This just in: The new cover for UNTAMED 2.0

I am in love!

I just got this cover from my editor at Berkley Sensation (Penguin USA). As you can see, it’s for the re-released version of Untamed. And I shrieked when I saw it because, there in the background, are the ramparts of Fort Ticonderoga (Fort Carillon), where much of the story takes place.

I am so happy I could sprout wings and fly!

This editor is the same one who brought you Jed Hill on the cover of Breaking Point and who went out of her way to make sure the new covers for the MacKinnon’s Rangers series were historically accurate (no tipis!). Her name is Cindy, and she flat-out freaking rocks.

Say it with me: Thank you, Cindy!!!

Thanks to the production team at Berkley, too. I owe them all a beer. Maybe one of these days I’ll get to New York and be able to deliver on that promise.

I turned the edited version of Untamed in this morning, together with “The Ballad of Morgan MacKinnon,” which will go in the book this time. As some of you know — and some of you don’t — Untamed had 25 pages of content cut out to fit the original publisher’s arbitrary maximum page count. They kept shrinking the size of their books — smaller books = more books per box = lower paper, printing and shipping costs — and I kept paying the price for that because I write long stories. (My contracts say the books need to be no fewer than 90,000 words; almost all of my books exceed 115,000 words, which is one reason it takes me longer to write them. There are more pages.)

For the re-released version, which will be out in January, we went back to the original untouched manuscript. Those 25 pages are in the book, which has a different edit this time, too. I’d forgotten until I was doing copy edits on the manuscript this weekend that the villain dies in a completely different way in the original version. (Talk about making huge changes to a story! Ouch!) I was so excited, because I much prefer it.

Untamed got a starred review from Publishers Weekly when it first came out, but it’s never quite had the buzz that Surrender did, and I think that’s in part because those 25 pages were cut. I have discovered in editing my older manuscripts that I don’t put unnecessary stuff in, so when you take stuff out, you’re changing the emotional tone of the story. As I read Untamed, I actually really liked it. And, as my Home Team can attest, I don’t say that very often.

So I feel very good about Surrender 2.0 and Untamed 2.0 and can’t wait to share them with you! Today, at least, I get to share this freaking awesome cover.

And here’s some photos from Fort Ticonderoga that my son and mother took when we visited for research purposed back in Autumn 2008.


You can still see the remnant of the French lines in the forest around the fort.

Here’s a view from the upper level of the fort looking down toward Lake Champlain with the La Chute River (plays a role in the story) and Rattlesnake Mountain (where the Rangers spy on the French) just out of the photo to the viewer’s right.

This is close to the view from the cover of the book. To your right would be the lake (and ahead of you, as well, because Fort Ti is on a peninsula) and Rattlesnake Mountain. The other photos of the lake were taken from up there.

A closeup of a cannon with Rattlesnake Mountain in the back. Up there, hidden among the trees, the MacKinnon Brothers are spyin’ on the French with their Mahican brother beside them....

Thanks for reading! I just wanted to share my excitement.

(P.S. Who has figured out that I’m just a big history nerd masquerading as a romance novelist?)

News for my historical readers

As most of you know, I left Dorchester publishing after they quit publishing books in print. When I left, I bought one box of each of my titles, unable to bear the thought of them all being pulped. I gave the books to my son to do with as he chooses, and he is opting to sell them for the regular retail price on eBay. All of the books are new, straight out of the warehouse.

I have offered to sign and personalize the books for anyone who buys one. They are available in a limited supply. Although Ride the Fire, Surrender and Untamed will be re-released with added material at the end of the year and into 2012, Sweet Release and Carnal Gift will not. I'll soon be making both Sweet Release and Carnal Gift available as ebooks, but for now, this is one of the few places you can find to get a new print copy — and certainly the only way to get a brand new signed copy.

If you're interested, here are the links:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260804263299&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT#ht_926wt_1141

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260804261110&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT#ht_926wt_1141

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260804258931&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT#ht_926wt_1141

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260804255566&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT#ht_926wt_1141

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260804251361&ssPageName=STRK%3AMESELX%3AIT#ht_924wt_1141

Enjoy!

Meanwhile, back in 1758...

As many of you have already seen on Facebook, I now have the final cover to the re-release of Surrender. I was elated to see the first images of the cover — posted here a while back — because they demonstrated the care my editor at Berkley has put into getting historically accurate images on the cover.

Compare this to the original cover with its entire village of tipis — I had sent an email telling my first publisher to make sure there were no tipis — and its “chastity plaid” that made an absolute waste of Nathan Kamp’s excellent chesticles — a request made by a shall-not-be-named distributor that is now defunct. Yes, I wept when I saw this cover, and not in a good way.


But by now, most of you have seen the little gold medallion on the front that says, “Includes new material.” I thought I would explain what’s going on.

Basically, we’ve gone back to square one with the original manuscript. So the novel is getting a new edit — I am making small changes to the text, but not to the plot — and my editor has edited it in a slightly different way. The manuscript was never altered very much from the original, and these changes are subtle.

For example, my previous editor felt that using “ken” and “kent” in the story made it hard to read and irritating for people who don’t like the Scottish burr, so all of those were changed to “know” and “known.” But my editor at Berkley has left them the way I originally wrote them.

(Those of you who wonder where I got my way of denoting the Scots accent and such might be interested to hear that I got it from Scottish music. The way I spell things and much of the vocabulary comes not from my imagination, but from old Scottish folk songs.)

What won’t be subtle are new scenes or extended scenes that will be included in the final version.

When I wrote Surrender, I was not too far away from the experience of having 100 pages cut from Carnal Gift. It wasn’t that the book sucked and needed to be cut. It’s that the original publisher just would not print anything beyond a certain number of pages, and I had overshot that by a significant number. It ruined the story, in my opinion.

So, when I wrote Ride the Fire, I was very conscious of this page limit and was simultaneously trying to write and not write too much. That’s a hard thing to do as a writer. It was the same experience in writing Surrender. I never, ever wanted to go through the pain of having pages I’d worked so hard to craft cut just to please some bean counter somewhere. (It costs more to ship books if fewer fit in a box.)

Now with this new edit, I can loosen things up a bit. How much new material will be in the story? I can’t say. But there will be some.

This same process will occur with Untamed in about a month. The difference with Untamed is that the original manuscript had 25 pages cut out to make the book fit the original publisher’s even smaller maximum page count. (I was not pleased.) Those 25 pages will be restored, and the book will get a new, fresh edit.

The same thing will occur with Ride the Fire later this year, only my focus there will be to get in the epilogue I didn’t have the stamina to write when I originally wrote the book. A deeply personal story for me, Ride the Fire stripped me to the bone. I had nothing left and couldn’t function for about six weeks after I finished writing it. So, the epilogue just never happened. It still isn’t written.

A lot of things will be happening in a short period of time as we move deeper into 2011. Here’s a list:

Later this summer — Sweet Release and Carnal Gift will be available in the original print versions as I sell off the limited stock I have of those books. I bought a case of each, and I’ll autograph them and sell them online or through email.

Early autumn — Sweet Release and the original version of Carnal Gift will be available as ebooks for Kindle, Nook and in other formats. I’m going to be self-publishing them, and that means those 100 pages will be included in the ebook version of Carnal Gift. You can judge whether what I wrote is better than what was originally published.

December — Surrender will be re-released in print and as an ebook by Berkley with the cover you see at top, the new edit and the new material.

January — Untamed will be re-released in print and as an ebook by Berkley with the cover you see at top, the new edit and the new material.

February (or later) — Defiant, Connor’s story, which you have all (im)patiently been awaiting, will be released. This is a new book, not a re-release.

So those of you who’ve been waiting for more historicals from me will be getting what you asked for, and the entire series, which went out of print after the original publisher hit hard financial times, will be available in one format or another, part of it self-pubbed.

I’ll keep you up to date as a I go along. As we get closer, we’ll do a MacKinnon’s Rangers reading challenge so that everyone can remember who these guys are and what the heck three Scottish brothers from the Highlands are doing in Colonial New York.

This weekend, I’m hanging with Iain and Annie, re-editing Surrender and making notes for ideas for new and extended scenes. It’s something I’ve never done before, and I’m finding it kind of fun.

Have a great weekend!

A glimpse ahead at... DEFIANT

I just thought I’d pop in and share a few things with you.

The first is a glimpse at a draft of the cover for Surrender. I’m not sure how close this is to final. What I can say is that, unlike my previous publisher, they went to extreme lengths to be historically accurate, even bringing in a period musket for the model to hold. The detail, though subtle, is very accurate, down to the lodge in the background. They’re clearly going for a very different look, one that makes the most of the verdant forests of upstate New York. And — hallelujah! — no tipis!

As you may remember, I left one publisher and took most of my historicals to another. Penguin bought the MacKinnon’s Rangers books, keeping the series alive. They’re re-releasing both Surrender, Iain and Annie’s story, in December and then Untamed, Morgan and Amalie’s story, in January 2012. Then in February 2012, the book you’ve been bugging me about for what feels like centuries will finally be out, Defiant, Connor and Sarah’s story.

Here’s the back cover copy for Connor’s book, Defiant:

Charged with a crime they didn’t commit, the MacKinnon brothers faced a death sentence until they agreed to serve the British Crown in the Colonies and take up arms against the French. Allied with the Indian tribes who lived beside them in the wilderness, the Scottish Highland warriors forged a new breed of soldier…

MacKinnon’s Rangers

Major Connor MacKinnon despises his commander, Lord William Wentworth, beyond all other men. Ordered to rescue Wentworth’s niece after the Shawnee take her captive, he expects Lady Sarah Woodville to be every bit as arrogant and contemptible as her uncle. Instead, he finds a brave and beautiful lass in desperate peril. But the only way to free Sarah is for Connor to defeat the Shawnee warrior who kidnapped her—and claim her himself.

Torn by tragedy from her sheltered life in London, Lady Sarah is unprepared for the harshness of the frontier—or for the attraction she feels toward Connor as he guides her first through the consummation of their forced union and then through the dangers of the wilderness. When they reach civilization, however, it is she who must protect him. For if her uncle knew all that Connor had done to save her, he would surely kill him.

But the flames of passion, once kindled, are difficult to deny. As desire transforms into love, Connor will have to defy an empire to keep Sarah at his side.

~ ~ ~

So the trick is finishing the book in time to meet that February release date...

Have a great weekend, everyone! I’ll be a day’s forced march south-southwest of Albany with Connor and Sarah, who are dealing with that whole consummation issue. I’m just starting Chapter 8 out of about 31 chapters.

Only 11 days till Breaking Point hits the shelves!

RomCon & RangerCon

You, too, can stand here at Fort Ticonderoga overlooking Lake Champlain

I just wanted to pop in to update you all on a few things.

Recapping from my last post, Naked Edge is a DA BWAHA finalist in the contemporary category. The winner is determined by reader participation, and the games start on March 13!

RomCon — RomCon is taking place this summer in Denver. Last year was it’s first year, and it was a pretty amazing event. This year, some of those minor kinks will be worked out, and it should be tons of fun. It’s the only event of its kind — a gathering of romance readers and romance writers. It’s not about how to write romance or get published. It exists purely to bring readers and authors together. There are discussions and private chat sessions and a whole host of other events designed to get you close to the authors whose work you enjoy.

I signed up to be a RomCon affiliate this year so that those of you who want to attend can get a small discount. If you look at the right-hand column on my blog, you’ll see a little RomCon graphic together with a coupon code. The code is pclare. Just register with that code to get your discount.

A photo from last year’s PC Reality Tour. Here we are in
Rocky Mountain National Park.

RomCon is taking place from Aug. 5-7. And though we say it’s in Denver, it’s actually in Aurora — where Julian Darcangelo hits the streets. Last year, I took an SUV load of friends and readers on a tour of sites in the I-Team books, called the PC Reality Tour. I’m not sure I have that much energy this year. But if there is interest, I might pack a few people into my car and go tooling around Denver/Boulder and perhaps even into the mountains.

Facebook — I started a new fan page at Facebook. I’m not too far from my cap of 5,000 friends on my regular Facebook page and having a fan page allows me to do some things, like host certain events, that I can’t do as easily from the regular page. So pop on by and click “Like” to join in the fun. I’ve uploaded some photos and made a start toward getting the page rolling. I just don’t have tons of time. But it will come together. The first event I’ll be hosting is a release party for Breaking Point that will involve lots of giveaways, not just from me but from other authors, as well. Stay tuned for more info...

RangerCon — In 2012 — possibly May, possibly September or October — I plan to meet with a group of readers in Fort Edward, NY, to celebrate the MacKinnon’s Rangers series and the release of Defiant — and to see the real places in the novels. This includes: Rogers Island (Ranger Island), the town of Fort Edward (Fort Elizabeth), Fort William Henry, Lake George, Fort Carillon/Ticonderoga, Rattlesnake Mountain and other sites in the vicinity. I hope to gather a group of reenactors, history experts, and others whose knowledge of the French & Indian War and the Colonial Rangers is astounding and have them guide us through history. Then I’ll read from the books, with the location right there in front of us.

This will be a not-for-profit event, with the cost based solely on the cost of all the things we do, i.e., vehicle rentals, experts fees, etc. I hope to have us all stay at the Historic Inn of Fort Edward, which is where I always stay when I’m there.

By necessity, this will be an intimate group, not a grandiose affair with five hundred people packed into a conference center. I’d like to get some idea of the interest out there. So please let me know if it’s something you’d be seriously interested in doing. The cost would involve airfare to Albany, NY, your hotel stay, meals and a registration fee to cover the cost of the events.

I might be able to arrange for us to go to the waterfall where Amalie and Morgan made love for the first time. I might be able to arrange for a mock battle complete with muskets to be fought in our honor. Who knows? I’m willing to try anything.

So please let me know if you’re interested. And if you know someone who’s a complete MacKinnon’s Rangers fan, please pass this to them.

I’m off to dose up on caffeine, and then I’m heading back in time to 1760 to the wilderness west of the Hudson River, where Connor is about to put his life on the line for the niece of the man he loathes most in the world — Wentworth’s niece, Lady Sarah Woodville.

So many things to tell you!

I have so much to share with you all — some of it very exciting news — and to remember it all I’m going to divide it up into categories, starting with...

Breaking Point

I got home to find a box of bound galleys, also known as ARCs, or advance review copies, on my porch. They don’t have the sexy cover, but they do have the words. I won’t get my author copies until a few weeks before the book’s release. Some of these are for prizes, the rest go to reviewers.

The “Get Out of My TBR, Get Into My Bed” I-Team Reading Challenge seems to be moving along. Thanks to all of you who’ve signed up. I hope you’re having fun with it.

There are two other events of which you should be aware.



The first is a contest that’s running on Fresh Fiction. To introduce readers to the I-Team, I’m giving away Extreme Exposure and Hard Evidence in February, Unlawful Contact and Naked Edge in March and two copies of Breaking Point in April. To sign up, click here.

The second is the After the Epilogue Spoiler Chat. I held one of these after Naked Edge was released, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The event is only for people who’ve already read the story. It’s my way of saying thank you to anyone wild enough about the I-Team to run out, get the book and read it right away. The chat will be held on May 20 at 7 p.m. Mountain Time in a chatroom on Chatzy.com. I’ll post the URL immediately prior to the chat. It’s your chance to ask me about the plot and to discuss the story with others who’ve already read it. There will be prizes. So mark your calender!

And now some news about...

MacKinnon’s Rangers & Ride the Fire

Someone go get Kristie J, MelissaB and KarLynP...



First things first — The title of Connor’s story is going to be Defiant. My editor and I had a long telephone call yesterday evening about the title, the plot (which I changed entirely from what she’d read in the synopsis), and the re-releases of Surrender, Untamed, and Ride the Fire.

Secondly, I’ve seen the art from the photo shoot for the series — they shot a gazillion photos in a gazillion poses in order to do it while they had all the props in hand — and I’m thrilled. It was only raw art, but they took great pains to be historically accurate and to depict the heroes as Scotsmen who grew up among Indians. They even had the model holding a long rifle and wearing a powder horn.

When the books were first released, they had the exact covers I didn’t want with tipis and mountains that you don’t even find in Colorado. And what was with that plaid across the model's bare chest? Was that a chastity plaid or something?

The wonderful people at Penguin, most especially my terrific editor, seem genuinely driven to please me with the covers — and to get them right. So that’s exciting, too.

And, now for the news that Kristie J, MelissaB and KarLynP will want to read... Surrender, Untamed and Ride the Fire will be re-released with cut scenes restored. And — wait for it — Ride the Fire will absolutely, positively have its epilogue.

Balloons and cake for everyone!

The only downer is this: Connor’s book will be the last book in the series. I won’t be working on Lord William’s story for some time, and only if Defiant does really well and I can talk someone into letting me write it. That’s a bit hard for me, because I don’t want to say good-bye to the French & Indian War setting or to my Rangers. I really wanted to write Lord William’s book. We’ll have to see how things go.

I will probably have to plan an extended vacation for after I finish Defiant, because finishing Ride the Fire and having to say good-bye to the Kenleigh/Blakewell clan had me in tears — for six weeks. You think I’m exaggerating. Ha!

That’s a lot of news. I hope you got it all — and I hope it excites you almost as much as it excites me.

Now I have a million things to do!

Coming soon:
I-Team Trivia
Breaking Point trailer

P.S. The images above are all lovely creations of Jennifer Johnson. The Breaking Point cover (with an image of Natalie added to it) and the Ride the Fire image are available as downloadable wallpaper on my website under Fun Stuff & Extras, together with other images. Feel free to download and share!

War on the Run — Review

War on the Run: The Epic Story of Robert Rogers and the Conquest of America's First Frontier by John F. Ross

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Note: This expands on my review at Goodreads.

What is it about the way U.S. history is taught that makes it uninteresting to so many Americans? I wish I knew. Perhaps the lessons we get in fourth grade — third grade was Colorado history for me — are so poorly constructed as to seem worn and trite. Regardless, it's a shame we can't do better at making history come alive for kids.

One period of history that is being removed from the books, even in states where it occurred, is the history of the French and Indian War (that's the Seven Years' War for the Britishly inclined among you..). And that's too bad because the F&I War had such an impact on the rest of history. Not only did it see European forces changing their methods of warfare as they tried to survive, but also the war had far-reaching impacts, setting us up for the Revolution by putting a wedge between Britain and the colonists, sewing seeds that would grow into the French Revolution, and more.

It also saw the rise of a new kind of military hero in Robert Rogers and his Rangers. This book follows Rogers and his men through the war, bringing alive in the way few sources have the harshness of the struggle they endured, not only facing enemies who would do unspeakable things to them if they were captured alive, but also the taking on the dangers of the natural world. From freezing cold to starvation, Rogers faced situations that would challenge the military of today.

One fact completely blew my mind: After the French capitulated at Montreal, Amherst chose Rogers and his men to travel west to French frontier forts at Detroit and Michilimackinac to tell the French forces stationed there that the war was over. This entailed traveling more than 1,600 miles during fall and winter through what was still hostile territory to tell men inclined to kill them — both French and Indian — that they’d lost so please disarm and get out of here.

Rogers did it in four months — and he did so without any loss of life. Whether dealing with people or dealing with the elements, he was such a damned good strategist. It took Lewis and Clark a year to travel 1,600 miles.

Think about that for a moment...

I couldn't make Rogers the hero of my story for a variety of reasons. He wasn't suited to being a romantic hero. In real life, he did marry, but his wife later divorced him. He also had a past tainted with allegations of counterfeiting and might have been saved from the noose by the outbreak of war.

But here was a young man — he was 24 when the war started — who was capable of astonishing physical feats. Surviving without food. Staying on his feet in freezing cold while marching for hours. Encouraging his men to keep moving when their toes were frozen, their stomachs were empty and bodies were beaten down by disease and injuries. The story of his raid on St. Francis is almost unbelievable, and yet he was still on his feet by the end, pushing himself harder in order to save his men’s lives.

When I saw his powderhorn at Fort Ticonderoga, I burst into tears because here was a real implement of war and survival for one of the greatest heroes in American history — a hero we know very little about, probably because he sided with the British during the Revolutionary War and so went from being one of the Colonies' greatest celebrities to being considered a traitor.

The rawness of this time period, the perils, the cultural conflicts — all of this fascinates me. And this book brought it all alive. I imagine the author was sometimes imagining how Rogers felt or what he was facing, but by incorporating multiple sources, he provides a 3D glimpse of a world now gone.

I have to admit that reading it made me want to back to the beginning of my MacKinnon’s Rangers series and start over. It also made me want to keep writing this time period forever. That probably won't happen.

Anyone with an interest in this period will find this book fascinating. Highly recommended for history nerds and lovers of adventure.



View all my reviews

Some good news

Those of you who stay on top of news on the blogosphere have no doubt heard of the struggles facing Dorchester Publishing, the publishing company that launched me back in 2003. They’ve had financial difficulties, which have resulted in their decision to go to an e-book format only and to discontinue books in print. They’ve also had a great deal of difficulty paying authors, including yours truly.

I hold great affection for many people at Dorchester, so I’m this post won’t devolve into Dorch-bashing. But I will say that I was lucky enough to separate myself from the company before its woes became serious. I left on good terms — at least with the people I care about, most of whom are no longer there — but Dorchester still owned the rights to my five historical novels.

My agent and I were not excited about the prospect of these novels being available only and forever by e-book, so she started the looooong process of getting back my rights. We had strong grounds to do this, and as of October 12, my books once again belonged solely to me.

They’re still available as e-books, although I’m not getting any of the revenue from sales. It’s still going to Dorchester because the e-book companies, Amazon included, seem to take their sweet time when it comes to removing titles. I haven’t raised a stink about it — in my case Dorchester is absolutely not to blame — because I'm very busy.

Today I got the fan-freaking-tastic news that Penguin — my I-Team series is published under their Berkley Sensation imprint — is buying the distribution rights to three of the five books in my historical backlist. They are buying Ride the Fire, Surrender and Untamed.

It makes sense for them to buy especially the last two, as they also bought Connor’s book. After people read his story, some will want to go back and get the previous two books. And unless they’re still in print, they won’t be able to find them. But now, happily, they will be in print.

So that takes care of the MacKinnon’s Rangers series.



But what about the others? I told my agent to please, please, please try to persuade Penguin to buy Ride the Fire, as well. There are reasons for this. First, it’s the novel where my writing really hit its stride, or so I feel. Also, it’s an intensely personal story for me, the novel that took the most out of me in many respects. And third, it’s a reader fave.

My editor hasn’t read Ride the Fire yet, but I trust that when she does she’ll be happy she included it in the purchase. And when she reads it, I'm going to ask for the chance to fix one thing that has bugged me for years (an oversight on my part toward the end) and to add the long-awaited, still unwritten epilogue.

I have no idea what the covers will look like or when the books will be released. I suspect they’ll want to get Surrender and Untamed in print before Connor’s book is released a little more than a year from now. As for Ride the Fire, who knows? But at least the stories won’t be languishing forever.

As for Sweet Release and Carnal Gift, I’ve got to contact all the e-book booksellers in the universe and let them know to send the checks to moi. Because I have time for that. But for the foreseeable future, those two are going to be out of print. It’s a bummer, yes, but I’ve had a much softer landing with regard to the Dorchester ordeal than some authors. I have my agent to thank for that.

I’ve been keeping my fingers crossed that my editor would want these books for weeks now, and I’m so excited to share the good news.

January 2012 — Connor MacKinnon returns

This has been an incredible week. First, the shackling bill moves out of committee and onto the Senate floor. And now...

I am so very happy to announce that Berkley has offered me a five-book contract that includes two I-Team books and three historical novels, starting with Connor MacKinnon's book!

MacKinnon's Rangers return in January 2012.



This is beyond my hopes. Conventional wisdom says that publishers don’t buy books mid-series from another publisher, so I knew when I left the previous publisher of my historical novels that there was a chance that the MacKinnon’s Rangers series would die. I didn’t want that to happen, but I knew I had to make a change. So I held my breath and took the plunge...

And I’m so glad I did!

My editor at Berkley, who has stood by my unconventional choices (like a virgin Navajo heroine), read both Surrender and Untamed and loved them. She wants Connor’s book, too.



I know that 2012 sounds far away, but in the book world, it’s really not all that far away. What’s important is that the book is happening, and his story, which is going to be told for sure now, is in the works. I already have an outline for it, which my editor has seen. It was supposed to be two pages. It’s 11 pages long, because someone really got into write about him when she finally had the chance.

After that, I’ll be leaving Colonial America for a while to write some stories set in England and Scotland. And not one of them involves a duke.

My first order of business is writing Zach and Natalie’s story, Breaking Point. And then it’s back to Colonial New York to finish the French & Indian War and tell Connor’s story.

I hope my historical readers are as happy about this as I am. You all know that historical romance was my first love. It’s still what I read most by far. I’ve appreciated your willingness to try reading romantic suspense, but I know some of you — KristieJ, KarLynP, MelissaB, I hope you read this! — wish you had more historicals. Well, you’re going to get them.

I’m so excited, and I want so much to celebrate!

I wish you all lived a bit closer!

Connor MacKinnon

Isle of Skye — homeland of the MacKinnon brothers

So, guess what I’m doing?

Before I answer that, let me just say that the ballgame yesterday was wonderful. We sat in the infield box behind the Rockies dugout watching the men, er, game, as the Rox beat the Padres 7-0. Because it was the home opener, there was lots of extra celebration — fireworks, troops from the Marines, Army, Air Force, Navy and Coast Guard, fighter jets flying overhead. I loved the part where the fighter pilots were introduced. Why are fighter pilots so consistently snaxy? Has anyone met or seen a fighter pilot who wasn’t flat-out hot?

My son Alec took this photo, but the seats are so crammed together that his phone was only inches from my face.

Diane W asked a question in one of her posts to my last blog entry, asking me if I had unchained poor Zach yet. I wanted to answer that here.

Zach, if you'll remember, is a former Navy SEAL currently working along the U.S. Mexico border as a deputy U.S. Marshal apprehending fugitives. Except that he was just betrayed by a compromised INTERPOL agent, drugged and handed over to a cartel to be tortured for information and then cut into small pieces.

The answer to Diane’s question is this: No, I haven’t unchained him yet. I’m not going to unchain him. Natalie is. But she can’t do it yet, because...

I have to spend this weekend preparing several concepts for historical novels to run past my editor, rather than working on Natalie's story.

As some of you know, historical romance is my first love. I haven’t written a historical for a while, not because I don’t want to, but because there were things that needed to be sorted out. I left the publishing house that was publishing those books, but hope to be writing historicals again soon.

Right at this moment — KarLynP & MelissaB, can you hear me? — I am working on an overview of Connor MacKinnon’s story. That’s obviously the story I want to tell next. I’m not sure I’ll be able to do that. It’s up to my editor.

I’m about to enter in to a new contract, so my agent has asked me to work up quick sketches of every historical novel in my head, not just Connor’s. I can't take that literally or I'll never get anything else done. So I'm limiting it to a half-dozen stories, some of which take place in the more popular European settings.

I’m not sure what’s so special about European settings. Personally, I love pre-Revolutionary Colonial America, but I am not in the majority on this.

But in the meantime, I’m playing my MacKinnon’s Rangers iPod playlist, which I love. It feels like a family reunion, except that the reunion is with a bunch of Rangers who live in my head, so it’s fairly quiet as Scottish family reunions go.

I have several Medieval Scottish stories rattling around in my brain, plus one story set during the 18th century in England and Scotland, one set during medieval times in England/Wales, and one set during the 18th century in Scotland.

I can’t say why, but the moment we cross into the 1800s and onward, I lose interest in history. I like the ancient world (Rome, Minoan, Egypt), Vikings, the medieval period and the 18th century. Sadly, some of those periods are no more popular with romance readers than Colonial America. D’oh! Just my luck.

But I promise not to abandon Connor no matter what. I get e-mails every day from readers who want the rest of that series. I want it, too! I love them more than any of you, believe me, and if I have to delay his story much longer, I’m going to cry.

I won’t know for several weeks what decision is reached about my next historical, but when I know for sure what I’m writing, I’ll post the news here.

On another note, sorry it took so long to update the blog, but my dorkwad neighbor cut through my phone cable, leaving me without phone and Internet all day. It was just repaired.

For those of you following legislative news, the shackling bill was introduced Friday and might go before its first committee hearing as early as Wednesday. I’m a bit nervous about that. I’ve never testified at a Senate committee hearing before...

There could be a highlander in our future...

Okay, back to hanging with Connor, who has not forgiven himself for the carnage he unleashed against the French when he believed that they’d slain Morgan. He and Joseph are in a Shawnee village just now, trying to forge an accord that will keep the Shawnee from fighting for the French. But as they begin speaking with the Shawnee leaders, a young Irish woman is brought into the village, newly taken as a captive by one of the Shawnee warriors to be his wife in place of the wife he lost to the British. Exhausted and terrified, she sees Connor, the only other white person in the village, and in her eyes is a silent plea for help.

Let's eavesdrop a bit, shall we?

"Black Feather is said to be a good man. Submit wi'out quarrel, Mary. His anger with you will soften after he has lain with you as your husband. ’Tis the way of men.”

“He killed my mother, my sister and my little brothers. I watched him stitch upon my mother’s scalp. I’ll not lie with him. Please help me!”

“I’ve come to forge an accord with the Shawnee. If I fail, many more just like your mother and wee brothers will die.”

“But you must help me. You’re one of the MacKinnon brothers. I heard your Indian friend speak your name.”

“I am the least of those who bear that name. There’s naugh' I can do, lass."

Do you think Connor will allow Mary to be taken against her will? Or will he imperil his mission of peace for the sake of one wee lassie?


Have a good weekend, everyone.