I am a very visual person. Often, I’ll begin a story based on picture. That picture will usually inspire a title, first. From there, the rest is magic. My brain takes off from that initial picture, whether it’s art I found on a stock photo website or an image I dreamed.

So, let’s play a game today. Consider the picture above, your “writer’s prompt”. Your stepping-off point into a story. I don’t expect you to write paragraphs. A single line will do. For instance, when I saw this picture, my first imagining was: “I dropped the bag of groceries on the counter then turned toward the open door, ready to go back for another bag, when a bright light shone—a moment before the house shuddered and the floor shifted beneath my feet.”

That’s all I have. You can have that “Close Encounters” moment. A flashlight beam. Whatever. And you don’t have to make it pretty! Play today for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card! Have fun!

BLUE COLLAR:  A BOYS BEHAVING BADLY ANTHOLOGY
Editor: Delilah Devlin
Deadline: September 30, 2016

BLUE COLLAR is open to all authors.

Editor/Author Delilah Devlin is looking for stories for a romantic erotica anthology tentatively entitled BLUE COLLAR:  A BOYS BEHAVING BADLY ANTHOLOGY.

Following the successful releases of CONQUESTS and ROGUES, Delilah’s ready to get to work on her next delectable anthology—this one filled with stories about those sexy blue collar men. Delilah hopes you’re ready to set aside your sexy billionaires long enough to enjoy writing more accessible, realistic, everyday bad boys. They may have dirt under their fingernails and wear tool belts instead of Rolex watches, but they’re those earthy alpha males who aren’t afraid to get down and dirty when faced with helping out a woman in need—whether she needs rescue from a broken pipe or a new, built-in closet to hold all her toys…

BLUE COLLAR: A BOYS BEHAVING BADLY ANTHOLOGY will seek stories that satisfy the reader who craves the romantic idea of that sexy, capable man set in everyday settings, with a few exotic International settings thrown in for fun! The anthology will be sold at a low price—Delilah’s intent is exposure for you and your writing. The more readers we reach, the better! You will retain the rights to your story, so that at a later date you can republish your stories individually.

She’s seeking hot and inventive stories from authors with unique voices, and above all, she’s looking to be seduced by tales filled with vivid imagery and passion.

Published authors with an established world may use that setting for their original short story.

This is erotic romance, so don’t hold back on the heat. Stories can be vanilla or filled with kink, but don’t miss describing the romantic connection between two strong-willed individuals learning to trust and love one another. A deep sensuality should linger in every word.

Keep in mind there must be a romantic element with a happy-for-now or happy-ever-after ending. Strong plots, engaging characters, and unique twists are the ultimate goal. Please no reprints. Delilah is seeking original stories.

How to submit: Prepare your 2,500 to 5,000 words story in a double-spaced, Arial, 12 point, black font Word document (.doc, NOT.docx) OR rich text format (.rtf), with pages numbered. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) is required.

In your document at the top left of the first page, include your legal name (and pseudonym, if applicable), mailing address, email address, and 50 words or less bio, written in the third person, and send to bluecollarbadboys@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you’d like to be credited as. Authors may submit up to 2 stories. Delilah will respond in November 2016 with decisions.

Payment will be $50.00 USD ninety days after publication.

Delilah Devlin is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of erotica and erotic romance. She has published over a hundred sixty stories in multiple genres and lengths, and is published by Atria/Strebor, Avon, Berkley, Black Lace, Cleis Press, Ellora’s Cave, Grand Central, Harlequin Spice, HarperCollins: Mischief, Kensington, Kindle, Kindle Worlds, Montlake, Penthouse, Running Press, and Samhain Publishing.

Her short stories have appeared in multiple Cleis Press collections, including Lesbian Cowboys, Girl Crush, Fairy Tale Lust, Lesbian Lust, Passion, Lesbian Cops, Dream Lover, Carnal Machines, Best Erotic Romance (2012), Suite Encounters, Girl Fever, Girls Who Score, Duty and Desire and Best Lesbian Romance of 2013. For Cleis Press, she edited Girls Who Bite, She Shifters, Cowboy Lust, Smokin’ Hot Firemen, High Octane Heroes, Cowboy Heat, Hot Highlanders and Wild Warriors and Sex Objects. She also edited Conquests: An Anthology of Smoldering Viking Romance and Rogues: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology.

Direct any questions you have regarding your story or the submission process to Delilah at bluecollarbadboys@gmail.com.

Do you play with writing prompts?  They can be a lot of fun.  It’s a way to keep the writing muscles limbered up, like going to the gym or yoga class.  Best part is they don’t have to be long; under 500 words is quite useful.  Whether you come up with something you use later, or just play around like an artist makes sketches to train their eye, “It’s all good.”

Here’s an example.  This prompt comes from Natalie Goldberg, Writing Down the Bones, but I’m paraphrasing:  take something out of your trash can and write about it.  What she said that stuck with me is this:  “If you can’t write about trash, how can you do justice to beauty?”

One of the times I did this prompt, it went a completely different direction than I expected.  Take a look:

* * *

Piperoncelo picked his way over the piles of newsprint, gingerly setting his paws down in the cleaner spots.  He caught a whiff of something tantalizing but upon investigation turned up nothing but a wrapper for lunchmeat.  The waxy texture of the paper stuck to his tongue and he rubbed it off with his paw.

“Hey!  You – git outta there!”

The shout came, sharply out of the night, like it always did.  Piperoncelo didn’t wait around for the fat man to kick him.  He loped over the piles and streaked though a gap in the fence.  He was almost too slow; a bottle shattered against the metal and wood of the fence and shards skittered past him, tinkling.  It was almost a pretty sound.

Almost, but not quite.

Keeping to the shadows, Piperoncelo trotted down the alley to the Italian place on the corner.  He was always hopeful there, even though they locked up their dumpsters.

Besides.  It’s where he last saw his family.

As he came up even with the gate, he saw the young man who worked in the kitchen.  This time, the youngster saw Piperoncelo and his eyes got huge, even browner than usual.  He started yelling something unintelligible that the other dogs said was “Spunich.”  Piperoncelo slowed, wary now.

“Piper!”

The joyous shout came from inside the kitchen.  His boy and girl came barreling out of the door and nearly knocked him over in their eagerness, just like puppies.  Man and Woman were there too, and Woman was crying.

“Oh, Piper, we missed you!”  Boy was crying too.

Piperoncelo wagged his tail so hard he thought it would come off.  Even the young man from the kitchen blinked a lot, that thing humans did when they were sad, but he didn’t smell sad.  They all smelled like Piperoncelo felt – ecstatic.

And the best part?  He didn’t ever have to eat trash again!

(Unless Boy put the pizza boxes out.  He’d make an exception for that.)

* * *

If this sounds like fun to you, I hope you’ll join me next month for a workshop, “Having Fun with Writing Prompts.”  No experience as a writer is necessary, just a willingness to try new things.  Let’s use some writing prompts and limber up our story muscles. Using pictures, word play, and short scenarios, we will practice writing 500 word scenes for each other. Writing should be fun; let’s play!

It will be from Sunday, June 12 through Saturday, June 25, 2016, online at the Coffee Time Romance forums.  Membership in the forum is free.  I hope you come play with me!

—

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
– E.E. Cummings

My links: Blog | Books | Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon | LinkedIn | Pandora

Knoontime Knitting:  Blog | Twitter | Ravelry
Noon and Wilder links: Blog | Website | Facebook | Twitter

Join my Writers Group, The Writer Zen Garden:  Blog | Website | Forum | FB Group | Twitter | Meetup

Join my Readers Group, Nice Girls Writing Naughty:  Blog | Website | FB Group | Twitter

National Novel Writing Month: NaNoWriMo | ChiWriMo | Blog | FB Group | Twitter

Rose’s Online Plotting Bootcamp

Permission granted to forward

This message is for any authors or aspiring authors who might be interested in some intensive help developing their next stories.

Don’t let that word “intensive” scare you away; I’ve led newbies, as well as multi-published authors, through our plotting process numerous times. Everyone comes away with new knowledge and insight, or at the very least, some terrific brainstorming support!

While lessons and exercises will be posted throughout the month of June, this is truly a self-paced class. We all have busy lives, and the workshop is designed to accommodate any schedule.

Enjoy the pitch below!

Back by popular demand!

ROSE’S ONLINE PLOTTING BOOTCAMP

Dates: June 6 – July 1, 2016
Last date to register: June 6, 2016
Cost: $50.00—cheap, considering everything you get!
Your DI (Drill Instructor): Delilah Devlin
Offered through: www.rosescoloredglasses.com

What you can expect:

LOGLINE (Lunges)
PREMISE (Pushups)
CHARACTER (Strengthening exercises)
CONFLICT! CONFLICT! CONFLICT!
Breaking through the STORY STRUCTURE stronghold
Battling the PLOT LINES

We do more in one month than some people do all year! Get tough! Get motivated! Get plotting!

Join your Drill Instructor, Delilah Devlin, to learn a methodical approach to harness your creativity in order to produce an in-depth plot for your next novel.

Sound scary? It is!!!! Especially when you’re staring at an empty page without a compass and a map to guide you through the novelistic jungle. Your DI will lead you through four weeks of tactics, exercises, and training that will help strengthen your abilities. Delilah will accomplish this with weekly lessons, bi-weekly chats, and daily online communication. Join her for bivouac in June!

Join this elite force now!

For those who don’t know, my sister and I co-founded the website for writers called Rose’s Colored Glasses in 2004. From that site, we run a critique group and provide workshops—some free and some for pay. In June, I will be leading a month-long plotting bootcamp. It’s a great time to join—something you can do for yourself during the hot summer months! Join me if you can!

How’s our workshop different from every other one out there? I’ll provide feedback and brainstorming every step of the way!

Interested? Follow this link to sign up:
http://www.rosescoloredglasses.com/Online%20plotting%20boot%20camp.htm

And feel free to pass this along to anyone else you think might be interested with my thanks!

Delilah Devlin
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author & Freelance Editor
Get in bed with Delilah. Everyone else has!

UPDATE: The winner is Kymberly Holland!

* * * * *

That phrase, “filling the well”, sounds almost erotic, doesn’t it? Given when I write, it shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that my mind goes right there. But to a writer, it means refilling your creative well, that part of you that has to live in la-la-land and needs to daydream.

I’ve been writing since January 2000. Not as long as some, but the longest commitment I’ve ever made to a single job. And I do it because I truly love to write—and it’s a natural fit because I’ve been a dreamer all my life.

I finished another story for Samhain on Sunday, the next in the Firehouse 69 series, entitled, Rapid Entry. (Yeah, I had to go there, again.) But the title’s not the point. My carefully detailed work plan called for me to sit down yesterday and whip out a quick short story, but I couldn’t make myself do it. So instead, I wandered into my very messy art room and made this for my daughter.

I’ve discovered in recent years, that not all my talents are confined to words. And when I’m struggling with a story, I need to refresh my well. Since I don’t want to dread the creative process I go through to dream up my stories, I take mini-breaks to stop and make a necklace or paint something like this…

It’s not perfect, but it explodes with color and took concentration to create, which allowed me to drift—something I have to do replenish my imagination. And sometimes, I make things that are whimsical and just make me smile, like my domino pendants.

Luckily, I can indulge that whimsy because I sell enough of them to keep purchasing paints and brushes and all the crazy art things that are currently littering my workroom. (Does anyone really need a Vintaj metal embosser, or a pasta maker and toaster oven for their polymer clay?)

So, that’s what I do when I need to escape from my computer. What is your escape?

Answer for a chance to win an Amazon gift card!

Even above eeking out a living, this writer loves being read. And I truly do appreciate loyalty. Those notes you send me telling me you love my stories bolster me up when I have those little crises of confidence. I save them for days when I feel like a hack. This has been a really good week. Not monetarily, because hey, my two new releases are only $0.99 on Amazon, but because they are doing well among the 13 million books listed in the Amazon store.

[Click on the covers to learn more!]

This blows me away! Who’d have thought a little 5,000-word story would do so well? Thank you for the purchase! I’m known for cowboys, but not so much for LGBT fiction, so this was a very nice Christmas present.

This warms the cockles of me heart, whatever that phrase means! There are a ton of paranormal-shapeshifter stories out there, and this doesn’t have a series propping it up, but you are reading it! Thank you! I have it priced at $0.99 until Sunday night, and then I’ll push it up to where it belongs, $2.99. So, if you don’t yet have your copy, go buy it now!

As a way to show you how much I appreciate your loyalty, I’ve lowered the price of Silent is the Knight to FREE! If you don’t have your copy, go get it now! It will only be free until Monday! And look where it’s sitting?!

Thank you! Thank you! Happy Holidays! ~DD

*~*~*~*~*~*

P.S. For authors only!

If you’re looking for the perfect gift for yourself, here’s the one! Get your New York kicked off right!

ROSE’S ONLINE PLOTTING BOOTCAMP
January 2016
Back by popular demand!
Dates: January 4 through 29
Last date to register: January 4
Cost: $50
Offered through
www.rosescoloredglasses.com

Read the rest of this entry »

Writing for me is like have split personality disorder-everything is the opposite of the way it should be.  I am an organized person. I live by post-it notes, check lists and my calendar.  This is great, theoretically I should be plotter.  Outlines and structured plot points should be no problem.

Yeah right.  I get hives at character sheets and when I tried to plot a story ahead of time, I never wanted to write it. My muse was like “What’s the point? It’s all there in black and white.”

I love not knowing what will happen until I’m writing a scene. But I feel something is missing because writing wise, I’m not very organized. It gives me the heebie-jeebies not being in complete control.  So how do I cope?  Mindmaps!

My husband isn’t into fantasy like I am but he is the one who suggested I try organizing some of my timelines with mindmaps.  I couldn’t get a timeline to work but I love mindmaps for organizing my notes.  I keep everything in a mindmap now – characters, plotlines, places (maps, floorplans, names of cities), research and sometimes a glossary.

This is a screenshot of my mindmap for the current WIP tentatively titled Merman’s Curse, which is novella three in my Paranormals of Arilase series. I’m not sure this will be the published title but it works for now.  The program I use is a Mac only software called Curio. (You can do similar organizing with Microsoft OneNote)

I don’t have a lot filled in yet. Not even images for the hero and heroine. But that is what is so great with the mindmap and display board…it grows when I need it to. I always start with a story blurb and the main characters.  This story I had problems getting to know the heroine Kaycee, so I took a break from the mindmap and wrote a prologue.  It helped me figure out her powers and understand her better.

Now I can complete the initial information in the mindmap and start writing the rest of the story. The prologue won’t be in the final story but some of the information will be included in future chapters. Usually I know my characters before starting a story. This time that didn’t work out.  That’s both the joy and frustration with my writing process.  It’s always changing even when I wish it would stay the same.

So tell me, are you a post-it note, checklist or fly-by the seat of your pants type person?

I’ll randomly select a commenter to receive a notebook with the cover of my werewolf short story Informally Yours.

*********

Enchantress’ Destiny by Beth Caudill

One dark curse, two elves and a destiny neither could escape.

Cursed at his birth by a dark elf, Rowe Calder avoids personal entanglements, especially his betrothal to Caliressa Bellehaven. Circumstances force them together and love won’t be denied. But the dark elf claims his vengeance and only the strongest enchantress can reclaim Rowe’s soul.

Series: Paranormals of Arilase – Novella 2
Genre: Paranormal Romance / Fantasy Romance
Length: Novella – 25,200 words
Heat Level: Spicy

Available for Sale at:
Amazon – http://www.amzn.com/B00UNF3QKI/
            Barnes and Noble – http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/books/1121412070
            iBooks – https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/enchantress-destiny/id976609430?mt=11&uo=4
            Kobo – https://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/enchantress-destiny
            Google – https://play.google.com/store/books/details/Beth_Caudill_Enchantress_Destiny?id=v4NhBwAAQBAJ
            All Romance eBooks – https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-enchantress039destiny-1764005-143.html

About the Author

Although Beth grew up in West Virginia, she currently resides in North Carolina with her husband, two sons and a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel who makes an excellent lap warmer. Blending the analytical and creative sides of her brain, she delights in creating fantasy worlds for others. Catch her online most days except when NCIS and Once Upon a Time air.

Author Website: http://BethCaudill.net/
Author Newsletter: http://eepurl.com/fs6SU
Author Email: beth@bethcaudill.net
Author Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/beth_caudill/
Author Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorBethCaudill
Author Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/bethcaudill13/
Author Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/bethcaudill
Amazon Author Page: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B00538IWEU