About this Event
Sandra Dallas and Marj Charlier will be speaking together about the world of writing. Both write historically-set women's tales, and both have a backlog for you to dive into if you've missed it!
The authors will also discuss their newest books. The Hired Man by Sandra Dallas and two books by Marj Charlier: The Little Iowa Bookstore and What She'd Do to Save You, both coming out on September 8th, 2026.
The Little Iowa Bookshop is a novel about prejudice against relationships between older women and younger men; hope for dying, rural towns; and what's lost when families scatter across the country.
What She'd Do to Save You is set amidst the wide-open prairies of north-central Nebraska, What She'd Do to Save You is a multigenerational story of motherhood, ambition, and the choices women face between the life they know and a rewarding but unpredictable future.
Marj Charlier is the author of several historical novels and contemporary women's novels. The Rebel Nun, released in 2021 (Blackstone Publishing), won the first-place award for historical fiction and first-place overall fiction award from the Colorado Independent Publishers Association. The Candlemaker's Woman, historical fiction set in 406 CE, was published April 30. She followed a 20-year career in journalism, including 12 years as a staff reporter at the Wall Street Journal, with 15 years in corporate finance departments as an investor relations executive. A native of Iowa, she has a bachelor's degree from Iowa State University, a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin, and an MBA from Regis University. She has attended the Dorland Mountain Arts Colony Residency, the Vashon Island Artists Residency, and the Todos Santos Writers Workshop; and has taught courses in publishing, fiction and memoir writing.
The Hired Man
The Dust Bowl sweeps a handsome stranger into a small Colorado town to dangerous effect
1937. It's been seven years since the dust storms started in Colorado. Folks can barely remember a time when the clouds were filled with rain instead of dirt, and when the fields were green instead of brown. High school student Martha Helen Kessler and her family are luckier than most; they still eke out a living from the land. Even so, evidence of the Dust Bowl's grim impact on families, especially on the women who bear the brunt of their husbands' frustration and their children's hunger, is everywhere.
When Martha Helen's compassionate mother insists they take in Otis Hobbs, a handsome drifter who saves a local boy from a vicious storm, she quickly discovers a darker side to their rural community. Suspicion, jealousy, and prejudice grip their neighbors - and emotions reach a frenzy after Martha Helen's best friend, Frankie, disappears and is then found murdered. Ultimately, Martha Helen is forced to make sense of her conflicting feelings and loyalties in order to help find retribution and to reconcile the difference between the law and justice.
Full of period detail and Sandra Dallas's trademark focus on the lives of women, The Hired Man entertains and ultimately surprises .
Sandra Dallas is a New York Times bestselling author of twenty adult novels, several children's novels, and numerous works of non-fiction about Western subjects. Her work has won numerous awards and prizes including the Colorado Book Award and, in 2021, she was inducted into the Colorado Authors' Hall of Fame. A former bureau chief for Business Week magazine, Sandra lives in Colorado with her husband.
Event venue & nearby stays
West Side Books & Curios, 3434 West 32nd Avenue, Denver, United States
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