Welcome my cyber-friend, Adele Dubois! For the winner of yesterday’s contest, you’ll have to scroll to the bottom of this message! Oh, and I shipped Beloved Captor (tentative title) to my editor yesterday! ~DD

Note from Adele:

The hero of DO ME GOOD is my first otherworldly protagonist, and I admit I’ve developed a crush on him. Gunnar is a fearless Nordic warrior cast into eternal servitude during a time when mortals answered to gods and goddesses. He becomes a celestial in the pre-Christian period before those who interacted with both gods and mortals were called angels. Gunnar is a Nordic Light Elf and so handsome he is “fairer to look upon than the sun.”

I hope you enjoy DO ME GOOD as much as I enjoyed creating this story. Here’s a sample of the book with a summary and excerpt. Thanks for reading.

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

Penny throws her hot, but worthless mooch of a boyfriend out on her front lawn with his clothes, and vows never again to be a bum magnet. Exhausted by overwork and mountainous debt, Penny pleads for divine intervention.

Gunnar, a rebellious Nordic warrior cast into servitude by an angry god to learn humility, answers. While Penny sleeps, the celestial arrives to complete her chores, but she awakens and finds him. The handsome immortal kisses her, sparking a passionate, forbidden sexual encounter.

Dark forces seeking vengeance for Gunnar’s past misdeeds mark Penny as a target. To protect his lover, Gunnar tests immortality in a death battle using a god’s magical sword. But the strength of Penny’s love and lusty connection might be what saves them both.

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

He smoothed the hair at her temple and then rubbed a thick tendril between his thumb and forefinger. “I am Gunnar.” He pronounced the name “Goo-nar”.

A coarse brand of the sun, surrounded by a circle on the back of his hand, and covering the areas between his thumb, index knuckle and wrist caught her eye. His hand looked muscular and powerful beneath her gaze.

She touched the scarred skin with the tips of her fingers while he held a length of her hair, recognizing Freyr’s sacred insignia from her textbooks. “The pain must have been excruciating.” Without thinking, she lifted the old wound to her mouth and laid four kisses against its perimeter before pressing a fifth to the emblem inside.

A low tremor vibrated across her lips as they touched the ancient symbol on the white, extended hand. The brand grew warm and then hot on her mouth, though it did not burn. Her lips tingled and her body hummed with the pleasant sensations. She ran her tongue over the thick scars to erase the heat and then licked the center with the tip of her tongue in a tiny swirl before lifting her head.
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for a free signed copy of this book!

If you’ve been following me for long, you know my cowboys have a special place in my heart. Down in Texas was a labor of love from start to finish. Much of the description came from my own personal observations from my life in Texas. Enjoy! And good luck!

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Recommended Read from Joyfully Reviewed: “…HOT! HOT! HOT!…All I wanted was more, so I read DOWN IN TEXAS again, enjoying it for a second time…DOWN IN TEXAS is now a book in my permanent re-read pile…”

5 Blue Ribbons from Romance Junkies: “Delilah Devlin’s DOWN IN TEXAS is a fabulous anthology that kept my attention throughout each and every story…The stories are all special in their own right but together they’re truly spectacular…Ms. Devlin has proved herself a capable storyteller before but with DOWN IN TEXAS she’s cemented a place on my ‘most watched authors’ list.”

5 Angels and Recommended Read from Fallen Angels Reviews: “…one of the most decadent reads of the year for me…Delilah never fails to deliver on any front, and this is just another testament to an extraordinary writer. As always, I look forward to more of her extraordinary novels…”

4 Stars fom RT BOOKreviews: “Devlin delivers in this anthology of love in the Lone Star State… This is a good, hot and sexy read.”

From erotica superstar Delilah Devlin comes a sizzling hot story about a little town in Texas called Honkytonk, where the women get exactly what they want…and the men know just how to give it to them.

Wearing His Brand
Lyssa McDonough just got tangled up in a coil of barbed wire, and her clothes are ripped to shreds. Rancher Brandon Tynan to the rescue—but why is she so ornery? Could it be that the whole state of Texas isn’t big enough for the two of them? Hell, they’ll still have to share one horse to get home, Lyssa better hang on tight—she’s in for the wildest ride of her life…

Slow Ride
Maggie Dermott doesn’t know the first thing about horses and Daniel Tynan is more than willing to show her the ropes. His gentle ways melt her heart and his sensual passion burns away her inhibitions. Daniel takes the time to love her right.

Straight Up Soldier
Suki Reece needs protection and she can see that Mac McDonough has the muscle. Too bad he can’t stand taking orders from a woman. The rugged ex-Marine won’t listen to a word she says until Suki distracts him with a sexy striptease. That gets his attention. Suki may have gotten the upper hand but Mac is going to be on top…

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

Her daddy had always told her a man’s worth wasn’t measured by the size of his bank account or the square footage of his house. Rather, it could be seen in the proud set of his shoulders or a gaze that didn’t waiver.

Her mama had said a man’s strength was in his hands—strong and soothing when an animal or a child needed comfort—hot and wild when a woman needed shaking up.

Looking at Brand now, Lyssa McDonough knew exactly what they’d both meant.

If she had any sense at all she’d turn tail and run. Everything about the man screamed heartbreaker.

Only she couldn’t. Instead, she settled her shoulder against the fence post, kept her breaths shallow and even, and pretended she wasn’t melting inside.
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While I continue to plow through the last revisions of my book, I’ll pose a question to you. I’ll be back with a contest tomorrow!

What type of service to others or good deed done for other people do you personally find the most rewarding? (It can be big or small)

Well, as I mentioned, the major accomplishment was finishing Beloved Captor (tentative title). I still have a friend reading through the book to make sure it holds together. I hope she likes it. Deadline for turn-in is Friday.

I’m doing one last read through and trying to do it slowly. Read a chapter, walk away. So that I keep sharp to errors and really look for better ways to phrase things.

This week the goals are to complete the revisions AND complete the Lone Star Lovers story. It’s a short novella. I shouldn’t have too many problems with it.

Book I bought this week?
Screw the Roses, Send Me the Thorns: The Romance and Sexual Sorcery of Sadomasochism by Philiip Miller

Music I bought this week? (Not all headbangy stuff this week. Was in a blue mood, I guess, which was why I didn’t accomplish all that much.)
Lie by David Cook
Click Click Boom by Saliva (more my usual thing)
Bombshell by Powerman 5000
Maybe by Ingrid Michaelson
Single Ladies by Beyonce (my only Beyonce title on my iPod—the 5-year-old likes to do the dance, so it makes me smile)
Milkshake by Kelis (yeah, I know)
Apologize by One Republic
Beautiful Disaster by Jon McLaughlin
Telelphone by Lady GaGa and Beyonce
Paparazzi by Lady GaGa (5-year-old’s influence again)

Just got home a little while ago. Stayed at daughter’s because we got back from the concert so late. Woke up at 6:00 with the 5-year-old poking me to ask, “Hey, Nina, you awake?” Have some catchup to do (my desk is a mess) and a book to finish revising, but I have some pics—not very good ones, as you can see from this. But I’ll share more later!

In the meantime, here’s one of my favorite scenes from a book I’ve written. It’s from The Pleasure Bot, which released in June 2004. Romantic Time Magazine gave it a TOP PICK and said this about the story: “…Hot sex, sidesplitting humor and an out-of-this-world story set this erotica apart from the rest!”

This scene happens after Priss rented a pleasure bot for a weekend of hot sex, but fell in love with it. Now’s she’s desperate to save him from being turned in and having his memory wiped clean of their relationship. This scene picks up with Declan, who pretended to be her bot because he’s a pirate on the run from authorities. He’s rejoined his band of pirates and is heading back to his ship. Agnes is Priss’s AI computer, who’s meddling to make sure Priss gets what she needs…

“You haven’t said a word, since we picked you up.” Reiver executed a left turn onto the main thoroughfare; the next exit would take them to the docks.

“I’m just tired,” Declan said, staring out the window watching the dusty brown landscape rush past. He’d never noticed how dingy the air was in South Texas. Not a healthy place for Priss to raise a family.

“Not curious how we found the cargo Customs lifted from our hold?” Reiver asked.

“Sure.” Declan decided to try to get back into the swing of things and not look back. He could make himself crazy with regrets. He sighed and turned to his First Mate.

Reiver hadn’t been changed a jot by his adventure. The bloody sod was smiling!

“It’s quite a story. Your friend Agnes told us where the warehouse was—just so happens it belongs to McEwen.”

Declan grunted. He didn’t give a damn about that bastard McEwen or any stinking cargo. He’d just left his heart behind him in La Barria Prima with a certain little redhead who thought she was a lioness. Oh, she roared like one, even purred sometimes, but underneath she was soft and vulnerable as a kitten.

“—and little green Arkanthans were guarding the crates.”

“Huh?” Declan only caught the last of what Reiver said. Then he heard the men seated behind them snickering. He leveled a glare over his shoulder. “Unless you want to swab the upper deck, you’d better shut your yaps.” He rounded on Reiver, “What’s this you said about Arkanthans?”

Reiver didn’t reply. His gaze was on the rearview mirror. By the worried look in his eyes, Declan could tell he didn’t like what he saw.

He glanced over his shoulder, down the center aisle of their stolen hovervan. “We’ve got a tail. Lose it!” Declan said, feeling the welcome rush of adrenaline pump through his veins. If they wanted a fight…

“Captain, do Customs agents drive pink hovercars?” Nate asked.

“I think it’s more of a mauve,” Danny said.

Declan turned back again, just in time to see the car pass them at a high rate of speed—just long enough to catch a glimpse of a small white face above the steering wheel and a cap of red curls. “That little idiot! Is she trying to get herself killed?”

Priscilla pulled her car into the lane in front of them and her rear lights flashed red.

“Hit the brakes,” he bellowed.

The cars had barely skidded to a halt when he flung the door upward.

“I take it you know this person?” Reiver asked, laughter in his voice.

Declan stuck his head back inside. “Not one bloody word out of you.” When smothered laughter rang in the back of the van, he cast them a glare that should have singed.

As he stomped to Priscilla’s car, he heard Reiver say, “Guess we know what has him so grumpy.”

Declan reached the car, just as she lifted her door. “Oh, thank God, I found you in time!” She hurled herself into his arms and Declan took a step back to absorb the impact. “I thought I might be too late.” She hugged him hard around the middle, but never stopped her nervous babble. “First, I couldn’t find the right suitcase, then I didn’t know what to pack.” She pushed herself away from his chest, and her hands cupped his face. “I thought I might never see you again.”

For a moment, Declan’s heart was fiercely glad to see her. But then he realized what she’d just said. He pushed her away. “You’re not coming with me,” he shouted.

“No, I’m not.” She smiled, not caring his frown would make most men run for cover. “You’re coming with me. We’re escaping. Agnes has it all arranged. I even have a ship. She’s not the latest model of cruiser or very elegant, but she’s sturdy. You’ll love her!”

“You bought a ship?”

“No, silly! We’re stealing one.”

“We’re stealing a ship?” he parroted, dumbfounded by her audacity.

She looked beyond his shoulder, and her eyes widened. “Oh my God! There’s a whole vanload of Pleasure Bots!”

Read another excerpt…

If you took the “Write 50 Books a Year” workshop, which I teach for free every August, this will be really familiar! I do something like this at the start of every workshop for a very good reason! Putting your dreams down on paper sets an internal switch in your brain called the RAS (Reticular Activating System—the part of the brain that controls awareness/arousal). The way this works is you write down your goals, and then you read them aloud. You don’t even have to believe they’re going to happen, but your brain hears the words and resets its expectations. Magic happens.

You’ve probably heard that children will live down to their parent’s lowest expectations—that’s based on what they’ve heard their parents say about them. Sad to say, if they’d heard encouragement, their brain would have been “trained” to achieve greater things.

Define Your Goals

1) The Big Bang

This is the time to dream big. Imagine what you want to have accomplished after five years of dedicated effort. Write your back cover biography!

Here’s mine:

Delilah Devlin, author of oodles of erotic romances featuring hot gratuitous sex, spends her winters in southern France with her Argentinean polo player, and spends her summers in Alaska with her not-so-Gentle-Ben backwoodsman. A regular on the New York Times Bestseller List and the Howard Stern show, she is writing an adaptation of her My Immortal Knights series for a new Playgirl channel series with celebrated screenwriter Elle James.

Okay, so I had a bit of fun with mine. Got yours done? Now print it and tape it to the wall above your computer. Read it aloud to yourself. Try to make this your daily mantra as you sit down to write. Don’t underestimate the power of “setting” your brain’s internal switch to achieve your big dream.

2) Imagine what you have to accomplish to reach that Big Bang goal—then pare it down to your wish list of what you want to accomplish over the next year. For me, it’s writing the best books I can, having a terrific time doing it (because positive energy generates positive results!!), and doing a lot of it. But when I list incremental goals, it looks something like this:

#1 Write 2 single title books this year
#2 Prepare 4 new proposals this year
#3 Write 3 category/novella length novels for Ellora’s Cave
#4 Write 3 category/novella length novels for Samhain
#5 Write 4 short stories for Cleis collections

Don’t freak when you see this list. I always start with stars in my eyes and have to ratchet down my expectations once reality (and the real planning) begins. But this is what I wish I could accomplish over the next year.

So, it’s your turn to write your bio and your To Do list!

Oh yeah—I now have the little black dragon with the long tail. So it’s two dragons down! ~DD

I wrapped up the last pages of Beloved Captor yesterday. 390 pages and a hair shy of 85,000 words. I have friends reading through it right now to see if they can pick out any problems I refused to see. Most of the way through it, I enjoyed the story, but toward the end I began to think it sucked. The end is where I always have serious self doubt. Did I keep true to the characters? Was there enough plot? Too much plot? Was the sex hot or icky? I let my mom read the book and her wrinkled nose through the middle of the book knocked my confidence. She’s not a big fan of erotica. She did like the big battle at the end. My friends love erotica so hopefully they will embrace my racy Vikings.

So what’s next? When I wrapped up the book yesterday, I started doing some Internet surfing, looking for a word, which led to a little known historical tidbit, which grew into a concept for a modern paranormal tale. Guess I’ll begin SOW next week. Just have to wrap up my little western first and get it out the door. Need uncomplicated cowboys after all that thinking about cold, cold planets and monsters in the sea.

I know I’ve been neglectful. But I’m back. I won’t start the next big book until May, so while I’m puttering I’ll be online. And very, very soon the pool will warm up enough that I can stand it and maybe I can shed the pounds I gained when I quit smoking.

Sigh. Life is good. Tomorrow, I’m taking the red-headed-hellion and her hubby to a concert—Lady Antebellum and Tim McGraw. I’m not a Country fan, but they are, so I thought it would be nice to do something with them. Then I have to figure out where they are showng How to Train Your Dragon so I can arrange to treat the 5-year-old. Any excuse to drown in dragons again. I’m even making excuses to hit McDonalds now and then to collect those Kids’ Meal toys. I have the little green dragon, sitting on his haunches, but I want them all! If any of you have one and want to save me the inches on my hips, I’ll pay the postage…

🙄