It’s odd that the whole time I was away (nine freaking-awesome days) I kept to my usual schedule despite the time zone change. Which was pretty cool. I rose at 5-ish and had the lake house to myself until the others began to stir.

Yet, when I returned home, my body clock went haywire. Every night since I’ve been back, I’m up past three in the morning, sleeping far too late to get the kind of start this morning girl enjoys. So ever since Wednesday, I’m fighting fatigue. Translation=terrible productivity.

However, since this is my first report card since I returned, I’m going to claim the work I accomplished on the trip! This is my blog, hear me roar.

Gah! How much coffee did I put into this pot? No amount of creamer will turn it the right shade of mud.

Anyway…the day before I left for Seattle, my new editor at Samhain accepted two new cowboy stories—Unbridled and Unforgiven. I completed the contracts and cover art sheets while I was on the lake. The first will be out in November, the second in January.

On the 5th I wrapped up MIK-7, retitled Knight of My Dreams. Ellora’s Cave has already accepted it. Now, I just have to wait for the editor to edit and to get a date for publication that I can share. Readers will be happy to know that Quentin and Darcy are back together, but of course, they have a new set of problems to contend with. I know, I’m mean that way.

I did some brainstorming with the amazing brain trust at the cottage on a story that has been giving me fits for months. It’s a Medieval fantasy and I have about thirty pages written on it, but I couldn’t get to the center of the story. Now I have a new direction and should be able to pull it out of the toilet.

I started another short story at the cottage and am about halfway through it. I added pages to a historical I’m determined to finish this year. It’s a Medieval and has Normans and Saxons and Vikings, a siege and a battle, and assorted swiving. Gots to have sex, ya know.

So lots accomplished; lots planned. I did some sightseeing with Sasha, my cousin and his partner. So plenty of fodder for new books.

In the next few days, I’m going to dive into research since I’m a little burned on writing. I ordered three books from Amazon on castles and castle-building. Was in Books-A-Million yesterday and bought a huge illustrated volume on mythology and can’t wait to dig into those stories.

Until next week… Sure hope I have progress to report!

You’ve suffered long enough. Following are the names of the winners (selected by a random number generator) of my “Flashback” novels. The winner of All Knight Long…is Jeanette Juan! The winner of Sanctuary is…Brandy!

I’m not the greatest photographer, and some of my subjects are reluctant, but here are a few pics from my time at the lake house. If you are viewing this blog from Facebook, then you will probably have to come to the blog to see the pics: My Blog

This was taken my first night there. I couldnt’ wait to get out on the balcony and see something. I saw more than I hoped and snapped this pic. Isn’t it romantic? What a shame that view was shared with five other travel-tired writers. 😉

The next morning, I took a cup of coffee outside and was blown away with this view. That’s Mount Rainier in the distance.
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It’s past noon here. I stayed up until after three last night, couldn’t sleep, kept going through my gazillion emails to see what all I’d missed and owed. Woke up around 10:30 AM, and about had a heart attack, because I was supposed to go to the 5-year-old’s school to eat lunch with her today. That started at 10:50, and I live a good 45 minutes from her.

So, did I blow it off? Could you? I dressed, washed my face, teeth, brushed my hair and was out the door in three minutes. Then I flew like a bat out of hell. Got there ten minutes late, and broke a dozen laws to do it, but it was all worth it.

Now I’m back home and going through my pictures. Wanted to post something quick just to get it up and thought I’d share this.

As always, there’s a story that goes along with this. This was our first day at the lake house. Only Sasha and I were excited about the water. The rest thought it was too cold, but Sasha’s from Canada, and I’m just a plain ole crazy water baby. We took out the paddle boat, although neither of us had ever been in one. We laughed our asses off just dragging it into the water and trying to board. But we made it in and started pedalling.

What we didn’t know, that the girls hanging off the balcony knew, was that there were two fishermen in a motor boat watching us. We started pedalling, but couldn’t figure out how to steer, so we were going in circles and laughing like crazy. One guy elbowed the other and pointed at us, and they started laughing. When I finally figured out there was this little lever I could push forward and back to steer with, we didn’t care so much that I couldn’t seem to steer in a straight line, so we kept making circles until our stomachs hurt.

After that day, the ladies always headed to the balcony whenever we started walking toward the beach.

I promise I have some very nice pictures of the lake and the ladies to share, but I haven’t downloaded them yet to my PC, so I’m sharing something Sasha sent me from our first night there. If you don’t recognize it, that’s the moon, looking very like a space ship. And if you look down and to the right, you’ll see a little green orb. Now, if you remember my blog from a really long time ago when I went on a ghost-hunting expedition, that’s a ghost “orb”—only swear to god, I’ve only seen them white. I’m thinking…moon-ship…that has to be an alien’s ghost!

I’ll be back tomorrow, and I promise I’ll have those winners announcements and more pics!

I’ll be in catchup mode for a couple of days. I arrived home around 9 PM CST last night. Only took me an hour to get from the airport (it’s easily an hour and a half drive)—didn’t know I’d flown. Guess I was eager.

I have tons of email and laundry to do. I want to be able to get back to work quickly because I still have Lora Leigh’s RAW to get ready for at the end of this month. September cannot be all about fun.

I’ll do a recap of everything I accomplished, saw, learned in the coming days. For now, I’m unwinding.

Oh! And tomorrow I’ll announce the winners for the Flashback books. Thanks to everyone who checked in here while I was gone. I did get access to read the comments and appreciated it very much.

To my retreat buddies—beware! Pictures are coming! 😈

Anything else? Yeah, the pool is calling me. We missed each other very much. Until tomorrow!

While The Cat’s Away Countdown – Last Day…

Okay, now the song’s in your head. Bwahaha! 😈

Sometime later today, I’ll be back online and pouring through a gazillion emails. If I was lucky while I was away, I got a chance to check in a time or two. Otherwise, it will take a couple of days for me to climb out from under the mountain of messages and laundry.

As soon as I can I’ll announce the winners of the books I offered. I’ll post pictures of my cottage-mates and talk about our wild old time—or at least as much as they will let me without having to plead the 5th. Can’t wait to hear who you’ve been doing, too! Later! ~DD

While The Cat’s Away Countdown – Day 2…

Just a little glimpse into the story that will be coming out in November with Samhain. Excuse any typos; this hasn’t gone through editing yet. Also, if you’re a little squeamish about male-male sex, stop reading now.

There are moments that can change the course of a woman’s life from one heartbeat to the next. For Dani Standifer, this was that moment.

She’d arrived in Two Mule, Texas a day earlier than she’d planned, intending to surprise her boyfriend. But the surprise was definitely on her. Rowan Ayers’s body, hardening with arousal, demonstrated more poignantly than any “Dear Jane” letter that she’d been gone far too long. He’d moved on.

Everything she’d ever dreamed of for her future evaporated like the sweat glistening on his naked chest.

As well, it hurt that he’d chosen this place to bring another woman. The isolated, ramshackle line shack had been their favorite place, their secret love nest. The cabin sat nestled in a thicket of scrubby cedar, a tall live oak providing the structure shade from the late afternoon sun. The shack was situated inside the Ayers fence line, equidistance from both of their ranch houses. Perfect for the trysts they’d shared throughout high school and during summer breaks from university. Here, they’d explored their young bodies, talked about their dreams for the future…and made plans.
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While The Cat’s Away Countdown – Day 3…

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

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

In a post-Apocalyptic future with cities decimated by a nuclear winter, people have fled to rural areas to become the prey of criminals and werebeasts. Rancher Kate McKinnon runs “Sanctuary” — a last refuge on the western frontier. While driving her surviving wranglers and integrating refugees into their self-sufficient refuge, she escapes her responsibilities the only way she has left — via ham radio to pockets of other survivors. One man, Ty Bennett, is her confidante and she thinks she might be falling in love with him. Although they’ve never met, he seems to know her heart.

On a patrol to siphon gasoline to run the ranch’s generator, Kate and her cowboys are attacked. They are rescued by Ty and a band of his ex-military “brothers”, who are there to bring her and her refugees to a safer place. She soon discovers he and his men are another breed of monsters — vampires! And she’s brought vampires into the refuge.

Already half in love with the human woman, Ty fights his own nature and appetites while seeking redemption for his many sins. Can he overco me Kate’s prejudice and choking responsibilities to get her to trust him with their lives, even as she succumbs to his seduction?

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

“How much ammo you got on you, girl?” Shep shouted from the opposite end of the church.

She patted her duster pockets. “Enough. I don’t miss much.”

“Don’t look like we need silver load.”

He was right. What surrounded them wasn’t werebeasts—it was the lowest form of human life—those who preyed on the survivors.

“Well, this will be easy pickin’s,” she murmured and steeled herself for the coming confrontation.

Kate didn’t wait to hear what they might say.

The only thing they wanted was her—women were a scarce commodity on the frontier. She took a bead down the barrel of her pistol and squeezed off a shot through the windshield of a pickup, pleased at the splash of red that exploded against the glass.
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