A quick note! I’m blogging in two places today. Catch my blog about my Sunday meeting with the witch and the Odinist at After Midnight Fantasies!

If you were at the Barnes and Noble on Chenal in Little Rock last Saturday night, you probably wondered what all the commotion was about. I’ll just say, you can’t get four women who write smutty romance in the same space without all hell breaking loose. The pics look tame, but this was before we started trouble. Here are my booksigning playmates.

I shared a table with Shada Royce and Shayla Kersten because we all could sign copies of Sexy Little Numbers. Never, ever put me next to Shada again—the girl’s a bad, bad influence!

Here’s the lovely Anna J. Evans!

And the very sweet and demure Sandra Jones (bet she wondered what the heck she’d signed up for!).

We did have folks stop to buy books or chat. Here’s Katie and Chris from the Little Rock reading group I visited a few months back. Heather B stopped by too, but I forgot to snap a pic!

A couple of things had us cackling like hens. A man walked up to us and asked if we’d like to know what our work had done for him, then he pulls out his cell phone. I’m thinking, oh boy, he’s going to show us pictures of his man parts, and everyone’s eyes widened. When it was a pic of his baby, we all fell out.

Same guy came back after a little while and asked us how our husband’s liked what we did.

I popped up with, “Mine moved to Virginia.”
Shada said, “I’m divorcing mine.”
Shayla quipped, “Mine’s dead.”

Okay, guess you had to be there, but we laughed like hyenas.

I’m sending a big thank you to Lynda from the staff at B&N for setting this up. Yeah, that’s how I felt by the end of the night!

Quick NaNoWriMo update: No progress at all to report. But I had a great excuse!

(Don’t miss my pool story at the bottom!)

I’m at the midpoint of the annual NaNoWriMo challenge. The challenge is to hit 50,000 words by the end of the month. I’m on track at 25,880.

With that 25k words, I’ve finished a novella for Ellora’s Cave—Bad, Bad Girlfriend—which I love because I let me comedic muse loose for that story. One of the people who read one particular scene between the heroine and her girlfriend said it was like a Lucy and Ethel scene and kept her laughing. Since, the girls were getting themselves deep into trouble, that comparison fit!

I’ve also finished the first chapter of the free read that will be sent out with my next newsletter shortly. Thanks again to everyone who voted for the story elements they wanted to see. You made it a breeze to write!

I’ve also started on two new projects. I’m in the opening pages, and it’s hard to make huge progress when I’m still feeling my way through the characters and dreaming up the plot, but it will come.

One of my great excuses for not writing yesterday was a booksigning I went to in Little Rock. I’ll post pictures tomorrow and tell you all about it then. I had a wonderful time with my fellow DSRA authors.

The other great reason I didn’t make progress last night, and probably won’t today, is because I have contest entries to judge that have to go out the door! And tonight, I have critiques to wrap up for the Rose’s Colored Glasses critique loop. Okay, I’m a procrastinator, but there is a method to my madness. I didn’t want to pull away from the writing and waited until I had one day where I could devote my time to reading through everything. So today will be another loss.

And I have to fit it all around a trip I’m making to meet with a man who casts runes and a witch.

Non-writing related, but did I mention my venture into the pool? Recently, we had days and days of heavy rain which produced yellow algae in our pool, turning the water slime green. We’ve tried every chemical under the sun to clean it out. The other day, I had the pool brush out, scrubbing at the bottom to get the scum loose. I opened up the telescoping pole to reach the bottom of the deep end and the brush and six feet of pole dropped into the water.

Well, I couldn’t leave it there. But damn, the water’s cold! So I suited up in my wetsuit (picture sausage stuffed into a casing) and waddled out to the pool. I dove and dove, but could only dart down and up because it was so dang cold I was gasping. At last, I got my hands around that sucker and brought it up. I am sooooo glad the pool is a couple hundred yards off the road.

But I feel heroic. I love it when I rise to a physical challenge, even if it’s only swimming through green sludge in a cold-ass pool.

Remember that story you all had so much fun helping me plot?

You voted for:
Setting: Louisiana Bayou
Scenario: Innocent stranger enters a small, secretive town where shifters rule
Hero #1: Local sheriff in Louisiana parish who protects the secret of his pride’s existence
Hero #2: Bad boy shifter whose job it is to “distract” the human who enters their midst
Heroine: Reclusive author who inherits property from a distant relative and wrecks her car before getting to town

Well, chapter one is complete, and now my wonderful webmistress has a cover for the story sure to stir your imagination. Be watching your mail for the next couple of weeks for my newsletter, because that’s the only place you’ll be able to read it for a while! And read carefully, because you will get a chance to make a choice about what happens next!

If you aren’t a newsletter subscriber, here’s the link: Delilah’s Newsletter
Be sure to send the link along to your friends too!

For those of you in the Little Rock area tonight, I’ll be signing books at Barnes and Noble. Details are at the right!

Quick NaNoWriMo update: My fingers were on fire yesterday. I hit 24,301 words yesterday! AND I finished the draft of Bad, Bad Girlfriend, which my editor is reading now.

Did I mention that I also finished the first chapter of the story you all helped me plot? The story is called Bad Moon Rising and my webmistress is designing a cover for it now. My plan is to have a newsletter out to you in the next two weeks. I have to thank you again for choosing a writer as the heroine. I had a blast putting my own thoughts in her head. Sexy, spooky things are happenin’ in Bayou Noir.

Last note. Tonight is my monthly live chat at the Fallen Angels chat room. It starts at 9 PM ET. Everyone is welcome, readers and writers. And you know I always bring bribes!

Oh! I have to tell you about the dream I had last night. I was alone in the house and heard noises from downstairs, then footsteps coming up and treading down the hallway. I cracked my eyes open to take a peek—a killer held a steak knife and was leaning over me…

Well I woke up about 4 AM, heart racing, and went back to sleep with a solution. As soon as the dream started, I ran to the kitchen and hid all the knives before heading back upstairs. Then I heard noises of someone rumaging below, the footsteps coming up the steps and down the hall to me. When I opened my dream eyes to look at the killer, the bastard had a fork in his hand.

Quick NaNoWriMo update: I made zero progress yesterday. My trip to the hairdresser turned into an all day ordeal because Nick was triple-booked. Today, nothing but hoop!

Writers are pathetic little recluses who live wonderful adventures in their own minds. Occasionally, we surface to meet with other like-minded people or for trips to the roller-derby for inspiration for a new story. But for the most part, we are parked in front of the computer, toiling endlessly to create stories we hope someone wants to read. (Feel sorry for me yet?)

Once in a while we get a little pat of the back. A note from a reader dying for a certain character’s story to be told. Or a compliment from an editor out of the blue. This is the one I received from an editor a couple of days ago, and I’ve been walking on air ever since.

“A very artful invention, partly taking off on Beauty and the Beast—it’s beautifully written, has all the fairy tale elements, has very smutty sex, and both a clever twist ending and a deeper moral.”

I think this editor is a very good writer herself/himself for managing to put “very smutty sex” and “a deeper moral” into the same sentence! This was in response to a short story I submitted to Cleis Press for their Fairtale Lust anthology. The payday is only $50.00, but that compliment made all the toil worthwhile.

Simple, needy little creatures are we writers.

Here’s a snippet from the opening of my “artful invention” called The Obedient Wife…

Once there was a miller who had no sons to work his mill or assure him comfort in his old age. His wife had died long ago giving him only a puny baby girl, whose worth didn’t become apparent until she blossomed into a woman.

To keep safe his only treasure, the miller locked her away inside their cottage while he considered how best to reap the rewards of his good fortune…

Ha! You hardly thought I’d give you more. It’s a SHORT story.

For love, a man will do anything, even betray his beloved to save her…

From Seriously Reviewed: “…The story line was enough to make my tummy tug during the parts when it should have and make my anger boil in others. When an author can deliver that kind of a punch with their words you know you have a winner…If you are like me and go for a non-traditional romance with a kick, I proudly offer this one up for your taste buds to devour.”

From Fallen Angels Reviews: “…KNIGHT OF MY DREAMS adds another chapter to Darcy and Quentin’s story that will shock readers with its unique twists of faith. Ms. Devlin continues this series with ultimate passion and powerful suspense…”

The winner of the signed copy of TO SERVE AND PROTECT will be announced at the bottom of this posting!

Quick NaNoWriMo update: I hit 21692 words yesterday! Okay, not terrific, but progress!! AND I finished edits on chapter one of the new free book I’m writing that you guys helped me plan, BAD MOON RISING.

Well, Knight of My Dreams is finally here. I hope you enjoy it! The story doesn’t always make you comfortable it’s that intense. My editor told me the writing is almost lyrical, and there is a satisfying end for the couple in jeapordy throughout the book. So hang tight.

And did I mention the sex is off the charts? 😆

For love, a man will do anything, even betray his beloved to save her…

Vampire Quentin Albermarle’s wife Darcy lies in a coma after being savaged by a werewolf. Fearing she might never awaken, or worse, that she will return a maddened beast, Quentin returns to the Cayman Islands seeking help from the one woman who might be able to save her.

A century and a half ago, this powerful vampire and witch seduced Quentin with magic and turned him into a vampire to provide herself a mate, but he freed himself from her spell and fled her influence, knowing he’d left behind a powerful enemy. Returning now, seeking Kamaria’s help, he must resist her attempts to enslave him again. However, the price she demands may cause him to lose the woman he loves.

Reader Advisory: The battle to save a loved one is sometimes sexual. It can be hard, uncompromising and not for the faint of heart.

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

A sick and twisted passage here, but you know my MIKs always have a heavy dose of humor, action and a happy ever after…

Quentin slammed his forehead against the cool black-and-white tiles, hoping the pain and the scalding-hot water sliding over his skin would relax the hard-on the bitch had left him with. His balls felt impossibly full, his cock rigid to the point of agony.

Nothing seemed to dampen the painful arousal that had made the short walk from his bed to the shower stall seem unendurable.

Kamaria’s revenge was as devious and deviant as any he’d anticipated.
Read the rest of this entry »