The next giveaway will be posted on Wednesday.  I was originally going to do tomorrow, but I wanted there to be more time between today’s post and the next one, especially since I’m getting to this one so late in the day.  😀

For fun, I thought I’d have Lillian Christian, the heroine, give the background information to the book.

Book Stephannie Beman and I are working on.

Hi, everyone.  While Ruth Ann Nordin’s off doing important things (which is code for laundry and taking care of her kids), she asked if I would come here and talk about the concept for The Stagecoach Bride.  Well, believe it or not, it didn’t begin too long ago.  Last month, Stephannie Beman asked Ruth if she’d like to co-write a book.  They sat down and brainstormed about what romantic genre to do.  It was a toss up between a Regency, a fairytale and a historical western.  Well, the historical western won and here I am telling this story today.

Well, actually it wasn’t as simple as just writing the story.  They had to have a plot first.  With brainstorming, they ended up picking Wyoming as the location for the book.  Why Wyoming?  Because Ruth hadn’t done any books in Wyoming yet and Stephannie lives there so she has firsthand knowledge of what the area looks like.  Stephannie also lives on a ranch so you can attribute all accuracy to gardening and tending to livestock to her.  Ruth is a city girl so all the stupid questions I have to ask in the story like, “What’s a cow?” is Ruth’s influence.  Okay.  I didn’t actually ask, “What’s a cow?” but I do end up asking some pretty lame things that a lot of people probably already know.  I mean, Ruth didn’t even know how what a saddle horn was.  Will her future historical westerns be better since Stephannie is guiding her along and explaining all these things to do?  Probably not because Ruth ends up having me ask the same questions over and over.

Lillian Christian

But anyway, that’s how Stephannie and Ruth chose the location for the book and decided the hero, Mic Lewis, would have his own ranch nestled into the side of a mountain.  I can’t tell you exactly where it is because the bad guy in the story (who happened to be the man I was supposed to marry) will find Mic and his brothers.  I don’t know the details of why Mic and his brothers and sister became outlaws.  Only Mic knows that and he’s not really saying a whole lot to me about it.  I figure he will at some point but so far, all I know is that the bad guy has lied about me stealing money from him.  So now I’m an outlaw, too.  I guess I’m in a pretty good crowd since I’m hanging out with other outlaws.  Not that I asked to be there to begin with, but since Stephannie and Ruth thought it’d be fun to terrify me by having bandits kidnap me, what else could I do?  It was one of me against five of them.  They had guns.  My driver and his assistant had to drop their guns and the lady I was riding with was as helpless as I was.  So there you go.  I ended up in a cabin on a ranch in the middle of nowhere as an outlaw.

It wouldn’t be so bad if I didn’t have to contend with that Wade guy.  Words can’t express how much he annoys me.  Noah might be a little on the naive side (I am too but not like he is), but at least he’s sweet.  If it weren’t for Mic, the whole thing would be unbearable.  Sure, the guy doesn’t answer all of my questions (especially those pertaining to why he and his kin kidnapped me), but at least he’s helping me stay safe from the man I was supposed to marry back East.

What?  You thought Mic had all the secrets?  No, he doesn’t.  I have some of my own, and I don’t think I can trust anyone with the truth, not even him.  Let’s just say there’s a good reason I left Virginia and that being an outlaw isn’t the only reason why I’m hiding.  But I’m sure Stephannie and Ruth will force me to divulge everything before the end of the book.

I’m guessing someone wants to know what I think of Mic.  At first, I was too scared to even think of him as a man.  I mean, he had this bandana masking most of his face when he pulled me out of the stagecoach.  I thought he might try to take liberties with me, which he shouldn’t because I’m a lady, and I believe in acting like a lady.  I mean, there are a bunch of things a lady worries about when she’s kidnapped.  Thankfully, my fears were for nothing.  Well, minus the dove Mic shot for me to eat.  Sorry but I can’t bring myself to eat that.  But it turns out he was nice.  Like I said, I don’t know he kidnapped me, but there has to be a good reason.  And yes, he’s kind of cute.  Well, maybe a lot cute. But I’m not sure if he likes me in that way.  Men aren’t that easy to figure out.  One minute he’s teasing me about my hair and the next he’s talking about me marrying some guy “out there” when I’m no longer an outlaw.  So yeah, definitely confusing.  But then I guess there wouldn’t be a romance if everything came easily.  I guess I’ll have to stick with it and see what happens.

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Picture of Lillian Christian: © Anna Yakimova | Dreamstime.com