Countdown to SURRENDER

Time flies when you're writing a novel. Now, suddenly, summer is over. Several inches of snow lie on the ground outside, with more snow on the way. Breaking Point is six months behind me, and Defiant is 10 chapters plus an epilogue away from being done.

And suddenly, without any warning, I find myself a month away from the reissue of Surrender, the first book in the MacKinnon's Rangers series. How can that be? Surrender wasn't slated for release until...

December 6!

Well, now that's just a month away.

I haven't had a historical romance out since Untamed was released in 2008. My historical readers — bless them! — are the most patient people in the world. They've put up with this long wait while I've worked on I-Team books. And now finally they're going to get some attention.

So here's a big ((((((((((((Hug)))))))))))) from me to those of you who consider yourselves to be fans primarily of my historical novels. Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long! Thank you so much for your patience!

For those of you who've never read one of my historical novels, let me introduce you to the MacKinnon's Rangers series:

Set in far upstate Colonial New York during the tumult of the French and Indian War, it tells the stories of three brothers — Iain, Morgan and Connor — exiled from the Scottish Highlands as adolescent boys who grew up alongside the Mahican Indians. Forced by an unscrupulous British officer, Lord William Wentworth, to fight in the French and Indian War against the French, who are the traditional allies of the Catholic Scottish Highlanders, they forge a new breed of warrior.

The series grew out of research I did for the third Blakewell/Kenleigh book, Ride the Fire. I had come across references to Robert Rogers and Rogers' Rangers in the course of my work on that novel, and I decided to dig deeper. Robert Rogers is considered to be the father of the U.S. Army Rangers. He combined American Indian woodcraft and fighting techniques with European techniques and created a new kind of warfare Without him — without his contributions — the French might have well won the French and Indian War.

Rogers created this new kind of warfare, establishing what was the first special forces. The Rangers were the special ops teams of their day. They fought by rules that other units knew nothing about, accomplishing deeds wearing wool, carrying awkward tumpline packs and heavy rifled muskets, and using nothing but compasses and the stars to guide them on missions that would push today’s special forces, equipped with polypro, GPS, sat phones, and modern weaponry, to the limit. You'll find no greater fans of the Rangers than among U.S. Army Rangers, who revere them.

I found this fascinating and thought I would create a series out of this concept. I love the time period and the history, so it really came together for me as a writer. I have loved writing MacKinnon's Rangers series.

The first book in the series is titled Surrender. It sets up the series and tells the story of the eldest brother, Iain, and Lady Anne Burness Campbell, who is betrayed by her uncle and sold into indentured servitude in the Colonies. Here's the blurb from the back of the book:

A hand-picked cadre of warriors, they had the fierce courage of their Scots forefathers, combined with the stealth and cunning of the Indians who lived beside them in the wilderness. Battling the French in no-holds-barred combat, they forged a new brand of honor, became a new breed of men…

MacKinnon's Rangers

Iain MacKinnon had been forced to serve the British crown, but compassion urged him to save the lovely lass facing certain death at the hands of the Abenaki. He'd defied his orders, endangered his brothers, his men and his mission, all for a woman. But when he held Annie's sweet body in his arms, he could feel no regret. Though he sensed she was hiding something from him, it was too late to hold back his heart. In love and war, there are times when the only course of action is… Surrender.


The first time Surrender was released, it had a gawdawful cover. The initial rejected version (at top) showed a guy who looked like Daniel Boone standing in the distance in front of a village of tipis. There are no Native cultures in New York that lived in Plains Indian-style tipis. And what's with those mountains? Is this the Alps? It's certainly not the Adirondacks.



The version that was part of the books first release, above, features the same image, but with the model's shirt removed — and his sexy chesticles hidden behind what I call a modesty plaid. Why in the world did the publisher do this? I believe the distributor was pushing them to create "family values" covers or some other nonsense. Sadly, the tipis remained. It was a terrible cover, and a lot of readers bypassed the book for that reason, which left me very sad.

The book might not have captured the attention of readers who didn't know my name, but it did get fantastic reviews and was a RITA Finalist, which was very exciting. This inspired the initial publisher to reissue the book with a new and improved cover (below).

This version was released just before Untamed, Morgan's book, came out. Ride the Fire was reissued at the same time with a similar cover.

But then the publisher started having trouble. Before I could start the third book in the series, Connor's story, my editor left, and the publisher quit publishing books in print. Which meant no book for Connor. I was so afraid the series was dead, and that broke my heart.

Fortunately, my editor at Penguin, which publishes my I-Team series, was pleased enough with the I-Team to be curious about my historicals. She read them and decided she wanted the series. Keep in mind that it's almost unheard of for a publishing company to buy a series mid-stream. But that's what Penguin did.

Rather than just putting out Connor's book, which is titled Defiant, they decided to buy the rights to the entire series and start over. This past summer I got the chance to so something an author rarely gets a chance to do — revisit a story and make changes.

I gave Surrender a fresh edit, changing the way some parts were written to improve them. I also added some new scenes. A few of them are events that happened "off stage" in the original version of the story but now happen on stage where the reader can experience the full scene and not just a brief recap. One of the scenes is from scratch and shares a key Lord William moment toward the end of the book.



The new cover is historically accurate in every detail — the leggings, the rifled musket, the Mahican lodge, the New York forest, the strip of MacKinnon plaid, the hero's hair. Does it scream romance? No. But I hope it's appealing.

I like the shiny, gold medallion that screams, "Includes New Material."

I want to make it clear that this is a reissue, so if you've read Surrender, you know what happens in this book. The plot doesn't change. But the writing is re-edited, and there are a handful of new scenes. A reader emailed to ask me whether I felt the new scenes made the new book worth buying. I can't answer that question.

But for those of you who didn't catch MacKinnon's Rangers the first time around, now is your chance to get in on the ground floor before Untamed comes out in January and Defiant, Connor's book is finally, finally released in July 2012.

Only one month to go before Iain and Annie's story is available again!

So which version of the cover do you all like the most?