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!