The Crazy Writer’s Life for Me!

With the fun of the new Snow White movie coming out, I can barely stand the wait. In the meantime I’m stuck…er…happily penning wildly erotic stories for the enjoyment of those waiting for the next great movie to come out. Oh, hell, you know you love the wildly erotic stories, f*** the movies. Our imaginations can be oh, so much more entertaining. With a storyline to follow, interesting characters come alive on the page to our wonder, delight and desire.

In case you hadn’t noticed, I’m in a crazily happy mood. Why, you might ask? Who knows? Perhaps it’s the fact that I recently contracted for 6 works under my other pen name (Elle James) for Harlequin. Or maybe it’s the unprecedented success (for me) of my latest Samhain cowboy book, BOOTS AND CHAPS or perhaps it’s the first draft of the incredibly hot cover for my next Samhain release BOOTS AND LEATHER coming out in August.

Truthfully, I think it’s an hysterical reaction to over commitment, with a vacation (to St. Thomas!!) coming up and too much to do in too short a time. *she laughs maniacally—bwahahaha*

Whatever the reason, I’ll ride this happy rollercoaster until it spins out of control and plummets to the earth for the few split-seconds this crazy writer slumps into the pits of hell—that dreaded place called self-doubt—only to rise again on the wave of a glorifying review from a loving fan.

Ah, the life of a writer…Who needs drugs?

Prize. Did someone say prize? I’m sure I heard someone say prize, therefore for anyone equally crazy enough to leave a comment in the spirit of insanity, I offer a chance to win a download of one of my fabulously erotic works. So please leave a comment of a purely ridiculous nature and maybe you too will catch the next round of lunacy. Come! Come! Comment!

BOOTS AND CHAPS

Welcome to the Ugly Stick Saloon

She gave up stripping to go legit…until three Kiowa cowboys bring on the down-and-dirty.

Jackson Gray Wolf is turning thirty, and what does he have to show for it? A ranch. No wife, no kids, no dates. He’s had his eye on the pretty owner of the Ugly Stick Saloon, but their one accidental encounter was interrupted before he could get her out of her take-me-now red cowboy boots.

Audrey Anderson isn’t in the market for a man. Been there, done that, has the scars to prove it. She retired her pole-dancing boots after purchasing the Ugly Stick Saloon, and now manages a stable of strippers. When she winds up one stripper short for a private party, she’s forced to slip on a mask and into the role of the mysterious Kiki.

Jackson didn’t want the birthday bash his twin brothers are throwing him, but his vow to ignore the rented stripper goes awry when she shows him exactly how far she’s willing to go—for all three of them.

Audrey can’t forget the sizzling heat between her and one sexy Kiowa in particular. Jackson. Trouble is, she’s not sure if he wants the bold, brassy Kiki, or if he’s ready for the wounded woman underneath.

My daughter inventoried my stash of books yesterday, and I realize I have far too many copies of certain books to keep. Soooooo, I’m going to give away sets of two to four lucky winners!

The 4x2x4 Contest!

What can you win?
I will give away four sets of two signed books to four lucky winners—winners’ choices from among these titles:

Down in Texas
Enslaved by a Viking
Into the Darkness
Tempted by a Cowboy
Texas Men
Wild, Wild Women of the West
Wild, Wild Women of the West II

What do you have to do to win?
Post a comment on any blog posting from today until the contest ends. Each entry counts as another chance to win!

This contest ends in two weeks, March 16th!

And if I currently owe any contest mailings, bookmark mailings, etc., I will get to them this week! I tend to let them stack up before I spend an afternoon working on packaging/addressing/stamping! I know, bad author me!

Don’t forget The Promo Ho Contest

If you’re a fan, and you’ve already read some of the My Immortal Knight books, this contest is a quick win! Up for grabs? TWO $25.00 Amazon.com Gift Certificates! Click on this link for details: Promo Ho Contest

Today’s Question

Say someone got you drunk enough to strip in front of a crowd… 
Yeah, most of us wouldn’t, but just say…
What song would you request for your sexy striptease?

Forget Love…Go For Lust

When I was a teenager, I had a bumper sticker that said, “Forget Love…Go For Lust.” I never put it on the car, of course. My mother would have had a cow…and she might have started paying attention to my love life. But that bumper sticker adorned my locker, my college dorm room and it’s still sticking in my head.

Although I learned from a Judith Krantz in “I’ll Take Manhattan,” that T-shirts are “pure aggression,” I have one that says “Plays well with others.” I also bought the “Runs with scissors,” and gave it to a friend. I wear my “What I really need are minions,” shirt when I’m trying to meet a deadline. And that “Be careful or you’ll end up in my novel,” T-shirt always makes me smile, but I don’t own it. Why warn them, lol?!

Words stick with me. I love Nike ads, the J. Peterman catalog, the Zingerman’s catalog and Anne Taintor, Flavia and S.A.R.K. I joy in a greeting card so chock full of meaning, I actually spend $4.99 on it. I love it when someone paints a vivid picture in my head and I’m transported somewhere wild and new. I’m a sucker for provocative irony, too. When I was in high school, this manifested as a thing for buttons. All that angst, all that lust and clueless passion combined with egocentrism, inspired more than one flirty button purchase. I actually wore that “Come near me and I’ll kill you” button out on a date with a guy I knew was going to dump me…any…minute. *Sigh* He just wasn’t that into me, but I’m ever so grateful for our eye-opening interlude. He was wild and weird and a crazy-good kisser. I love that button because it reminds me of me, fifteen, dangerous and full of passion.

Do you have an inspiring phrase? Some compelling collection of words that reminds you of someone…or someone you used to be? Please share them in the comments. One lucky commenter will win a bar of Lush brand Lust soap and Romance Trading Cards for my erotic romance novellas SoloPlay and Bottoms Up. The Lust soap smells like jasmine, long believed to be an aromatic aphrodisiac. Unlike my teenage self, I don’t think you should forget love…but lust never goes out of style! Thanks for having me, Delilah!

About Miranda Baker

It makes me chuckle to think about all the romantic short stories I wrote in my rather too literary creative writing classes in college. If only one of my professors had steered me toward popular fiction! On the other hand, if I had discovered my calling back then, I wouldn’t have gone to culinary school, I wouldn’t have met my husband, we wouldn’t have had three children and I wouldn’t have turned to erotic romance to get my mojo back during all this hair-raising kid raising.

My website: http://www.mirandabaker.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/Miranda_Baker
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MirandaBakerfans

Click on cover to purchase Solo Play!

Things are a brewin’ for the MIK (My Immortal Knight) books! But I can’t talk about it right now. Lips are zipped! In the meantime, there’s some work we have to do. And this is directed to those who have already read the MIKs, so the rest of you…well, you can certainly go read the first book and join in the fun to come!

In the meantime, I need reviews! It’s going to be particularly important for the first book soon. Trouble is, I went to Amazon to check the listing and I have one review—and it’s a 2 because the reader couldn’t get past the ugly cover. Like I have any control over that?! My wonderful editor at EC took care of that little problem, and very soon this pretty new cover will be the new All Hallows Heartbreaker cover!

For the next few weeks, I’ll be back every few days with more chores for y’all! I promise, I’ll bring prezzies. Yes, I’m a crass promo ho, but if it’s possible to attract the attention of readers and get them to come along for the ride (that is continuing soon!), I’ll do it! And it’s in your interest too—if you want more MIKs, that is!

The contest below is just the start. I’d also love it if you would “like” and “tag” as many of the MIKs on Amazon as you can. All of this is important, I just can’t tell you why NOW!

And because I’d love to get the ball rolling, I will add a ONE-DAY-ONLY contest today. Leave me a note, telling me you tagged and liked my books on Amazon, and you’re entered for a $10.00 gift certificate that I will email to the winner tomorrow!

The Promo Ho Contest

What can you win?
I’m giving away two $25.00 Amazon.com gift certificates.

What do you have to do to enter?
See the links below? These books are in sore need of online reviews by readers. So I’m offering a tempting bribe. And wouldn’t you like to have some cash to spend on new books? And who knows? Maybe you already have these stories sitting on your TBR pile. Time to move them to the top!

Give an honest review for one of these stories on one of the online bookstores. Send me the link at del…@delilahdevlin.com. It can be the same review on three different sites, but send me three separate messages with the different links. Doesn’t matter if the review is on Ellora’s Cave’s website, Amazon or Nook—send me the link to the review. Easy as that!

This contest ends March 15th!

MIK-1: All Hallows Heartbreaker
Review at Amazon
Review at Ellora’s Cave

MIK-1: Love Bites
Review at Amazon
Review at Ellora’s Cave

MIK-3: All Knight Long
Review at Amazon
Review at Ellora’s Cave

MIK-4: Relentless
Review at Amazon
Review at Ellora’s Cave

I’ve been a little overwhelmed on the home front, but didn’t want you to think I’d
forgotten about the Three Signed Books Contest. I’ll post the winner and a new contest on my blog tomorrow! ~DD

IDEAS

When I meet people and mention I’m a novelist, their first question is often, “Where do you get your ideas?” I’m absolutely shameless and will scavenge for inspiration everywhere. Sometimes I happen to overhear an enticing chance remark. Other times, I’m doing research for one book and find ideas for another. I love going to movies, and a minor character might spark my imagination in a completely new direction. A poet friend and I liked to sit in outdoor cafes to watch for people who’d make intriguing characters. When we’d spot one, he’d make notes for a poem, and I’d find a way to use him/her in a book.

One night we were in a restaurant and our waiter had a thick accent we couldn’t understand. We didn’t want to insult him and did the best we could, but he made a terrific space pirate who shouted orders his crew couldn’t understand and follow. I also like to observe the way people move. Some have a distinctive walk, and whether it’s a proud posture, or a lazy slump, I use it. Colin Firth leads with his shoulders, as an example. For fun, note how your favorite actors walk.

My February Retro Romance from Samhain, CAPTIVE HEART, is a Viking adventure I wrote after traveling through Scandinavia. There are wonderful museums there with beautiful thousand-year-old artifacts that provide excellent detail for a story. There is a museum in Oslo with the Oseberg ship found in a burial mound. It’s complete down to the intricate carvings and it’s a marvelous thing to see. There’s another Viking ship museum in Roskilde, Denmark. In approximately 1070, the five ships were sunk in the harbor to protect the city from invasion. They were excavated in 1962 and are displayed in a wonderful building right on the coast. Standing beside them, I felt an eerie sensation, as though the ships were haunted by the men who’d sailed them. I couldn’t wait to get home and begin a book where my hero and heroine sailed in a proud Viking ship bound for adventure and best of all, romance.

I’ll give a print or ebook copy of CAPTIVE HEART to someone who comments. It’s one of my most popular books, and a New York Times bestseller. I love to hear from fans, please send me an email:phoebeconn@earthlink.net or visit my website.

The winner of the Ellora’s Cave Grab Bag Contest is… Ha! You have to wait until the end!

Three Signed Books Contest

What can you win?
I’m trying to clear shelf space in my office, and I had extra copies of books lying around, so your prizes this time around are signed copies of ALL of these books, plus some fun promo items:

What do you have to do to win?
Post a comment. And keep commenting every day the contest runs, because each of those comments counts as another entry! This contest ends next Tuesday, January 31st!

Here’s the conversation starter for today….

If you won $2 million tomorrow, what are the first three things you think you would do or buy as soon as you had the check in your hand?
~ from The Question Guys

So, back to the winner of the Ellora’s Cave Grab Bag Contest… By random number generator, the winner is…Mary Preston! Mary, congrats, and be sure to send me an email to arrange delivery of your prize!

I have two winners to name, but you’ll have to slog through the “deets” of the new contest!

The Ellora’s Cave Grab Bag Contest

I have a great big bag of stuff to give away to one lucky winner.

What’s in the prize pack?
Things too numerous to mention, but which include:
A signed book by Lila DiPasqua (not an EC author, but since I had a copy of The Princess in His Bed, I thought I’d add it to spice up the pot!)
A sexy mouse pad signed by Liz Andrews
A J.K. Coi and Christine D’Abo water bottle
A multitude of trading cards, bookmarks, excerpt booklets, pens, Post-It pads, etc.

What do you have to do to win?
Post comments on this blog or on my Facebook Fan Page, from now until the contest ends! Each time you post counts as another entry!

Since I’ll be away on a trip to DC, I’m extending this contest through January 17th!

Here’s a question to start today’s conversation:

What’s the difference between innocent flirting and cheating?

So back to those winners…

Thanks so much to everyone who participated in both contests.
The winner of The Fairy Trinket Box Contest is…Linda Womack!
The winner of Cynthia D’Alba’s free download of Texas Two-Step is…Vicki Batman!
Congratulations, ladies! Thanks for playing. Be sure to send me an email
to arrange delivery of your prizes.