Quick NaNoWriMo update: I’m at 27,645 words! I don’t like the start of one of my two new stories, so I may scrap it today and begin again.

In three weeks, I’ll be flying to the port and boarding a cruise ship. I’ve never been on a cruise, but I will have the best company imaginable to assure a good time. Sasha White’s my buddy, and just the sound of her laughter gets me in the mood to party!

I still have things to get done on my To Do list. On Friday, I’ll be at the doctor’s and asking about vaccinations. My passport arrived, so that’s another worry out of the way. My daughter gifted me with new purple luggage as an early Christmas gift—her contribution to my trip.

The most worrisome thing now for me is wardrobe. Did I mention I’ve been dieting? I thought I’d trim down a little, just enough to give me a boost of confidence. I’ve dropped two sizes in a month. So I’m waiting until closer to the date of my flight to shop for new clothes. I didn’t know how much I’d lost until the booksigning. Then I was flying to the back of my closet, looking for a pair of slacks that fit, and the “skinnier” ones I found were still loose! Nice problem to have? I guess. But I hate shopping, and good luck on finding capris this time of year!

A quick note! I’m blogging in two places today. Catch my blog about my Sunday meeting with the witch and the Odinist at After Midnight Fantasies!

If you were at the Barnes and Noble on Chenal in Little Rock last Saturday night, you probably wondered what all the commotion was about. I’ll just say, you can’t get four women who write smutty romance in the same space without all hell breaking loose. The pics look tame, but this was before we started trouble. Here are my booksigning playmates.

I shared a table with Shada Royce and Shayla Kersten because we all could sign copies of Sexy Little Numbers. Never, ever put me next to Shada again—the girl’s a bad, bad influence!

Here’s the lovely Anna J. Evans!

And the very sweet and demure Sandra Jones (bet she wondered what the heck she’d signed up for!).

We did have folks stop to buy books or chat. Here’s Katie and Chris from the Little Rock reading group I visited a few months back. Heather B stopped by too, but I forgot to snap a pic!

A couple of things had us cackling like hens. A man walked up to us and asked if we’d like to know what our work had done for him, then he pulls out his cell phone. I’m thinking, oh boy, he’s going to show us pictures of his man parts, and everyone’s eyes widened. When it was a pic of his baby, we all fell out.

Same guy came back after a little while and asked us how our husband’s liked what we did.

I popped up with, “Mine moved to Virginia.”
Shada said, “I’m divorcing mine.”
Shayla quipped, “Mine’s dead.”

Okay, guess you had to be there, but we laughed like hyenas.

I’m sending a big thank you to Lynda from the staff at B&N for setting this up. Yeah, that’s how I felt by the end of the night!

Quick NaNoWriMo update: No progress at all to report. But I had a great excuse!

(Don’t miss my pool story at the bottom!)

I’m at the midpoint of the annual NaNoWriMo challenge. The challenge is to hit 50,000 words by the end of the month. I’m on track at 25,880.

With that 25k words, I’ve finished a novella for Ellora’s Cave—Bad, Bad Girlfriend—which I love because I let me comedic muse loose for that story. One of the people who read one particular scene between the heroine and her girlfriend said it was like a Lucy and Ethel scene and kept her laughing. Since, the girls were getting themselves deep into trouble, that comparison fit!

I’ve also finished the first chapter of the free read that will be sent out with my next newsletter shortly. Thanks again to everyone who voted for the story elements they wanted to see. You made it a breeze to write!

I’ve also started on two new projects. I’m in the opening pages, and it’s hard to make huge progress when I’m still feeling my way through the characters and dreaming up the plot, but it will come.

One of my great excuses for not writing yesterday was a booksigning I went to in Little Rock. I’ll post pictures tomorrow and tell you all about it then. I had a wonderful time with my fellow DSRA authors.

The other great reason I didn’t make progress last night, and probably won’t today, is because I have contest entries to judge that have to go out the door! And tonight, I have critiques to wrap up for the Rose’s Colored Glasses critique loop. Okay, I’m a procrastinator, but there is a method to my madness. I didn’t want to pull away from the writing and waited until I had one day where I could devote my time to reading through everything. So today will be another loss.

And I have to fit it all around a trip I’m making to meet with a man who casts runes and a witch.

Non-writing related, but did I mention my venture into the pool? Recently, we had days and days of heavy rain which produced yellow algae in our pool, turning the water slime green. We’ve tried every chemical under the sun to clean it out. The other day, I had the pool brush out, scrubbing at the bottom to get the scum loose. I opened up the telescoping pole to reach the bottom of the deep end and the brush and six feet of pole dropped into the water.

Well, I couldn’t leave it there. But damn, the water’s cold! So I suited up in my wetsuit (picture sausage stuffed into a casing) and waddled out to the pool. I dove and dove, but could only dart down and up because it was so dang cold I was gasping. At last, I got my hands around that sucker and brought it up. I am sooooo glad the pool is a couple hundred yards off the road.

But I feel heroic. I love it when I rise to a physical challenge, even if it’s only swimming through green sludge in a cold-ass pool.

Quick NaNoWriMo update: My fingers were on fire yesterday. I hit 24,301 words yesterday! AND I finished the draft of Bad, Bad Girlfriend, which my editor is reading now.

Did I mention that I also finished the first chapter of the story you all helped me plot? The story is called Bad Moon Rising and my webmistress is designing a cover for it now. My plan is to have a newsletter out to you in the next two weeks. I have to thank you again for choosing a writer as the heroine. I had a blast putting my own thoughts in her head. Sexy, spooky things are happenin’ in Bayou Noir.

Last note. Tonight is my monthly live chat at the Fallen Angels chat room. It starts at 9 PM ET. Everyone is welcome, readers and writers. And you know I always bring bribes!

Oh! I have to tell you about the dream I had last night. I was alone in the house and heard noises from downstairs, then footsteps coming up and treading down the hallway. I cracked my eyes open to take a peek—a killer held a steak knife and was leaning over me…

Well I woke up about 4 AM, heart racing, and went back to sleep with a solution. As soon as the dream started, I ran to the kitchen and hid all the knives before heading back upstairs. Then I heard noises of someone rumaging below, the footsteps coming up the steps and down the hall to me. When I opened my dream eyes to look at the killer, the bastard had a fork in his hand.

I’m taking a break from the countdown today. It’ll be back tomorrow, and I’ll announce Friday’s winner then. I’ll be away today at the Maumelle Writer’s Conference, representing the Diamond State Romance Authors along with Shayla Kersten. I’m sure the literary types who attend will raise their eyebrows at our display of books, but hey, I never mind shaking things up a bit!

In place of my countdown, I invited one of the readers on my loop to talk about herself, her favorite authors, and what reading romance has done for her. If you like this feature, I’d love to have more readers take over my blog in the future! Be sure to let Brandy know you enjoyed it! ~DD

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There are just so many things I could write about, but when the pressure is on sometimes I have a hard time narrowing it down. So I thought about some of the ideas/suggestions Delilah actually threw out there; me, my life, what I get from reading books, my favorite books. She even mentioned that it did not have to be hers. But really if you know anything about me you know I’d have a difficult time talking about books without mentioning Delilah. I love her writing and stalk her regularly.

I’ve gone through a ton of ideas and I think have settled on one: My reading romance journey.

I’ve always read but was a mystery/thriller reader and bored with it all. I wanted a new author but had no idea where to start. I did get my husband reading Lee Child during my search though. Score for me. Now we could both read in bed at night.

I’d thought about romance and wanted to read it but again with no clue who to pick up or where to start. Talking about it with my friend Priscilla she offered to let me borrow a bunch of books. She reads romance and mostly historical.

She gave me a great combination of authors and genres to begin my journey. At least I think so. Julia Quinn (The Bridgertons), Sherrilyn Kenyon (Dark Hunters) and Lora Leigh (Men of August).

Really if you can’t find something to spark your love of romance in those then maybe it isn’t the genre for you. Just my opinion of course. Those authors made me want to read more. I searched the internet like a rabid beast starving for more food. One author led to another and another. Thankfully my book pusher, Priscilla, has an extensive collection of books and was willing to let me borrow to my hearts content. I read about a book a day, every day.

I knew the time was coming for me to branch out and find my own way through the romance community. Which I must say I have done very well in. My TBR closet is insane for a person who picked up her first romance about 2 or 3 years ago.

It was a natural progression after reading the Men of August series to head over to Ellora’s Cave.

The first book I bought on my own, with my own little research and interest was Janus’ Conquest by Dawn Ryder. It was a big step for me to take that leap and buy that book. Once I did though I was hooked. There are just too many books to search through on that site and I find something to peak my interest every time I go there. A search of cowboys actually brought me to my first Delilah Devlin book, Ride a Cowboy. (You knew I had to get her in here somewhere right.)

So that was how I started reading romance. I love my journey and think fondly on it.

Brandy W
Brandy’s blog

In just over a month, Sasha White and I will be boarding a ship sailing to the Caribbean! We’ve booked the cruise (got a great deal, yay bad economy!). We’ve booked our flights. Now, it’s down to our own personal lists of trip preparations.

As soon as we paid for the cruise, I headed to the post office to order a new passport. My old one was lost in the move from Texas. It only took two weeks for it come back! So, check!

I booked the flight and will arrive the afternoon before the ship leaves. Sasha and I are hoping to stay with a friend of hers who lives near the port. Otherwise, we’ll get a hotel and start the party!

This week, I will call for that doctor’s appointment and go through my closet to see what kind of cruise-worthy clothing I already have. Then I’m going shopping!

Is there anything you can think of that I’m missing on my list?

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November’s moon is the Snow Moon. According to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft, this is a “good time to work with abundance, prosperity, and the bonds of family and friendship.”

Well, I am looking forward to a cruise with a very good friend. I’m bonding with other writers over the NaNoWriMo challenge. And of course, Thanksgiving plans are well under way. So far so good.

The Snow Moon is also the time to “use divination to get an idea of what is up ahead.” Sounds like it’s time to pull out the tarot cards and rune stones or maybe it’s just a warning to start my New Year’s resolutions early. For an inveterate planner, it’s never too early to start a new list!

You do know I’m going to make you wait until the end
to name the winners, so read on!

Thanks, everyone, for your enthusiastic response to the Cat Tails polls. Several of you went even farther and offered suggestions regarding the stories that are helpful. I can plot the first one now. I may come back after I’ve started to get your suggestions for possible titles, so be looking for another contest!

What did we wind up with?
Setting: Louisiana Bayou
Scenario: Innocent stranger enters a small, secretive town where shifters rule
Hero #1: Local sheriff in Louisiana parish who protects the secret of his pride’s existence
Hero #2: Bad boy shifter whose job it is to “distract” the human who entered their midst
Heroine: Reclusive author who inherits property from a distant relative and wrecks her car before getting to town

What did I accomplish writing-related this week?
1) I completed first round edits of Raw Silk.
2) I wrote the blurb for Raw Silk and completed the cover art sheet.
3) I completed first round edits of Unbridled.
4) I worked on website updates.

That last one reminds me, you have to go to my Coming Soon page. I have new entries there with links to excerpts for the books that are coming this month as well as blurbs for those coming very soon after that! You’ll want to sample them. And could anything be sexier than the cover for my upcoming release Unforgiven?

They’re nekkid, he hasn’t shaved—can’t you already feel the scrape of those bristles? And they look dirty, don’t they? Makes me think they’ve already been doing it for a while.
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