Effie's Outlaw Virtual Book Tour with Karen Lopp

 

When I first started writing about the American West, it was because I had found a treasure. My grandmother had written down the experiences and life stories of her grandparents as they made their way West. The hardship, heartbreak, (seriously, some of those stories still leave me in tears!) and the triumphs my ancestors lived through was astonishing and humbling. After my husband was transferred to Arizona and then New Mexico I was able to add the wild beauty of the Southwest deserts to my imagination and the stories have just flowed since then.

The inspiration for Effie’s Outlaw came from some of the rambling road trips my family took through the back roads of Northern Arizona. There are so many meandering canyons and hidden spots of stark loveliness and rugged terrain. It is clear, even to this day, why so many outlaws and loners were drawn to those areas. With that backdrop in my head, the day I found out that one of my ancestors had been a U.S. Marshal, the beginnings of a story began to form. Alex Marshall practically walked out of my head and wrote his own story after that.

Effie came to me as the perfect way to contrast the wildness of the Arizona Territory and the men who lived there. She had to be feisty, of course, in order to survive her trials. But to take an Eastern heiress and throw her unwillingly into the lives and times of the true cowboy, what we still identity as one of the manliest, most testosterone filled era of American history, was a lot of fun!

The relationship between Alex and Effie took some thought, how would a rancher-turned-lawman with nothing to lose, react to a woman who had had everything given to her, ever think he could win the lady? And how would a woman who had known little affection, and few men, respond to a man who had never known a moment of softness? I think it was this challenge that made this story so interesting for me to write, I hope it does the same for my readers when they pick up the book.

  

Effie’s Outlaw

Karen Lopp

Genre: Historical Western Romance

Publisher: SoulMate Publishing

Cover Artist: Devon

Book Description:

Boston heiress, Effie Sheridan, takes matters into her own hands when her fortune is being stolen. The last thing she expects is to be kidnapped by a gang of train robbers. Forced to pretend to be an outlaw's lover to stay alive, she questions her sanity when she is drawn to the gruff, yet charming bandit who risks everything to save her.

U.S. Deputy, Alex Marshall is mad enough to spit nails when the beautiful, city-bred girl lands in his arms. Unable to abandon her to the cruelties of the gang, he searches for a way out of the responsibility. But her courage and sweet kisses begin to chip away at the bitterness inside his heart and he must choose between revenge on the gang that slaughtered everyone he loved or redemption for saving a women he can never have. 

About the Author:

Steeped in a rich family history, Karen Lopp has always been drawn to the courageous lives of the women who lived through the hardships of the past and triumphed.

A transplant from Oklahoma where she grew up on a farm just one mile away from where her great-grandparents settled in the land run, Karen now lives in the enchanted land of New Mexico and has a running competition with her dad on who can grow the tallest hollyhocks. Books and tales of ancestors were staples in her life and she fell in love with history. Enthralled with the short stories her grandmother wrote and passed down, she took the plunge (with encouragement from hubby and kids) into the world of writing.  Her inspiration comes from research into her family tree and their interesting lives.

 

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