I’m there talking about holiday plans. Drop by, if you can, to share yours! ~DD
The link: Access Romance

I’m late posting, but the drama’s done for the day.

This morning we buried little Karmen.

My daughter, who’s as much of a night owl as I am, called me over for a cup of Barry’s tea last night. We sat on the stoop and watched the little dog as she did her business. We lost sight of her in the shadows next to the fence. When we got up to call her back, I saw her in front of the gate at the driveway. As I headed back into the house for my shoes to chase after her, I heard a truck barreling down the road. It was midnight. I’m sure we woke the neighbors calling after our little dog who had never, ever approached the road before. My daughter checked around the house while I headed straight for the road with a flashlight, heart in my mouth. I saw a shadow. Hoped that was all it was. But the closer I got, I recognized her little bat ears (she was half French Bulldog, half chihuahua) and the pretty little purple sweater she wore. She lay on her side in the center of the road, her belly split. Entrails spilling out. I know. TMI. But I can’t get the sight out of my head. I wanted to spare my daughter, but she was right behind me as I kept saying, “No, no, no.”

I picked up the remains, grasping Karmen at the scruff of the neck. She’d died instantly. That much was a blessing. We placed her in a box until this morning. Then my father dug a grave. A very small grave.

Karmen was a rescue dog. She’d been found in a shed with two hundred other dogs, living in a small cage with a foot of feces pushed against the sides. She’d been in four rescue homes before she found my daughter who had the patience to potty train her. She was the happiest, sweetest dog. We’ll miss her. I don’t think either of us could feel more regret, more guilt. Nor can we stop crying.

Very quickly, let me close out the last of the Cat Tails contests. The winner is announced at the bottom of this post.

I have my marching orders. I know what has to happen next in the story. Thanks for all your help! ~DD

Five days until Bottoms Up!

Coming from Samhain Publishing on December 28th
Pre-order at Amazon
Or Barnes and Noble

Whip me, beat me… feed me!

What’s my kink? Heroes who cook. Give me an alpha in the bedroom who can also serve it up in the kitchen, and I am a happy woman. And a generous woman. I let Destiny Blake, my heroine in Bottoms Up experience this special joy, too. As a sexual Dominant, Destiny isn’t used to letting a man call the shots, but when Dominant bartender Johnny Delcorral challenges her to submit to him for one night, she discovers he’s got skills to spare—and share—in the kitchen, the bedroom and the playroom. One night with him has her begging for more.

Excerpt:

“Sit down.” He pulled her down next to him on the couch, settling her so that her side was pressed against the length of his body. They faced the huge wall screen, now dark. It felt right to be sitting next to him while he fed her bites of cheese and bread with butter. Bizarrely date-like.

“Comic books, huh?” she teased.

“We all have our thing.” His smile was brief. “I need a minute to get dinner on the table.”

He stood and she watched him go into the kitchen, admiring the stretch of his tight black T-shirt across the breadth of his shoulders and the way his slightly frayed black jeans fit his ass. His feet were bare. He seemed comfortable cooking, comfortable having her there.

Perversely, she was uncomfortable. The food smelled great, garlicky and cheesy, but she’d been a walking orgasm waiting to happen since she woke up this afternoon and the ride downtown on her motorcycle had been…interesting, to say the least. Now he was making her wait, and that was making her cranky.

She followed him into the kitchen. “Johnny?”

“Yes?” He stirred the boiling pot of pasta.

“I want to come.”

“How bad?” He didn’t turn around.

“What, like on a scale of one to ten?”

“Sure.”

“About a seven.” She put her hands on her hips.

“You can wait.” He drained the pasta into a colander in the sink and put a large frying pan onto the stove. Fresh tomatoes, basil and a pile of grated Parmesan waited on a cutting board next to the sink.

“I could have taken care of myself at home, you know,” Destiny said.

“Now that would have been a shame.” Heady garlic filled the kitchen as he sautéed it in oil. He added wine to the pan and let it simmer, then added a big chunk of butter. Her mouth began to water again. Next came the pasta, then the basil, tomatoes and cheese.

“I didn’t know you were planning on playing hard to get.” Maybe she would masturbate right here, standing in the middle of his kitchen. That would show him. She fingered the button of her jeans.

His sly glance intercepted her gesture. “Don’t even think about it. I like thinking about you soaking your panties while we’re eating dinner. Are you wet for me, Destiny?”

“Maybe.”

“Show me.”

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
I have a confession to make: I married a chef. Gotta keep my kink well fed, right? *giggle* Do you have a thing for heroes who cook, too? Or have you ever had a memorable meal with a lover? Please share!

If you need some inspiration, I’ve been posting aphrodisiac recipes on my blog (http://mirandabaker.wordpress.com) the entire month of December. Perhaps a little Naughty Hottie Chocolate will hit your spot. Let me know how it works out…

For a chance to win the first author copy of Bottoms Up, enter my contest at (www.mirandabaker.com/Lucky_Pick.html).
Or find me on Facebook or Twitter (@Miranda_Baker) if you just want to chat.

Big thanks to Delilah for letting me kick off my blog tour on her site! Bottoms Up is my first ever release, and I’m really excited about it. It’s the first in a series, appropriately titled Come Again. The second story, SoloPlay, will be released in the spring. I plan to keep the party going for a while, so Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and Bottoms Up!

The winner of the Cat Tails poll #3 contest is…Susan R! Susan R, congratulations and email me the email address where you would like the certificate sent!

Wanna know what makes me cry? The old Hallmark commercials for sure. But I received something last night that hit me right at my core. I’m a storyteller. It’s what I do, but it’s also what I am. I work damn hard. Sure, I get to wear jammies and sweats and my office is just feet away from where I sleep. That doesn’t sound so tough, right? Well, sometimes it really is. When I wrote Ravished by a Viking, there were so many factors I didn’t have control over. The cover—I mean, what’s with the kilt? The print run. It’s not nearly large enough to impress. My publisher’s support. Well, since I’m new to Berkley, I’m kinda on my own. What I did have control over was the story. And it came straight from my heart. Back to what I received last night…

I opened my email to my first review. What touched me was that the reviewer knew what I accomplished was damn hard. And she got it. All of it. I’m including the whole review here, but it’s posted on her website too, Alien Places.

Ravished by a Viking

a novel by Delilah Devlin
Reviewed by Masha Holl

Clash of cultures, clash of myths, clash of powerful personalities: it should be easy to review Ravished by a Viking, a novel of erotic science fiction by Delilah Devlin. After all, how many authors can bring out on paper the excitement and more-than-willing suspension of disbelief that old fashioned adventure stories once brought us?

A kidnapped brother. A battle of wills between a ship’s captain and a planetary warlord. On one side, human colonists toughened by the harsh environment they’ve mastered, and who still praise and reward sheer physical strength. On the other, a galactic empire used to relying on the power of energy weapons and science.

And in the middle, our heroes. Men, women, wills and desires. Dagr, Clan-leader of the Wolfskins, who only looks like an unpolished barbarian. And Honora Turgay, who loses her ship to the Viking leader, but never surrenders her determination.

Ravished by a Viking is a myth come to life, but it’s also the story of two people: adventure, passion, discovery, transformation. All of Delilah’s scenes burn with energy, whether she writes believable, exciting, and heart-pounding action scenes, or scorching, breath-stealing, and enviable sexual encounters.

Yes, it should be easy to review one of Delilah Devlin’s stories, because each one of them delivers the promise of a great read, abundant humor, and larger-than-life characters. Delilah is a born storyteller, and knows how to build the tension on all levels, entwining sensual conquest with a growing friendship between the main characters, slowly turning what could become redundant sniping into clever flirting. And most importantly, she always surprises the reader – and sometimes the characters themselves.

But a reviewer should also announce to the reader what to expect beyond the open cover. Is it a romance? Of course, and I’ll say no more. But that would leave out the cleverly built and logical world of space-travel and alien societies her characters inhabit.

Is is science fiction? Of course. We have space-travel and ancient civilizations and the kind of questions science-fiction authors like to ask. But that would leave out the intense relationships between the characters.

Is it erotica? Oh yes, with scenes as hot and intense as Delilah can write, as charged emotionally as they are physically, it has to be. But that would leave out the character development and the world building and the tight plotting.

Yes, it was hard to write a review of Ravished by a Viking when the story speaks for itself you’re ready to re-read rather than write about it. But if I didn’t, you wouldn’t hear about it, and you’d miss a wonderful, action-packed, emotional roller-coaster of a read.

Psst! Today’s the last day to enter the Cat Tails Poll #3 contest! See Saturday’s post for details!

I know you have those books on your keeper shelf. The ones whose heroes make you hot and purr every time you open the pages and sink into that man. From my keeper shelf there are two heroes I most love.

First, there’s Wolf from Makenzie’s Mountain by Linda Howard. He’s so primal, so intense I melt from the very first line of the story—“He needed a woman. Bad.” He’s native american with a dark mysterious past. And yet he has a son he’s fiercely protective of. Yum!

Then there’s Challen-Ly-San-ter from Johanna Lindsey’s Warrior Woman—Seven feet of studliness and an other world male. So you know the author had license to make him the biggest, the baddest and the sexiest man alive.

Then there are the heroes I’ve personally written. Of my own heroes, whom you might already have read from my books, I would have been most attracted to the following:

Gunnar from Darkness Captured. I love smoldering intensity and a man’s man. Gunnar will save his princess or die. And once he has her, he’s not going to let her say no. Grrrrr….add a little fur (he is a werewolf) and there’s nothing sexier—to me.

Ezra Kinzie from Four Sworn and Breaking Leather. He’s built like a god (I like them big and burly). And his focus is homed with precision on his woman. The fact he’s got to be in charge of every sexual encounter is a huge plus.

You haven’t had a chance to read Ravished by a Viking yet, but my Viking king Dagr, the leader of the Wolfskin clan, would sit well on this list. Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll introduce you to Dagr and his universe. I think you’ll fall in love. In the meantime…

Tell me which heroes you’ve written or read you’d most like to do. (They don’t have to be mine. I’m a reader too and am always looking for suggestions!)

Don’t forget! There’s still time to enter your vote on the final Cat Tails poll and win an e-gift certificate! See Saturday’s entry!

What a week! If you haven’t checked out my bog in a while there’s a lot happening. THREE CONTESTS are running right now. Be sure to enter them all. I really appreciate all your help getting the word out about my upcoming print release Ravished by a Viking. I want this book to do well because I would like to continue to write about my Vikings in space. Sounds like a strange concept, but just wait until you read the first book. I really think you’ll be hooked!

This week I finally finished the novella for the Harlequin Bite. The Warrior will be out in June 2011 and is part of the Time Raiders series. I had a terrible time writing that story because I was so burned out with the other two December 1st deadline books (Enslaved by a Viking and Girls Who Bite), but the two extra weeks it took to finish the Bite were well worth it.

In addition, I started a new short novella—a straight to Kindle project. It’s a western, so those of you who love the cowboys won’t have to wait terribly long to see it.

This week is of course the rush to Christmas. I still have a few gifts to buy, but I’m almost there. My sister’s family will be visiting for the holiday. We’ll have a full house, and knowing my sister, we’ll be huddling at the kitchen table brainstorming new projects for the new year.

I’ll be starting my countdown to my two January 4th releases this week. Both Ravished by a Viking and True Heart are set to debut on the same day. Of course, I will have to throw most of my effort toward the Berkley print book. My hope is that you will want them both, but Ravished just has to be a success. It’s my first book for Berkley and I want to write so many more for the publisher. Anything you can do to talk it up to get the pre-orders looking good would be very appreciated. Writing’s hard enough. Selling just isn’t in my skill set. That’s why I have to rely on word-of-mouth. If you love the book and tell someone else about it, then hopefully sales will generate. That sounds crass, but it’s the absolute truth that the first book out the chute will determine my fate. I put my heart and soul into the story. I wrote the kind of hero I fantasize about. I told a rousing tale filled with sex and danger and glittering new worlds. You’ll just have to see. 😉

**Winner announcement at the bottom of this post!**

I’ll be in Little Rock all day Saturday to attend a holiday party with members of my RWA chapter, so I might not get a chance to respond to you all until this evening. Enjoy! ~DD

In December 4th’s blog, I asked three questions I needed answered by you before I could continue writing my free, serialized story, Bad Moon Rising.

Poll #2 is now closed. The answer to the question concerning why Mason didn’t want to participate in The Prowl is:

Mason detests The Prowl and wants to wait for his True Mate.

So now we have the last question. It requires a little set up…

DiDi’s back at her aunt’s place, but she’s curious about the rest of the property. She hadn’t realized the dock existed that extends over the river where she and Mason last had sex before he took her there. Now, she finds a little flat-bottomed boat at the end of the dock and decides to head across the river/bayou to see what’s on the other side.

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I’m offering a $10.00 Amazon.com eCertificate as an incentive to get you to vote. I’d like all the answers to the polls nailed by Tuesday AM. Be sure to POST A COMMENT after you vote so I know who to enter in the contest.

The winner of Cat Tails Poll #2 is…Diane (Thursday’s comment #26)!
Diane, congratulations and email me!