Yesterday’s Winner!

The winner (by random number generator of the free download of Handy Men is…#6: Nina! Nina, send me an email to arrange delivery of your prize!

Sunday Report Card

Not a stellar week. I completed two chapters on my paranormal story and one chapter for the Samhain Western. I put together the After Midnight Fantasies newsletter and participated in a “Live Chat with the Pros” for ERWA. And I’ve been working on promo for my upcoming releases, She Shifters and Cowboy Lust.

This next week, I need a minimum of 4 chapters’ progress on the paranormal. Three chapters on the western. If I don’t, I have to do the walk of shame, because I’ll be boxed into a corner with my deadlines. So send those positive thoughts!

Sneak Peek at Fournicopia

First, isn’t it the greatest title ever?! How about this logline?

Here’s what happens when a cop meets the doughnut girl of his dreams…
and she’s a Domme…

Did it make you smile? Intrigue you? Then it worked!

How about this cover?

Not the handsomest guy, but I love that he looks like he’s surrendering to her. That’s what Gus does in this book. Want to meet my boy? Read on…

Unedited excerpt from Fournicopia:

Gus Taggert knew it was a cliché. A cop in a doughnut shop. The officers waiting for him to arrive for the sergeant’s morning meeting didn’t like making the run because of the inevitable roll of the eyes or smartass grin they’d get standing in line.

However, he didn’t mind being the “doughnut guy”. The plus for being the brunt of any jokes was that he ate for free. That was okay with him. He took any pointed looks or lame jokes in stride. He was an affable guy. Hard to rile.

He’d learned long ago to stifle his anger and look for the good in people, even when they messed up. Being oversized and strong, he’d always had to be more careful throwing his weight around. People could get hurt, and that wasn’t why he’d been drawn to law enforcement. He wasn’t a bully in a uniform.

Gus liked being a cop. Liked what it stood for. Loved the dark navy uniform and the camaraderie of his brother cops. He didn’t mind that his closest buds were all moving on to bigger and better things. He liked being a beat cop. Liked patrolling the neighborhood he lived in and getting to know the people he protected.

His father had been a small-town cop, and his father before him had been the sheriff of their little Arkansas berg. But then his mom had moved to Memphis—not because she’d wanted to, but because when his mom and dad divorced, she’d wanted to start fresh where everyone didn’t know her business and didn’t whisper to her ex about who she was seeing next.

Gus had missed his old school and friends, but had a natural gift for making new ones. That he was big and brawny, quick on his feet despite his size, had made him a natural for the football team.

And that’s where he’d met Jackson Teague and Craig Eason, who surprisingly enough wanted to be cops, too, when they graduated.

They’d all gone to college together, applied for the police academy and been accepted. That’s where they’d met the remaining members of their current posse, Beau McIntyre and Mondo Acevedo.

So, Gus was never lonely. He had his peeps, a job he loved, a city that kept him on his toes. And today, he was on his way to explore a new doughnut shop.

Mondo, although now in vice and no longer attending the station-house morning meetings, had given him a roll of bills the night before. “Treat the guys to doughnuts. On me.”

Gus had glanced at the roll. “This is too much.”

“Not for the place I want you to go.”

He should have known from the gleam in Mondo’s dark brown eyes that something was up, but Gus liked to think the best of people. Maybe Mondo really did just want to treat the guys to something special.

Well, it was special all right. Not like any doughnut shop Gus had ever seen before. He stood on the street in front of the small store front, eyeing the painted glass window with its pink awning, and felt the first rumbles of misgiving.
Read the rest of this entry »

Answer: Revenge Sex. Nuff said, right?

“Ok, first I am going to contact Delilah and see if she has the number for “Handy Men” because I have some things I just know they can take care of.” ~ 5 Stars and TOP PICK!, Night Owl Reviews

“Delilah Devlin’s stories are always fun, entertaining and totally hot. Bringing together unsuspecting people is what she does best. No one even can come close. Grab the lounge chair, put on some SPF 40 and spend some time with her sexy, sweaty and provocative playmates. You won’t regret it!!” ~ 4 Cherries, Long and Short Reviews

“Ms. Devlin has eroticism dripping from the pages of HANDY MEN!… HANDY MEN is sexy, sizzling and sinfully good!” ~ Joyfully Reviewed

“HANDY MEN packs a lot of punch with very few pages. The characters are three dimensional, well developed and their sexual encounters are off the charts.” ~ Lynette’s Two Cents

Two very handy men mend a divorcée’s broken heart…

Rather than cry over spilt milk, a newly divorced woman throws caution to the wind and decides to seduce her neighbor’s handsome handy man.

Jeff isn’t stupid—Pamela tossed those screws into her sink to get his attention! The fact she’s beautiful and vulnerable convinces him she needs “special” attention. When he has her hot and horny, he surprises her with his partner Casey and a threesome.

What starts for Pamela as a wild, no-holds-barred fling quickly gets stickier as the guys push for something longer lasting.

The impulse came like a flash of lightning—hot and searing—all the way to the bone. An idea born of a need she hadn’t felt in a long, long time…and inspired by one red-hot handyman in butt-hugging jeans and a t-shirt.

The man fired the militant gleam in her eyes as she brushed bronzing powder across her cheeks and swiped carmine “eat me” red lip stain across her mouth. She didn’t give herself time to rethink the decision, reaching for the phone before her usual, cautious self reasserted control. No more couch potato cry-ins for her. No more self-imposed exclusion while she figured out what to do with the rest of her life. Today, a new Pamela Dwyer was reaching for the damn gusto.

The anger felt good. Especially after the shock she’d received moments ago when she’d surfed the web for the latest gossip about her ex.

One glance at Andrew’s Facebook page, and Pamela’s confusion over what the hell had happened to her life dried up. He’d blocked her from his page, but his profile picture had been changed from Andrew’s handsome, craggy face to the soft innocence of his newborn son’s.

The picture said it all. And no doubt every one of their friends here in Austin, who’d rallied around her when he’d left, would now pour out their congratulations to him while privately agreeing he’d done the only thing he could do to be happy.

Tears had stung her eyes, but she’d refused to let them fall. Instead, she’d blinked them away, closed out the screen and glanced through the blinds at her immaculate lawn. The perfect lawn and landscaping to surround the perfectly appointed house she’d won in the divorce settlement.

But back to that lightning strike… Read the rest of this entry »

Many years ago, my family went on a ski vacation to Breckenridge, Colorado. Between Denver and Breckenridge is a small town by the name of Idaho Springs. There’s not much there and it’s perched on a steep hillside, but the history of the town fascinated me. It’s an old gold mining town where miners came to sell their gold, bed a whore (women were scarce), and buy supplies they’d carry back up in the mountains.

In 2010, my husband, daughter and I returned to the gold mining hills of Colorado for a four-wheeling trip through the old gold mining ghost towns up around Silverton, Colorado. So many abandoned towns and mines dot the hillsides. It’s amazing. If you haven’t been, put it on your bucket list, it’s a must.

In the BOUND AND TIED print anthology releasing June 1 at Samhain Publishing, my stories HONOR BOUND and DUTY BOUND are based around Idaho Springs in the 1860’s when the gold rush was in full swing. The third story in the series takes one of the characters back east to another romantic historical place that has fascinated me all my life…the Mississippi River during the era of steamboat transportation.

The stories were fun, the characters funny, sexy and heroic. I hope you enjoy reading about them as much as I enjoyed writing them.

BOUND AND TIED

by Myla Jackson

They say bad luck comes in threes. Love just might prove “they” are wrong.

Honor Bound
On the run from an Indian captor, Honor is hungry and desperate. Yet when she stumbles upon two men touching each other in a scandalous way, she’s mesmerized—and aroused.

Gold prospectors Zach and Jake can think of only one way to silence the panicked little thief’s babbling. Kiss her senseless. Then show her that pleasure isn’t necessarily the devil’s work.

Duty Bound
Desperate, KC appeals to a sensual stranger, Rosalyn, to teach her the womanly skills to make a deal with the devil. AKA Jake—the man who holds the marker on her family’s ranch.

Jake has a better idea: her for the ranch. Then reality sets in, leaving him saddled with a mail-order bride, a deflowered virgin, and an unexpected desire to make things right with KC…forever.

River Bound
When Rosalyn steps aboard the Marie-Dearie, she unexpectedly meets James, notorious bounty hunter and old lover…who’s only too happy to help her find her murdering, thieving fiancé.

Convincing James he’s innocent is easier for Dalton than winning Rosalyn back, because she seems to be enjoying the competition for her affections a little too much. There’s only one place to work out this dilemma. In bed.

Product Warnings
 This title contains hot ménage a trois scenes, man love, bondage, females out to settle a debt right proper, a woman with bordello-bawdy desires, and a whole lot of lovin’!

Samhain

Amazon

 

About the Author

The YOUNGER sister of the queen of the sex scene, DELILAH DEVLIN, the equally stupendous MYLA JACKSON pens wildly sexy adventures of all genres including historical westerns, medieval tales, romantic suspense, contemporary romance and paranormals with beasties of all shapes and sizes. When not wrangling words from her computer with the help of her canine muses, she’s snow-skiing, boating or riding her ATV. To learn more about Myla Jackson and her stories visit her website at www.mylajackson.com. Also see Myla’s romantic suspense alter ego Elle James at www. ellejames.com 

From the ERWA website:

EVENT ALERT!

GLBT Live Chats with the Pros

Who: Delilah Devlin, accompanied by Ily Goyanes and Sacchi Green
When: June 7th, at 8:00pm EST, (5:00pm  PST;  1:00am  GMT)
Where: ERWA chats are held on the ShadowWorld chat server, channel, #erachat. (Follow the link above. On screen you’ll see ‘Connect o ShadowWorld IRC’. In the Nickname box, key in your name. Leave the channels box at #ERAChat, and click ‘Connect’. A chat text box will appear at the bottom of your screen)

GLBT erotica is a genre to be reckoned with. ERWA will help interested authors with a “Live Chats with the   Pros.” Delilah Devlin,  Ily Goyanes, and Sacchi Green will be on hand to answer   questions, offer advice, and exchange ideas with authors of GLBT   erotica. Whether you’re penning your first gay fiction, or are a   spicy-seasoned pro, don’t miss these opportunities.

Delilah Devlin is a prolific and award-winning author of erotica with a   rapidly expanding reputation for writing deliciously edgy stories with   complex characters. Ms. Devlin has published over 100 erotic stories in   multiple genres and lengths. She is published by Avon, Black Lace,   Kensington, Harlequin, Atria/Strebor, Cleis Press, Ellora’s Cave,   Samhain Publishing, and Berkley. If you want to know how to do the deed,   Delilah is the lady to talk to. This  is your chance to chat live with   her. Read about Delilah at www.delilahdevlin.com

Ily Goyanes is a journalist, food blogger, culture critic, publisher, and sex enthusiast. She has been writing and editing professionally since 1993. Her first lesbian erotica anthology, Girls Who Score: Hot Lesbian Erotica, is being released in August 2012 by Cleis Press. You can sample her salacious stories in Best Lesbian Erotica 2012, Lesbian Cops: Erotic Investigations, Spankalicious: Erotic Adventures in Spanking, and Power Plays. Follow Ily on Twitter @realily and check out her publishing house at ampersandeditions.com.

Sacchi Green‘s stories have appeared in a hip-high stack of publications with erotically inspirational covers, and she’s also edited eight erotica anthologies, including Girl Crazy, Lesbian Cowboys (winner of a 2010 Lambda Literary Award,) Lesbian Lust, Lesbian Cops, and Girl Fever.   Find her at sacchi-green.blogspot.com or on Facebook (as  Sacchi Green)

Out of 138 entries, the winner (by random number generator) of the Dragon Cup Contest is…ELF! ELF, be sure to email me with your mailing address so I can get your
prize into the mail. Congrats!

Disrupted Schedules and Kitty Alarms

This week is a killer. I’m trying to finish a book with my deadline looming, and I have so much other stuff to do. It’s frustrating. A lot of my time revolves around taking my ninety-year-old mother to her doctor appointments, to get her hair done, etc. I don’t mind; I love the time we spend together, and I’m thankful for it. Except it doesn’t allow me enough time to write.

Disrupted schedules are the bane of a writer’s existence. I love having big arcs of time so I can dig deep into my story and get into a rhythm, but then I have to stop and take my mom to the eye doctor or her dentist or maybe even keep my granddaughter for a couple of hours. The next day is what I call “hair day”, that lovely weekly appointment marked for my mother’s beauty salon appointment from now until eternity. Hair appointments are non-negotiable. At least I can take my laptop with me and write in the back of the shop while she’s getting beautiful. Then the next day…

You see how it goes. And then there’s the lack of sleep caused by my furry little friends. My sweet, innocent, unassuming little feline pals. The three wicked, crafty little minxes that wake me up an hour before my alarm goes off — usually by playing with the window blinds — because they either want to go outside or they need water or food. Seriously, who needs to eat at four a.m.? I do love those cats, I really do… but their kitty alarm clocks need to be reset and I haven’t figured out how to do that yet.

What about you? How do you cope with disrupted schedules? I carve minutes out of all the busy days, minutes in which I can at least jot down a few plot points or make character notes. I’m interested to find out what you do about time management… and if you, too, have an annoying little kitty alarm clock.

Somehow, amid the chaos, I do manage to find time write. My genre of choice is romantic suspense with hot cops and big guns. Please check out my latest ebook release from Desert Breeze Publishing, DELIVERANCE FROM EVIL, the fourth book in my Keller County Cops series. In this book, Tessa Doucet studied mortuary science because the dead can’t hurt her. Then a monster from her past turns up on her embalming table, and she’s forced to confront the demon she thought she’d put to rest. Disturbed by the case Tessa stirs up, Detective Cash Starkey finds himself falling for her, even though he swore to keep his distance. He doesn’t want a relationship, especially not with a woman running from her past. Yet when Tessa’s life is threatened, he runs into the fray, and together they defeat her demons and put the past behind them.

Buy link:  http://stores.desertbreezepublishing.com/-strse-301/Keller-County-Cops-Book/Detail.bok

Also… hope you’ll check out my new free author apps for the iPhone, the iPad, and most Android devices available now in the iTunes store and the Android market. Such an easy way for my readers to keep up with all my books, connect with my social networking sites, and get updates on new titles and where I’ll be signing. I’m really jazzed about this!

And please look for these upcoming titles from Desert Breeze later this year:

Emily’s Nightmare — August
Haunted Memories — October
KKC Book Five: Written in Blood — December

Website:  http://www.melanieatkins.com
Blog: http://melanieatkins.wordpress.com
Facebook:  http://www.face-book.com/melanie.atkins
Twitter:  http://twitter.com/melanie_atkins

Since I’ve filled my blog calendar with luscious guesties, I’ve barely had time to post my own news. And you know there’s always lots of that. Today, I’d like to talk about two anthologies that released early from Cleis. Two different flavors of erotica for my eclectic readers—you’re bound to find something to suit your tastes!

For those of you who think you don’t like anthologies, think of them as a chance to meet new authors or a collection of bedtime reads—just long enough to get you in the mood, but short enough you can actually have time to do something about it! Click on the covers if you’d like to head to Amazon to purchase.

From my story, “Ignition Switch”… 

I have a hyper-sensitive clit. Touch it with a callused finger or the scrape of a nail and I come out of my skin.

Men don’t get it. I can demonstrate how I like it touched, but most think arousal dulls the nerves, because the more aroused they get, the harder they rub and press—like my clit’s a damn ignition switch and all they have to do is push it more insistently to get me revved.

I explained my problem to my best friend Morgan one night over drinks. She studied me with her smoky grey eyes. “Do you mind my asking why the hell you go for dick?”

The question shocked me. The answer was on the tip of my tongue, but I held it there. Why indeed? It isn’t as though I truly craved a man.

Her lips curved—just the corners. “I bet if you showed me, I’d get it right.”

The suggestion tantalized. I raised my Bellini and took a quick sip, stalling before I replied. Morgan was attractive. I liked her full curves. I’d had the usual feminine curiosity about what she looked like nude, but never allowed myself to go there.

I swallowed, bubbles tickling the back of my throat, then forced a smile. “Are you teasing me?” I asked, surprised by the huskiness of my voice.

Her eyes narrowed, and she sat back in her chair. The glide of a toe up the inside of one calf made my breath catch. “Does it feel like I’m teasing?”

From my story “Tailgating at the Cedar Inn”…

I stepped out of the shower onto chipped and cracked aqua blue tiles with grout so dingy it was hard to tell what color it had been. Not that the bathroom was dirty, thank god. Just old. Like the rest of the 60’s-built motel I’d found on the little back country road.

I toweled my hair then shook my head like a dog, not caring where the droplets landed. It wasn’t a mess I’d have to clean up. For one last night I could be irresponsible, messy, even if it was only in a small way.

I draped the towel over the edge of the old white tub and sauntered naked into the small room with the double bed. It smelled of tobacco and industrial cleansers. The bedding looked clean if a little nappy from wear, but I peeled back the quilt-top and tossed it on the floor anyway. Pristine white sheets beckoned.

Just as I lay back, sighing with relief, sounds from outside the room jarred me from my happy haze. Tires squealed, masculine laughter bellowed through the thin walls, and car doors slammed. Read the rest of this entry »

Today’s the last day to enter the New Dragon Cup contest!
Click on the link for the entry rules! ~DD

Why A Ménage

First let me thank Delilah for hosting me on her blog today. I might get a little deep because it’s been that kind of a week.

Have you ever had a fantasy? Men and women are different. They have different kinds of fantasies. To be perfectly honest, women are different—they have different kinds of fantasies. So have you ever had a fantasy?  Do you fantasize that you’re famous? Or maybe that you’re the go to girl or go to guy for someone who is famous? Do you want to be a sports star? Do you have to have Josh Hamilton’s batting record? Do you have a fantasy to be a rock star or actor or let’s just get down to brass tacks, do you just fantasize that you’re rich?

Fantasies are important because fantasies are goals. They provide us with an innate sense of reaching for more than who we are or who we want to be.  Sometimes they are simply escapes. An escape from our ho-hum life and too many errands and schedules and bills and frankly, who doesn’t want to fantasize their way out of the long lines at the grocery store on a weekend when you’d rather be sleeping in?

So if “those” kinds of fantasies are healthy, what about sexual fantasies?  Aren’t they healthy, too?

Not if you’re a woman…

There seems to be a common misconception in our culture that women shouldn’t have sexual fantasies. I mean there are booty and booby magazines by the hundreds, half-naked women on cars for men to lust after so they will go and shop for that vehicle and more—because retail and Hollywood figured out a long time ago that sex sells. But that’s okay, because it sells to men.

Then along comes a little book call 50 Shades of Grey and suddenly “Mommy porn” is born and it’s astounding just how many readers gobbled it up. It became the numbers 1, 2, 3 best sellers (with its two sequels) in weeks. It blew the top of this frothing pit of sexual fantasy for women from college co-eds to soccer moms to silver-haired grandmas and I know for a fact at least one great-grandma in a wheelchair.

As a romance reader for more than three decades and an author, was I shocked by this? Of course not, what is a romance novel but a variant of a sexual fantasy? What is the BDSM sub-genre but a sexual fantasy? What about a ménage?

But you’re not supposed to talk about it…

It’s 2012 and we’re not supposed to talk about liking sex. Apparently according to some people, we’re not supposed to talk about sex at all. Some people believe that if you add enough sex to a story it will sell no matter how good that story is and some believe that if sex isn’t an extension of an organic relationship between the characters (whether it’s an MF, MFM, MMFM, MMF, or MFMMMMM – yes ladies, those books do exist) then it’s just porn written to sell.

Wanna know a secret?

It doesn’t matter.  It really doesn’t. I promise you that two years ago, I used to say “I can’t write sex scenes.”  It wasn’t a matter that I couldn’t write them, I was just embarrassed by it.  Yes, embarrassed.  Like so many women I felt that if I said I “liked” to write sex scenes or that I wanted to write them, it should only be said quietly to those people who knew me very well and who would, of course, keep it private.

Because we’re really not suppose to like sex or talk about it.

When I was little, my grandmother always edited the sex scenes when she read her Harlequins to me and that makes sense, because seriously – who is going to read sex to a kid? Exactly – really creepy people. But for years, she referred to it as “cleaning” or “taking a nap.”  Even when I was an adult, she wouldn’t say the word sex – but I guarantee you that the books she was reading had loads of it in there.

We’re embarrassed by this because we’ve been told that in our society it’s not okay to like sex. I mean, you can, but only if you keep it to yourself.

I think I’m tired of keeping it to myself. I like sex. I like to read good sex scenes and I like to write them. I recently released a book in February called Cassandra’s Dilemma that featured a polyamorous relationship. I wasn’t really sure how that would go for me, but the characters refused to be anything else and I believe in going where my characters take me. But when it came to promoting it, I kind of choked a little—why?

Because it had sex and a lot of it.

I didn’t really think about that until recently when I finished Jacob’s Trial in edits and had it queued up for its release date. It’s the second book in the series after Cassandra’s Dilemma and it has sex – lots of sex in it. And you know what. I am thrilled about this book and I don’t feel any of those twinges that I felt with Cassandra’s Dilemma. In part because I realized that even though I’ve never been particularly shy about the subject, I was still trying to look at myself through the lens of a conservative culture that frowns and labels books with open sexuality “mommy porn.”

Why a ménage?

I started off calling this blog why a ménage and I’m going to answer this right now. Because it’s a great sexual fantasy to imagine two, alpha males who care about you so much that they put aside some of that innate, biological competitiveness to be with you emotionally, mentally and yes, sexually.  The physical intimacy in a ménage is just the tip of the iceberg, but it’s a healthy fantasy and I loved writing Jacob, Cassie, and Helcyon’s journey to finding each other and finding a balance in that relationship.

Are sexual fantasies worth it? Absolutely. Because a sexual fantasy is all about you and that’s why we like to read books that explore the fantasies we might have and why many authors like to write them. Your fantasy is healthy, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

I like sex. I hope you do, too.  Because sex feels good and sexual fantasies should, too. Without our fantasies, life would be pretty dull.

I’d love for you to leave a comment on anything you feel like saying on the subject. I’m not going to ask you if you have sexual fantasies or what they are, but I will give away one copy of Jacob’s Trial to one lucky commentator and I’ll announce that here in the comments on Thursday, June 7!