Maud's Circus

https://bookshop.org/a/19048/9781637320761 Listed in the Decorative Arts category on Art In Fiction, Maud’s Circus (2020) by Michelle Rene is based on the true story of North America’s first female tattoo artist. In a time when women were restricted in every aspect, Maud Wagner ran away to join the circus when she was a teenager. By 1904, she was working as a contortionist at the World’s Fair when she met the famous tattoo artist, Gus Wagner. She struck a deal with him: she’d give him a date if he gave her a tattoo—and taught her how to create them. Along with her husband and daughter, for more than fifty years Maud traveled the country tattooing the masses. Maud and her family manages their way through life inside the safety of their beloved circus. Each life Maud touches leaves its mark, quite literally. All through the eyes of a relatively unknown woman... until now. Michelle Rene is a creative advocate and the author of a number of published works of historical fiction and speculative fiction. She has won multiple indie awards. Her novel Hour Glass won Chanticleer Review’s “Best Book of the Year” award in 2018. Her experimental novella, Tattoo , was a Foreword Review’s Indies finalist for fantasy. The Dodo Knight , a historical novella, placed as a finalist with the Next Gen Indie Book Awards. Her YA historical fantasy, Manufactured Witches , won the OZMA award for fantasy, the Discovery Award from the Writer's League of Texas, and was honored by the Indie Author Project as Texas’s best YA novel in 2019. When not writing, she is a professional artist, museum lover, belly dancer, and autism mom. She lives with her husband, son, and ungrateful cat in Dallas, Texas. Buy Now from Amazon Buy Now from Bookshop