When I decided to make the heroine of EDEN’S SIN a prostitute, I found some very interesting facts—and some sad and disgusting facts. Today I wanted to give you a peek into life for a
“working girl” in the 1800’s Old West.

Miss Kitty Lied

Oh, Miss Kitty, how you deceived us all. Remember Gunsmoke and Sheriff Matt Dillon’s main squeeze? Perfect silk dress, perfectly styled red curls – perfect beauty mark. How clean and wonderful the life of a Wild West saloon girl must have been. . .

*insert sound of screeching brakes here*

Um, no. Let’s look at some facts. In descending order there were: Parlor Houses, Brothels, Cribs. Even in a Parlor House *think 5 star hotel* where a night of food, fun and the other “F” word might cost a man $200+, the girl only averaged $10 per week because of the cut the Madam (or the house) took the rest to cover the costs of food, wine and the girl’s room and board.

Brothel girls could make $2.50 – $7.00 per customer, but she had to pay room and board out of this plus any other expenses she had. Oh, and Brothels were significantly less grand than a Parlor House. Parlor houses the girl probably spent the entire night with one man and her sheets were changed afterward. Brothel girls saw more “traffic” and her sheets might be changed once per week.

Cribs were a closet-like space where the girls lived and worked. She would rent this room for $10-$20 per week. She charged a man as little as 25 cents depending on how dirty or run-down she and/or her crib was. Her profit was in volume. In a cattle or mining town, she would little more than stay in bed as the men lined up outside her door. Normally, a crib nymph would see 20 to 30 men per night. During a cattle drive, she could see as many as 75 to 100 men per night. And no clean sheets here. She put a rain slicker over the bottom of her bed to protect the sheets from mud and cow manure since the cowboy might take off his hat, but not his boots or pants. Volume, remember?

Yes, there were Saloon Girls who could just serve drinks, but they could also “go upstairs” for extra money. And Dance Hall Girls, yes, they were there, earning 12 ½ cents per dance. But all in all after researching this topic, I have to say, Miss Kitty lied to us. What do you think?

*All statistics were found in UPSTAIRS GIRLS: Prostitution in the American West by Michael Rutter

THANK YOU for stopping by today!

Jennifer Jakes is the author of sensual erotic romance. Her award-winning debut novel, RAFE’S REDEMPTION, a historical western, is #1 Kindle Best Seller, as did her novella, TWICE IN A LIFETIME.

Her latest release, EDEN’S SIN, is now available at Amazon.
RAFE’S REDEMPTION : Amazon  |  TWICE IN A LIFETIME Amazon
Find out more about Jennifer at www.jenniferjakes.com

What would you do with a SEAL under the covers?

I know Delilah’s fans and readers could imagine quite a lot of things one could do with a SEAL under the covers. My new book makes a play on this fantasy, but is about a Puerto Rican born Navy SEAL, Armando Guzman, and his hot love affair with the attractive Gina Mancuso, who is actually an undercover cop, working the gang unit in San Diego.

I wanted to show a SEAL who had not always been a good boy. In fact, he had a rocky start in life, growing up in a rough environment in East L.A., running with a gang at one time. Through twists of fate, he eventually found his way into the loving arms of the U.S. Navy, where he tried out for and made the Teams. He qualified expert and became a SEAL sniper, one of the best of the very best. With that also comes some baggage: brothers in arms lost, innocent civilians paying a price they should not have to pay. The things that make wars so horrible for everyone, but things these guys have a ringside seat for.

As with all the SEALs in my Brotherhood series, these men are heavily trained to react to anything and improvise when needed. They are trained to make decisions based on calculations of outcome, assessing targets, risks and the environment. They even learn to train their emotions so that they are as little a factor as possible. Who can forget the scene in Act of Valor when the SEAL falls on the live grenade, sacrificing himself to save his buddies?

But coming home, their equipment and training does little to save them from the complexities of the female personality and the SEAL’s excruciating need of their companionship. These are guys who need intense physical sex without commitment. But their innate sense of right and wrong needles them about this on so many levels.

I love writing about these kinds of tugs of war going on inside the Alpha Male psyche. Part of what makes a good military romance is that the hero can be counted on to do the right thing almost all the time. He may make an honest mistake, but he has an internal moral code that will not allow him to go beyond certain lines.

Sometimes these heroes don’t know where that line is until they run smack up to it.

Here’s an excerpt from SEAL Under Covers, which is now available on Amazon:

“Do I have a choice?” she said to him, watching that smirky little smile and sexy eyes making fun of her while her heart did flip-flops. She’d been close to peeing on herself while she sat and watched her ex-boyfriend nearly call out the brother—the SEAL brother of the woman they were working. It had been wrong on so many levels, even the Pope couldn’t dish out enough forgiveness.

“Get in.” It was a command that made her tense, but the smile he flashed afterwards made her panties wet. Suddenly her ankles wobbled and she nearly fell, which would have been totally uncool. And damn, but if he didn’t reach out and put a strong, muscled arm around to steady her. He let her go after he gave her one hurried squeeze, just tight enough for her to learn he was aroused.

Another footnote to a perfectly fucked evening. Her mission was nearly blown. Why did she feel guilty for that? They were supposed to be hanging out with the gang by the stage. Well, she couldn’t help it if Sam and the rest of the crew had decided to pull a game change on her. As she slid onto the torn leather seat of the old truck, she smiled at the recollection. It had been damned satisfying, slapping Sam and tossing the drink into his face. She’d stared right back at him when he showed his anger. And she didn’t flinch or cower this time. She was filled with pride. She’d stood up to him, finally!

But now what? On any other evening, getting into a truck with a SEAL would be a no-brainer. Nothing wrong with a night of sex with a hot guy, if that was where he was headed. She wasn’t completely sure, but she wasn’t that rusty that she couldn’t recognize a good, clean come-on. The fact that he was the brother of their party of interest and it was totally forbidden only heightened her anticipation. But decisions like that were never good ones. She had to put a stop to this somehow. Read the rest of this entry »

Animals and Ghosts

Most of my books have pets in them—or at least animals of some kind. I don’t really plan to include them. They just sort of sneak up on me. Dogs, cats, chickens, I’ve had them all wandering through one or another of my books. But when I wrote my paranormal Ramos Family trilogy for Berkley InterMix, the situation was a little different. I wasn’t sure how I’d work an animal into a series about a family of mediums, most of whom were reluctant to take advantage of their supernatural connections.

The first book in the trilogy, Medium Well, didn’t have any normal beasties hanging around, although a ghost cat provided some significant information to the hero and heroine. But the second, Medium Rare, more than makes up for it. My medium, Rose Ramos, ends up sharing her house (haunted, of course) with a couple of spirit animals that adopt her after some traumatic events.

This in turn led to some interesting problems in creating these animals. How would a pet hellhound behave, for example? What does it eat (besides people)? What kind of leash would you use? Where would it sleep? Do hell hounds sleep?

To make things more interesting, I made Helen (the hellhound) invisible to everyone except the heroine and her hero boyfriend—although being a thorough-going skeptic, he doesn’t catch on to that fact for much of the book. Helen is joined later on by a similarly invisible raven, but my heroine decides having spirit animals around isn’t any tougher than dealing with the supernatural guest she’s already got in residence—a several-hundred-years-old ghost who’s been part of her family for generations.

In Medium Rare, ghosts come in all sizes and shapes, some of them scary and some of them not so much. But at least a couple of them are of the house pet variety. And what do you feed a hellhound? Pretty much anything she wants, as it turns out.

Here’s a quick excerpt showing Helen’s arrival:

Suddenly, she heard the sound of paws galloping along the driveway, monstrous claws clicking on the asphalt. She fumbled for the key she kept in the old mailbox at the door, jamming it into the lock and twisting for all she was worth.

Close behind her, something yipped as she shoved the front door open, half falling through, trying to shove it closed with her shoulder. A large heavy projectile struck her chest with the force of a missile, blowing the door wide and throwing her down full-length just inside. She looked up into an immense mouth full of yellowing fangs. Threads of drool hung a few inches from her face.

She tried to twist away, pulling as far back as she could beneath the dog’s weight. Dread clenched her stomach as she closed her eyes. “Ohgodohgodohgod.”

“Rose!” Skag’s voice echoed through the hall. “That’s a hellhound. Stay absolutely still! Do not move!”

She couldn’t have moved if her life depended on it, which, of course, it probably did. The dog’s huge paws still held her shoulders flat against the floor. Its breath blew hot against her cheeks, smelling of old meat and open graves. She struggled to breathe under its weight, tensing for the moment it would clamp its teeth on her throat. She heard the faint creak of its jaws as they opened wider.

And then something large, damp, and utterly disgusting swiped across her cheeks.

She peeked through her lashes up into the dog’s face. Glowing orange eyes stared back as the animal prepared to lick her again. Read the rest of this entry »

Thank you, Delilah, for giving me the opportunity to guest blog and dish about my strange writing companion—my cat, BadKitteh.

I often get asked the typical “where do you write?” question. I don’t have an exciting answer. I write at my tiny cluttered built-in kitchen desk in the middle of my kitchen. I like being able to multi-task while I write. That way I can cook dinner, bake brownies, be close to the front door in case the door bell rings and close to the laundry room in case I remember to do a load of wash. Also, if I wasn’t in the room where all the food is, I’d often be too busy to remember to eat. Since I’m in the kitchen it’s easy to grab a snack. Although my most frequent snack is chocolate, I try to have the pretense of eating healthy, so at least once a day I’ll grab a piece of fruit….which leads me to the disclosure most people find baffling: My cat loves fruit.

Those of you who follow me on Twitter have likely long seen me posting about BadKitteh. He’s my twenty pound Maine coon cat. He’s got the personality of a dog. He’s deaf but talks constantly and, probably because he can’t hear what he’s saying, he makes sounds most cats never utter—lots of R’s and W’s and K’s—he often sounds like Dory speaking whale. And he doesn’t believe in personal boundaries. He will fall asleep with his head in my purse, stick his face in any glass anyone leaves anywhere (then drink from it, then knock it over), and he ALWAYS steals my fruit.

When we first brought BadKitteh home from the pound seven years ago we thought he was just a normal cat. He looked like a cat. How were we to know? Sure it was a little weird that he greeted all of our guests at the door and that he licked the feet of every woman who entered our house, but hey, who am I to judge? One day I bought a container of raspberries, rinsed them off in a little colander and set them on the kitchen table. I left the room for a few minutes and returned to find BadKitteh standing on one of the kitchen chairs, head in the colander and only a few berries left. I’ve had cats all my life. I’d never seen one eat a raspberry. I thought it was weird but I figured it was just a single quirk. Wrong.

Over the course of that summer it became apparent that he wasn’t just a raspberry fan. No matter what fruit I eat—plums, nectarines, apples, cherries, blueberries, grapes, watermelon, cantaloupe, honeydew, kiwis—he will bat at my hands until I give him some. When he’s really determined he’ll swat it out of my hand. He’s occasionally pulled grapes out of grocery bags before I’ve gotten them in the fridge or stolen them out of the fruit bin in the fridge if I leave it open for too long.

***Hello readers. Karen has stepped away to start dinner. There doesn’t appear to be any fruit involved, so I’m going to take a moment to correct some things in this post. It’s so hard to type on her keyboard because she writes so much she’s worn all the letters off the keys. Lucky for me, I touch type. I have to say, I don’t know why she insists on calling me BadKitteh. I mean, I never actually hear her saying it, but does she seriously think I don’t read her Tweets? Besides, I’m really quite well behaved. Sure, I threw up in her tote bag once. None of her shoes were around. What was I supposed to do? Use the floor? I know she secretly enjoys sharing her fruit with me. Sure she shakes her head and scowls the whole time, but I know that’s just an act. Humans. They’re so moody and hard to train. I really just…oh, wait….there’s no fruit but she’s making a salad! I see a cucumber! And lettuce! Gotta go!***

See what I mean? No boundaries. None. He’s lucky he’s so cute. So, tell me (and BadKitteh, since you know he’ll read the replies the moment I step away from my desk)—what weird, quirky habits make your pet unique? Tell us all their secrets. You know they’d tell us yours!

Latest release: DECADENCE (cover photo attached separately)

In eight years of marriage, Eric Carlson has never forgotten to kiss his wife Jessica goodbye—until this morning. As Jessica runs her errands, all she can think about is the missing kiss.

When Eric calls to tell her he thinks he left the toaster oven on, she rushes home, annoyed and afraid their house may be burning down. Instead of smoke and flames she finds Eric, looking hot and sexy as hell as he prepares fresh waffles.

Eric knows he and Jessica have been drifting apart. He’s bought the hot new product everyone’s talking about—the Spice Rack, guaranteed to spice up your love life. The jar he opens advises them to “Spend a decadent day indulging all your senses.” With the whole day ahead of them, a fridge full of tempting treats and the house to themselves for a change, that’s exactly what Eric intends to do—in the kitchen, on the washing machine, wherever the mood strikes. And Jessica’s got a super-steamy surprise for him too.

What reviewers are saying about Decadence:

“Sweet, erotic and very satisfying.” ~ 5 stars and a Top Pick from The Romance Reviews

“A fun, hot story that made steam rise off my e-reader.” ~ 5 stars and a Top Pick from Night Owl Reviews

*~*~*~*~*

Karen Stivali is a prolific writer, compulsive baker and chocoholic with a penchant for books, movies and fictional British men. She writes erotic romance, contemporary romance and women’s fiction for Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing and Turquoise Morning Press, respectively.

“If you haven’t read a book by Karen Stivali then you are missing out on a wonderful writer of contemporary romance.” ~ GUILTY PLEASURES BOOK REVIEWS

“Karen Stivali is a mastermind at creating compelling, entertaining stories that have grit, depth, genuine, charismatic characters, fluid, believable dialogue, and emotional entanglements that will keep the reader engrossed from beginning to end.” BLACKRAVEN REVIEW

“Karen Stivali’s books are sweet and decadent and leave you hungering for more and more. Everything she writes is like chocolate on paper.” ~Tiffany Reisz, author of the Original Sinner series from Mira Books

For more information about current and upcoming projects please visit her website: https://karenstivali.com

Karen can also be found on:
Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes and Noble | AllRomanceEbooks

Double or Nothing!
Ménage a trois and cowboys.

Hello! *waving* Remember me?

I think I lost you all for a moment as your mind wandered off, no doubt engrossed in the possibilities. All that naked flesh coming together, hard chests, broad shoulders, sculpted muscles, lips touching, hands stroking, limbs entwining, soft moans…

Ahem! Sorry about that. Where was I?

Oh, yes, ménage a trois and cowboys. That’s a winning combination. After all, who doesn’t love a cowboy, a man who gets his rock-hard body from demanding physical labor and sweat. There’s something elemental about a man who works the land and doesn’t punch a time clock, a man with old-fashioned values who believes right is right and wrong is just plain wrong. Sure that old-fashioned machismo can be annoying at times to a modern woman, but there’s something reassuring about knowing this man will always have your back.

Now, what’s better than one cowboy? Two, of course.

Wesson and Remington Smith are brothers who are determined not to let Cherry Edmonds, the woman they’ve both hungered for over the past ten years, to slip away now that’s she’s come back to Texas. The problem is there’s no real tactful way to bring up the fact they both want to sleep with her.

That brings us to the ménage a trois part. How does a modern woman come to grips with the idea that two hot cowboys both want her. It’s enough to blow any sane woman’s mind. Sure it might be okay for a night or two, but what’s going to happen when both men want to make it permanent? How can that work without  at least one brother feeling shut out? It’s just crazy. Right?

Or is it…

That’s the premise for Double or Nothing, my latest release from Ellora’s Cave Publishing.

After ten years away from home, Cherry Edmonds returns to West Texas when her father is ill and dying. Now she is left to deal with the estate and pick up the pieces of her life. The past is waiting for her in the form of Wesson and Remington Smith, the two brothers she was half in love with when she was eighteen.

Wes and Remy know they’re different from most men. They are both in love with Cherry and have been since they were kids. One night of hot sex leaves all of them wanting more, but she believes their time together is just a one-night stand. It’s up to the Smith brothers to prove their love for Cherry and their commitment to the ménage, and to convince Cherry’s she’s definitely capable of loving two Texas cowboys.

A Romantica® contemporary erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

Buy from Ellora’s Cave

N.J. has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

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Just a quick note! My dd gave birth to a baby girl yesterday. Everything went well. Mom and little girl will be in the hospital for a couple of days. Siobhán Etaine is 7 lbs. 11 oz. and gorgeous! I’ll be back at the hospital, and then staying with the family to help out for a couple of weeks. I got the privilege of changing her first diaper. 😯

Back to the snippet. I don’t usually write smooth operators. My heroes tend to be gruff and to the point, but there have been a couple… Quentin from My Immortal Knights and Nicolas Mountfalcon from the Dark Realm series. I adore them both, and so did readers.

Nicolas makes his first appearance in book 1, Into the Darkness, and although he was a secondary character there, he made quite an impression. I think you will see why when you read the excerpt.

“Ms Devlin has created a suspenseful masterpiece against the back drop of the impending Hurricane Katrina. Her characters are passionately and elegantly written and the plot is full of twists that keep you turning the page.” ~5 Stars, Single Titles

“…INTO THE DARKNESS starts off running and never lets up…From its intriguing and twisted storyline, in-depth and well-written characters, to the torrid sex scenes, INTO THE DARKNESS is a must read for those paranormal lovers who love to live on the edge.” ~Romance Reviews Today

“In a field of plenty, Ms. Devlin cut a new vein in the paranormal/vampire genre with INTO THE DARKNESS. […] An amazing blend of storytelling smothered in carnal ferocity…” ~Paranormal Romance Reviews

Natalie Lambert’s life has changed in the space of weeks — and she has no idea why. Her parents were murdered, she has her first taste of sexual desire — and she feels out of control, afraid, desperate to understand her changing world. She flees to New Orleans , hoping to lure the murderer out of the dark and bring to an end the trail of dead loved ones. Instead, she’s attacked by crazed birds, swarmed by locusts, and saved by a Cajun cop who awakens all her latent desires.

When Rene Broussard rescues a virgin vampire, he ends up in her bed and becomes hers for life in one lusty bite. Rene awakens the vampire within Natalie, and she awakes the passion within him. Together, they fight the evil threatening to destroy The Born vampires amidst the horror of Hurricane Katrina while they discover a treasure of love they can share for all eternity.

A crunch sounded outside—a crisp scrape like a footstep on grit. A sound Natalie knew was distant, perhaps from the courtyard below the window, but it jerked her awake in an instant just the same.

And just as quickly, she knew something wasn’t right.

The sound might have been the rustle of drying leaves as they tumbled across the paving stones or a small animal slipping between the iron bars of the gate, but she knew that wasn’t true.

She no longer questioned how she knew—she accepted the prickling warning the same way she did the fact she was a vampire. Instinctually.

The hairs on the back of her neck lifted and alarm tensed her muscles, readying her for flight.

Only she wasn’t the same frightened girl she’d been before tonight. Now, she’d gained a measure of personal power. She was becoming a monster in her own right.

And she had Rene.

Only he wasn’t here, now. His musky scent lingered in the bedroom, clung to the pillow beneath her nose, but he’d been gone for some time.

Was he aware of the furtive movements outside his house? Had he left to investigate? Or had he tried to escape her once again?

She couldn’t aford to wait for him to come to her rescue. This time, she’d be ready for whatever stepped out of the shadows. Refusing to huddle beneath the covers, she slipped from the bed and crept to the French window. Read the rest of this entry »

Hobbies and Obsessions

A. Catherine Noon here.  Thank you to Delilah Devlin for inviting Rachel Wilder and I back for a guest post.  We’re pleased as punch to be back at Chez Delilah for some summer fun!

I got to thinking about summer, and fun, and Delilah (no, no, nothing like that), and on her Facebook page she periodically shares photos of some lovely jewelry that she makes when she’s not writing the books we know and love.  I do something similar in terms of my knitting hobby (obsession) and Rachel crochets.  But what about our favorite characters?

In our newest release, TIGER TIGER, available now from Samhain Publishing, we gave our main character Sasha the hobby of jogging.  Of course, if you know anyone who jogs, you know it’s really more of an obsession – if they don’t get their miles in, they get cranky.  In another novel we wrote, EMERALD FIRE, our main character is a textile artist and makes a pair of socks for the hero.  Who else do we know that has a real hobby?

Any of you out there NCIS fans?  Leroy Jethro Gibbs loves to work with his hands and does carpentry in his basement (the actor actually was a carpenter before he became an actor).  Sherlock Holmes plays the violin (which the two current retellings keep faithfully, though no one can eclipse Jeremy Brett’s performance).  Something about these hobbies makes these characters more real to the viewer or reader, makes the character more like a human being than a one-dimensional cardboard cutout.

What about you?  Who are some of your favorite characters and what are their hobbies?

Chicagoland Shifters, Book 2

Veterinary trauma surgeon and animal empath Sasha Soskoff has found everything he ever wanted with his new partners Neal, Steve and Carlos. Life feels as safe and secure as it can be among a group of ex-Marine tiger shifters. Until a homeless man is found, gruesomely mauled and murdered, near Neal’s BDSM club.

When it’s determined a rogue tiger did the deed, the jaguars’ accusing eyes turn toward Sasha’s lovers. The precarious balance of peace tips dangerously toward war.

Neal knows damned well none of his tigers committed the crime. Someone must be in Chicago without his knowledge or permission, and they’d better find him fast before uncertainty and conflict rip the tight-knit band apart from the inside.

As Sasha struggles to heal the stress fractures forming among his tiger family, he begins to wonder if his dreams of a home, and love, were too good to be true. And it’s precisely that moment the killer strikes at the heart of the tiger clan—Sasha himself.

About the Authors

For author and textile artist A. Catherine Noon, it’s all about the yarn, both metaphorical and literal—spinning a yarn, knitting with yarn, weaving, sewing, painting, sharing stories and good times over a cup of coffee with dark chocolate. She teaches creative writing, creative expression and textile arts.

Author and image consultant Rachel Wilder is passionate about the masks and costumes people wear. She loves exploring that with her characters. Living in Las Vegas gives her an ample backdrop to pursue her curiosity.

Noon and Wilder links:
https://taurusandtaurus.blogspot.com/
https://noonandwilder.com/
https://www.facebook.com/noonandwilder

A. Catherine Noon:
https://acatherinenoon.blogspot.com/
https://acatherinenoon.com/
https://www.facebook.com/acatherinenoon
https://twitter.com/acatherinenoon