Good Morning, Delilah fans! Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m Lizzie Ashworth, and I write erotic romance. I live out in the country on a remote hilltop, surrounded by woods and more hills here in Northwest Arkansas. My yellow cat Mao and hound dog Weezie provide excellent advice, when I remember to ask. And right now, I’m just a tiny bit upset that my tomato plants aren’t doing so well—one thing I really look forward to each summer is home grown tomatoes.

Okay, I know most of you probably never heard of Lizzie Ashworth. That’s because my first books didn’t hit the market until a year ago. The first one that came out was an erotic BDSM romance, Hers to Choose, soon followed by His to Lose, a two book series about those devilishly handsome Cannon cousins. Then in December I published A Gift for Jarrod, a BDSM novella that turned out to be the first in five. The story of Jarrod Bancroft grew so much, I’ve now released it as a print novel and as three e-books. But more about that later. In May of this year, I released Faint Heart, a sexy contemporary romance.

If you’ve read any of my books, you know that I write explicit sex scenes. I confess—I have to. I grew up in a time when the bedroom door stayed closed. No details! No descriptions! I was so frustrated—I wanted to know what happened. It’s only been in the last few years that readers can find stories that keep the bedroom door open and even turn back the sheets to reveal everything from the skin heat to the color of certain—ahem—body parts. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s fabulous!

After all, the male writers who have been in control of books until recently don’t leave out the gory details of violence—guts, blood, broken bones, the sound someone makes when he’s shot. I never could understand why sex was considered obscene but violence wasn’t? What?

Evidently reading explicit sex scenes makes men uncomfortable. And I’ll concede that some female readers are not down with it either. Well, hopefully we can all agree that it’s okay for writers to write and readers to read whatever they like!

I’d love to tell you a few things about Jarrod Bancroft. First of all, he’s a younger man. As in, when the main female character Macie Fitzgerald first meets Jarrod, he’s her high school student. Ten years pass. Now she’s 38 and he’s 28. And a lot has happened.

Secondly, he’s a hunk. Gorgeous. Mouthwatering. Here’s a photo from the ebook Jarrod Bancroft Book II.

***

Third, he’s at a crisis point in his life, willing to explore his masochist and submissive tendencies and chafing at his role in his father’s corporation. The story follows him through a major life transition, and I admit, it gets dark at certain points.

But that’s what you want, right? As readers, don’t you expect your books to grab you, make you care, make you sweat about what will happen next? That’s what I try to give you, work my little fingers to the bone to create. I want to give you a guy you can’t help but love, a man with angst and drive and such physical beauty that you see him in your dreams. I want to give you a lead female character who isn’t afraid to take a few risks, but isn’t ready to lay her heart on the chopping block either. After all, she’s been down this romance road before, and there’s real pain lurking around the corner. Isn’t it smarter to wait, hold back, maybe decide ‘no, can’t go there again.’?

Thank you for sharing this moment with me today. I’d love to hear from you. “Like” me at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLizzieAshworth?ref=hl Or “Friend” me at https://www.facebook.com/liz.ashworth.524 Or follow my blog at www.lizzieashworth.com You’ll enjoy the erotic shorts on my blog—they’re free!

Here’s the blurb for Jarrod Bancroft Books I, II, and III.

With everything she cared about gone, Dominatrix Macie Fitzgerald has built a new life in service to those seeking pain and submission. She takes pride in her success. When she accepts Jarrod Bancroft’s application to her next training session, she knows he poses a risk to her fragile emotionless world.

Macie fears are confirmed when she discovers that the ten years since he was her high school history student have only made him more magnificent in every way. How long can she resist him? What devastation awaits her if she can’t?

Life has been too easy for Jarrod Bancroft—rich parents, football star, law degree, high powered job, women by the score. Something is missing. He wants whatever Stonybrook Academy can dish out, much as it scares the hell out of him.

Tied to the bed, his body violated in every way, he faces his first night realizing he was right to be afraid. He never imagined this torture and deprivation. And this woman, his sadistic mistress—the voice behind her mask sounds familiar.

Macie faces her biggest challenge as she struggles to fulfill her professional obligation to give Jarrod what he wants, what he needs. But Jarrod soon discovers that Macie is what he wants. What she doesn’t give, he takes—a risky venture when you’re a sub.  Defenseless against his potent charm, Macie breaks every rule she’s made for herself. Heartbreak soon follows.

To complicate matters, a legal hammer hangs over Jarrod’s head at Bancroft Investments threatening to ruin his professional future. Sucked into his father’s illegal business mess, Jarrod’s life takes an unexpected and life-threatening turn. Powerless as a nightmare unfolds around him, Jarrod dreams of his queen, the only woman he wants. But there’s nothing Macie can do for him now.

Told in three parts, the story of Jarrod Bancroft weaves a web of denial and fear, dark family secrets, and wealth at any cost. The lash of a whip is nothing compared to pain like this. When pain feels like love, how does love feel?

Please note that along with romance, love, and erotic pleasures of a more traditional nature, this work includes scenes of sadism, masochism, and sex acts involving multiple and same-sex partners. For mature readers only.

HaHa! I needed a soundtrack for this post. Now this song will be stuck in your brains all day! But it’s Willie, so you don’t mind so much, right?

Anyway, I’m going on a road trip! The car is packed to the ceiling with “stuff” for Authors After Dark. I’ll be traveling with my dd, Kelly, and her two little girls. Should be fun. Their grandfather will meet up with us on the second day of our trip and take the girls to DC. Then it’s just the two of us hanging at the conference.

I was supposed to have the first of the Firehouse 69 books done before I left, but time got away from me, so for the first couple of days of the conference, I’ll be holed up in my hotel room, typing as fast as my chubby little fingers will allow. Have to get it out the door or my name is mud with my lovely editor at Samhain. As soon as it’s in the can, however, I’m heading to the bar!!!!!!

I hope some of you can make it to the signing on Saturday at the Westin Charlotte. Drop by my table to say hello and scoop up some promo stuff. I really don’t want to take it home! I’ll try to steal plenty of other authors stuff to bring back for some fun giveaways on my blog.

For the next few days, I have guest bloggers lined up to keep you entertained. See ya on the other side!

See what my little sister has out today?

An ex-military man relies on the skills he’s never forgotten…

When former special ops soldier Dave Logsdon nearly hits a beautiful motorcyclist in the thick Oregon fog, nicknamed the Devil’s Shroud, he never expects to be thrown back into a world of espionage, deceit and danger. But secret agent Nicole Steele is desperate for an out-of-the-way place to hide, and Dave’s run-down yacht is the perfect spot.

The emotionally wounded warrior is powerless to deny her request and his rising desire for her.Nicole must decrypt the database she’s stolen before it’s too late. She soon learns the threat is bigger than she could ever imagine and U.S. national security is at stake. Will her unexpected bond with Dave survive once the enemy’s identity is finally uncovered?

Amazon | Nook | Kobo

Deadly Allure is Book #4 of the DEADLY series:
DEADLY RECKONING
DEADLY ENGAGEMENT
DEADLY LIAISONS
DEADLY ALLURE

Excerpt

Nicole Steele is on a Stealth Operations Mission in a California office building.

Ten after ten. She had exactly fifteen minutes to get into Ryan’s office, download the data and get out. Another five minutes to leave the building and this operation would be complete. Short, sweet, uneventful. That’s the way she liked it.

Nicole stepped into the stairwell, raised her hand to spray the camera in the corner and climbed the steps two at a time to the floor above. She blacked out the camera there and moved up to the next floor. Once on the top floor, she disabled the security camera and hurried to Brandon Ryan’s spacious office, paid for by taxpayer dollars meant to be used to supply guns to the military. It was the potential other deals he was making with the opposing forces in the Middle East that had landed her there.

As a member of the Stealth Operations Specialists, Nicole was part of a very small force of secret agents called on by the President of the United States to handle situations neither the FBI nor the CIA could handle. Sensitive cases that only a handful of people knew about.

Her boss, Royce Fontaine, had prepared her for this mission; given her the equipment and knowledge that would get her inside and to the computer Ryan used to store the top-secret data concerning his organization’s dealings.

Intel from SOS operatives in the Middle East had informed Royce the Taliban had new guns that looked suspiciously like those supplied to the U.S. military.

Nicole’s job was to ferret out the information necessary to determine whether the Taliban had stolen the weapons or if Brandon Ryan was supplying them to the opium-rich leaders of the terrorist organization.

* * * * *

Elle James’s Bio: Elle James spent twenty years livin’ and lovin’ in South Texas, ranching horses, cattle, goats, ostriches and emus. A former IT professional, Elle is proud to be writing full-time, penning intrigues and paranormal adventures that keep her readers on the edge of their seats. She has 39 works with Harlequin, self published works under pen name Elle James, over 40 works with other publishers including Samhain, Elloras’ Cave, Kensington and Avon and 18 works self-published under pen name Myla Jackson. Now living in northwest Arkansas, she isn’t wrangling cattle, she’s wrangling her muses, a malti-poo and yorkie. When she’s not at her computer, she’s traveling, out snow-skiing, boating, or riding her ATV, dreaming up new stories.

ELLE JAMES:  Website| Blog| Facebook| Twitter | GoodReads

Thanks to Delilah for having me as guest on her blog today. In thinking about what to write, I came up with what I hope will be something worthwhile to all new and hopeful writers-to-be.

It is difficult not to want to talk about my very first book to be published.  However, I’ll take this space I was so kindly offered to make some comments on this wild ride that has been writing and getting published as a contemporary romance author.  Many years ago, over thirty to be exact, I had the brilliant idea that I could write a romance novel.  I sat down and did just that.  Boxed it up and mailed it off to Harlequin.  I really didn’t have to wait long for a reply….about four weeks.  I saw the envelope in the mailbox and ripped it open thinking it had to be great news…they wanted my book and there would be a huge check inside.  Wrong.

The letter was a nice form letter thanking me but NO THANKS.  I was crushed.  I took my copy of the manuscript and literally boxed it and threw it under the bed in the guest room.  I never saw it again.  Long story short, I gave up on my dream of writing.  Fast forward thirty plus years and I am more mature and have done a TON of research on the romance genre.  With a gentle push (more like a hard shove) from a dear friend, I once more wrote another manuscript and this time…I submitted to a few agents.  One agent picked it up and worked with me for a few months before finally offering representation.  That is when my real ‘schooling’ began in the world of publishing.  After almost three years, I have two manuscripts sold and about to be published. That is the easy version.  It wasn’t an easy process and it was at best frustrating and worst…a nightmare.  Much the same as giving birth for the first time.

What have I learned after all this?  First and foremost…WRITE WHAT YOU LOVE TO READ.  Too often authors get in trouble and bring on a ton of frustration when we forget that simple fact.  If you can’t love what you wrote…no one else can be expected to do so.  Second, and of equal import…TRUST YOUR INSTINCT.  Let me explain it this way.  When I first jumped into publishing, I put my writing and myself one hundred per cent in the hands of others…because they knew so much more than I did.  Well…I now know the value of listening to that little voice inside me.  When I listened to others, I found myself in deals I didn’t really like, and writing in sub-genres because that is what someone else liked and wanted me to do…etc.  When I started saying hold on…and listening to what I knew and felt to be right…I was much happier and I SOLD.  That is not to say that I don’t value the opinions and experiences of others in the publishing world…I do.  There is still a lot for me to learn.  I just listen to everyone now….myself included…and make the best decision possible.

Best advice to someone who wants to become a writer?  Learn all you can about the genre you want to publish. Write only what you love to read. Trust in yourself and your instincts. Don’t give up on your dream!

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J.D. Sterling, country music’s sexy superstar, has come home again.  He has achieved his wildest dreams and did what he set out to do when he shook the dirt of the small Texas town from his boot heels a dozen years before. Now, he’s returned for the final piece of the puzzle to completing his life….the girl who holds his heart.  Mandy.

Amanda Lawson has grown up.  From sheer heartbreak to struggling to survive to becoming a shrewd businesswoman, she has taught herself to never look back.  She survived once before the wild, green-eyed cowboy with only a guitar to his name and a pocketful of dreams.  He took her heart and so much more when he left her behind with his hollow vows.

Mandy was his muse…J.D. was her dream.  Despite tragedy, can they find their way home to each other again?

Author Bio…

Born and raised in the Lone Star state of Texas, Debra grew up among horses, cowboys, wide open spaces, and real Texas Rangers.  Pride in her state and ancestry knows no bounds and it is these heroes and heroines she loves to write about the most.  She also draws upon a variety of life experiences including working with abused children, caring for baby animals at a major zoo, and owning a wedding planning business (ah, romance!).

Debra’s real pride and joys, however, are her son, an aspiring film actor, and a daughter with aspirations to join the Federal Bureau of Investigation. (more story ideas!)  When she isn’t busy writing about tall Texans and feisty heroines, she can be found cheering on her Texas Tech Red Raiders, or heading off on another cruise adventure.  She read her first romance…Janet Dailey’s Fiesta San Antonio, over thirty years ago and became hooked on the genre. Writing contemporary western romances,  is both her passion and dream come true, and she hopes her books will bring smiles…and sighs… to all who believe in happily-ever-after’s.

The Seymour Agency represents Debra and she is soon to have two contemporary romances published by Spencer Hill/Tulip Romance and Astraea Press. Debra invites you to visit her website at www.debraholtbooks.com.  She loves to hear from other aspiring authors or readers via email at debraholtbooks@gmail.com. Follow her on twitter @debraholtbooks and like her author page on facebook.

I’m babysitting again today. So my online chatter will be to a minimum. I’ll try to fit in some new words on my current manuscript, but there’s no guarantee the 5-year old or 11-month-old will cooperate. So, I’m heading to the pages before I go to my dd’s house. I cannot wait for school to begin. Pre-school and daycare kick in at the same time in our small town. I won’t know what to do with myself with so much free time. Oh yeah…I’ll write!

For now, here’s a question for you…

If a master carpenter offered to make you a piece of furniture
for your home, what would you choose?

For me, it would be a built-in desk with bookshelves that wrapped around my office walls. Something to better utilize the space I have and make it prettier.

Confession time. I’m getting married next week so I have wedding brain. Lots of stuff goes in but nothing stays because I have a plethora of lists floating around in there. This is my first (and hopefully only) wedding. I didn’t realize just how much stuff there was to do during the week before the big day. How do brides do all this without a wedding planner? If I could do it all over again I would hire a wedding planner to do all the work and the stressing.

Since it’s confession time I’ll make another one. I stopped writing romance years ago because I didn’t believe in it anymore. After years with frogs and duds I didn’t believe in the magic anymore. Until I met my fiancé. With him it was like magic, right out of a romance novel. Things progressed quickly after we met and we knew by date three that we’d get married. I love him more every day and can’t believe how lucky I am to have found him. I finally get romance novels and want to go back to my roots, with an erotic twist.

Story ideas come to me at the drop of a hat so of course with all of the wedding chaos going on I got an idea for a trilogy based on a wedding or the stages of a relationship. Or maybe it will be a series! So many ideas floating around now. There’s a lot of romance, stress, compromise, money that goes into a wedding. But the whole thing is very sexy to me too. And I’m not thinking just about the wedding night, though I can’t wait for that. 🙂

Eating can be a very sensual experience. There can be a lot of pleasure in eating a good meal and we took time to design a menu we hope our guests will enjoy. The wedding cake is chocolate orange sponge cake. Chocolate is very sexy.

All the events around the wedding bring to mind sexy thoughts as well. So many opportunities for a man and woman to find each other, have a good time and hopefully keep seeing each other. Parties, stags, bridal showers. Lately everything about the wedding brings sexy thoughts to mind so I’m taking notes for that trilogy (or series).

That series will be a while in coming though. First I must concentrate on getting married, then the honeymoon. In the meantime my short story collection Tempted to Sin is mostly about gratification but there is a touch of romance, especially in the last story, School Bites about high school sweethearts reunited.

In Satisfaction Guaranteed a wannabe succubus meets her match for her last assignment: The college boyfriend who broke her heart. In Scale Deep a reporter learns more than she bargained for when she discovers that dragons are real… and they walk among us. In School Bites a woman bumps into her high school crush at a reunion. Curiously he hasn’t aged a day in 15 years. When the bodies start turning up she finds out why.

I’m giving a copy of this collection to a random commenter. I’ll be back as often as I can to check replies but I am getting married next week and going on my honeymoon so I probably won’t be able to pick a winner until the last week of August. So there’s plenty of time to comment.

Bio: Keira is a former strip club bartender. Nights at the bar gave her lots of sexy ideas to work on. Working nights meant her days were free to dream up characters to put in sexy situations. Now, in the IT industry, her steamy stories are an escape from numbers and computer code. She writes thrillers, paranormals and contemporary stories, usually exploring an erotic twist. Her characters have never complained.

Her fiancé keeps her home life hot and romantic. She lives with him and their three cats.

Find Keira at: www.keirakohl.com
Follow her on Twitter: www.twitter.com/KeiraKohl
Like her on Facebook: www.facebook.com/StoriesByKeira
Sign up for her newsletter: http://keirakohl.com/newsletter/

One of the things authors are asked over and over again is, “Where  do you get your ideas?” And our response is always the same, “Everywhere.”

Let me give you an example of everywhere. Four years ago I was sitting in the spring sunshine, outside a smart French café, chilling out and people watching with my daughters. I have two daughters of marriageable age. They’re beautiful (they’d kill me if they read that, but I’m their mother so I get to say it) independent, career-oriented, super-smart… and ruthlessly… single.

And as a contemporary romance writer having my girls and their life-long besties in my life is literary ‘gold-dust’.  You would not believe the dramas about body issues, clothes, the heartbreaks, the falling madly in love with the wrong man, I’ve witnessed over the years. Anyway, we were revelling in the vibe; listening to a language spoken faster than a speeding bullet, savouring chocolate pastries, drinking coffee shots, eyeing immaculately turned out women, beautifully dressed man candy – when my eldest daughter decided to spill all about a blind date. To say we were surprised is an understatement, because she tends to keep pretty tight-lipped about this sort of thing (probably because her mother writes romance).

Apparently, one of her work colleagues had ‘the perfect man’ for her and set-up a date. Now my daughter is nobody’s fool. She knew nothing about him, but he sounded, in her own words, ‘normal’, so she thought she’d give him a chance. However, she also decided on the venue and the time, just in case the whole thing went pear-shaped.

Meanwhile, her sister and I were sitting wide-eyed listening to the tale. I was wondering if they’d put something in her coffee because she never, ever, discusses boyfriends with me. Can’t think why.

So after work, at the appointed time on the appointed day, she arrived at the busy bar of an upmarket hotel to meet her date. First impressions were not great, apparently his hair was at least one day overdue for a wash and his fingernails were not exactly clean and bitten to the quick (she has a thing about nice hands). But she soldiered on, deciding to have one drink before she let him down gently and left. He very kindly bought her a drink, a soft drink because she was driving.

And then he sat back, gave her the once-over, his eyes lingering on her breasts, and said, “Dontcha think the rooms in this place are too expensive for a quickie?”

She blinked, opened her mouth to speak, but he beat her to it.

“You’re obviously gagging for it, love. Why don’t we drink up and find somewhere cheaper.”

It’s not often my daughter is rendered speechless, she takes after me in that respect. But she kept her cool, placed her drink on the table, and excused herself to visit the restrooms.

Once there, she took off her shoes, used a stool to step onto a big glass sink to open the window, tossed out her shoes, her handbag, climbed out (she’s bendy, she does yoga and pilates), ran to her car, and left.

By this time her sister and I, visualising the creep waiting and waiting for her to return and maybe even asking bar staff to check the toilet, were howling with laughter.

Wiping my eyes, I said, ‘Good for you, baby.’

Then, looking at us with big blue eyes, she gave us the kicker.

“That’s the second time I’ve done it. I always meet my first dates there. Last time the bar staff let me leave through the kitchens in case I broke my neck climbing out of the window.”

And right there Reckless Nights In Rome was born – download it free at stores listed below.

Reckless Nights In Rome

Betrayed but unbroken, now she must fight to save her home and her heart!

…She’s lost everything. Her parents, her home, and her fiancé. It’s taken two years, but now Bronte has it all. A successful business, and a life that brings her happiness. But now the charismatic Italian, Nico Ferranti, wants to take it all.

Bronte isn’t looking for a fling, she certainly isn’t looking for love… will she be able to resist sweet temptation? Or is the pastry chef about to get burned…

GooglePlay http://smarturl.it/rnrgoogle
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Amazon http://smarturl.it/ccrnr
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Kobo http://smarturl.it/rnrkobo

Now it’s your turn to spill the beans.

Contest

What’s the worst/best/funniest first date you or your bestie have had?

The world demands to know.

And the lovely Delilah, thank you for having me, will pick out a winner who will receive an eBook copy of my latest release, Desert Orchid.

Think Memoirs of a Geisha meets Taken.

…A young Arabian Queen must marry a wild, wicked and wilful Desert Prince to save her people from civil unrest and protect the wealth of her Kingdom…Charisse never expected to find love with a man who looked and lived like a rock star rather than a prince…But tragic events in her past threaten to destroy her Kingdom and her life, too…Can their fragile love survive…

Amazon http://smarturl.it/ccdoamaz
Barnesand Noble http://smarturl.it/dobn
GooglePlay http://smarturl.it/ccmkdogoogle
iBooks http://smarturl.it/ccdoit
Kobo http://smarturl.it/ccdokobo
Smashwords http://smarturl.it/ccdosmw

Author’s Bio

CC was fourteen when she read her first romance – ‘The Grand Sophy’ by Georgette Heyer. And right there her future as a romance author was born. Of course, it took a while. Writing romance, she was told by her teachers, does not an income make. In order to write about the lives of others, she needed to live a very full one of her own. And she did.

Fast forward a few decades later: a husband and three children and a couple of careers, she found her fourteen year old self again. And decided to follow her dream and write a contemporary romance. Five years later and Reckless Nights In Rome, book one of The Ludlow Hall series, was published. CC loves to write about deliciously handsome men and strong women. Since then Reckless has been downloaded over 450,000 times and hit the best seller lists across thirty countries. There are now five books in the series published with two more coming very soon.

CC is also working on a paranormal romance series, The Vampyre Legal Chronicles. She loves those suckers, so watch this space!

CLICK HERE To Receive News of CC’s Latest Releases 

Keep in Touch on:
Website: http://ccmackenzie.com/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/CCMacKenzie1
Email: ccmackenzie@ccmackenzie.com