Bestselling Author Delilah Devlin
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Archive for the 'Real Life' Category



Best-laid Plans and the Devil’s Own Luck–and Open Contests!
Monday, September 14th, 2020

I mentioned that I fell last Friday night, right? My hand hurt, but hell, I’ve broken two twos in separate instances over the past year, and no big deal. Now, I’m not at all sure I broke my hand—I won’t go to the doctor unless I have to, because when I went for my broken toe the first time, they handed me an ace bandage and said take some ibuprofen, so I did that for toe #2. I’ll follow the same advice for this injury.

The problem is—a toe I can do without. My hand is another thing altogether. Typing with a hand and one thumb is a PITA. I’m slow, make tons of mistakes, and my hand aches, so I’m not inclined to do it for very long. My lovely September schedule of editing and writing is in the toilet, now. I can’t paint (well, I could, but I don’t want to now), I for sure can’t crochet. Making my own bed is painful. Swimming yesterday was painful. Wah-wah-wah.

And let’s not even mention how much I mourn the loss of my computer glasses…

So, if I’m a little more absent than usual, you know why. In the meantime, check out the open contests. I’ll be back with a better mood soon. 🙂

Open Contests and Offers

  1. A New Puzzle-Contest!  — Ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
  2. Landra Graf: Sci-Fi Television Shows (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
  3. One Craptastic Night — Puzzle Contest — Win an Amazon gift card!
  4. Get your FREE Love in Lockdown stories! — EVERYONE! Get your FREE stories!
One Craptastic Night — Puzzle Contest
Saturday, September 12th, 2020

UPDATE: The winner is…ButtonsMom!
*~*~*

This will be short. I have to get my left hand back into an Ace bandage. Dummy me, last night I ran into a large rock in the dark and fell on my face. Or sort of fell backward over the boulder and twisted and landed on my face. It felt like a slow-motion fall—you know, the kind in the movies with the long, loud, “Ooooh Nooooo!” I broke my favorite glasses (because I landed on them), grazed the side of my face, skinned my knees, but the worst injury is to my left hand. I think I may have broken something. I’ll think about going to the doctor if it’s not improving Monday. I hate going to doctors.

Anyways, just another crappy thing to happen in a craptastic year, right? And did I mention that the house’s AC unit’s pipe that takes the condensation out of the house backed up and we had a flood in the basement last night? Yeah, that kind of day.

I may go back to bed.

So, I’ll leave you with a puzzle. Enjoy it!

Puzzle-Contest

Solve the puzzle and tell me a story for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card. Doesn’t have to be long. Have fun!

Forever in Our Hearts
Friday, September 11th, 2020

Another one bites the dust!
Monday, August 31st, 2020

Another month, that is. Four more months until the end of 2020! And it can’t happen fast enough, because I’m convinced this year is cursed.

I lost my mom, COVID hit, self-isolation began, killer hornets invaded, protests in the midst of isolation began, school began online, twin hurricanes threatened the coast… What’s next?!

Oh yeah, an election looms. So, the worst is yet to come, I’m sure. Be looking for more apocalyptic signs—the Kardashians will give away half their fortunes to fund food banks, locusts will swarm the midwest before harvests, a killer arctic storm will push south to freeze-dry everything in its path, and we’ll be streaming across the Rio Grande to safety… Oh yeah, that movie’s already been made.

Just streaming thoughts, y’all. September will see the start of Fall. I’m ready for it. I love sweaters and fuzzy socks. I’ll miss the pool, but I’m happy the year’s almost over because it’s been hellacious, right?

August is done. The one bright spot for me was the release of Cage, the first of my Montana Bounty Hunters: Dead Horse, MT series.

Cage

I finished off multiple editing jobs, as well. Created a bunch of little paintings. One little crochet project.

But what’s ahead for September?

I’m hoping to finish Lawless and the last of the With His SEAL Team stories.

Lawless Stepbrothers Stepping Out: With His SEAL Team 6

I hope to have Lawless complete by the end of the month, although I gave myself some wiggle room when I set up the pre-order. The SEAL team shorty should be out mid-month, so be watching for it!

I’m planning on taking several online art classes this month, so I’ll be posting pics on FB and Instagram—it keeps me motivated to produce. I’m also going to be making headband/ear warmers for the girls so they’ll be ready for cold weather. So, plenty to keep me busy while I’m writing, helping kids with online assignments, etc. It will be a busy fall. 🙂

And that’s it for my update. Hope I didn’t bore you too much with my August recap and look into September! I’d love to hear what apocalyptic signs you would add to my list as well as hear about any goals you’ve set for yourselves!

What a Week Update, Plus More! Also, Contests!
Sunday, August 30th, 2020

UPDATE: The winner is Jennifer Beyer!
*~*~*

What a week, right? At this time last week, our biggest worry was how the kids’ schooling would go when they began their online classes. As it turns out, it went very, very well.

The kids do have schedules and requirements to be online. The little one’s teacher warned students they’d be meeting at the beginning of each day online, and she didn’t want to see any pajamas or shirtless bodies, which the 7-year-old decided meant dressing up in new “school clothes” every day. She loves getting up, eating her breakfast, dressing for school, then smiling as she watches the other kids come on line. The other kids dress but are more casual about it. They all have daily lessons they have to complete, but the nice thing is—if they apply themselves—they can finish their requirements by the afternoon. There’s no recess, no movement between classes. No wasted time. My dd stays busy going from the little one’s and the middle kid’s bedrooms to help them negotiate the online programs and work through their homework, but she’s on top of it. We can do this.

So, what else happened this week? We prepared for Hurricane Laura because, as far inland as we are, we’ve never been under a hurricane or tropical storm warning before. As it turned out, we were lucky, because the storm hooked to the east, and while we sustained some hammering rain and winds, we didn’t lose a roof. Sure, we have tons of cleanup in the yard, but we stayed safe and even kept our power throughout the storm.

As for me, I was a bit scatterbrained last week. I found it hard to concentrate on work because of all the changes and commotion. I have my work cut out for me this week, but I’m ready for it. I’m working on my September plan today, and I’m hoping to keep it relaxed as opposed to slammin’. We’ll see. I have to start strong.

Plus, I’m looking at what I want to accomplish this Fall so far as arts and crafts are concerned. One thing I did accomplish while the storm was hammering the house was this…

I’m not much of a crocheter because I prefer simple and fast. This was both. Now, my dd has orders in for more for her and her girls. So, that’s one more thing to add to my Fall projects list! 🙂

Contest

Tell me about any of your Fall projects or plans for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

More Open Contests!

Enter while you still can!

  1. #1 place I want to visit post-COVID! (Contest–2 winners!) — Win a FREE book!
  2. Reina Torres: Some Help from a Friend (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
  3. Flashback: Truly, Madly…Deadly (Contest–3 Winners, Plus Excerpt!) — Win a FREE book!
What I did during a dark & stormy day… (Open Contests)
Friday, August 28th, 2020

Well, Hurricane Laura hooked to the east once it entered Arkansas, so my little town was spared the tornadoes, the 90-mile-an-hour gusts, and the heaviest rain. Whew! We do have a huge yard/pasture cleanup adventure ahead of us because of all the fallen branches, but no huge limbs landed on the house so we’re breathing a sigh of relief. We were even spared power outages. The town next to us had hours of outage, but not us!

While we waited, I kept my computer powered down and unplugged because I didn’t want to risk any damage, so that left me with art projects to keep my time filled with something kind of mindless.

The night before, my sister, Elle James, visited. We caught up on family gossip and she delivered bags of clothes she was shedding from her closet to my girls. There’s nothing quite like her hand-me-downs—some of which look as though they were never worn. It’s always like Christmas. She had a small jewelry bag amid her bounty. I grabbed it up because I liked the pattern and thought it might inspire an art project—and it did.

This was one of the pieces I worked on while the storm raged outside…

So, now that everything’s kind of back to normal, I’ll reset my brain to think about “words” instead of “pictures”. It’s actually rather hard for me to bounce back and forth because painting is such a happy place for me to be these days.

As for anyone who’s made it this far into this post ( 🙂 ), here’s a list of open contests. Be sure to enter today! Some are going away… Tomorrow, I’ll be back with something fresh and fun! ~DD

Open Contests

  1. Cage is out! (Puzzle-Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
  2. Tell me a story… (Puzzle-Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
  3. Back to school…or not? (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
  4. #1 place I want to visit post-COVID! (Contest–2 winners!) — Win a FREE book!
  5. Reina Torres: Some Help from a Friend (Contest) — Win a FREE book!
#1 place I want to visit post-COVID! (Contest–2 winners!)
Tuesday, August 25th, 2020

UPDATE: The winners are…Evie and Normandy Hood!
*~*~*

I’m not greedy. I don’t need a long trip. Just a long weekend. A quick 7-hour-drive away.

I’m talking about NOLA—New Orleans. That’s the place I’m dying to go back to even though I’ve been there a half-dozen times. The food, the ambience, the crazy residents. I love everything about it.

This was the view from our hotel, I think, last year, when we made a 2-day drive-down/drive-back trip to get our NOLA fix!

This shop’s always a MUST hit place for me to stock up on my voodoo kitsch!

And I love to take kids to “infect” them with my love of the place!

For a chance to win your choice of a download of one of my backlist books, tell me what place you’re dying to see once it’s safe to travel again!