Squee! Checking the stats is a true obsession—and so enjoyable—because when I see news like this, I know someone who’s never read me before has just picked up my book. Because I know everyone here already has, yeah?

To those new converts, thanks and welcome!

Pleasing Sir:

Four Sworn:

Okay, enough listening to me brag! Let’s do something fun. Here’s a “getting-to-know-you” question:

If you could bring to life any fictional character from a book or movie,
whom would you choose?

It’s been a while, but maybe that’s because I haven’t felt very “in the zone” as a writer—what with illness and family crises going on all around me.

However, this past week I got my mojo back. I read through the final typeset galley of Ravished by a Viking this week, and I loved the story. It’s brash, sexy, has high adventure(sea serpents, battles, spaceships)… Okay, you get the idea. It’s gonna be fun!

I finished revising the crap out of the opening for the second Viking book and it feels “right” now. I couldn’t have explained why it didn’t before until a crit partner of mine, Rachel, told me what didn’t work for her. Thank you, thank you, Rachel!!

Also, yesterday I met with a couple of my closest friends to do a first run through of the entries I’ve received thus far for the Girls Who Bite anthology. I have received 32 entries to date. I know the bulk will come closer to the deadline and I wanted to get a jumpstart so I’m not reading myself blind at the very last moment. We read, talked about problems with some of the entries (I’ll be asking some folks for revisions), and ate lots of pizza. (It was an all-nighter, so I’m actually sitting at my friend’s breakfast table writing this. :))

Did I mention that I have three projects due to editors on the exact same date? Yup, on December 1st (which I am calling D-Day), I have Viking-2, Girls Who Bite and a Nocturne Bite all coming due. I have to move out smartly and with a razor-focus for the next two months. And expect me to grow increasingly nuts and panicky the closer the end time comes. My family is already preparing the barricades.

Next week is not going to be a big writing week. On Thursday, I will drive to Little Rock where I’ll meet up with Shayla Kersten to catch a plane to Ohio. Ellora’s Cave Romanticon is going to be so much fun! And after having to miss Lora Leigh’s big party because I was sick, I am ready to have twice as much fun!

Have a terrific week. I’ll have some great guests holding down the fort on my blog while I’m gone. Make them welcome! Toodles for now! ~DD

I am participating in THREE great contests running during the month of October! See details below!

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First is a HUGE giveaway, sponsored by authors Vivian Arend and Moira Rogers. Hundreds of dollars in prizes are at stake. Be sure to click on the Fall Frenzy icon to enter!

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I have a featured contest at Coffee Time Romance. The prize includes a Delilah Devlin tote back filled with books and goodies. For details, visit this page: Contest at Coffee Time Romance!

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6th Annual Raven Online Scavenger Hunt
Open: Month of Oct 2010
Over 50 participating authors and even more in prizes!
Contest info: www.ravenhappyhour.com

As promised, here’s a sneak peek at the story coming your way on October 27th!

Part of the My Immortal Knight series

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

Brothers Kynan and Jack Parker are on a mission. Their species is in need of breedable females. They aren’t happy women are selling their bodies in order to take care of their monthly itch. They take action when it’s discovered there’s a fertile female.

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

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With a shake of her head, Aila Mack tousled her curls then gave her mouth one last swipe of lipstick. Nothing spelled “hooker” quite like cherry-red lipstick and a skirt so short a sneeze would show off the half-moons of her ass.

And that’s exactly what she was—for this weekend anyway. As tawdry as that sounded, some things couldn’t be left to Mother Nature. Not if she wanted to maintain the life she’d fought so hard to live.

She stepped out of her car, tugged down the hem of her black skirt, and vamped to the door of the mountain cabin where she’d been directed by the agency.

Light glared around the edges of the curtains; smoke billowed from the chimney. The remoteness of this particular client didn’t worry her. If things got a little rough, they could easily take the action out of doors.

After shooting one last glance around the moonlit clearing, she took a deep breath and knocked.

The heavy tread of a man’s footsteps sounded on the other side, and the door swung open. Aila glanced up…and up…locking gazes with one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen—not handsome in a pretty-boy way, but his angular, hard-edged features appealed like no other’s she’d ever seen.

Coal-black hair was brushed back from his forehead. Chilly blue eyes gleamed as his gaze slowly raked her body. A broad, muscular chest above lean hips and powerful thighs made her hopeful that, this time, she’d find her own pleasure in the mating. She was almost envious of the soft chambray shirt and wash-softened blue jeans that hugged his large frame.

He shifted to the side and silently waved her into the room.

All that brawn. Mmm-mm.

She wished he wouldn’t speak and ruin it.

Aila walked inside, set her purse on a table next to the door, and studied the rugged log walls and heavy, masculine furnishings. They suited the man.

“Any trouble findin’ us?” he asked, his deep voice softened by the Southern drawl that rasped across her skin like a caress.

Then she realized what he’d just said. Her head swung toward him. “Us?” she asked, her voice rising.

His frosty eyes narrowed. “My brother and I contracted you for the weekend.”

“I wasn’t told there’d be more than one client. This’ll cost more.” Wear and tear from one lusty animal was bad enough.

His lips twisted, but he gave a sharp nod. “Come into the kitchen. Kynan’s makin’ dinner. Have you already eaten?”

“I’m not hungry.”

His mouth stretched into a predatory smile that bared his white teeth. “Now that’d be a waste, sugar.”

She snorted. How like a wolf…

Still, a job was a job, and she needed the hookup for more than the money. The full moon crept slowly across the sky, pulling her libido along in its wake and making it hard to concentrate when a healthy, attractive male was within arm’s length. She drew in his spicy scent and let the unique smell of his lupine pheromones feed the arousal burgeoning between her thighs. A crude reminder of the one part of her life she hadn’t been able to replace in the human world.

What would happen tonight wasn’t any mystery, but she didn’t have to end the chase at first scent. She wouldn’t offer him that satisfaction.

Without giving him another glance, she rolled her hips side to side, followed the unmistakable sound of a knife thudding against a cutting board, and left the hungry male growling in her wake.