for the 21^st Century United States – which the main protagonists have to go back through to a time warp to correct.

Here’s part of my review:

‘Lorrie Farrelly creates vulnerable and damaged but still likable characters you can care about, and plunges them into one perilous adventure after another. An ingenious plot fuels a gripping, fast-paced tale, dystopian sci-fi that also manages to reflect our own troubled times.'

Other reviewers of TIMELAPSE: 

‘Lorrie Farrelly is an incredible writer. This is such a remarkable novel… This novel greatly moved me.’

‘Lorrie Farrelly… has done a marvellous job of describing a world gone crazy.’

"Engaging and engrossing... (TIMELAPSE is) a great read for those who love romance, science fiction, and time travel!"

Find TERMS OF ENGAGEMENT here: https://www.amazon.com/Terms-Engagement-Western-historical-romance-ebook/dp/B006NFFKWO/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=

and here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terms-Engagement-Western-historical-romance-ebook/dp/B006NFFKWO/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1UPQ0GEJPUROL&keywords=terms+of+engagement+lorrie+farrelly&qid=1667825760&s=books&sprefix=terms+of+engagement+lorrie+farrelly%2Cstripbooks%2C152&sr=1-1

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: GUNS OF LEGION by RICHARD PROSCH (writing as A. W. HART)

RICHARD PROSCH is an author who not only writes westerns but thrillers (including his Dan Spalding series.) He’s written novels and short fiction, winning a Spur Award in the latter category.  He tells me his favourite of his westerns is his novel GUNS OF LEGION (where he writes as A. W. HART.) This is the Ninth book in the AVENGING ANGELS series.

GUNS OF LEGION is no ordinary western. The protagonists are a pair of bounty hunters – very common in western fiction, if hard to find in the history of the Old West. But this pair are twins: Reno Bass and his sister, Sara. When they arrive in Lone Jack, Wyoming Territory, they’re not pursuing any common-or-garden outlaw, but a mysterious and monstrous creature terrorising the area.

Soon other surreal elements intrude: the appearance nearby of a decidedly strange and sinister travelling show and menagerie run by Mendelssohn Jobe.

The twins find themselves embattled in the West’s weirdest range war – between a besieged rancher and a carnival of grotesque giants, dwarfs and other horror-show freaks. And behind everything is the threat that The Guns of Legion are coming to unleash devastation on the world.

In the real Old West circuses, menageries and troupes of travelling players brought entertainment to remote communities. Premier among them were BARNUM & BAILEY.

PHINEAS TAYLOR BARNUM (1810 – 1891) established "P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Caravan & Hippodrome" in 1870, a traveling circus, menagerie, and museum of "freaks." JAMES ANTHONY BAILEY (1847 – 1906,) born JAMES ANTHONY MCGINNIS, was an American circus ringmaster and impresario. He met with Barnum and together they established BARNUM & BAILEY’S CIRCUS (for which Bailey was instrumental in obtaining Jumbo the Elephant) in 1880. Their combined show opened the following spring at Madison Square Gardens. Their entourage adopted many names over the years, including THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH.

Travelling side-shows, medicine shows and troupes of nomadic actors have featured in many westerns, from ‘Wagonmaster’

to ‘Heller in Pink Tights.’

One of my favourite scenes in any western is the wonderful vignette in ‘My Darling Clementine’ (1946) where the actor played by ALAN MOWBRAY is forced to recite Hamlet’s ‘To Be or not to Be’ soliloquy to the jeering and unappreciative Clanton Gang.  

Here’s BEVERLY GARLAND as a dancer in a sideshow in ‘The Saga of Hemp Brown’ (1958.)

The weird elements of GUNS OF LEGION definitely put me in mind of the TV Western series ‘The Wild Wild West.’ I thought of the episode ‘The Night of the Sudden Death.’

And I thought of all the western/horror mash ups. But that’s the subject for another blog…

  REVIEWS of GUNS OF LEGION:

‘Intriguing characters… a heck of a book.’

‘Another great story of the twins that you can't put down.’

‘This book has plenty twist and turns to keep it very interesting.’

‘Great western.’

Find GUNS OF LEGION here: https://www.amazon.com/Avenging-Angels-Legion-W-Hart-ebook/dp/B086Z32VGB/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=guns+of+legion&qid=1594546417&s=books&sr=1-1

And here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Avenging-Angels-Legion-W-Hart-ebook/dp/B086Z32VGB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1APN5RIYHFAQK&dchild=1&keywords=the+guns+of+legion+a+w+hart&qid=1594546566&sprefix=guns+of+legion%2Caps%2C184&sr=8-1

Review of TERMS OF SURRENDER by LORRIE FARRELLY

LORRIE FARRELLY is the award-winning author of not only westerns but romance, Time Travel, suspense and paranormal books. 

Here’s my four star review of her western romantic fiction novel TERMS OF SURRENDER:

‘Romantic fiction’ isn’t my thing so I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed TERMS OF SURRENDER.

Captain Michael Cantrell is commander of a dwindling band of confederate soldiers, surrounded by his wounded and dying men in the Virginia woods in April 1865.

Confederate soldiers

In a moving opening scene he receives word from Robert E. Lee himself that the war is lost. In defeat, Michael heads west to find himself.

General ROBERT E. LEE

In Wyoming Territory he finds instead a young settler woman, Annie Devlin, and her 10-year old brother Robbie. Annie is being forced off her land by greedy rancher Colonel Randolph and his gang of hired guns – including two particularly villainous ones.

Michael sides with Annie against Randolph, in what looks to be another doomed cause. Violence ensues – fist fights, rape and gunplay - in the course of which Michael and Annie fall in love.

As you might gather TERMS OF SURRENDER is a lot grittier than the description ‘romantic fiction’ would indicate.

Of course it does cover familiar territory – shades of ‘Hondo’ and ‘Shane’ – but often the best western fiction re-works the familiar, while still finding new wrinkles, as Farrelly does here.

Lee Aaker, Geraldine Page, John Wayne and Ward Bond in 'Hondo' (1953)

The child characters in ‘Hondo’ and ‘Shane’ are rather passive and saintly, but Robbie is a lot spunkier. I particularly liked his humorous interplay with Michael.

Alan Ladd and Brandon De Wilde in the  classic western 'Shane' (1953)

Jill Ireland and David Carradine in the TV series version of 'Shane'

Perhaps the best aspect of this excellent novel is how the trio of brother, sister and damaged stranger bond against their enemies, while Farrelly’s writing skills provide the necessary edge. Recommended.'

Other reviews of TERMS OF SURRENDER:

‘Descriptions are evocative and compelling... Readers can expect to find humor, violence, gritty action, and exquisitely-wrought tension throughout… (This) is for readers who seek more depth and layers in their stories.’

‘Another beautifully crafted tale by Lorrie Farrelly… a mixture of passion and nail-biting suspense.’

‘From the first chapter, I was captivated by Ms. Farrelly’s wordsmith skills, as well as the verisimilitude and historical accuracy she brought to the narratives and dialogue about the War, the soldiers and their language.’

‘I remained captivated by superb characterization and narrative.’

Find my review on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9310432-terms-of-surrender

And on Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Terms-Surrender-Western-historical-romance-ebook/dp/B003ZDO4SI/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=terms+of+surrender+lorrie+farrelly&qid=1584691830&sr=8-1

You can also find TERMS OF SURRENDER here: https://www.amazon.com/Terms-Surrender-Western-historical-romance-ebook/dp/B003ZDO4SI/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=terms+of+surrender+lorrie+farrelly&qid=1584691683&s=books&sr=1-1

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: PERFUME POWDER AND LEAD: HOLY SISTERS by JULIETTE DOUGLAS

Award-winning Juliette Douglas tells me PERFUME POWDER & LEAD: HOLY SISTERS ‘was a hoot to write because of all the crazy things that happened to them.’ ‘Them’ are 3 female con artists masquerading as sisters of a holy order arriving in the same Wyoming town that is the hub for Douglas’s acclaimed ‘Freckled Venom’ trilogy. This novel features a perennial of western fiction, if not fact – the bounty hunter, except this bounty hunter is ex-priest Tate Morgan.

Just to clarify the difference between nuns and sisters: Inside the Catholic Church at least nuns remain in the sheltered life of a convent, whilst sisters go out into the world and do such jobs as nurses and missionaries.

600 nuns and sisters from 12 religious communities served as U.S. Army nurses during the American Civil War. They performed these duties on the battlefield and sometimes gave their lives. At Gettysburg one St. Joseph Sister wiped the blood from the face of a young soldier to discover he was her 18-year-old brother.

They also ministered. In that capacity, SISTER MARY BUCKNER toured the late 19th Century Montana mining camps on horseback.

Some real life sisters in the Old West also worked as school teachers. In 1872 Italian-born SISTER BLANDINA SEGALE, of the Sisters of Charity order, was sent from Ohio to teach in remote Trinidad, Colorado. It was a rough mining camp, and Sister Blandina once had to save the father of one of her pupils from a lynch mob, which she bravely faced down.

The account of her confronting (and not being cowed by) BILLY THE KID is somewhat controversial. It's likely the outlaw she confronted was the highwayman WILLIAM LEROY, (aka ARTHUR POND) who some call the ‘original’ Billy the Kid as he seems to have been using that nickname before the more famous outlaw slain by PAT GARRETT.  

Nuns or Holy Sisters in western film and TV include Shirley MacLaine who masquerades as a nun as she sides with Clint Eastwood in ‘Two Mules for Sister Sara’

Claire Griswold, rescued by Steve McQueen in an episode of ‘Wanted Dead or Alive’

and Jane Merrow (another sister who isn’t what she seems) in an episode of ‘Alias Smith and Jones.’

Jane Merrow (on left) in ‘Alias Smith and Jones’

Reviews of PERFUME POWDER & LEAD: HOLY SISTERS:

‘Author Douglas has developed strong and memorable characters in the three women. This book has both humor and insight, a delightful combination in a western tale.’

‘A great series of twists and turns’

‘Great writing’

‘Wonderful story telling’

‘Fantastic story!’

https://www.amazon.com/Perfume-Powder-Lead-Holy-Sisters/dp/153483656X/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: SKELETONS by JULIETTE DOUGLAS

Award-winning Juliette Douglas tells me she really enjoyed writing SKELETONS, the third episode of her acclaimed Freckled Venom trilogy, because ‘I got to blow stuff up.’ Her heroine, former bounty-hunter Lacy Watson, is now married to Marshal Rawley Lovett and settled down in Wyoming. Then her son and daughter, and other children, are kidnapped by Joe Kannon. Kannon plans to sell them to a slave trafficker in Mexico, but doesn’t reckon on Lacy pursuing, or the kids themselves.

As SKELETONS touches on school teachers (who were almost always women) in the Old West, I thought I’d talk briefly about the remarkable ‘culture bearers’ who helped tame and civilise the west not with guns but with learning and by spreading knowledge.

Before the American Civil War school teaching had been largely a male profession, but after the war they abandoned it for better paid work. Many of the women who replaced them were young, some as young as 15, but their results could be impressive: between 1870 and 1900 Nebraska and Kansas boasted some of the highest literacy rates in the U.S. That was despite a serious lack of resources.

Schools themselves were usually one room affairs, sometimes converted bunkhouses, shacks, log cabins, even brush arbours. Teacher SARAH NEWMAN recalled her room being ‘maybe 10 by 12 feet.’ Classrooms were often over-crowded, with teachers managing as many as 45 pupils. Only eight grades were taught, and usually you’d have children in all eight grades in the one room of the schoolhouse.

A schoolhouse Woods, Oklahoma 1895

ANNA WEBBER in Kansas in 1881 lamented the lack of ‘benches, seats, blackboards or writing desks… for seats we have 2 boards placed on rocks.’ Classes tended to focus on the basics: reading, writing, arithmetic, history, spelling and penmanship - difficult to teach when you didn’t have slates, paper or pencils. The Bible was often the only book a family had to send to school for reading practice. For many years, the main textbook was the McGuffey Reader. With this shortage of books, teachers had to improvise. Lessons were largely memorization, recitation and oral drilling. ELIZA MOTT was a teacher who taught the alphabet using the inscriptions on tombstones! Spelling bees were also popular.

School was usually only open four or five months a year out west. Children in farming communities were expected to help with planting and harvesting. So they might only be available for school between planting and harvesting time – which in Nebraska meant school ran from October to May.

Schoolhouse, Nebraska 1889

The frontier sometimes threw up specifically western challenges for these young women teachers. In 1872 SISTER BLANDINA SEGALE, a nun of the Sisters of Charity order, was sent from Ohio to teach in remote Trinidad, Colorado. It was a rough mining camp, and Sister Blandina once had to save the father of one of her pupils from a lynch mob, which she bravely faced down.

When the ‘Great Blizzard’ of January 1888 swept the Great Plains, 19 year old Nebraska school teacher MINNIE FREEMAN led thirteen children from her schoolhouse to the safety of her home, half a mile away. It’s believed she tied the children together with twine or clothesline during the blinding snowstorm, carrying one child in her arms.

‘Song of the Great Blizzard: Thirteen Were Saved’ or ‘Nebraska's Fearless Maid’, was written in her honour by William Vincent.

I dipped into blogs by KATHRYN ALLBRIGHT and ANNA KATHRYN LANIER for some of this information.

A school mistress out west is one of the main characters in what is generally regarded as the first real western novel ever published – ‘The Virginian’ by Owen Wister. 

Diane Lane plays a western schoolmistress in 'The Virginian' (2000)

Kids on the frontier feature in TV shows like THE MONROES,

LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE and THE RIFLEMAN

The Rifleman

and in movies like BAD COMPANY, THE MISSING and THE COWBOYS.

'The Cowboys' (1972)

Reviews of SKELETONS:

‘Thrilling’

‘Fun and gritty Western’

‘Even more spit and vinegar than its predecessors’

‘Heart-wrenching’

‘Douglas is a master story teller.’

https://www.amazon.com/Freckled-Venom-Skeletons-Juliette-Douglas-ebook/dp/B00ZCQE760/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

AUTHOR FAVOURITES: COPPERHEAD by JULIETTE DOUGLAS

Juliette Douglas mentioned 3 favourites of her own books to me. She tells me COPPERHEAD, the first of her ‘Freckled Venom trilogy,’ is dear to her heart because it was her first book. And it did win the Laramie Award for best debut western. Juliette’s heroine in COPPERHEAD is Lacy Watson, a female bounty hunter pursuing outlaws who is also pursued by demons in her own past. She joins up with Wyoming Marshal Rawley Lovett to bring three psychopathic brothers to justice.

I’ve blogged about bounty hunters before, a staple of western fiction although hard to find in the real history of the Old West – male or female. One gun-toting western woman who was real was CALAMITY JANE – real name MARTHA JANE CANARY (or CANNARY.)

Much of Jane’s life – like the origin of her nickname - is shrouded in legends of her own making. She was born in Missouri, although her given birth year of 1852 has been questioned.  She claimed to have been a muleskinner working for the U.S. Cavalry. Captain John G. Bourke, who was on General Crook’s campaign against the Sioux in 1876, wrote: ‘It was whispered that one of our teamsters was a woman, and no other than ‘Calamity Jane’ a character famed in border story.’ Jane claimed also to have been an army scout who fought Indians, but another cavalry officer, Captain Jack Crawford, stated: ‘Jane… never was in an Indian fight. She was simply a notorious character, dissolute and devilish, but possessed a generous streak which made her popular.’ As a sign of her generosity, she once gave a destitute woman her shoes.

There doesn’t seem to be any hard evidence that she worked as a guard on a stage coach. She was acquainted with Wild Bill Hickok in Deadwood shortly before his murder there in August 1876, but as to whether she secretly married him or gave birth to his child… who knows? The story that she confronted Hickok’s murderer, Jack McCall with a meat cleaver also can’t be verified.

Jane did appear in Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show in 1893 as a story-teller. It would appear that she lived in various locations in Wyoming, Montana and South Dakota and did work as a laundress and a prostitute, drink heavily, carouse loudly and sometimes wear men’s clothes. She also married several times and had two daughters. She died of pneumonia in 1903.

Jane has been widely portrayed in romanticised form by actresses from Doris Day, in the musical named after her,

to Stefanie Powers in an episode of ‘Bonanza’ (where she has an unhistorical relationship with Doc Holliday!)

Stefanie Powers  (as Calamity Jane) with Michael Landon in 'Bonanza'

Anjelica Huston’s portrayal in ‘Buffalo Girls’ (1995) was undoubtedly nearer the truth.

Sharon Stone in the movie ‘The Quick & the Dead’ isn’t exactly a bounty-hunter, but she’s the nearest to one I could find!

The last time I looked all reviews for COPPERHEAD are 4 and 5 star.

‘A gripping and compelling western with an engaging heroine’

‘Truly outstanding’

’The dialogue was wonderful’

‘I’d like to see it made into a film’

https://www.amazon.com/Freckled-Venom-Copperhead-Juliette-Douglas/dp/1502566028