If you post a comment today, you’ll be in the running
for a free download of this book!

Enjoy! I still haven’t quite figured out how Garon will fit with my modern knights, but I’m sure it will come as I write more. Or perhaps, I should have a parallel medieval story running neck and neck with the modern knights’ stories. What do you think?

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

“…Maddie is a unique heroine that readers will love and Garon is an alpha hero that will thrill the readers. First Knight is the perfect erotic paranormal romance to start fires in the bedroom. Ms. Devlin gives the readers what they want and so much more. I loved First Knight and it rocked my world.”
5 Angels, Fallen Angels Reviews

“…Delilah Devlin is a wonderful author and First Knight is a good example of her amazing skill with the written word…All the characters come to life with their vivid descriptions…This is a tale of deep, true love with a little something extra! I enjoyed First Knight and think you will too!”
5 Hearts, The Romance Studio

“…It is both well written and entertaining, making it a complete joy for hard-core romance readers. I would highly recommend this to anyone who love their heroes edgy, and there heroines just as intense.”
Four Stones, Siren Book Reviews

While hiding her true identity, Maddie must seduce the mysterious Lord Garon to cement their marriage contract to ensure she won’t be returned into her lecherous stepfather’s care.

Fresh from Crusade in Palestine, Lord Garon has a secret he must hide, a hunger that must be fed, and a dark and uncertain future. Having shed himself of a fiancée he never met, he’s home to lick his wounds. The only thing he wants is a warm-blooded meal—but the new housekeeper is strangely insistent on giving him much more.

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

Maddie shivered at the creaks and groans the portcullis made as it slowly rose. The rain-laden wind carried the noises and filled the silences in between with a howling that sounded like the hounds from hell had arrived at the castle gate.

Shouts outside the curtain wall had alerted them only minutes before of Lord Garon d’Albermarle’s arrival. With only a bliaut over her sleeping shift, Maddie stood on the first step of the keep, holding a tray with a goblet of wine, ready to offer a proper greeting to her overlord.

“Are you sure this is the way you wish to go about this, M-Maddie?” Egbert asked, fidgeting at her side.

She swallowed against the sudden dryness in her mouth and nodded.

“It be on your head then,” he said, his always-mournful tone as dire as one of Father Ansel’s Sunday sermons. She sent thanks above that the cranky priest was away or her deception wouldn’t last past the introductions.

The clatter of dozens of hooves on the cobbled bridge beyond the gate filled the castle yard with thunder. From the encroaching darkness, the sounds were as ominous as the dark shapes looming on the gatehouse walls. The torches she’d ordered lit sputtered and flared, distorting and elongating shapes so the men riding through the entrance appeared as tall as giants.

Already tired and on edge because she hadn’t slept since a messenger had arrived, warning the castle of his lordship’s arrival days before, Maddie’s fevered imagination painted them darker and larger still.

“Be they devils?” Egbert asked, his narrow shoulders shaking. “No one travels on a night with nary a speck of light in the sky.”

“Hush!” The storm whipping at her clothing and the fatigue from months of worry over this very moment combined to make her hands shake and blackened an already foul mood.

The horsemen entered the bailey and a large figure separated from the contingent who approached the keep. As he drew closer, her fears weren’t eased one whit. The warrior sat atop a huge black destrier, forcing her to raise her gaze quite high to seek his face.
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Can’t you already guess what I’m talking about? Sexy professions! And none of those do it for me, personally.

Short and sweet.

What professions, beyond the obvious (cop, fireman, cowboy),
do you find sexy and why?

Remember, I’m not asking strictly to fill a blog today. You might see your sexiest profession in a book coming soon!

Reminder: Two Contests continue!
1) Give me ideas for the next chapter of Bad Moon Rising. See details here.
2) If you post a review for Breaking Leather on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or the MBaM sites, and send me the link, you’re entered! Prize: $25.00 Amazon or B&N gift certificate.

Reminder: Two Contests ongoing!
1) Give me ideas for the next chapter of Bad Moon Rising. Post an idea, you’re entered. See details here.
2) I’m looking for reviews for Breaking Leather. If you post one on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or the MBaM sites, and send me the link, you’re entered! Prize: $25.00 Amazon or B&N gift certificate.

This wasn’t a terribly productive week. I experienced burn-out after a month of NaNo and rushing toward the end of three deadlines.

* I finished the Berkley Viking book on Monday and shipped it.
* I finished reading through all the Girls Who Bite submissions, edited those I wanted, and arranged them in the order I thought they worked best, then shipped the manuscript to Cleis on Tuesday.
* The last deadline, I stalled on. I am almost to the end of chapter 5, but I’m so tired my mind’s been muzzy.

I took yesterday completely off. Watched a movie (Splice), took a sleeping pill and was out for nearly 9 hours. I’m still stalled, and this next week looks to be very, very hard for me sleep-wise, because I’ll be doing a lot of babysitting for my night-shift daughter. There are reasons people should have babies when nature intended—when they are young! Who has the energy for them otherwise?

Anyway, wish me luck. I have to finish TW this week because I committed to writing two short novellas this month. No rest for the wicked, it seems. 😉

Again, I need you to help me figure out what happens next in my ongoing free series, Cat Tails. You remember. My intrepid erotica writer DiDi Devereaux came to a sleepy little town in the Louisiana Bayou to check out the house her eccentric aunt left her. Along the way, she wrecked her car, met the town’s sexy sheriff and the bad boy, had a sexy threesome with them both while she was under the influence of the sheriff’s sexy “mark”—and now she’s settling into her new home and liking the sheriff more and more.

However, there’s a mystery in the town. One the sheriff’s determined to keep her from discovering. The full moon is rising, and along with it, “The Prowl” is about to begin.

So my first question is: What exactly happens during The Prowl?

I have a hazy idea of what happens in the next chapter, but need you to help me flesh it out. Remember, this is your story, so you have to tell me what happens next.

I think the elders will ambush Mason. He’s taken a vow to stay clear of the The Prowl to ensure the community’s continued safety, which means he should have stayed clear of lovely DiDi. But he’s already in too deep to back away now.

So next question: Why would Mason make a vow like that in the first place? Is there something in his past he feels he must atone for?

In the meantime, DiDi’s back at her aunt’s place, but she’s curious about the rest of the property. She hadn’t realized the dock existed that extends over the river where she and Mason last had sex. Now, she finds a little flat-bottomed boat and decides to head across the river/bayou to see what’s on the other side. I think this will be key to what The Prowl is all about.

So last question is: What does she find across the river?

This is a brainstorming process, so there’s no such thing as a stupid idea. And you can build on someone else’s suggestion. I’m not going to offer the prize to the person who gives me the idea I like best. I will simply draw a name at random among everyone who posts an idea.

What’s the prize? How about a $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com? When will I close this contest down? How about on Thursday? That will give you all plenty of time to think and play.

And as I’ve done every step along the way, I won’t be making the decision of which ideas work best. I will select three or four answers to each question then run a poll for you to choose. We’ve only just begun the fun!

I was roaming the Samhain site late last night, and guess what I saw on their coming soon page? I’ll be sure to share sneak peek of what lies between the covers soon! ~DD

Two men plus one woman equals three bodies on fire…

A Red Hot Winter story.

True Wyatt’s hands are going to be full enough keeping the herd alive through the dead of winter. The last thing he needs to hear is that his brother Lonny has rented out their isolated hunting cabin to a reclusive writer—especially a sassy, disaster-prone brunette. Who has time to babysit a city girl until spring?

With a deadline looming, erotica writer Honey Cahill is looking forward to six distraction-free weeks to finish her next book. However, between Lonny’s flirty sensuality and True’s hard-edged intensity, the Wyatt brothers set the stage of her imagination for a winter of wicked delights.

The fire that destroys the cabin, though, is as real as it gets. Forced to seek a bed under True and Lonny’s roof, the temptation to experiment—all in the name of research, of course—is overpowering. One night in their arms doesn’t feel like enough; it feels like more. Particularly with one cowboy who fires all her cylinders…

Warning: It’s a Devlin ménage—expect men with stamina and not an ounce of mercy to behave like sex gods, and the lucky woman to love every minute of it. A little domination goes a long, long way…

Why I Write Straight from my Shameless, Outrageous, Warped Imagination
by Ashlyn Chase

I just read an article about how comedy writers should not use too much humor and how they should temper it, i.e. curb the urge to let the heroine crawl out the bathroom window. Huh? What’s wrong with that? Hey, I’ve done it myself (and I’m not just talking fiction!).

Fine. Some people aren’t comfortable letting their slips show. Isn’t that what editors are for? To reel us in when necessary? I don’t care if my Freudian slips show and it seems to be okay with my editors. Even more okay with fans. I can hardly believe that I actually have fans or that my work generates great reviews and reader mail! Maybe others are warped too, I don’t know.

What I do know is this. 1) Our world can use a few good belly-laughs and a lot of love. 2) I enjoy writing when I’m having fun with it and the more fun I have the less I care what people think. And 3) Readers can tell when words come from a place of passion and truth. My passion is making people laugh.

And truth? You might think that’s an odd word to describe a fiction writer’s goal, especially one who writes Vampire and Shapeshifter comedies. Here’s the thing…a wonderful quote I read ages ago said it best. “You must be fearless to be a writer.” I wish I could remember the fearless female’s name, but I can’t. The idea being that each writer has some sort of truth to tell, regardless of the manner in which they tell it. It takes guts to tell your own truth with your own voice. If you try to write “safe” you run the risk of boring your audience, and boredom is death to an author.

We all have words to live by. Whether positive or negative, some of these words hit a chord and stick. I’ve found some wonderful mentors along the way who’ve imparted words of wisdom I’ll never forget. My number one wise woman was my mother. She often said to me, “Nothing ventured; Nothing gained.” Yup. She was right. Well, except when great things just fall into one’s lap with absolutely no effort, but how often does that happen? It even takes faith, foresight, and effort to buy a lottery ticket.

She also said people would be jealous of me all my life. Wow, that was a trip to lay on a teenager! But she was right about that too. And you can’t let jealousy stop you. Some people will be jealous of the time you spend writing. Tough noogies. Some will be jealous that you can do something they can’t. Yay you. Who knows…some people might even be jealous that you once had the guts to climb out a bathroom window to avoid a lounge lizard who thought he could charm your pants off. So what? Be fearless enough to write about it. Whatever your gift, embrace it. Be passionate about it. Write whatever you really love and take no prisoners!

For those of you following the Girls Who Bite project (and those of you waiting to hear about who gets accepted)—I wrapped up the book and shipped it to Cleis. I included one or two too many stories in the collection, but will let the editor there do that cut. And until I hear final approval of who remains in the lineup, I’m keeping mum.

I know I hate it when I’m waiting on an acceptance, but now I’m on the other side of the fence. And I get it. Needless to say, I had many, many wonderful stories I had to leave out. Some didn’t follow the guidelines (especially that Happy For Now or Happy Ever After thing), and some were a little too gruesome for a romantic-leaning collection. Some were wonderfully written but with a similar theme to another story I included.

As soon as I hear anything, I will start sending out acceptances and rejections.

In the meantime, I have one more book to wrap up this week. Almost there…