Anne here, and today I'm introducing a new writer, Tess LeSue, whose first book, Bound for Eden, was released in the US yesterday, May 1st.
I first met Tess when I was conducting a one-day writing workshop in Adelaide (capital city of South Australia), and I was impressed by the writing she did in that class. A few years later Mary Jo and I jointly conducted a one-day writing workshop for RWAustralia in Brisbane, at the end of which Mary Jo and her husband chose Tess's piece, out of a group of more than 250 writers, as the best piece written that day. So I was delighted when I heard that Tess had been contracted by Berkley.
Romantic Times gave Bound For Eden four stars and said this: Readers looking for a traditional, serious, gritty western won’t find it in LeSue’s Frontiers of the Heart series starter. What they will find is a delightful, roller-coaster ride complete with its laugh-out-loud take on mistaken identity. Three siblings on the run, ruthless bad guys, quirky characters, nail-biting tension and steamy sensuality add up to a non-stop read that will make you smile and perhaps shed a tear. Western aficionados will welcome a refreshing new voice in the sub-genre.
Anne: Tess, welcome to the Word Wenches. As Kathe Robin said above, Bound For Eden was a rollicking ride, and it has a delicious flavour of the western romances I used to devour — and still love. What made you choose a western setting for this series?
Tess: Thanks so much for having me! I’ve been reading this blog for years and am beyond excited to be invited along. I love historical romance in all its forms and read voraciously in most sub-genres, but I adore the American West (in books, film and television). I love everything from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers to Deadwood. I think there’s a genuine sense of optimism and possibility and freedom in westerns (even in the gritty ones). I also think the reason I gravitated towards writing westerns was the fact, as an Australian, the American West feels so familiar to me. My ancestors were frontier people too and I think the Australian voice is quite close to the voice of the American West. I adore the big country, the wide-open skies, the rough and ready characters, and the looseness of the social mores. I love the fact that western heroines get down in the dirt with the guys; they do everything the boys do (and more). Heroines can be virgins or whores, widows or outlaws. There’s so much fun in that for a writer.
Anne: Your heroine, Alex, is a feisty one. Tell us about Alex.
Tess: She’s so much fun. What I love about Alex is that she’s indomitable. It doesn’t matter what life throws at her (and it throws a lot: orphan-hood twice over with the loss of her birth parents and her foster parents; sexual harassment and assault; responsibility for her siblings; villains and varmints and all sorts of mad adventures) she faces it head on. With no small amount of sass. When I was writing she made me laugh out loud – I never knew what she was going to say! Alex has a temper too. She’s irritated by everything. And irritation is so funny – it gives you so much scope for comedy.
Anne: And there’s plenty of comedy in this book. Your hero, Luke, is a classic -- the quintessential talk, dark and yummy. Who is Luke, and what makes him tick? (And no, that's not Luke in the photo)
Tess: When you first meet him Luke seems like a womanizer, but he has a heart of gold. His parents died when he was young and he single-handedly raised his two younger brothers. He can’t help but step in and take responsibility when things go wrong (just like Alex does). Both of them are used to shouldering burdens alone. It’s a shock to both of them to find someone else who will help carry the load. Of course, Luke only lets Alex help him because he thinks she’s a boy. The only experience he’s had with women is in a romantic/sexual capacity – and he can’t help but seduce every woman he meets. He thinks Alex is a scruffy runt of a boy; as a result Alex is the first woman in his life to get to know him as a person, and not just as a heart-stoppingly gorgeous lover.
Anne: And then there are the truly awful villains — tell us about them.
Tess: The Grady brothers don’t have an ounce of charm between the four of them. Silas Grady decides he wants to marry Alex, with or without her consent. With his brothers’ help he tries to harass her into saying yes. After a long winter of abuse and theft, starvation and fear, Alex fights back, and finds herself fleeing Mississippi for the west, with the Grady’s ill-gotten gold in hand, and her brother and sister in tow. The Gradys are out to hunt her down; Silas vows to have Alex’s body and soul, while his murderous brother Gideon wants the gold… and vengeance. And Gideon Grady’s vengeance promises to be bloody.
Anne: You bring the setting of the old west and the Oregon Trail to life wonderfully. How did you go about researching it?
Tess: Research is one of my favorite things – I could lose myself in history books all day. Having said that, my books are a fantastic Technicolor-musical version of history, so I’m constantly striking the balance between the stark gritty history of the west and the romping-fun tone of the book. I have a vast collection of history books and I constantly have books out on loan from the library. I also found there’s a treasure trove of material online, especially about the Oregon Trail – there are so many family histories, diaries, old maps, and photos. And resources like Ken Burns’s documentary The West are invaluable; his work is particularly wonderful for its focus on the First Nations people and of women’s experiences of the west. I also love how many women wrote about their experiences on the trail; it was a brutal journey and navigating it with children was a feat of endurance and resilience. I find reading first person accounts really hits home the scale of the journey. It wasn’t for the faint hearted.
Anne: What was your favorite part of writing this book? (And again, no that's not Luke in the photo.)
Tess: This book was such a gift. It was as much fun to write as I hope it is to read. The characters just took over. You can’t always say that – some books are a real slog – but this one was a romp to write. Alex just leapt to life and I loved writing the dialogue. I genuinely never knew what the characters were going to say and they were far funnier than I am. But I have a couple of favorite moments: one is at the beginning of the book, where Luke thinks Alex is a boy and makes her give him a bath (oh, poor Alex!), and the second is the final scene (which I won’t spoil by describing!). I ended the book smiling and I hope readers do too.
Anne: Can you give us a little taste of BOUND FOR EDEN please?
Tess: This excerpt from the book is when Luke thinks Alex is a boy. Much to her horror, she finds himself drawing him a bath...
Luke finished shaving, without asking another question.
In silence, she fetched the warm water and waited as he soaped his thick, dark hair. When he closed his eyes and tilted his head back, she poured, watching the fall of water shimmer pale gold in the lamplight as it rinsed the soap free and left him clean and shining, like a newly carved marble statue.
She spun on her heel when he began to rise from the tub, and scrabbled for a towel. She thrust it at him and busied herself dampening the stove.
“You know, you ought to have a bath too,” he said speculatively, and she was conscious of his bulk blocking her exit. “You’re filthier than I was.”
Alex felt a wave of horror splash over her like a bucket of icy water. She shrank inside the baggy overalls and shook her head vehemently.
“I can’t see your skin for the muck,” he continued.
Oh heavens, what had she got herself into?
Anne: Thanks so much for joining us on the Word Wenches, Tess, and all the very best of luck with this book. I'll be waiting to grab the next in the series, Bound For Sin, coming in September.
Tess: Thanks for inviting me, Anne.
Tess will give a copy of BOUND FOR EDEN to someone who leaves a comment or a response to this question: Which western hero (book/film/television show) makes you swoon? And to jump-start the memories, I've posted photos of two of my favorites from old TV shows.)