I’m not sure how many of you remember The Stagecoach Bride (Wild Hearts Series: Book 1).  Here’s the cover to help jog your memory:

This book came out years ago.  It was a co-written book between me and Stephannie Beman.  (Stephannie Beman is one of my dearest friends and a fellow author.  We met way back in 2008–I think.)  She is one of the easiest and nicest people to work with.

Anyway, I had handed over the rights to her to complete this series.  Recently, she has decided she would rather focus on fantasy and other genres.  This series is a historical western romance series, and it doesn’t fit with where her passion for writing is leading her.  (Passion is very important.)  Since my heart is in romance (esp. historicals), I am going to take the series and work on it.

What this means for The Stagecoach Bride:

She has given me permission to rewrite this book.  The basic plot will stay the same.  The heroine will be on her way to marry the villain when the hero and his family intervenes.  From there, I really can’t say what will happen.  I don’t plot things out ahead of time.  Until I get into the story, I don’t know how things will play out.  What I do want to happen is for the family to get the boy who’s with the villain (as currently happened in the original story).  I also plan for the heroine’s past to catch up with her and throw a wrench into the hero and heroine’s romance.  But other than those two elements, I make no promises.  So prepare for this book to be significantly changed.

What this means for Stephannie’s role:

Stephannie will still have a part in the series.  When I finish up the first draft of each book, she will go over it and boost its historical flavor (she really does have a better handle of the time period than I do), and she’ll flesh out anything else I missed.   So she will have a role in the series.

When will this series be relaunched?

This is probably the hardest question to answer to because I want to have both The Stagecoach Bride (Book 1) and The Rancher’s Wife (Book 2) ready at the same time.

Most of you have already read The Stagecoach Bride.  You will not have to pay for The Stagecoach Bride again.  Stephannie is in the process of removing that book from sale so I can rewrite the book.  Then when The Rancher’s Wife is ready, I will publish The Stagecoach Bride (for free) with The Rancher’s Wife (which I plan to make $2.99 USD).  From there, I’ll work on Book 3 (not titled yet), and I’ll see if there should be a Book 4 or not.

As for when…  I have other series I’m working on right now.  The Marriage by Bargain Series will take until this summer or fall to finish.  I should finish the Pioneer Series by late summer or early fall.  I already have Book 1 (Sep’s story) for the Misled Mail Order Brides Series on pre-order, so that will take priority.   I’ll still be working on the Marriage by Fate Series.  I have started rewriting The Stagecoach Bride, but I’ll be taking it slow since my focus has to be on the other books already in pre-order.

Given the fact that I’m going to combine The Stagecoach Bride with the release of The Rancher’s Wife, next summer (2018) is the very soonest these two books will be ready.  I might release The Stagecoach Bride a month earlier just to get people ready for The Rancher’s Wife, but we’ll see.  If I could write fast enough to have the entire series out at once, I would.  But alas, I can’t.  Even for as fast as I go, I have my limitations. 🙂

I’ll keep you updated on the progress of this series (and my other books) as I write them.