SURRENDER 2.0 is out today!

Today is the day!  Iain and Annie are back!


After thinking the MacKinnon's Rangers series was dead, lost to the chaos of the publishing industry, I am so happy that Surrender is available again.


A couple of you have asked me in emails what it was like to get a second chance to write a book I'd already written, and one person was afraid I had changed the book so much that it would no longer be the story she loved.


I will say that working on a book was published in 2006 was strange at first. My first objective was to decompress parts of it by taking scenes out of memories or flashbacks and making them real and present scenes. That was actually harder to do than I imagined. If thinking back to something that happened earlier in the day had been woven into Annie's or Iain's thoughts in a scene, and I removed that and put it in the present tense on stage, then what happened to the original scene?


I gained an appreciation for how tightly written the story was. Still, I found ways to make it work that I really liked and which solved a couple of problems that had been there before.


As for changing the story too much, I am not George Lucas. I did not take Surrender and fill it with stuff that just didn't need to be there. (I am so a fan of the original Star Wars films and so not a fan of the redone ones with their endless unnecessary CG creatures.) No CG creatures in Surrender!


It is the same story with the same plot. The only difference is that there are a few new scenes, an extended scene — and the entire thing has been re-edited. I'm a better writer than I was today. When I found ways to make the prose tighter or to eliminate a repetitive word or change something that could have sounded better, then I did it.


One big change, from my perspective, was changing the name of the fort from Fort Elizabeth, which it was in the original published edition, to Fort Edward, the name of the real fort where the Rangers, the country's original special ops team, encamped. 

Fort Edward is now a town, and the good people of Fort Edward were less than enthusiastic about their town disappearing from its own history. I can't blame them. The third largest city in the Colonies during the French & Indian War, it is now a very tiny town the significance of which is almost forgotten. I didn't want to be a part of helping the nation to forget Fort Edward. So now it's Fort Edward and Ranger Island. (See recent blog post for sat images of both.)


Rather than sharing an excerpt, which I've already done, I wanted to share the dedication and acknowledgments because they're really important this time around. 



DEDICATION
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Withlove for my sons, Alec and Benjamin. You will always be the best and mostimportant thing I have ever done. 


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AKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Withspecial thanks to Catrìona Mary Mac Kirnan for giving Iain and his brotherstheir Scottish Gaelic voice; Gary Zaboly for his meticulous drawings andresearch; Eileen Hannay for answering ten thousand questions and sharing themagic of Rogers Island with me; and Timothy Todish for his work on RobertRogers' journals. This series would not be the same without you.
I'dlike to thank Natasha Kern for her tireless support, and Cindy Hwang, myeditor, for giving me the chance to revisit this series and breathe new lifeinto its pages. I truly couldn't bear to leave these characters behind, andbecause of you, I don't have to. Additional thanks go to Leis Pederson for her kindnessand help through the years.
I'dalso like to offer heartfelt and lasting thanks to you, my readers, who'veclamored to see the MacKinnon's Rangers series continue. Your enthusiasm forIain, Morgan, Connor and the men—yes, even Lord William—means so very much tome.
Personalthanks to: Michelle White, Mary White, Sue Zimmerman, Kristi Ross, LibbyMurphy, Ronlyn Howe, Jennifer Johnson, Suzanne Warren, Sara Megibow, and thewild women of RBL Romantica and Rebel Writers Refuge.
Thanksmost of all to Robert Rogers and his Rangers, men who did the impossible backwhen doing the impossible was harder than it is today. They suffered unimaginablehardship on behalf of a people who have largely forgotten them.
Tolearn more about Robert Rogers and Rogers Rangers, visit the Rogers IslandVisitor Center at www.rogersisland.org, or visit Rogers Island (Ranger Island)in Fort Edward, N.Y., a forgotten historical treasure.




So happy re-issue day to all of us who have supported and loved this series! To celebrate I'm giving away three copies of the book! To be entered, comment below and tell me what period of history is your favorite.