Santa Fe Woman

In this sequel to "Girl of the Manzanos," Mardee Spencer has grown up and is married to a lawyer, Carter McMahon, who is serving his country on the battle fields of France in World War I. Mardee helps keep his law office going while he is away and is earning her own law degree even though the legal profession is reserved for only men in that era. But Mardee is ahead of her time as she fights for her chosen profession while actively championing the rights of women. "Do something, even if it's wrong," her father, Ben Spencer, had always advised. "Don't be a coward about making decisions." Facing anxiety and possible heartbreak, she draws on all the strength of an independent and principled woman to meet life's complications and contradictions. BARBARA SPENCER FOSTER was born in Mountainair, New Mexico, fifteen years after New Mexico was taken into the Union as a state. She was impressed by the stories of her pioneer grandparents, Benjamin and Sarah Spencer who homesteaded in the Manzano Mountains of New Mexico in 1887. Her first book, "Girl of the Manzanos," is a historical novel based on actual early statehood events. Besides being a writer, Ms. Foster is a teacher, a singer, a mother, and a grandmother. She spends her time between Townsend, Montana, and Santa Fe, New Mexico.