A note about the contest! I find myself in a bit of a dilemma. I double-booked today. I have a guest blogger at my own blog and I’m here. So if you post here today and post at my blog, you will have two chances to win. Check out my blog for the details.

I don’t know about you, but I pay attention to my dreams. I don’t always remember them, but I try to hold on to them long enough to write them down when I wake up. They always have something to say to me.

Sometimes, I just want to capture the terror of aliens swooping down from the sky to pluck me away from my home and torture me with wicked experiments (ahem, my wicked subconscious always finds a way to make that sexy). When I find myself at dinner with a handsome man, but suddenly realize I forgot to put anything on from the waist down and huddle beneath the table cloth, well, I try to find a way to use the emotions or even the actual scene in my writing.

I had a dream the other night. I walked into the living room and my father handed me part of the newspaper. He said, “You need to check out the ad.”

I opened the paper and scanned down the page to the colorized section. A woman held a handbag (I love purses). I thought the purse was rather plain and small and said so.

The woman in the ad said, “But it’s so versatile. Look at this!” She proceeded to show me all the ways I could wear or hold the small purse with a little adjustment of its miraculous strap.

After she’d finished the demonstration, I said, “I’ll have to check that out. Thanks!” She then reminded me that the sale ended that day.

Hmmm…interactive newspaper ads. And I’m writing a futuristic book right now… What do you think I’m going to do? Yeah, if I can find a way to work it into a scene, I will.

Here’s something brand new and out in print! Click on the cover to read all about it!

I’m covered up in relatives at the moment, stragglers from our family reunion (wouldn’t they love to hear themselves described that way! LOL), so just wanted to jump in and post a reminder about my “new-old” release coming out next Monday.

What’s lovely about stories is that they never die, they just get re-released. Warlord’s Destiny was originally published as one of three stories in an anthology that was available in print. Ellora’s Cave is now separating the story so that ebook fans can purchase it all on its lonesome.

WD is a futuristic, but has a very medieval feel to it. Best of both worlds, I think, and tons of fun to write. If you hit on the link at the bottom of the this post, you can read the first chapter of the book and meet my über-alpha hero, Lord Tetrik (an old family name of mine).

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About the Book

“…In Delilah Devlin’s WARLORD’S DESTINY, a strong man is brought to his knees by an equally strong woman. Interesting, attractive personalities make this read especially powerful.”
Nominee for Best Paranormal Erotic Novel of 2005 and TOP PICK! by RT BOOKreviews

Promised in marriage for a decade, Mora has no illusions she is anything other than the sacrificial lamb to ensure peace between her peace-loving planet and the warlike world that demands her union with one of their own. No great beauty, she resigns herself to a loveless marriage with a man who will only do his duty by her. However, when she meets the rugged warlord who will be her husband, Mora feels an immediate stirring of lust. She decides in that moment to win his heart-she’ll settle for nothing less!

Lord Tetrik finds his bride more than the scrawny handful he had expected. She has hips to breed him strong, sturdy sons, and intelligence that is a gift worth more than a pretty face. When he suspects his wife harbors tender feelings for him, he wonders if he can be the husband she desires. After all, love for a woman is a frivolous thing—and not a warlord’s destiny.

Read an excerpt

Comment and be eligible to win a copy of this book
(or a download of any My Immortal Knight book)!

This story was a labor of love for me because I combined so many elements of what I enjoy writing most—über-alpha men, medieval historical setting, vampires and werewolves, and a sexy little ménage. The book has been out since Wednesday and the first to review it said, First Knight is “a haunting love story where beauty gets her chance at taming the beast.” ~DD

About the Book

While hiding her true identity, Maddie must seduce the mysterious Lord Garon to cement their marriage contract and 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’d 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.

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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.

He wore a helm that left only his square jaw exposed. The darkness cast by the metal nose guard concealed his eyes. Only his mouth gave a hint of his mood—a thin, straight line with the corners crimped downward.

Under his stare, Maddie’s knees trembled but her tray never rattled. She squared her shoulders and shot a glance about her at the castle folk. “Stephen!” she called to the stable master. “See to their horses.”

In moments, boys scrambled to accept reins, and the creak of leather and the clank of iron filled the air.

The stable master himself approached the dark warhorse at the foot of the steps but the mounted warrior’s gaze never left Maddie.

She licked dry lips with an even drier tongue. “Lord Garon?” she asked, although there could be no question who led this contingent. All gazes remained on his intimidating figure. “Please come inside, milord. Your people will see to the comfort of your men.”

His mouth twisted. “And who will see to mine?”

Maddie’s heart leapt to the back of her throat. “I will, milord.”
(more…)

Do you ever have the craving to do something completely outrageous. I’ve had those moments, like the time I danced on a table top in a restaurant in Greece while one of the servers chipped away plates. Or the time I went skinny dipping with a boy I barely knew. These days I think too much. The moment passes and I’ve done nothing.

But I have an alter ego. Delilah. And she can be as outrageous as I want. She can write the sexiest, the funniest, the scariest scenes I need to rid myself of that restless edge. Delilah wrote Bad, Bad Girlfriend with that craving to be outrageous in mind. And there’s this one particular scene that she adores where all my bad girl urges are satisfied.

You’ll just have to take my word for it. Or go buy the book.

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Expect magic when one determined woman dons a legendary pair of red stilettos and bares body and heart to get her man’s attention…

Jolene’s a big, beautiful woman with an even bigger heart. But she’s become her police officer boyfriend’s favorite doormat and that’s so not working for her. It’s time for a little conversation, time to tell Mr. Happy Pants to “pee or get off the pot”.

Gabriel has seen what his profession does to marriages. He’s not willing to risk that kind of heartbreak. Besides, he likes what he has with Jolene. The woman is sex personified. So when Jolie tells him she won’t see him anymore if he’s not willing to commit, he’s shocked and angry.

With a girlfriend’s encouragement and the added confidence a certain pair of red stilettos gives her, Jolene arranges a special show at a strip club to prove to Gabe once and for all that she’s more woman than any man can handle, and if he doesn’t want the job, then she’ll find another lover who does.

Read an excerpt

Can you tell I had fun with the title? Sometimes, stories come like that. You find the perfect title and then the story naturally evolves from just a word or a simple phrase. Don’t ask me what I was thinking when that title popped into my head. It wasn’t a first grade primer book, that’s for sure. And because a couple was already part of the title, my mind added a third-some. The title also set the tone. I couldn’t write a dark paranormal with the word “fun” in there, right? If only all stories were as simple to conceive.

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He didn’t know the nightly peepshow was just a naughty invitation…

Garrett knows what he’s doing can get him into trouble, but he can’t help himself. Every night, as he arrives home, the blonde across the alley gets busy with her boyfriend with the blinds open. He’s spent the past two weeks getting an eyeful and falling deep into lust. But when Garrett sees a man in a black ski mask sneak into his sexy neighbor’s bedroom, he doesn’t know he’ll be the one captured.

Jayne has a nice life with a nice lover who sees to her every need, but she’s still drawn to the lonely man across the alley. She’s been sharing her deepest fantasies with him from afar, but is ready to up the stakes. When she talks Richard into enacting a dangerous scenario, everything works out as planned. Only Garrett’s not happy about being played. And he’s got reservations because she already has a lover and he’s not into threesomes. Guess she’ll just have to convince him otherwise.

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Check out my blog for excerpts. Be prepared for heat!

Excerpt #1 from “Fun”

Excerpt #2 from “Fun”

Have I mentioned how much I love my job?

Besides the obvious reasons (jammies and sweats wardrobe, clock in when I want), there’s plenty to love—but it did take a while for me to figure out where to find the fun.

For a person who currently lives her most exciting adventures in her head, I had to reconnect with the person I used to be—the ex-Army action girl who liked to get in the middle of things. Hitting middle years means I’m not looking for the purely physical challenges anymore. But I can amuse myself.

I love field trips. Whether it’s scrouring a graveyard for interesting views into other people’s lives and deaths or walking down a deserted railroad track searching for ghost lights, I do have a fascination with the process of death. I interviewed a mortician about what happens after a body arrives at the funeral home and learned some interesting things that made it into the pages of Frannie ‘n’ the Private Dick. I attended a Roller Derby match, took pictures and interviewed players and refs. I travelled to Memphis and had a private tour of the city from John the Trolleyman. I meet some of the most interesting, ordinary people.

I discovered what I like to do in the way of “getting out there” to touch readers. Some folks hate blogging. I love it. The words I write into a posting every morning serve as my “morning pages” or journal. And I have fun with it too. You can find me posting pictures of my travels, the mushrooms in my backyard, the readers I meet at signing events…

I love live chats. I “talk” better, am wittier with my fingers, than I am in person. And while I live a hermit’s life when I’m deep in a book, which is most of the time, live chats make me feel connected to the rest of the world. I’ve met new friends there.

However, all that stuff isn’t the actual work of being a writer. It’s what we do to draw attention to the work. Slogging through a book to make a deadline can be grueling, but I’ve found what keeps me excited. I have to write short stories. When I stare 400 pages of manuscript in the face, it’s hard to picture the end. I take short breaks from the major work and write something short, 2500 to 6000 words. It’s a way to get to an end of something quickly, to get that temporary high from having accomplished something. Selling those short works gives another boost of self-esteem.

Perhaps the most fun I’ve had lately is sharing the plotting of a story with my readers. I decided to write a novella, one chapter at a time, and seek their input all along the way. They tell me what ingredients they want to see—they chose the setting, the heroes’ occupations, the heroine’s. They choose plot turning points at the end of every chapter. And they write me in between installments to tell me they think that Mason should do this or that, or to speculate over what the big mystery of Bayou Noir really is. I’m loving it. And what does it cost me? A few hours every couple of months.

If you have a taste for the naughty stuff, check it out. I’m running a contest on my blog to entice readers to come vote for what happens next. You can see what readers have helped me create so far.

I don’t know about other writers, but real life tends to sift through the pages of my books.

Places I’ve traveled become settings for stories. Interesting tidbits of real life stories become the germs of ideas for plots. Conversations I overhear might provide the spark of life for the dialogue of my characters.

And no one is safe when it comes to crafting the characters themselves. Ask my poor daughter. She’s been featured in several of my books. Her husband used to get a little bent out of shape until I made him the hero. Now he has bragging rights of his own.

Why use things that are so close to home, so connected with my real life? It’s that old adage, Write what you know. The reason you do is that you want a reader to connect with the reality you build into a story, so that they can step into that world and experience it.

I write a lot of cowboys. I lived in Texas for nine years with a working ranch as my backyard. Now, that’s immersion. And I think it shows when you read my little Texas-based stories. They are gritty and real. The people talk like real Texans. They struggle with real conflicts and emotions.

Next week, Unforgiven releases, the second in my Lone Star Lovers series. You can click on the cover and read an excerpt. It’s not a sweet story. The couple come together expecting anything but to find love for themselves again because they were torn apart by betrayal. But love always finds a way—at least it does in my stories.