If this page looks a little different (I’m noticing that my progress bars are purple today!), it’s because my webmistress is in the process of converting me over to another web design. Hopefully by the end of the weekend, it will all be over and we can ooh and aah over the pretty new page. Please forgive any inconvenience or confusion this may cause you.

And talking about those progress meters, another one is filled up. I finished a short novella yesterday and shipped it to Ellora’s Cave. It’s a werewolf story and involves the wolves at Dark Mountain who were featured in MIK-6. Cross your fingers my editor likes it. So now it’s back to cowboys and Vikings.

I’ll pick up the little girl today. She’s going to stay a couple of nights. I’m hoping I can get some writing done while she’s here, but that’s always a dream. She doesn’t mean to interrupt, but the concept of little interruptions killing a train of thought doesn’t compute in a 6-year-old mind.

Y’all probably want to know who won Tuesday’s Flashback contest, right? Thanks to everyone who posted, but— there can be only one! (I do miss The Highlander.)

The winner (by random number generator) is…Armenia Fox! Armenia, congratulations and be sure to email me with your snail mail address!

Psst! Yesterday’s contest continues. If you post today, you have two chances to win! ~DD

I want to give Delilah a huge thank you for inviting me today. Delilah’s an author I first started reading shortly after I decided to get serious about writing, now quite a few of her books stand side by side on my keeper shelf. I wonder if it was a sign that I’d write Texas Tangle when I picked up a copy of Delilah’s Tempted by a Cowboy anthology last year.

I’ve always loved cowboys—there’s something about them that I find so attractive, despite how they must smell of the barnyard by the end of the day. From way back to the days of Gunsmoke and Bonanza (I had a wicked schoolgirl crush on Little Joe) to modern day cowboys, I’ve always had a softspot for those Stetson wearin’ fellas. That’s probably what inspired me to write Texas Tangle (although I have to confess, neither hero is technically a cowboy, though they do both ride horses.)

But what is it about cowboys that we find so sexy?

I know first-hand that there’s something sexy about hearing a soft southern drawl of a guy asking if they can do something for me. Or maybe it’s just the way their “ma’am” drags out in a much sexier fashion than it does up north.

Or maybe it’s those chaps that highlight that cute tight butt by the absence of leather? (I used to think this until my eldest son bought a pair of chaps to wear while riding his motorcycle. Now I view chaps in a whole different light.)

Is it the slightly bow-legged amble after they’ve climbed off their horse?

Or knowing that they can make a thousand pound animal do their will?

Does wearing a Stetson automatically make a guy sexier? Well, in Matthew McConaughey’s defense, I don’t think the hat had much to do with how sexy he is. 😉

I love the cowboy on the cover of Texas Tangle – in fact Delilah must too, since it looks like he’s the same guy in her banner.

So tell me, why do you find cowboys sexy?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Thanks to her cheating ex-husband and her thieving brother, all horse breeder Nikki Kimball has left is a bruised heart, an overdrawn bank account and an empty home. When sex-on-legs Dillon Barnett and his brooding foster-brother Brett Anderson start showing more than just neighborly attention, Nikki is intrigued…and a little gun-shy.

Dillon and Brett have a history; back in high school, the two friends fought a bitter battle over Nikki. Now, ten years later, Brett still longs to be the man in Nikki’s life, but he’s determined to stand back and let Dillon win Nikki’s heart.

Society says Nikki must choose between the two men she loves. Is Nikki strong enough to break all the rules in order to find happiness?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“No, no, no!” With steam billowing from the hood of her truck, Nikki maneuvered blindly easing the vehicle to the side of the road, making sure the horse trailer she was towing wasn’t blocking traffic. “You can’t die here. We’re so close to home.”

With a sigh, she killed the engine, climbed from the cab and kicked the front tire. “You couldn’t have held on for another three miles, could you? No-o-o, you had to blow out the rad here, you piece of shit.”

She waited in the inky black night for ten minutes before a vehicle crested the hill, its high beams blinding her until the driver dimmed the lights. She moved to the side as the Jeep zipped past, not even slowing to see if she needed help. A half-dozen cars zoomed by over the next half hour without a single one slowing. She was starting to consider unloading her newest horse and riding him home when a familiar white pick-up slowed then parked in front of her truck.

First a long, booted leg, then the rest of the driver’s body unfolded as he clambered down. Dillon Barnett jammed a dusty black cowboy hat on his head before he ambled over. “Hey, Nik. Need some help?”
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I’m getting a late start today. The weekend was a blast, but sooooo draining. I’ll talk about the barge trip later this week, once I steal photos from Facebook from one of the guys’ pages. For now, I’ll share yesterday’s adventure.

The red-headed hellion and I drove to Little Rock yesterday to a tattoo convention. We made appointments ahead of time with my SIL’s tattoo artist who’s from Des Moines, Joshua Bowers. Kel was getting her 5th. I was adding my 2nd tat. Most of hers are in hidden places, but this time we both wanted something on our wrists. I guess I must be an exhibitionist because I don’t have any hidden tats. I have one on my foot, and since I wear flip-flops everywhere, it’s out there.

Anyway, we got there early before most folks attending had crawled out of bed. Josh was easy to find and very, very nice. K took pics while he was doing mine. I like this one because it looks like he has magic hands (which he does). [Note how tightly I’m gripping that bench?!]

As you can see from K’s face, she’s reached that mythical endorphin high some folks get when they enjoy the process. Or maybe she’s still too dead from Saturday’s long adventure. Either way, she’s going to kill me for this photo!

I have never experienced that high. It freaking hurt! Ever had a surgeon cut into your skin without benefit of anesthesia? Well, me neither, but it can’t be much worse. Once my arm heals, I’ll take pics of the tatoo. Right now, the skin in still puffy and reddened. But I have a pretty bracelet I never have to take off.

After the convention, we hit Petsmart so I could get a tag made for my rescue dog, Fenris. He’s coming home from training school this week and I don’t want him outside without my telephone number around his neck. But while we were drooling over all the lovely animals, I found this one very agitated, very beautiful betta. Since he had such an nasty attitude, I had to bring him home. He survived the night in his new bowl. I had a blue betta up until he finally passed last year, and I missed Mr. Fish. This lovely fella reminded me of the sea serpents in my Viking book, so I’m calling him Drago.

I’m actually writing this posting late Saturday night. It’s about 11 o’clock and I’m just getting home from my day on Lake Ouachita. Had a blast and I’m completely drained. I have some funny anecdotes to pass along, but I’m just too tired to do it now.

In the morning, I’ll be heading into Little Rock to the tattoo expo. My daughter and I are crossing off one of our bucket list To Do’s—getting tattoos together. Nothing big or ambitious. She’s going for an Irish Claddagh on the inside of her wrist. I want a “bracelet”. I’ll be sure to take pictures.

Let me give you a real quick recap of my week, and then I’m off to bed. Oh, just writing that makes me feel a little anxious. So I know I’m about wiped out.

I didn’t get everything done that I wanted to, but I still accomplished quite a lot.

* I completed a short story and shipped it to the editor of that collection. I’m not completely happy with the story and won’t be heartbroken if it doesn’t make the cut. I didn’t have time to let it age a bit so that I could take a second look and figure out what was missing. And I really do think something was missing. But that’s okay too. I like taking breaks from the big stuff to write something short and fast. Just to cleanse the palate.

* I finished through chapter four of a short novella for Ellora’s Cave. I really wanted to wrap it up in 12,000 words, but I’m over 13,000 now, and think I might have to add quite a bit more to get to the end of the story. Sometimes, characters don’t cooperate! You won’t mind, I’m sure. It’s a werewolf story and related to the My Immortal Knight stories through the Dark Mountain werewolves in MIK-6.

* I finished the revisions for the first Viking book, Ravished by a Viking, and sent the manuscript back to my editor.

* I received Pleasing Sir back from the editor I hired to catch all my errors and logic problems, made a final pass through it and shipped it to the guy who’s doing the formatting for Kindle. He’ll have it back to me early August.

* I wrote the synopsis for a new novella for Samhain. Another cowboy story. My editor gave it the green light.

* I quick-plotted another short story and started work on the opening scene.

* And lastly, I’ve been critiquing query letters all week for the FFnP class my sister and I are teaching.

So, yeah, I didn’t get to everything this week, but I haven’t exactly been a slacker.

This week, I have to finish the werewolf story, get deeper into the short story, and get back to the second Viking story. Come Monday, it’s time to get serious about making major pages!

Tomorrow, I’ll have pics and tall tales to share!

I’ll be on a party barge in the middle of a lake today (if all goes as planned). I will be away from my computer but will check in tonight when I get home.

So in the meantime, I have a question for you…

What age—when you turned it—was the most difficult for you to accept? On the other hand, which of your birthdays do you remember anticipating with the greatest amount of enthusiasm?

Tuesday’s winner is posted at the bottom of this blog! ~DD

I’m late posting today. Have a headache and I really wished I could have stayed in bed longer. However, I have to play catch up with my goals for the week.

Already out of the way:
* The short story is done and shipped to the editor.
* The synopsis for a new novella was written, shipped and accepted by the editor.
* Yesterday, I completed revisions on the first Viking book and returned it to my editor.
* This morning I finished work on the straight-to-Kindle project and shipped it to someone else to format for Kindle and Smashwords.

When I state everything like that, I think I haven’t done so badly this week, but one glance at my planning spreadsheet reminds me what more has to be done and out the door this week.

What got in the way? Family. My daughter’s a smart girl, but math isn’t one of her talents. I spent the last two days over at her place working through problems with her. Hours working through function points, formulas and graphing lines. Makes my head hurt.

And the pool is cloudy and starting to turn green. That’s what two days of not paying attention to my baby gets me. I so wanted to swim this morning, but the chemicals have to dissipate a bit before I can.

Did I tell you about my encounter with the water moccasin?

I was outside my back door on the phone with the tattoo artist I’m going to see on Sunday in Little Rock at a tattoo convention. Mid-sentence, I glanced down and saw a coil beside my hand. I jerked back. The snake started slithering away.

Now, I like snakes. I don’t have a problem letting them go about their business—unless they are in poisonous and in my yard where they can hurt my family or my dog. This one was an olive-y brown, around 3-feet long, thick-bodied, and with a triangular-shaped head. Water moccasin! Cottonmouth! Whatever you want to call them. This is what they look like:

I couldn’t find my snake stick (it’s just a long supple branch you can use to beat the back of a snake to kill it) so I ran up the stairs to get “Dead-Eye” dad and his shotgun. Without his glasses, and on the first shot, he took off the snake’s head.

Ah! Life in rural Arkansas!

So you want to know who won the signed copy of Darkness Burning, right?

The winner (by random number generator) is…Jennifer Mathis! Jennifer, e-mail me with your snail mail address!

Psst! Yesterday’s contest continues. If you post today, you have two chances to win! ~DD

Note from Emma:

I have a split personality. I write contemporary romance, romantic suspense and historical romance as one name, and erotic romance as Emma Jay. Because I’m a teacher, and thanks to my enthusiastic principal, people know I write romance, and they know my other pseudonym.

I can’t let them know about this side of my life. In fact, very few people do. My husband, but not my son. Some writer friends but not others.

This has resulted in me having a split personality. I have two Twitter accounts, two Blogger accounts and two email accounts. In fact, today I was on the same email loop as both personas. I was getting whiplash changing from one to another! I haven’t actually found a balance yet, and I’m glad to be on summer vacation as I’m trying to work it out. Any suggestions on managing a split personality would be much appreciated! ~ Emma

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

University teaching assistant Jamie Winston is ready to break out of her shy, unadventurous shell by finally approaching Brady Lane—the sexy Iraqi war vet seated in the front row of her journalism class. He’s brave and outgoing—something Jamie is not—and good looking to boot. Her shy flirtation with Brady at a frat party leads to a deliciously sinful tryst that leaves her wanting more. Each breathless encounter with Brady peels away a layer of Jamie’s insecurity, leaving her more wanton and willing each time. But eventually, all good things must come to an end. When Brady finally leaves for an internship, will Jamie be brave enough to let him go?

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

He checked the room, then turned to face her. “You think I was playing around about that fantasy? Every time you walk by my seat, I get a hard-on, smelling you.” He leaned in to take a deep breath, then frowned a little. “And you walk by my seat a lot.”

“I thought you were interested in what I was teaching.”

“Oh, yeah. But I’m also trying to see what you look like under those clothes.” His gaze traveled down to her breasts. “This is much better.”

She tilted her head and smiled. “You clearly don’t have much of an imagination.”

“We’ll see what you say about that when I’m done.” He opened another door, looked inside, and gave her hand a gentle tug.

Heart pounding, she tried not to stumble as her feet failed to meet the enthusiasm of the rest of her body. When he closed the door behind them, she attempted to swallow her doubts.

He’d chosen the library, only one small desk lamp illuminating the room. The room smelled of books, then Brady crowded her against the door, filling her with his scent, a spicy soap mixed with the softer yeasty scent of beer.

And he was big, so big. Even in her wedge heels, her nose only reached the middle of his chest as he edged closer. His shoulders blocked the light as his breath washed warm over her skin. Her pulse leapt like a rabbit at her throat as he lowered his mouth to brush over her parted lips, once, twice, before settling over them.

Oh, God. His lips were firm, and molded to hers, learning the shape of her mouth. His tongue teased the entrance of her mouth, then he delved deeper.

She glided her hands up his chest and curled her fingers through his shaggy hair, letting her body slide up his as she opened herself to his kiss, bringing his tongue deeper. God, he was hard everywhere, his shoulders, arms, chest, thighs, cock.

Wow, it was big. She circled her belly against it until he groaned, his fingers tightening on her hips before easing up under her blouse.