Joan Johnston is a New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of forty-eight award-winning historical and contemporary novels and novellas. Outcast (MIRA Books, July 2009) is the first book in the Benedict Brothers/Taggart Men series. Johnston received a B.A in theater arts from Jacksonville University, an M.A. in theater from the University of Illinois and graduated with honors from the University of Texas at Austin School of Law. She has been a theater director, a drama critic, a college professor and an attorney on her way to becoming a full-time author. She lives in Florida and Colorado.