I started to take just a picture of my growing Disney/McDonalds collection of dragon action figures from the movie How to Train Your Dragon, but realized when I looked around my office that I’m becoming a little obsessed. Dragons are my new collectible.

I think I only lack one dragon—the one with the boy riding his dragon’s back… hint, hint!

My sister brought this one back to me from Guam. It’s carved in jade.

The little green one is another of the Disney dragons, but behind it is a dragon clutching a letter opener, part of my dragon desk set.

I didn’t know until just now that there’s a dragon pen sitting inside that dragon cup. See his golden snout sticking out? (Unusual pens are another thing I love to collect. I’ll show you them another day.)

Doesn’t everyone need a dragon stapler?

Don’t we all have something we collect that makes us almost giddy whenever we find another object to add? What do you enjoy collecting? If you send me one picture of whatever it is that you collect, I’d love to post it!

I’ll name Monday’s winner at the bottom of this post. In the meantime, welcome my an old friend of mine from Texas, Meg Benjamin! Here’s what she has to say about her latest release:

As I’ve said before, probably way too many times by now, I can’t listen to music while I write. Wish I could, but I can’t. That doesn’t mean I don’t like to listen to music while I’m doing other things, however. In fact, one of the things I really miss about Texas is the great music you hear all the time. Texas musicians just rock, and no matter where you live in the state, there’s always a road house around the bend somewhere. You know how there are some songs that just kind of wash over you, like audible warm water, and some songs that make you just want to, well, move? Texas musicians specialize in the latter.

Which brings me to my subject—James McMurtry’s song “Red Dress.” Now McMurtry is one of my all-time favorite Texas musicians, probably best known for his “Choctaw Bingo,” which is a real rave-up. But “Red Dress” is one of those songs that makes you want to do a little hip swinging. Every time I hear it, I end up swaying in my seat. It’s slow, sensuous, with a really heavy beat and oddly ominous lyrics (you get the feeling the singer is going to be ripping that red dress to shreds any minute). And it haunted my thoughts when I was writing Wedding Bell Blues. I wanted a scene where my heroine, a “good girl” named Janie Dupree, could cut loose and give some hints about the bad girl that lies beneath the surface. That gave me the idea for a scene where Janie and her friends danced to McMurtry’s “Red Dress” while the hero, Pete Toleffson, watched. I have to say, every time I worked on this scene, I started by playing “Red Dress” to get myself in the mood. Here’s an excerpt. If you want to judge how well the song fits the action, there’s always iTunes!

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A series of guitar chords, rhythmically hypnotic, came over the sound system. Docia jumped to her feet. “Come on, ladies, let’s do it,” she called, heading for the concrete slab. Allie trooped behind her, as Janie turned to beckon to Bethany.

“Oh, Christ,” Cal murmured. “Here we go.”

“Here goes what?”

Cal shook his head. “You’ll see.”

The song had something to do with a red dress. Pete managed to get his brain to register that much. The singer seemed to be upset because his girlfriend was wearing a red dress he didn’t recognize and he figured she was playing around.

The slow, sensuous rhythm of the guitar and bass filled the air and the four women moved their bodies more or less in unison, like some cowgirl chorus line.

Pete glanced at Wonder and saw him swallow hard as he watched Allie.

Then he looked back at the women again.

Janie Dupree moved in a graceful swaying motion, her eyes closed, as if she were dancing for herself alone. She raised her arms above her head and moved her body back and forth, the most elegant bump and grind he’d ever seen.
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I have a winner to name, but I’m thinking I will do that on Thursday AM, so if you want a second chance to win, go ahead and post a comment today to let me now you stopped by!

The reason I sound a little rushed is that I have two houseguests, Allie Standifer and Shayla Kersten. We stayed up late last night plotting world domination and trying to figure out if we wanted to hit Hot Springs for a spa day. I’ll let you know later whether we made it or just lazed around the pool.

I’ve known Allie for a number of years. That makes her sound old, which she isn’t, because she’s the baby of the Rose’s Colored Glasses Roses. We met when I lived in San Antonio. Now, I have known Shayla since before cell phones so we really are that old.

Sorry for the short post, but I have to make some coffee and pry my eyes open before the other two stumble out of bed. It would never do for them to think I’d rather stay in bed than have an adventure! I’ll try to remember to take pictures today. Until tomorrow, adios! ~DD

Be sure to post a comment today to be in the running
for a free signed copy of this book!

I hope someday to write more cowboy stories set around the Palo Duro Canyon. If you’ve never been, it’s the second largest canyon in the U.S., and you can’t miss an amazing good time—cowboys and one big natural phenomenon.

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

Tough and rough, tall and dark, these are men a woman never forgets. Experience pleasure like no other in the arms of a cowboy…

Mustang Man by Vonna Harper
Acclaimed horse trainer Miguel Perez is used to the unexpected from his work with wild mustangs. But nothing prepares him for the bolt of desire he feels when he meets Dawn Glass, as he’s eager to work his sexual healing on her in every possible way.

Long Hard Ride by Melissa MacNeal
Rodeo rider Michael White House is grateful when Diana Grant stops to pick him up in the middle of a rainstorm. But with one touch his gratitude quickly turns to lust and an uncontrollable desire to lay her down and ride her hard all night long. “Hot Blooded” – Rancher Adam Youngblood is always happy to help a damsel in distress. But before he’ll pull the sweetly curvaceous and fiercely independent Cass McIntyre to safety, he demands promises of unconditional sexual surrender.

Hot Blooded by Delilah Devlin
Rancher Adam Youngblood is always happy to help a damsel in distress. But before he’ll pull the sweetly curvaceous and fiercely independent Cass McIntyre to safety, he demands promises of unconditional sexual surrender…

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When the first small drops began to fall, Cass McIntyre welcomed the light shower the forecasters had predicted. Already halfway up the route she’d chosen, she’d worked up a nice sweat.

The rain quickly cooled her skin, which was caked in a thick, itchy layer of canyon dirt and chalk. The lazy breeze accompanying the rain fanned the burning cuts on her bare legs and arms, giving her a mental boost of energy.

After another fifteen feet into her ascent—chilled and achy now and getting a little impatient with the worsening conditions—she found a narrow ledge. She unhooked her biner from the rope, and decided to wait out the cloudburst, a rare occurrence in the Panhandle and extremely deadly because the rock face she climbed had become as slippery as mud.

She took small comfort in the phrase she’d heard over and over since she’d first moved to Canyon, Texas that ran like a mantra through her head. If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute.

Her mistake had been believing that piece of homespun advice.

Not that she was anything more than mildly annoyed at this point. The awe-inspiring view from her perch above the canyon floor placated her restless nature and soothed the deep ache in her chest that had choked her at the start of the climb.

Low-hanging clouds obscured the sunlight and provided an unexpected cooling to a hot spring day. Soft, gray mist filled the Palo Duro Canyon, softening the light and air, the moisture causing a burst of brilliant color to erupt from the fading wildflowers carpeting the rough terrain—bright orange from Mexican hat and Indian blanket, and a cheery yellow daisy-like flower whose name escaped her at the moment.

Determined to salvage some enjoyment from her adventure, she settled on the ledge, dangling her legs over the side, and ignored the water soaking through her thin tee and shorts.

Half an hour into the storm that had grown steadily more insistent, she kissed off making the summit and planned a quick rappel to the distant hollow below.

However, as she unwound her long rope from the straps of her backpack for a hasty descent, her narrow perch disintegrated. Rock made fragile by the water splintered into rough shards and gravel that tumbled down the sheer precipice.

Cass dropped the rope and jammed her hand into a crevice in the rock to anchor herself while she reached beside her for her pack. But she was too late.

More of the ledge crumbled. The backpack slid away, leaving her stranded with only the shorter rope she’d used between cams—not nearly long enough to attempt a descent.
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It’s 5 AM and I’m bleary-eyed at the moment. I brought the 5-year-old home for an overnight. She decided that sleep was a waste of good Nina-time so we’re curled up on the couch watching Shark Tale. Will Smith at this hour is damned annoying.

Not a stellar week. All right, so I did finish a rough draft of a short novella, but it was a really ugly first draft and that stopped me in my tracks. I put it aside and played with family for a couple of days. I’m hoping tomorrow morning I’ll be able to start afresh and finish the thing.

With my sister, Elle James, I taught a class for my Diamond State Romance Authors group on World Building. While I was talking, I got the itch to write another paranormal. Have to give it a little more thought. I think I want to go back to another medieval vampire book or maybe do a succubus. Blood-sucking or soul-sucking—either way it looks like I want to write about someome doing some sucking.

This next week, I have to wrap up that short novella. It’s half of a duet that Sasha White and I intend to publish on Kindle all by our little selves. Sasha just started her story, so she’ll probably be done days before I finish revising my horribly flawed little lump of coal into a glittering diamond.

Sis reminded me yesterday that we are on the hook to teach another Plotting Bootcamp online May 31 through June 26. I completely forgot about it. Now I have to get into the mindset, review our material, and start to talk about it so that folks know they can jump in and begin planning their summer project.

Since I will be on the road today heading to Little Rock for my RWA chapter meeting, I will leave you with a question…

What was the most interesting course you ever had in school?
On the other hand, what was the most boring?

I will be back later to see your answers. Enjoy your Saturday! ~DD

Some authors love the revision process, but I have to think they love it like people love exercise or spinach—they have to do it, so why not make the best of it? I’ll admit right up front, I HATE revisions.

I’m in the middle of that process right now with a short novella. I don’t often get to the end of a novella unsatisfied with what I’ve done, but this time I attempted to write something a little more hardcore erotica than my usual fare. Okay, so some of you will be asking how the hell can she do that? Do you remember the scene in Saddled?!

Well, this one is more hardcore (even if the sex is still my smutty brand of unrepentent porn) because it’s more heavily invested in BDSM. While I slammed away pages of what my main couple were doing, I failed to show their growth as people and their growing affection for each other. I may write some raunchy stuff, but I don’t ever forget that these characters have to feel real and most real people have emotions that complicate their individual journeys.

I’m trying to go about this methodically so that I don’t get overwhelmed or discouraged by the work needed to spank this puppy into shape.

1) I handed the story off to Beta Readers (test readers) who know how I flow. These readers knew I needed them to be very honest about whether they liked it or not, and the fact that I knew there was a problem. I asked for them to tell me if they could put their finger on what was missing because at that point I was too close to the work and couldn’t see it .

2) I took their comments, ruminated on them for a while, then passed the story to my crit partner for her thoughts. She came back with “a Dom wouldn’t do this” and “this was too much narrative” along with some very clever suggestions for rewrites.

3) I opened a fresh document, starting again with that pristine white page, and cut and pasted what I felt could stay in the that first scene, and then began to craft new words around that flawed bit of narrative, working at layering in more dialogue, more of the emotional reactions of the characters, and looking for the humor I’d sadly forgotten completely.

I have a very long way to go to make this one publishable, but I will take one chapter at a time through this process until I get to the end. Then I will send it once again to my Betas for a sanity check, and to my critique partner for her thoughts. Who said writing had to be a solitary effort. For me, it often works better if I have that frigging awesome village at my back.