We're excited to announce the launch of a blog tour that will take us traveling back in time: Idaho Madams by Milana Marsenich. Join us as we meet the the author through an interview and give away a copy to one lucky reader.
About the Book
Fur, silver, and gold first lured men to Idaho Territory. Women soon followed. And what women they were! Molly B'Damn, Peg Leg Annie, Spanish Belle, Lou Beevers, Diamond Tooth Lil—the names alone promised excitement and intrigue.
In fact, these madams led complex, turbulent lives. Meet Maggie Hall, a devout Catholic whose husband used her to pay off his gambling debts. Working as a prostitute, Maggie made her way west and, as Molly B'Damn, became the guardian angel of an Idaho mining camp. Or Annie McIntyre, a young girl among the prospectors and ne'er do wells of Rocky Bar who amassed a small fortune as the local madam only to lose it all—along with both her legs.
Idaho Madams uncovers the enigmatic and salacious lives of 30 women who ran brothels in the Gem State from the 1850s to the 1980s. Here are the hedonistic and sometimes heroic exploits of Effie Rogan, Jennie Girard, Nettie Bowen, Ginger Murphy, Dixie Colton, and Dot Allen, but also the unsung sagas of Carrie Young, Grace Freeman, Willow Herman, Hattie Carlton, and many more. As told by author Milana Marsenich, the stories of these women come alive with voluptuous detail, historical photographs, and the social context of the times.
Publisher: Farcountry Press
IBSN-10: 156037750X
ISBN-13: 978-1560377504
Print Length: 160 pages
Purchase a copy of Idaho Madams on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Bookshop.org. Add to your GoodReads reading list.
About the Author, Milana Marsenich
Award winning author, Milana Marsenich lives in Northwest Montana near Flathead Lake at the base of the beautiful Mission Mountains. She enjoys quick access to the mountains and has spent many hours hiking the wilderness trails with friends and dogs. For the past 20 years she has worked as a mental health therapist in a variety of settings. As a natural listener and a therapist, she has witnessed amazing generosity and courage in others. She first witnessed this in her hometown of Butte, Montana, a mining
town with a rich history and the setting for Copper Sky, her first novel.
Copper Sky was chosen as a Spur Award finalist for Best Western Historical Novel in 2018. Her second novel, The Swan Keeper, was a Willa Award finalist in 2019. Her short story, Wild Dogs, won the Laura Award for short fiction in 2020.
She has an M.Ed. in Mental Health Counseling from Montana State University and an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Montana. She has previously published in Montana Quarterly, Big Sky Journal, The Polishing Stone, The Moronic Ox, BookGlow, and Feminist Studies. She has four published novels, Copper Sky, The Swan Keeper, Beautiful Ghost, and Shed Girl, and one popular history book, Idaho Madams. Her popular history book, Mary MacLane: Butte’s Wild Woman and her Wooden Heart, will be out sometime in 2025.
You can find her online at:
Website: https://milanamarsenich.com
X/Twitter: https://x.com/milanamarsenich
--Interview by Jodi M. Webb
WOW: Congratulations on your latest book! Idaho Madams is a departure from your other books, which were all fiction. Can you tell us how you wandered into the world of nonfiction and such an overlooked topic?
Milana: Thank you! This was a fairly simple decision. My novel, Copper Sky, was a Spur Award finalist with Western Writers of America in 2018. I went to the WWA conference that year to get my certificate and my free lunch. I’d never been to a writing conference and what I found surprised me. I was in a room with 200 really good writers. I met a lot of people there. A representative from Farcountry Press was there and they were looking for writers for their Madams series. I loved the idea that someone might want me to write something. I offered and they accepted. And then I panicked. I didn’t know how to write nonfiction!
WOW: I would be panicking too. So, was writing nonfiction a challenge?
Milana: Finding the information for this book was difficult. No one wrote about madams and prostitution, other than in the crime records. Women often changed their names so as not to shame their families. Many times, they faded into the west, and no one heard from them again. I found two dissertations about prostitution in Idaho in the early west. Some books on prostitution included chapters on Idaho. Every important scrap of information I could find went into the book. And it’s not a very big book!
WOW: It may not be big, but I found it very enlightening. Before starting to read I did a bit of pearl clutching. “Madams? Oh my.” But I was impressed by the bravery, intelligence, and charitable spirit of so many of these women. Did anything in particular surprise you during your research?
Milana: Yes, I was surprised by the depth of courage the women displayed and the amount of pain the women in the 1800s and early 1900s suffered. There were no safety nets in those times. Women with children, women in violent relationships, women and girls orphaned or abandoned had few choices. Many women chose to work in the sex trade in order to survive and live. At the turn of century, the sex trade moved from the hands of the women to the hands of unsavory men. While the madams owned the business and looked at the women as employees, the men owned the women and looked at them as possessions. These women couldn’t leave. If they tried, they would be beaten and possibly killed. This shift in the agency of prostitution surprised me.
WOW: Yes, I never thought of it as something that was originally in women's hands. Let's talk about your writing career. You have authored children’s books, historical fiction, mystery, fiction and historical non-fiction. Do you have a favorite genre to write?
Milana: My favorite genre is historical fiction. It still involves research, but I can stray from the facts to suit the story. I love to lean into magical realism that is grounded in the everyday world and historical fiction allows me to do that. It also allows for a flexibility in themes.
WOW: That's amazing, I just read a fellow WOW writer's piece about magical realism. Of course, all your books feel magical to me because I've never been to the American West, so it's like reading about a whole different world. Can you tell me – in case I ever cross the Mississippi – is there one Western spot or event you believe everyone should experience?
Milana: Yes! My hometown of Butte, Montana, often called Butte, America. It was a melting pot of the west, a small city, and phenomenon all its own. It still gives a sense of the early west. It hosts the Montana Folk Festival, a week of great music. Otherwise, Seattle, San Francisco, Denver, and San Antonio are all great cities.
WOW: You should work for your local tourism board. You make a trip to Butte sound very tempting. Will your writing ever stray outside the West?
Milana: I am partial to the west, primarily because I know it. I want to place my Juliette French novels around the nation in unique settings. She might make her way to east coast eventually.
WOW: Can you share a little writing advice with us?
Milana: First: Give yourself permission to write. There is a sense that you are going where no one has gone before. And you are. No one will write the book you’ll write.
Learn the rules before breaking them. Writing is a craft. Understanding the rules of the craft can save a writer a lot of time. I speak from experience. I grew up a poet. It took me a long time to learn to write a novel.
Read everything, books like yours, books different than yours. Read poetry, essays, news, history. Just read. And then sit down and write.
Last, but not least, listen to criticism, consider it, and then use it or discard it. But first listen.
WOW: So what’s up next for you?
Milana: I am working on a book about Mary MacLane, an author from Butte, Montana, who shocked the literary world in 1901 by writing about her inner life. She was bold, irreverent, and unabashedly sexual. Her first book sold 100,000 copies in the first month. She titled it “I Await the Devil’s Coming.” The publisher changed the title to “The Story of Mary MacLane.” The critics loved her and hated her. We are hoping the book will be released late in 2025.
WOW: She sounds fascinating and you get to write about your beloved Butte! Thanks for sharing so much with us today.
--Blog Tour Calendar
November 18th @ The Muffin
Join us as we celebrate the launch of Milana Marsenich's Idaho Madams! Read an interview with the author and enter to win a copy of her book.
November 20th @ A Storybook World
Learn about Researching History from writer Milana Marsenich.
November 22nd @ Musings of a Literary Wanderer
Angela is celebrating Non-Fiction November with a review of Idaho Madams by Milana Marsenich.
November 23rd @ A Wonderful World of Words
Author Milana Marsenich transports us to the Wild West with the story of Mary MacLane, Butte’s Wild Woman. Also, enjoy an excerpt from her latest book, Idaho Madams.
November 25th @ Choices
Author Milana Marsenich visits with a guest post about The Town as Character.
November 27th @ Reading Is My Remedy
Read a review of Milana Marsenich's nonfiction book, Idaho Madams.
November 28th @ The Faerie Review
Lily is reviewing Idaho Madams, a nonfiction history of the shady side of the Wild West.
November 29th @ Candid Canine
Today's guest post by Milana Marsenich features Auditor, the Mining Dog.
November 30th @ Nikki's Book Reviews
Nikki is reviewing Idaho Madams and hosting author Milana Marsenich with a guest post about Keeping the Perspective within the Heart and Mind of the Character.
December 5th @ Tracey Lampley
Read about the Brothel Freeze Framed in 1991 when author Milana Marsenich, author of Idaho Madams, visits today.
December 7th @ Guatemala Paula Loves to Read
Don't miss the review is of the non-fiction history Idaho Madams by Milana Marsenich.
December 9th @ Chapter Break
Author Milana Marsenich tells the tale of the 1912 Speculator Mine Disaster
December 11th @ Reading Is My Remedy
Today's guest post by Milana Marsenich is about The Character of Wallace, Idaho.
December 12th @ Some Thoughts - Everything Creativity
Wrtier Milana Marsenich address the ghostly aspects of a town or event in today's guest post.
December 13th @ StoreyBook Reviews
Get a peek at an excerpt of Milana Marsenich's book Idaho Madams. She's also posting about Dogs and other Animals in Story Development.
December 14th @ Words by Webb
Head to the Wild West for a review of Idaho Madams.
December 19th @ Knotty Needle
Read Judy's review of a little known aspect of frontier life with Idaho Madams by Milana Marsenich.
***** BOOK GIVEAWAY *****
Enter to win a print copy of Idaho Madams by Milana Marsenich! Fill out the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win. The giveaway ends December 1 at 11:59 pm CT. We will randomly draw a winner the next day via Rafflecopter and follow up via email. Good luck!
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