Bestselling Author Delilah Devlin
HomeMeet Delilah
BookshelfBlogExtrasEditorial ServicesContactDelilah's Collections

Archive for 'contemporary romance'



Opal Carew: Ten Tips for Talking Dirty
Sunday, September 17th, 2017

Hi! Have you ever thought of using dirty talk to spice things up in the bedroom? But maybe you’re not quite sure how to do it.

I used to think dirty talk meant using dirty words, but it’s more subtle than that.

When I started writing erotic romance, I found I liked to have my heroine pushed beyond her comfort level, to say things she wasn’t used to saying.  Often this was because the hero pushed her to express what she wanted in bed. To focus on what gave her pleasure… and not be too embarrassed to ask for what she wanted.

When I wrote my series, Dirty Talk, I delved into this a lot more. With this series, I wrote four erotic audios where a man with a sexy voice is talking to a woman with the express purpose of arousing her. The concept was that the heroine, Sonny, found one of these audios on an erotica site (think Literotica).

I actually hired a narrator to make the audios. They’re each 10-15 minutes long and they are HOT!!! (I include a link to a sample of one of the audios further down the post.)

After creating these audios, I did some thinking about how I worked dirty talk into stories and I came up with these tips. For each, I’ve included some examples that my characters have said in my writing.

1) Use words that push you or your lover’s comfort level.

Examples:

“Please touch me,” she said.

“Where do you want me to touch you?”
“I want you to touch my…” Her cheeks flushed. “Uh… pussy.”

2) Tell your lover what you want to do to him/her, and vice versa.

Examples:
“I’m going to drive my hard cock so deep into you, you’ll scream my name.”

“I want to see your cock. To touch it.”

3) Tell your lover what you want him/her to do to you, and vice versa.

Examples:

“Please fuck me.” “Please drive your hard cock into me.”

“I want to feel your mouth on my cock. To feel it slide between your lips. Then I want you to suck it.”

4) Tell your lover what effect the things you’re doing together are having on you, using language that evokes arousing images and sensations.

Examples:

“Watching you stroke your hard nipples is so fucking hot. My cock is rock hard and aching. ”

“Oh, I’m so wet.”

5) Say things that raise the urgency level.

Examples:

“I need to slide into your velvety warmth before I burst.”

“Fuck me harder. Ohhh, I’m so close.”

6) Tell the kind of things (such as fantasies) that arouse you.

Examples:

“Just the thought of watching my friend drive his cock into you is making my cock fucking hard.”

“I’ve been a bad girl.” She grinned. “You need to punish me.”

7) Try having one of you take control verbally. (This is the D/s type of scenario.)

Examples:
“Don’t come until I tell you.”

“Do exactly as I say.”

8 ) Say things as part of, or to incite, a type of fantasy role-playing that turns you on.

Example:

“Oh, Daddy, that feels so good.”

“This isn’t part of the school uniform.”

He pulled open her blouse to reveal her bra. He ran his thumb over one swollen nub and a shocking jolt of sensation stabbed through her, straight to her core.

“You like it when I touch you there?”

“Oh, yes, I do, sir.”

He frowned. “You are a very dirty girl.”

9) Playful teasing. For example, to build anticipation, to make your lover feel desirable and attractive, or just to make it more fun!

Examples:

“Oh, your cock is sooo big and hard.”

“You want me to drive my cock into you right now, don’t you?”

“Oh, yes. Please, Sir.” She almost cried out when he pulled away.

A slow smile crept along his fave. “Maybe later.”

10) Make sexy sounds. Moans. Soft sighs. Whimpers.

Just do what comes natural with this one! 😉

Want to learn more about talking dirty? Then read my Dirty Talk series and listen to those hot audios!

You can go to my website and download an X-rated sample of one of the audios.

http://opalcarew.com/DirtyTalk1X.mp4

Now you can get the entire Dirty Talk series, including the four erotic audios by buying two ebook bundles.

Sonny has a debilitating fear of men. Tal is a scary looking tattooed bad-ass. Can Tal get Sonny past her fear and help her become whole?

Sonny is haunted by a past trauma that leaves her terrified of being with a man.  A stranger’s voice has been her salvation. She regularly listens to the sensual audio she found on-line, submitting to the man’s voice and allowing him to take her to ecstasy again and again. His sexy yet deeply caring tone makes her experience what it would be like to be truly desired by a man. She’s come to trust that voice.

Despite his scary appearance, Sonny feels an overwhelming attraction to her new next-door neighbor. When she is finally introduced to Tal, and hears his voice, she is shocked to find he is the man from the audio.  She avoids him, unable to face the stranger who unknowingly brings her to ecstasy.

When Tal meets Sonny, he senses in her a kindred spirit. The haunting pain in her eyes draws him, but he flinches every time fear flickers across her face when she sees him. When he finally confronts her, asking why she’s avoiding him, she tells him she heard the audio he’d published on the erotica site and, to his total shock, she tells him that audio saved her life. Then she tells him about her past, tearing his heart in two.

It becomes clear that she is as deeply attracted to him as he is to her. Can he find a way to help her get past her pain and be with a man?

Don’t forget, when you buy the ebook versions, you also get the four erotic audios!

Reviews:

5 stars! Hot does not even come close to this read!!!
“…This read has an added bonus!!! At the end is the most tantalizing audio of the hottest part of the book. It melted my panties and made me hungry for more!!”

5 stars! Short, so sweet, and hot hot HOT!!

I am in love with Tal and Sonny! This series just keeps getting better and better with each book – and more and more intense! And I don’t know how, but the special bonus audios just keep getting HOTTER!

5 stars! Spectacular!!!

Truly spectacular and let’s not talk about the recording, I can’t even say what it did to me. Thanks, Opal.

Buy Links (go to all major vendors):

Dirty Talk, Books 1 & 2:
books2read.com/u/bpWOD

Dirty Talk, Books 3 & 4:
books2read.com/u/bwWvde

About Opal:

Opal is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of erotic contemporary romance. Her books have won several awards, including the National Readers’ Choice Award (multiple times), the Golden Leaf Award (multiple times), the Golden Quill (multiple times), CRA Award of Excellence, and Silken Sands.

Opal writes about passion, love, and taking risks.  Her heroines follow their hearts and push past the fear that stops them from realizing their dreams… to the excitement and love of happily-ever-after.

Website: OpalCarew.com
New Releases: OpalCarew.com/ReaderGroup
Facebook: OpalCarewRomanceAuthor
Twitter: @opalcarew
Instagram: opal.carew
Pinterest: opalcarew
Amazon author page: bit.ly/OpalCarewAmz
Blog: bit.ly/OpalsBlog
Goodreads:  bit.ly/OC_Goodreads

Elaine Reed: Ear Worms
Monday, September 11th, 2017

There is something about the piano in The Clash’s “Rock the Casbah” that catches my ear. Likewise, the trumpet in Miles Davis’ “Kind of Blue” gets my attention every time. (Yes, Davis is a legendary trumpeter, but from all of his music, from all of jazz, that particular performance resonates for me.) I can’t explain what it is about these pieces of music that takes up space in my brain, but I am glad they do.

Music has been a tremendous part of my life for as long as I can remember. I have a personal soundtrack: songs that remind me of seminal moments, important people and my own growth.  It inspires me and motivates me. A simple song selection can help me move through deep emotions, or get through twenty minutes on the treadmill. The right beat can speed up my productivity or help me fall asleep.

As a reader, I love books that have a playlist. The songs give me a deeper connection to the characters. The music makes their struggles and victories hold that much more resonance. That may be why I chose to write about musicians in my first novel. In fact, creating the playlist was as much fun as writing their story and when I stumble upon those songs on the radio or TV, I get a moment to visit with some of my favorite people. It’s one of the many gifts of music.

Excerpt from The Girl U Want

“You’re making D.J.s famous?” Brad asked.

“You wanna be famous?” Sue tilted her head, holding his gaze. “I’ll make you famous.”

She caught him off guard. It took Brad a few seconds to put together a reply. “Man! There was some heat in that!” He took a swig of beer. “I’m already famous.”

“You’re not famous. You’re the most popular barfly in Detroit. You have a decent following in Michigan, but get away from the Great Lakes and you’re just another guy with a guitar.”

“This woman is mean, Tom.”

“Sue is painfully honest,” Tom clarified.

“And she knows her shit,” Axel added. “She researched tonight’s bands weeks ago. She knew exactly how to promote you before your names were even on the marquee. It’s too bad this isn’t Baltimore or Philly. Sue’s twenty-five and she’s already sent three D.J.s to top tier markets. She could run radio if she wanted to.”

“You just want to be famous. I—” She pointed at herself with both hands “—can make you the disdain of parents the world over.”

He didn’t even try to stop the grin. Instead, Brad pushed Axel out of the way so he could put an arm around Sue. “Come work with us. I don’t want to be famous. I want to be super famous. I want to be the enemy of every father, and more than a few husbands. Tell me how you’ll do it.”

About Elaine Reed

In between organizing her music collection and searching for the ultimate chocolate and tequila pairing, Elaine writes about people with big ambitions and bigger senses of humor.  She lives in South Carolina.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/elainereedwrites/
Twitter:  https://twitter.com/_elainewrites
Instagram:  https://www.instagram.com/writeelaine/
Newsletter: http://www.elaine-writes.com/newsletter/

Roxanne D. Howard: The Power of Dreams in Writing
Monday, September 4th, 2017

Hello, I’m Roxanne D. Howard, and I write erotic contemporary and paranormal romance novels. Today I’d like to discuss the power of dreams in our writing.

I know several authors who keep a dream journal in their nightstand, and jot down the dreams they remember upon waking. Paul McCartney once said in an interview that he dreamt the song, Yesterday. He composed the melody in a dream, and upon waking, he played it on the piano. He had to shop it around to friends and family because he believed it was a song from his past or childhood, but as it turned out, it was completely inspirational.

Dreams have the power to inspire us and lay the cornerstones of what can be come worlds in which our characters live. Since humankind has existed, we’ve studied dreams and tried to make sense of them. Sigmund Freud believed that nothing we do occurs by chance, and that every action and thought is motivated by our unconscious. He believed that our urges and desires that don’t fit into societal norms are repressed into our dreams, and that’s how they are released.

So how do we write our dreams? There are times when we wake up that we hardly remember what we dreamt about, which is why it’s important to keep a writing journal, or a memo app on our phones handy. The littlest line or recollected visual description can make the biggest difference.

Let’s talk about writing space. In his memoir On Writing, Stephen King likened writing to a wakeful, dreamlike state. “Your writing room should be private, a place where you go to dream… the space can be humble, and it really needs only one thing: A door you are willing to shut.” As a mom to two rambunctious girls, I can testify that this is nigh to impossible at times when you’re running the kids from school to ballet class, unless you have a lot of time on your hands. What I’ve learned to do is create my own four walls and pseudo room when I open my laptop.

While ideally you can be more creative in a quiet, isolated environment, it is possible to write while the kids are going to town on the playground at McDonald’s or having fun in the bouncy houses at the fun center. If you can create those mental four walls when you have a moment to spare, you can transpose your dreams into a story.

While I’d love to be able to say I had an erotic dream like the ones Lark has in At the Heart of the Stone which inspired the story, Lark just walked as a fully formed character into my mind with a story to tell, and I went from there. However, a lot of lines I get for my novels do come from my dreams, and I’ve learned not to ignore them as they come along.

What interesting dreams have you had which have inspired you?

At the Heart of the Stone

Dreams are the perfect shelter for our fantasies, safe havens to step inside without changing our daily lives. For Lark Braithwaite, all that is about to change. During the last six months, Lark has dreamt of a mysterious Irish lover who knows what she wants and gives her exactly what she needs. In her waking life in busy London, things aren’t as ideal, as her long-term relationship with Charles, her controlling fiancé, has hit a dry spell.

When Lark is called home to Oregon for her father’s funeral right in the middle of a high-stakes corporate merger, she heads back to face the demons from her past. What she doesn’t expect is to meet her dream lover in the flesh. Niall O’Hagan steps straight out of her fantasies and right into her life, and the powerful connection they share rocks her foundation. Although she’s dealing with the bitterness of being betrayed by Charles and his jealousy, Niall soon stirs Lark’s awareness of the superficiality of her existence and reawakens not only her sexuality, but her soul.

At the Heart of the Stone Buy Links:

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Google Play| iTunes | Kobo | Loose Id

Excerpt:

How did he get here? He was only her dream lover.

Or was he?

Confused beyond all comprehension, Lark didn’t have any time to contemplate what was really going on. His lips delivered a breath-stealing, soul-shattering kiss, and then they were all over each other. This, ah, this she knew. Lark hooked her ankle over his and put a hand on his shoulder, trying to rid him of his jacket and draw him closer. She clenched her hand in his hair as he devoured her mouth. He tasted the same as her dream lover, and she put her tongue in his mouth to savor more of that tangy sweetness.

They were both making noises they never had in her dreams, little breathy gasps and blasts of air as their mouths met and separated as they sought new angles and depths to their passion.

He made a disgruntled sound as he tried to get more comfortable in the cradle of her hips over the hindrance of clothes, and she realized she really wasn’t dreaming anymore. He nibbled on her lower lip as she opened her mouth to tell him to stop, but then she was carried away in the undercurrent of his large, warm hands, which were caressing the skin of her stomach beneath her hoodie and T-shirt. She continued to accept his kisses but pawed down her still zipped-up sweat jacket. Okay, so she was still clothed. He was rock hard against her, and he ground his hips into her, a disbelieving grunt escaping his lips. Lark rolled her eyes back, shivering at the jolt that went through her.

“Wh— Mmm. Whoa. Stop!” She finally managed to say against his mouth. She furrowed her eyebrows and scrutinized him as he breathed in and out, bracing himself on the weight of his hands above her, his bright green eyes bearing into hers. His face was the face of her dreams—the sensual, bowed lips and cleft chin, the built body, and the thick hair. His hair… She blinked. It was cut at the nape and styled for a day at work. She glanced down at what he was wearing.

“Um, why are you wearing a suit and tie this time?” she asked, squinting against the sunlight. Please, God, let this be a dream. He moved his head, putting her in shade.

This time?” He lifted an eyebrow, perplexed. “You’ll have to forgive me, lass, but I’ve no idea what the devil you’re talking about.” He maneuvered himself off her and sat upright at the end of the swing.

She tucked her feet against her and sat up, unable to do anything more than blink at him in utter disbelief.

“I was coming up to knock on the door when I saw you lying here, and given how you were tossing and the noises you were making, it looked like maybe you were having some sort of a seizure.”

He seemed contrite, and he turned his head as he licked his lips, full and abused from her kisses. Something close to mortification bloomed inside her.

“Erm, you…begged me to kiss you, and then you yanked me down. One thing led to another and, well, that was pretty much the way of it. I am only human, though I know that’s no excuse.” He swallowed and stared at her, his Adam’s apple moving in his throat. “I apologize. I shouldn’t have gone down when you pulled me, but it was strange—like you knew me or something.”

Lark leaned forward and rubbed her eyes. This couldn’t be real. She was hallucinating. She had to be. When she opened her eyes she’d see a man in his fifties with a receding hairline, glasses, and a beer gut. She reopened her eyes, and there he was: The full package. In the flesh. There was an air of intelligence in the way his eyes scrutinized her. She sat up and planted her feet on the porch, then put a hand to her head. The vertigo from earlier returned. “No, I’m sorry. I was dreaming…”

“Excuse me for saying so, but it must’ve been one hell of a dream.”

Lark nodded and tried not to black out as a wave of dizziness came over her.

“You look like you’re dehydrated. Hold on.”

The lilt of his familiar Irish accent soothed her like warm milk. He stood and walked over to a black laptop case propped near the front door that had several thick manila folders sticking out of its open center, one of which she could see said BRAITHWAITE in large, capital letters on an index label. He crouched down and unzipped the front pocket, extracting an unopened plastic water bottle.

“Here,” he said, unscrewing it and holding it out to her.

“Thanks.” She accepted the bottle and took a long sip of the cool water. It almost instantly revived her. She wiped a little water off the corner of her mouth with the top of her knuckle as he watched her. She offered it back to him, but he shook his head and reclaimed his seat next to her.

“Keep it. Drink.”

“Thank you.” She closed her eyes and took several large gulps, the cool liquid a balm to her throat.

“My name’s Niall O’Hagan.”

His voice was deep and pleasant. It sounded different, lighter than the sultry bedroom voice she was used to from her dreams.

“I’m the Braithwaites’ attorney.”

Lark paused in midsip and lowered the bottle in her hands. “You—no.” She laughed, glancing at him.

His mouth lifted at the corners, as if it were dawning on him he was the butt of a joke he wasn’t aware of. “I…what?”

Oh, the irony of dreaming about her father’s lawyer this whole time. Oh my God. She started giggling. This was it; she was officially losing it. She got up and walked over to the top step of the porch, put a hand over her face, and plunked herself down. “I am so messed up.”

A sudden, unwanted flash of Gemma saying “darlin’” to Charles yesterday surfaced, and tears stung her eyes. She went silent and willed them not to fall. It was no use.

After a moment, Niall sat down on the step beside her. “I’d offer you a drink, but I quit ten years ago.”

Lark laughed, despite the tears. “An Irish attorney who doesn’t like Guinness is like an Englishman who doesn’t like fish and chips or something.”

“I know; shameful,” he said with mock contrition. “Don’t hold it against me. I’m doing the world a favor. Trust me. I was a horrible drunk. Seriously, though, are you okay, miss?”

Lark scoffed and gesticulated with her hands to the sky. “It’s Lark. And what a loaded question of the day.” She couldn’t look at him, not after what happened. She clenched the edge of the step on either side of her and stared out at the trees.

“Well, considering we’ve already gone to second base, we might as well be open with each other. Forgive me if I’m candid, but it seems you were having an alleged, eh, intense dream, and you woke up and believed I was him. Is that right?”

Horror dawned on her at what she’d done, and her jaw dropped. “No!” Yes. She glanced at him, and his knowing expression said he knew that was exactly what happened.

“I see,” he said, his tone careful but persistent. “Then why did you kiss me like that?”

“I-I don’t have to answer that.” She lifted her chin with defiance.

He scooted closer to her. “No, you don’t. But I wish you would.”

She scratched her head in frustration and jumped up, moving toward the door.

“I’m sorry to embarrass you,” he said, and she paused with her hand halfway to the doorbell. “I’m decent. I would never— I never meant to take advantage of you at all, please know that. When you kissed me like that, so familiar, I…”

It occurred to her Niall was being a lot more of a gentleman about the whole thing than most men would be, given how horrid the situation was. And she, meanwhile, was being a total bitch. And the poor guy had no clue as to why.

He met her in two quick strides, and his proximity alarmed her. They’d never both been standing in any of her dreams. He was at least a few inches over six feet, well built with wide shoulders and a lithe, muscular frame to complement the height.

He assessed her as well, and his eyes widened with realization. “Wait. Lark? Rick’s daughter? But you’re so little,” he said, surprised. “From the pictures, I assumed you’d be, erm—”

“Fatter?” she asked, glad she was at least back on sure ground. She could always toss jokes around about her heavy days. “It’s okay. You can go ahead and say it. I’ve lost a lot of weight.”

Niall put a hand to the back of his neck. His eyebrows rose. “I think ‘a lot’ is an understatement. Good on you! My mam struggled with her weight too; I know from growing up with her how hard it is to lose it. Well, you look amazing. Wow.”

He rolled his eyes at himself and glanced away. The bizarreness of seeing him act misplaced and common, and not at all like a sex panther, was messing with her.

“I’m sorry.” He laughed. “I sound like an idiot. Listen, I hope you don’t think I’m some leering wanker. This is…awkward.”

“You can say that again,” she murmured with a small smile, wondering what he would say if she told him she’d been having erotic dreams of him every night for the last six months. It was bad enough she’d just made out with the guy.

She held out her hand but didn’t make eye contact. “So listen, how about we forget it ever happened, okay? I’m Lark Braithwaite. I flew in a couple of days ago from London.”

He took her hand and closed his long fingers over hers. “Niall O’Hagan. Pleasure.” He stepped a little closer. “And I’m all for a clean slate, but forgetting’s not on my agenda, lass. I’m taking that one to the grave. Hands down the best snog I’ve ever had in my life. Client’s daughter or no, you can’t take it back.”

About the Author

Roxanne D. Howard is a U.S. Army veteran who has a bachelor’s degree in Psychology and English. She loves to read poetry, classical literature, and Stephen King. Also, she is an avid Star Wars fan, musical theater nut, and marine biology geek. Roxanne resides in the western U.S., and when she’s not writing, she enjoys spending time with her husband and children. Roxanne loves to hear from her readers, and encourages you to contact her via her website and social media.

Books by This Author:

With Boroughs Publishing Group:
Sonnet Coupled

With Loose Id Publishing, LLC.:
At the Heart of the Stone
Chicks Dig the Accent
The Costa Mesa Series
Costa Mesa 1: Batten Down the Hatches
Costa Mesa 2: Toe the Line
Costa Mesa 3: Overboard

Social Media Links:

Website: www.roxannedhoward.com
Newsletter: http://roxannedhoward.com/subscribe/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/RoxanneDHoward
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RoxanneDHowardAuthor/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/roxanned.howard/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15019190.Roxanne_D_Howard

Fran Thomas: Island Dream
Sunday, September 3rd, 2017

I have always enjoyed watching cooking shows.  As a teenager, I never missed an episode of Julia Child’s show, The French Chef. What a hoot she was. I doubt I ever made any of her dishes, but I certainly admired her attitude. Cooking should be fun.

Nowadays, my favorite is Pioneer Woman.  Although I’ve never been on a ranch in my life, I often steal ideas from her. (Sorry, Ree.) For me, they are just a starting point. Depending on what ingredients I have on hand, I tweak things to suit myself. I rarely make a recipe as written. Fortunately for me, my dear husband is willing to eat my experiments.

I guess it was inevitable for me to blend cooking and writing. I began by editing a cookbook. It was a collection put together by the members of the Insurance Women of Pittsburgh as a fund raiser and cleverly titled Premium Recipes.

Then for a few years I entered recipe contests. I even snagged a couple small prizes—an apron, a cutting board. The best prize I won, however, was a trip to New York City to take a class at the Institute of Culinary Education. The contest, sponsored by French’s, entailed creating a sandwich using one of their products. This was when American Idol was first on the air, so I devised a sandwich and called it the Simon Cowell. The ingredients included roast beef as rare as musical talent, as I recall.

Isabella Ramos, the heroine in my third Calusa Town Tale Island Dream, has long wanted to open her own restaurant. That is something I’d never do myself. It involves a lot of hard work and a fair amount of risk, as Izzy soon finds out. I’ll confine my culinary activities to my own kitchen, but it’s fun to experience Izzy’s adventures in cooking vicariously.

Visit me at RusticatingintheTropics.com or FrancesOThomas.com.

Island Dream

Romance with a side of comedy

Zumba teacher Isabella Ramos moved from Miami to the quirky small town of Calusa to open a restaurant. Luc Girard arrives on the Florida island to become a painter, or so he says. The attraction is instant. But the secret he’s keeping threatens to deflate their relationship like a fallen soufflé. It takes the right mixture of ingredients for dreams to come true.

Island Dream is available on Amazon in paperback at http://amzn.to/2xFM6sj or on Kindle at  http://amzn.to/2iBtGWG.

Excerpt:

One step closer to her dream.

Isabella Ramos drove her refurbished van across the drawbridge and towards her home in Calusa.  After catering a breakfast at a golf club on the mainland, she had already dropped off the two women she hired for larger jobs like this one. She yawned and let go of the steering wheel long enough to rub her eyes.  It was only noon, but she had risen early to prepare three varieties of Cuban pastries along with the hot items she had served.

The society women who belonged to the club had oohed and aahed over her food, and many had taken her business card, promising to call her for future high-profile events around town. The manager of the club was a valuable contact too. Isabella was certain he had a vast network that she hoped to tap into when she finally opened her restaurant.

Isabella had loved to bake from the first moment she stood on a chair before her abuela’s kitchen counter back in Miami and wielded a miniature rolling pin. As she got older, and taller, she learned how to prepare the Cuban dishes that made her grandma’s home the place to be when mealtime rolled around. The seed of the dream to open her own restaurant was born.

Up ahead, she spotted a man standing on a ladder next to a utility pole.  She didn’t recognize him, and he wasn’t dressed in an official uniform of any kind.  She didn’t see a truck, only a rusty bicycle that lay flat on the adjoining bike path. Who was he? Was he up to some mischief?

But what if he was in trouble? Before she could stop to think twice, she pulled the van over to the side of the road and got out.

The man shaded his eyes against the Florida sun as Izzy approached. The light glinted off his brown hair, gathered in an untidy man bun. A beard obscured the bottom half of his face making his expression unreadable.

“Can I help you?” he called.

He spoke with an intriguing accent. French?

“Oh, no,” Izzy said. “I wondered if you needed help.”

“You mean you wondered what I am doing,” the man replied. He gestured to several open cans at the foot of the ladder, half hidden in the weeds. “I am painting.”

“Painting on that pole? Why?”

He chuckled. “Because it is there. Is that not what people say when they climb Mount Everest? Simply because it is there.”

A Three Syllables Saturday…and A Glance Back at August! (Contest–3 Winners!)
Saturday, September 2nd, 2017

UPDATE: The winners are…Brenda Gremli, Charlene Michael, and Jackie Wisherd!

* * * * *

It’s 6:27 a.m. The latest I’ve slept in all week. I’ve had a ton of books to edit—for other people—over the course of the past two to three weeks. I feel like my body is solidifying into this humpbacked, gnarled-fingered gargoyle, perpetually bent toward a computer screen. But one last manuscript to finish polishing, and then I can get back to my own imperfectly-written masterpieces.

Yeah, it’s way to early to be thinking in words longer than one or two syllables. I’ll stop. Now.

So…. You know I have a new release this week, right? A sexy menage with cowboys. Can’t get any more decadent (Oops! Three syllables) than that! Anyways, (Ugh! Did it again!) Family Values is out there, ready for your enjoyment (Ack! I give up!).

Well, it being a long weekend holiday (urg!) for some folks, I’ll remind you that I had several (ridiculously many) stories arrive in August…

Psst! If you have read some of these, do me a favor and post a review!

Toodles! (Yes, too much Mickey Mouse Fun House!) Have a great weekend!

What you might have missed in August…

Reined In

Reined In

Released August 10!

Who says a cowgirl can’t have it all?

Stormy is a rancher’s daughter through and through, and although she went away to college, her soul is firmly rooted in home ground–and the cowboys she grew up tormenting. When she hears her father might be selling the ranch, she packs her bags and high tails it for home, terrified she might never get another chance to lasso the heart of one of her cowboys before the hands scatter to the four winds.

For Cam and Joe, foreman and wrangler on the ranch, Stormy was a pain in the seat of their Wranglers. But when she roars back onto the ranch, the spoiled brat they remember emerges from the cloud of dust in skin-tight jeans and spike heels and all grown up.

It only takes a hot second to figure out she’s hell-bent on seduction. But if she thinks they’re going to make it easy for her to pick which cowboy she wants most, she’s sadly mistaken. And who says she has to choose one?

Get your copy here!

*~*~*~*~*

Long Howl Good Night

Released August 15th!

Werewolf Aila Mack is ready to get her groove on during a full moon. Because she prefers to keep her liaisons strictly about the sex, she’s a part-time were-hooker. She’s had a taste of were-domination, but now prefers to be in charge of her own destiny.

Brothers Kynan and Jack Parker are on a mission. When their Dark Mountain clan finds an agency dealing in female werewolves, they aren’t happy learning that women are selling their bodies to satisfy their monthly howl. However, they have to take action once they discover there’s a fertile female in the agency’s stable. Their species is in dire need of breedable females.

Kynan and Jack are given the job of bringing home their mate, but they quickly discover there’s more going on beneath the surface than simply a stubborn female who refuses to be collared. Aila’s tempted like never before, as the brothers, one gentle and one fiercely intense, peel away the hard shell surrounding her Wolfen heart.

Get your copy here!

*~*~*~*~*

The Entire Delta Blue series!

Released August 21! Click on covers!

Five Ways 'til Sunday Fournicopia A Perfect Trifecta

Twice the Bang Once is Never Enough

*~*~*~*~*

Everything, so far, in the Delta Heat series!

Released August 21! Click on Covers!

Burning Up Memphis Hotter with a Pole Rapid's Entry

*~*~*~*~*

Handy Men

Released August 24!

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 handyman.

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 lasting.

Get your copy here!

*~*~*~*~*

Family Values

Family Values

Released August 31!

Three brothers in love with the same woman make a pact….

Angelina Flores lived a perfect ranch-kid childhood, complete with three princes on horseback who treated their housekeeper’s daughter like a princess. At age eighteen, the fairytale came crashing down when she realized she had to choose between Brand, Nate, and Eli McAffee. And when she did choose one–she lost all three.

She’s older now. Wiser, thanks to her college education and a few years’ distance. A distance she’d planned to maintain…until her mother begs her to fill in at the ranch while she takes care of a sick relative.

The minute her boots hit the front porch, the memories come flooding back, right along with the hunger. It’s tough to put the past behind her when temptation is so close. Especially since the brothers seem bound and determined to woo her. Separately. Together. Whatever it takes to keep her right where she belongs–in their arms.

Get your copy here!

*~*~*~*~*

Contest! 3 Winners!

So, you have plenty to read over the long weekend, right? Something for just about anyone who likes a sexy read!  Winners’ choices of any story in the Lone Star Lovers series, the Night Fall series,  or the Planet Desire series! To win, all you have to do is tell me this…

What are you reading this weekend?

Tina Gayle: The Story Behind the Executives Wives’ Club Series (Free Read)
Friday, September 1st, 2017

When I consider writing a new romance series, I first look at what will make the stories different. What kernel of an idea sets it apart from other stories? I realized I wanted a series about how important women are to women. No matter how much we might enjoy the men in our lives. Women connect to other women in a unique way. Maybe, because we think alike or can share emotions men can’t understand, but women need women.

So then I asked, what type of situation would force four women together emotionally?

Okay, four women all lose their husbands at one time in a car accident. These women are connected only by their husbands’ jobs. They know each other, but are not what you’d call close—until their husbands are killed. This forever alters their world. Each has their unique problem.

Jen Larson is a realtor, who has for years lived as a married single. Her husband, Craig was her college sweetheart. She believes they had a good life, but less than a year after losing him, she’s ready to start dating again. This throws her relationship with the other executives’ wives into a tailspin. They don’t understand how she can do this, which makes for the first book in the series, The Marketing Exec’s Widow.

The truly fun part about a series like this is no one book is about only one woman. Each plays a part in the other book. Their stories continue and you learn more about what each woman is facing in her life. The happy-ever-after continues, and the reader learns how these women have grown to depend on each other.

In the second book, IT Exec’s Baby, the reader already knows from the first book that Brie Sullivan is pregnant. She has had the baby and is facing the challenges of dealing with a newborn as well as postpartum depression.  She also has two other children she’s trying to raise alone. Life for her is not going well, and she’s searching for answers. During one of her more trying moments, she believes she has the answer and asks Jason Clark to marry her. He’s the son of one of the other executives’ wives, Marianne Clark. This is the beginning of their journey to finding happiness.

Book three, CFO’s Affair is about Sylvia Donovan. The reader finds outs in book one that Sylvia’s husband, Bob asked her for a divorce on the morning he left on the business trip in which he died. Sylvia is going through a difficult time with her daughter having just left for college. She’s suffering from empty nest syndrome. She needs a diversion from her loneliness and decides to help at the company where her husband once worked. This sets her on the trail of finding answers as to why her husband asked for a divorce. She discovers her husband had an affair, and his son is in an abusive situation. This rocks her world and forces her to make some very hard decision about not only her future, but also the future of her husband’s son.

The last book in the series, CFO’s Widow has not been released. Still working on this one, Marianne Clark is the oldest of the four women. She loved her husband and has done her best to deal with the massive hole his death has caused in her life. She is ready to give love a chance when she discovers a lump in her breast. Faced with her mortality, she has to make the hard decision of letting a man into her life or building a wall around herself. Shouldn’t she know the outcome before allowing a man she cares about into her life?

All of these books deal with major women issues. They show not only what women can endure during different phases of their lives, but how the relationship with not only men, but also women, help them deal with the problems they face.

Here are the blurbs for all the books…

Available at
Amazon Smashwords B&N  | Kobo Apple 

Marketing Exec’s Widow

Needing to revive her life and jump start her heart, Jennifer Larson is facing the biggest challenge of her life, moving into an unplanned future. While the rest of   the Executives Wives’ Club continues to mourn their husbands, Jen is tempted into the future by a sexy chiropractor, Hagan Chaney.

But does he really love her or is he only after her money?

On sale for .99cents

IT Exec’s Baby

Brie Sullivan has a new baby girl and there are a million things to do, but Brie doesn’t have the energy to keep up. Why? She’s still grieving for her husband and suffering from baby blues, but she won’t let that stop her. She’s come up with the answer–find a new husband to be the father of her kids.

Jason Clark has been doing everything he can to help Brie. He loves her but can he accept her proposal of marriage knowing she’s not thinking clearly about the future?

CFO’s Affair

Sylvia Donovan is emotionally wounded from the unexpected death of her husband and still haunted by their last conversation: his request for a divorce and his confession of love for another woman. Her husband gone, her only daughter off to college, Sylvia faces the challenges of learning to live alone and move on with her life.

Vince Wilshire, enchanted with Sylvia, is more than willing to do what it takes to capture the heart of the hurting and untrusting Sylvia.
Can he help her forget the past and make her believe in love again?

CEO’s Widow

After surviving the grief from her husband’s death, Marianne Clark has built a new life with the help of the other Executive Wives. She plans to enjoy grandchildren and friends until her doctor tells her he found a lump in her breast. Her world turned upside down. She re-evaluates her priorities and decides she will grab hold of life with both hands.

Knox Turner lost his first wife to cancer. He’s determined not to let Marianne face this challenge alone.

Can this couple face the trials ahead and build a future together?

Read the 1st chapter on my website www.tinagayle.com

FREE READ!

My Future Step Brother – FREE when you sign up for my newsletter
http://tinagayle.net/newsletter.html

About the Author

Tina Gayle grew up a dreamer and loved to escape into the world of books.

After years of working in the business world doing a variety of jobs, she decided to try her hand at writing in hopes of incorporate the joy of being a mother into her books.

Currently working on a series about four executive wives, she is excited about combining elements of women fiction with the passion of romance. The first three books have been released and the last one is coming out in 2015.

Married twenty-five years, she and her husband love to travel and play golf.  She can’t wait for Mike to retire so they can do more of both.

Read the first chapter of any of her books by visiting her website.

Find Tina Gayle everywhere

Home – www.tinagayle.net
Blog – www.tinagayle.blogspot.com
Twitter – https://twitter.com/#!/AuthorTinaGayle
Goodread – http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1641826.Tina_Gayle
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Tina-Gayle/214633841921560?ref=hl
Google + – https://plus.google.com
Linkin – http://www.linkedin.com/pub/tina-gayle/11/689/759

Jan Hudson: The Right Moves
Thursday, August 31st, 2017

Thanks to Delilah for having me as a guest on her lively blog! I love reading and writing and talking about books—all kind of books. Books have always been one of my great passions. My mother swears that her labor with me was so long and difficult because I was born holding a tablet in one hand and a crayon in the other and wouldn’t let go. I was ready to write. (My mother was prone to tall Texas tales, too, so I get it honestly.)

Many, many moons ago when I was a fledgling author with a couple of romance novels published and was cavorting with a group of romance writers at a conference in Houston, someone in our bunch of six or eight suggested that we go out for drinks that evening. One adventurous soul suggested that a visit to a local club that featured male dancers would be the perfect venue. So we went.

…The place was dim, very dim, and packed with screaming women; the music was so loud that I felt it vibrate under my feet, and spotlights illuminated several small stages. Each stage featured a costumed hunk gyrating and flirting with the women going wild at his feet. We found seats, ordered drinks, and watched the show. As an astute observer of human behavior, I began to laugh at the antics of the women there. (The only men I saw were employees.) Most of the gals waving bills and making suggestive comments to the dancers were twice the age of the guys—or had at least a few years on them.

Several of the well-muscled strippers looked about the same age as students in the college psychology classes I taught—and about the same age as my son. Good grief!

What if I had walked in and found my kid on one of those stages? What if . . .

And the premise for a book was born that night.

THE RIGHT MOVES became one of my all-time favorite romantic comedies, one of thirteen that I wrote for Bantam Loveswept. And it had one of the worst covers ever. It was so bad that the publisher sent two dozen roses to me—and fired the artist. When the rights of my backlist reverted to me, I revised and updated the story and published it as an ebook—with a beautiful new cover that I love. (It’s great to have a creative director in the family.) Check it out on Amazon.

THE RIGHT MOVES by JAN HUDSON

Chris Ponder was a tough little cookie, tough enough to drive a tow truck in Houston on the weekends to help support herself and her 18 year old stepson. But the young widow was in for some surprises when she stopped to tow Nick Russo’s car and found herself waiting in a club filled with screaming women and scantily clad young men dancing for them. And holy g-string! Who was that tall kid she spotted on the stage swiveling his hips in a little-bitty Viking getup?

What was the impeccably dressed Nick Russo, multimillionaire businessman, doing in such a sleazy place? And why did her insides turn to tapioca when he gave her the once over with his bedroom eyes? He was way out of her league, and she’d been badly burned by a charming rascal before. Uh-uh. No way was she getting involved with him. But when he seduced her on a quiet night with his own dance just for her. . .

http://janhudson.com/