It’s the last day of the month, so it’s time to reflect on all the progress I made.

I wrote chapters 7 through 15 of the big book, adding 158 pages. I began writing my third Lonestar Lovers story and a short story.

Love in Bloom and Fun with Dick and Jayne were published. First Knight sold.

This past week, I slacked off on my word count. But since I am still ahead of schedule on the big book, I’m not all that worried. Besides, it was time I took a breather and revisited everything I’d written to polish it a bit. I was loosing site of the plot in all that yummy sex. With the help of Sasha White, I did find a plot for my short story and started writing it. It’s due for submission on the 15th of March.

For March, I have to finish writing and editing the big book. I want to ship it before March 30th. I will finish Lonestar Lovers-3. I’ll finish and submit 3 short stories. And for fun, I’ll attend the NOLA chapter’s conference in Shreveport, Louisiana next weekend!

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Quick brag. I earned 5 dragons from Veiled Secrets Reviews for Knight of my Dreams. Here’s a snippet of what the reviewer had to say:

“…Quentin’s grief and attempts to save Darcy just pulled at my heart for him. The passion he and Darcy share gave him the ability to sexually satisfy the vampire witch whom he never wanted to see again. That sex was so hot I could see why she wanted to trap him again. This is a very impassioned story filled with the deep longing, powerful sex and overwhelming desire that you feel in your soul for that special person who is the other half of you…”

Nice, huh?

Okay, second quick brag. This one is 4 1/2 cherries from Whipped Cream Reviews for Unforgiven.

“…Delilah Devlin’s scorching and unforgettable story UNBRIDLED, has been followed up by the equally hot and mesmerizing UNFORGIVEN…As with any Devlin tale, the sex is so hot it should come with a burn notice. But more importantly, you get pages packed with so much emotion it chokes you. That’s the beauty of her work, and the reason I have her on my TBR author list…”

I have a close relative in the hospital. He’s elderly with massive blood clots in one leg. Sis and I are headed to Little Rock to visit with him, so I’ll be offline until tonight. In the meantime, enjoy a news article with some unbelievable pictures about an incident that happened here in Arkansas. ~DD

Cows Trash House in Pike County – See Photos!

Yeah, I didn’t do it on purpose. I scheduled my gig at the NINC blog, but Access Romance tells me when to blog at their place. The stars aligned and I have to pull double duty today.

So, for you writers out there, check out my post on productivity, something I talk about a lot, at the NINC blog.

And I’d love to hear from readers at the Access Romance blog.

Happy TGIF! ~DD

Okay, not a real award. But it’s a fun one, and one that you can share! My BFF Sasha White nominated my blog for a Prolific Blogger Award. In Sasha’s words, “this award is to help us spread the word about regular bloggers, so we can all do some surfing and hopefully find some new haunts.”

How does it work?

Every winner of the Prolific Blogger Award has to nominate at least seven other deserving prolific bloggers. Yes, kind of like a chain letter. It’s to promote traffic to sites, introduce people to new blogs they might want to come back to visit and provide you hours of entertainment surfing if you’re truly bored.

And each prolific blogger must link to the blog where he/she has received the award. So everyone I name here, must link back to my blog so folks can get to know the other winners. Easy, right?

Here are my nominees. They include my favorite places to hop, and some new bloggers I enjoy visiting. They all are frequent bloggers so you won’t be stuck for something new to read.

Genreality
Jordan Summers
Lauren Dane
Rachel Lynne
Riley Quinn
Sasha White
Shayla Kersten

Thanks to my faves for providing me a place to cruise when I need to rest the muse.

How cool is this? Several months ago, Ashlyn Chase wrote and asked me whether I would like to write a story in a series featuring magical red stilettos. The concept sounded fun, so I jumped on board. The first story is already out, and you can read an excerpt right now! Here’s the order of releases. Every story is stand-alone, but if you like reading a series, you’re in for a treat! Be sure to check out Paris Brandon’s website for more information about this author!

February 12 – Paris Brandon’s Head Over Heels
March 3 – Francesca Hawley’s Whirlwind Affair
March 17 – Ashlyn Chase’s Dear Sexy Lexie
March 24 – Delilah’s Bad, Bad Girlfriend

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Height-challenged Bella Jacienski literally falls head over magic red stilettos into sexy philanthropist’s Rhys Vincent’s arms and wonders if the legend attached to the shoes is true. Has she found her heart’s desire, a passionate, lust-crazed lover who wants only her? Always and forever?

Rhys can’t keep his big hands off the curvy shopkeeper. Her smile captivates him and her lush body has him behaving like a primitive Neanderthal. Heated glances and sizzling touches turn into a hot office interlude and wild break-the-bed sex that only make him want her more. She thinks the shoes are magic but Bella is all the magic he needs.

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Rhys Vincent ground his back teeth and took Veronica Smith–Hathaway’s elbow as they crossed the street. It was snowing and not for the first time did he wish he were wearing boots instead of dress shoes with his tux. Ronnie didn’t seem to notice the puddle that soaked her designer heels or the frigid wind that tore at the edges of her flimsy black evening coat. Neither had been designed for January in Kansas City.

Veronica—Ronnie—was his best friend Brian’s estranged wife. She had insisted she knew a shop that had the fedora they needed to complete the scavenger-hunt list—right after he’d politely refused her offer to give him the best sex of his life. Was it too much to ask for a woman who didn’t have an agenda to want to have sex with him? He’d been down the revenge-sex path years ago and it was one he didn’t want to take with a woman he’d known for twenty years.

He’d promised Brian that he’d keep an eye on her and that meant he couldn’t very well let her walk around alone in the Crossroads art district after dark.

As CEO of the Vincent Foundation, he’d put Veronica in charge of the annual event as a favor. One he was coming to regret. He was still trying to figure out why Brian was so worried about a wife he’d clearly been neglecting for the past year when Ronnie leaned over and peered into a dimly lit shop.

“There it is,” she hissed, pointing at a weathered brown fedora, jauntily perched on a torso mannequin’s head. Before he could figure out why she was hissing, he glanced through the window, started to shout and everything went into slow motion.

He saw a pair of curvy legs that ended in sexy red spike heels leaning forward and overbalancing a rickety ladder. The bell over the door jangled as he pushed it open and sprinted three full strides. He reached her before she finished screaming.

“She” was an armful of black and white fluff he grabbed and swept out of the way as the ladder fell.

Maybe he couldn’t breathe because she’d smacked him square in the chest but he didn’t think so. Although it could have been because her arms were wrapped solidly around his neck, as if she didn’t intend to let go anytime soon. Fine by him.

He didn’t know if she was shocked that he’d caught her or because she knew the shudder that rippled through her like a faint orgasm had telegraphed its way into his fingertips. She looked like a naughty fairy-tale princess with big blue eyes. A fall of silky dark hair brushed the top of her black turtleneck and her creamy cheeks were flushed as bright as an apple. She knew.

Not the greatest of starts for the morning. I woke at 7:00 when my phone alarm is set to wake me “gently.” I got up, stumbled to the computer, read through some email, but my eyelids kept dragging downward so I went back to bed. Nearly two hours later, I’m starting the day again. Strangely, it feels like I began a whole new day, that I slept 26 hours. It doesn’t feel like Tuesday.

There has to be a story somewhere in there. Help me find it? 🙄

The winner of yesterday’s contest (by random number generator) is…Julie Kiesow! Julie, email me!

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

Did I mention that the Chantix worked and that I’ve been smoke-free for over a month now? Wish it were true for my dreams. Last night I had a nightmare. I found a cigarette on the ground, but didn’t have a lighter. The only thing I could find was a blowtorch, but I couldn’t get it close enough to my face to light the sucker. Gah!

Back to the book…

The Allure Authors are a group of my best writer friends. We produced two anthologies for Avon. This excerpt is from the second one, Alluring Tales 2: Hot Holiday Nights. This book was released in November 2008. My story, Indecent Exposure, is about a girl with a bad reputation for baring her assets in high school, who gets a second chance with her high school crush. Tell me whether you would have made the same choice as Harmony!

From the authors of the bestselling ALLURING TALES: AWAKEN THE FANTASY comes a new erotic romance anthology featuring seven super-sexy holiday-themed short stories. Together, the Allure Authors offer more than just steamy romances—they introduce readers to an erotic world full of limitless possibilities

The holidays are heating up — with seven wickedly sensual stories guaranteed to spice up those chilly winter nights!

A psychology student goes online hoping to live out her steamiest fantasy — and ends up on a hot mystery date with a wickedly imaginative stud who brings out her inner pole-dancer…

A determined lady comes home, burning for her girlhood crush — a sexy lawman who totes a big gun…

A creative ad man’s passion is aroused when he sees his buttoned-up coworker in a revealing new light — dressed in sizzling red satin on a giant billboard…

A professional dominatrix wishes upon a star, and her fantasy appears — an insatiable alpha male in biker boots who’s literally out of this world…

A tall, dark, handsome warlock finds himself obsessed with his “familiar” — a sleek and sexy cat-woman who turns out to be the purr-fect lover…

She was always hot for big brother’s best friend — and now her erotic dream is here in the taut and tempting flesh…

A pair of fugitive lovers finds themselves warm and toasty in a sultry Caribbean paradise — and ready for some red-hot fun in the sun…

Twelve years earlier…

Dalton McDonough, you don’t know it yet—hell, you don’t even know me—but one day your fine ass is gonna be mine!

A blush heated Harmony Wilkin’s cheeks at the crudeness of the thought, but there you had it. When it came to Dalton, all the rules she’d been taught about being a good girl flew out the window.

Lord, he was a temptation—an obsession she couldn’t shake. That she wasn’t alone in mooning over the handsome high school senior didn’t help one bit. There was something special about the strong curve of his jaw, the jut of his high cheekbones and the deep mysterious set of his brown eyes. Add those characteristics to the rest of the package—tall, lean frame and wavy dark hair—and every girl in a tri-county area between the age of five and ninety-five couldn’t help but sigh and wonder what it would be like to be the center of his undivided attention.

Only most girls didn’t do any more than that—sigh and wonder. Harmony, however, wasn’t the kind to leave matters to fate. Somehow, someday, Dalton would be hers. All she needed to move things along a little quicker was information. Being a studious sort, she’d decided that winning Dalton wasn’t any different than any other goal she’d achieved. She just needed to know more about him. Figure out his likes and dislikes.

Find the one thing that might spark his interest in her.

And studying up on Dalton meant she had to take a few risks, because what she needed to know couldn’t be found in any textbook or Cosmo magazine article. Which was why she was sneaking through the dark, risking her reputation and her parent’s trust. Then again, her parents probably wouldn’t care, they’d been shouting at each other so much lately.

Careful not to let the gate slam shut behind her, she crept silently into his backyard, skirting the flagstones surrounding the pool, keeping to the soft, manicured lawn to muffle her footfalls until she reached the French doors outside his bedroom.

Seeking the shadows hugging the side of his house, she hid behind the tall winterberry bush and peered inside. She brushed away the niggling guilt she felt for spying on the object of her affections. Suppressed the unease that any night now, someone would see her stealing out of her bedroom window. But a desperate longing filled Harmony with a sense of purpose that pretty much wiped out every lick o’ sense she’d inherited from her schoolteacher dad.

During the past week of her stealth campaign, she’d learned some pretty interesting things about the quiet, intensely private boy.

Like Dalton slept in the nude.
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