Since this is a slower month due to the holidays, I’m going to focus this post on one book. This book is the one I’ll have coming out in January.

The Outlaw’s Bride will be out January 25!

As I mentioned last month, this book is a rewrite of a book I co-authored with Stephannie Beman back in 2013. I had originally handed the series, which was titled Wild Hearts, over to her because I had a ton of other books to work on and I felt she had a better handle on what to do with the overall series since she created Mic (the hero) and his family with all of the family drama (such as Charles stealing the ranch). But at some point, and I can’t remember exactly when, Stephannie said she’d rather write in other genres like fantasy.

As quick note: 

Stephannie’s currently working on crafts, and she’s really good at it. I have some placemats, washcloths, a planner, a bookmark, and other cute items to make my house more of a home, so if you’re looking for something custom-made or like anything you see in her Etsy shop, I highly recommend her.

Stephannie’s Etsy store: Here’s the link to her store if you want to check it out.

Stephannie’s website: If you want to contact her directly with a custom order, her website is here, and there’s a “Custom Order” link to the right (just next to the Garfield bookmark).

I don’t usually give someone a shout out like that on my blog, but Stephannie’s my friend, and she’s helped me through a lot of things, including how to make The Outlaw’s Bride the best it can be.

Back to the book:

The book was originally titled The Stagecoach Bride, and here’s the cover:

Since Stephannie wanted to work on other things, I decided to pick up the series and finish it because it wouldn’t leave me alone. I really liked the story, and I was intrigued by the world Stephannie had created with Mic and his family (Wade and Abby) and their friend Jeremiah. She had an awesome series plot, and I wanted to see it completed.

I think it was two years ago when I bought the rights to it, but the time wasn’t right to work on it yet. Part of the problem in taking a book that’s been co-written is that you have to decide what to keep and what to change. It wasn’t easy. I figured since I was going to write the rest of the series myself, I should go back and rewrite the first book. That way Book 1’s tone/voice would match the others in the series.

The changes I made:

Off the top of my head, I don’t remember how many siblings Mic had, but in the rewrite, I gave Mic three siblings: Wade, Abby, and Charles. Charles is the half-brother of Mic, Wade, and Abby. Jeremiah is still the family friend.

Also, I had it so that Mic and Lillian (the two main characters) married right away.

Lillian and Wade aren’t so antagonistic toward each other. In fact, they’re pretty neutral toward one another.

The things that stayed the same:

Charles stole the ranch from Wade, killed Wade’s wife, and has Wade’s son as hostage. Mic and the others’ goal in Book 1 is to get Wade’s son so they can work on plans to take the ranch back later in the series.

Mic’s got a great deal of care and concern for others (esp. Lillian), Wade’s bitter (understandably so), and Abby can defend herself in any given situation. Lillian is still running from a man she didn’t want to marry back East.

If you read the original version, you know what happens, but for those who haven’t read the story at all, I don’t want to spoil it. Suffice it to say that things pretty much play out the same way they did in the original with some modifications. I didn’t do a play-by-play retelling of the original ending, but I pretty much stuck with the basics of it. I’ll leave it up to you if you should read the new version.

The upcoming books in this series:

The Rancher’s Bride is Book 2, and it officially starts toward the end of The Outlaw’s Bride, so there will be some overlap, but the overlap isn’t jarring. It only happens because this book is Abby’s story.

The Fugitive’s Bride is Book 3. This is Wade’s story, and this is when I hope the group will go after Charles. It’s too early to tell yet if this will be the book that does it. Right now, I’m planning on finishing this series at Book 3. I’ll have to see what happens as things progress.

If you have read The Stagecoach Bride, please contact me through this form:

If you’re the type who likes to pre-order, I do have this up on most retailers. I’ll be putting it on Payhip and Google Play as the release date gets closer.

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Kobo

Apple