“I have three phobias which, could I mute them, would make my life as slick as a sonnet but as dull as ditchwater: I hate to go to bed, I hate to get up, and I hate to be alone…” ~Tallulah Bankhead

Last night, my daughter and I heard a very loud whomp while we were sitting outside in the dark gossiping about our day. Spooked, my dd told me to go upstairs and tell her big, brave hubby to take his high-powered flashlight and see what it was. I did. I found him already asleep, so I turned on my phone battery and wandered out into the front yard, checking the gate, fences. No bear (we have neighbors with pics of bears going through the trash). No intruders (we’re on hyper-alert due to warnings to LEO families of random attacks). So no, I’m not afraid of things that go bump in the night like she is.

Three things I am afraid of…?

I’m afraid of being normal. (I know it sounds silly, but it’s been my thing my entire life. I never wanted “ordinary”.)
I’m afraid of losing a child or grandchild.
I’m afraid of heights.

Now, how about you? What three things are you afraid of?

Enter while you can!

1. Ava Cuvay: The Tentacle Dilemma (Contest — 4 Winners!) — This ends soon! Win an anthology or a cool T-shirt!
2. Megan Ryder: Claiming Lyla (Contest–4 Winners!) — Win books or a gift card!
3. Okay, I’m officially tired of… (Plus, a Puzzle-Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. January George: Blackout (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winners are…gift cards: Colleen C and Mary Preston; and anthology: Debra Guyette and Becky Parsons!
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Hi! My name is Megan Ryder, and thank you for having me back on the blog for another chance to talk about my books. Today, I’m thrilled to talk a little bit about making the transition between contemporary and paranormal romance.

I’ve been writing for a long time (longer than I care to admit) and I’ve been writing contemporary romance for most of that time. I’m published with a few books including sexy baseball heroes, a matchmaking bride and her bridesmaids, and lately, cowboys. While I love all of those, my first love has always been paranormal romances, especially shifters, but I was always hesitant to make the shift (pun intended) to a new genre. When I heard about this anthology, my short story popped into my head completely formed as a prequel to my series and the perfect way to test my skills.

My story centers around a female shifter who is trapped into running from a group of alpha males who want to forcibly claim her as a mate, only to run into another alpha who offers to save her. The only problem is – he really IS her mate and she doesn’t want a mate at all.

In paranormal romance, I wanted to deal with the concept of consent, because “fated mates” being a trope in the genre often blurs the lines for consent. In this story, I wanted her to be a strong alpha female and her mate to be willing to see her that way and accept her and look for her consent, even as their natures want them to mate.

It was fun playing with the paranormal world, setting up the shifter structure and society, and dealing with the biology, too. And I slipped in something I thought was relevant to our current times.

Check out the snippet below and let me know what you think.

Contest

For my giveaway, let me know if you like the “fated mates” trope, where characters have one and only one mate for them (and often they know it and can’t fight it for long). I’m giving away 2 electronic copies of the anthology – First Response (given on release day) – and 2 $10 gift cards to Amazon.

Excerpt from “Claiming Lyla”

A she-wolf being hunted by pack males during a claiming rite is rescued by a rogue alpha determined to make her his own, despite her desire to be independent…

Lyla folded her arms in front of her, a defensive gesture, closing herself off from him, while plumping up her full breasts so they strained against the lace. “What do you want?”

He cocked his head at the howls growing closer. “You don’t have much time, or much of a choice, sweetheart. You either deal with me or them. And trust me, I’m the lesser of your evils.”

A laugh broke from her throat, a raw, harsh sound that held no humor. “I’d prefer none of you. Why can’t you leave me alone, you bastards? You want me to just roll over and spread my legs like a good little bitch. Well, fuck that.”

He winced at her harsh tone and steeled himself. A breeze picked up her scent and tickled his senses with it, and his cock hardened further, painfully. His wrists burned hotter under the skin, prickling like a thousand fine needles that made him want to scratch an itch. Nothing would appease the sensation, he feared. He cursed under his breath. Fuck. Not the best time to find his mate. Not here. Not in this goddamn situation. This night had just gone to shit, and now the bonds were pulling him in even tighter.

Today, I’m launching a countdown of posts and prizes on my Collections website! Don’t know what that is? Well, it’s a long story, but it’s a site that’s not all about me!!! It’s about the anthologies and the authors who have written for them. First Response releases at the end of this month, and the authors and I want to tell you about who we are and what our stories are about. Today, there’s a contest with THREE WINNERS, so be sure to drop by and comment!

Where to go? Delilah Devlin: What’s Coming? Contests! Excerpts! (Contest–3 Winners!)

It’s my blog. I get to do this. 🙂

My daughter, Kelly, is my best friend. We’re not sure how that happened. When she was 15, she stole my car and drove from San Antonio to Corpus Christi with a girlfriend to go to the beach. I was sure my wild child would be the death of me. But I should have known. She is me. We’ve both defied the promise of our youth to become productive, law-abiding citizens. LOL

Our annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party. Kelly and I at her old place a few years ago.

As she’s matured, we’ve drawn closer. I was sure when I moved from Texas that our bond would be stretched a bit. She’d get on with her life, and we’d see each other at holidays. However, a few months later, she called. She couldn’t stand it. She was coming to Arkansas, and we’ve been tight as thieves ever since. In fact, we share the same house now.

Us at an antique car show a couple of years ago.

She’s an amazing friend to her children as well. Yes, she can get loud when she’s displeased, but she’s always fair. And she’s very much “in” her kids’ lives. She knows their friends, throws parties for the kids (pre-COVID!), takes them to the games… She’s always on the go and never complains. Her oldest girl is just like her, and they are so close. I know when I’m gone, my dd will still have a lifelong friend.

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you how special she is to me. Every woman should have a best friend in her corner. Someone she trusts, someone she can lean on. For me, it’s my daughter.

Happy Birthday, Kelly!!!

So, everyone out there, do you have a special best friend in your life?

My ex said there was an old Irish saying that went like this: Never do today what you can do next year.

Yeah, that’s his sense of humor. Born and bred Irish. It’s why we’re still great friends.

Today’s one of those days. It started off well. I got out of bed at 6:30 AM. I decided to try to catch up on artwork for the two challenges I’m participating in. I completed them and was sitting down at my computer to begin my “real work” day when my daughter came downstairs in a tizzy to remind me we had dental appointments.

We had both completely forgotten, which meant no time to shower (ew!) and barely enough time to brush our teeth before we hurried into town. That was a long ordeal due to the COVID precautions—time to sterilize in between, waivers, etc.

Once we came back, I sat back down at my computer, but one of those “70’s stars—Where are they now?” popped up on my news screen when I first opened it up, and an hour later I was dozing in front of my screen.

Now, it’s time for a late lunch…maybe a swim…don’t I need to vacuum? You get the picture. Anything but what I need to do to keep on track. I have tons of items on my To Do list to tackle, but…really, can’t I take a “do-over” tomorrow?

What do you think?

My mental health is fine (I hear my dd cackling). But then, I limit my time watching the news these days. While the nation goes to “hell in a handbasket,” I keep my head down with work and painting. I won’t get into politics here because opinions are like assholes—everyone’s got one. But I will ask, how’s the social distancing going? Are you still masking? I hope so because I wish you well.

My family is managing quite well. We take a few risks—food shopping, doctor’s visits. The kids had their first “playdate” with a couple of friends. They said they were distancing too, but we kept them all outside in the pool. Arkansas’ numbers are rising, so that might be it for the kids for a while, sad to say. The goal is survival in the Devlin house. Tempers flare now and then, but we have a pool. If anyone gets too hot, we jump in. No irritability lasts long there.

I have a puzzle for you! One sure to make you smile—or at least shake your head. It made me want to find some old Gloria Estefan tune to dance to! Enjoy!

I started my writing career as a ghostwriter. It was a great way to cut my teeth and hone my craft, but the pay was abysmal, and of course, other people took the credit for my work. So, last year I finally made the leap to writing for myself, and so far, the pay hasn’t been any better, but it’s been a blast! I’m back for another Boys Behaving Badly Anthology and have several more anthologies planned for the coming year. The most fascinating part of this journey has been developing my writing process and learning about that of other authors. It’s amazing how differently everyone approaches writing. Some authors meticulously plan out their work step by intricate step. It’s like a beautiful dance in colorful illustration before the first word is even put on the page. For others, they wade in with a vague notion or idea and just see where it goes. My process lies somewhere in the middle.

Typically, I have a rough outline of where the story will go with major plot points. How I get from point to point isn’t necessarily defined. Sometimes, the storyline drives the words, but more often, I find the characters and who they want to become influences the story the most. I’ve been astonished at how some of my stories have turned out!

No one was more surprised than me when I finished my latest short story, The Invisible Goddess, about Hestia, the Greek goddess of fire, hearth, and home. I call her the forgotten Olympian because she has almost no stories about her. She’s rarely mentioned at all in the myths. So, I reinvented her with the idea to make her bolder and write a bit of romance into her hum-drum life of keeping Zeus’s court at Olympus. What I ended up with was a fiery hot goddess who brings Olympus to the brink of war over her hand and in the middle of it all, a primordial god of darkness stirring the pot, and the heroine’s heart. The god of darkness wasn’t even in my original outline of the story! This is the coolest part of writing. I love it when my imagination gets churning, and suddenly, a story that I never even realized was there materializes on the page. I look back at this short story and wonder where the heck it came from!

Aside from how writers approach the structure of their stories, I also find the logistical aspect of how authors work intriguing. Some authors write every day, 8 hours a day. It’s their job, and they treat it as such. Of course, that whole time isn’t necessarily spent spinning words onto the page of their latest and greatest novel. A lot of it is spent working social media, responding to emails, editing, and updating their website and blog. Some authors have a particular place they like to write, or they have a prewriting routine they do. Other authors don’t touch their keyboard for days or weeks. Then, they sit down and binge write for days on end. Again, I find myself somewhere in the middle.

I’m not cool enough to write full time- yet! One of these days…. But for now, my writing must fit in with a full-time job as a nursing instructor, a 21-acre farm, and a family. I don’t have time for rituals or routines- other than coffee. There is always time for coffee! I fit writing in whenever and wherever. I often peck away at my keyboard at my daughter’s horse riding lessons and scribble ideas on the back of my grocery list while waiting in line at Costco. I wish I was one of those disciplined souls that would get up 2 hours early and write before work. Countless failed early morning exercise aspirations have proven that it isn’t a sound strategy for me! My main goal is to write a little bit every day. Sometimes, it’s literally a single sentence, and sometimes, when the writing gods smile upon me and the stars align, it’s pages. In the end, it always seems to come together.

Anthologies, like the latest Boys Behaving Badly with my gracious hostess, Delilah Devlin, attract me because I can write tons of different storylines, and they’re typically short story to novella lengths. I have several going at the same time. One of the other things I’ve discovered about my writing process is the stories and characters often need to marinate at different points along the way. Sometimes, we gotta give each other a bit of space! I also like to sleep on my stories. Seriously, I do my best writing as I am falling asleep. I’ll turn a particular point around and around in my head, and in that semi-dozing state, my mind forgets boundaries, conventions, and the distractions of daily life. Suddenly, the imagined world is possible and some of my best ideas have come from this technique (Ok… I’m not sure that falling asleep is a technique, but I’m going to go with it!). I’ve also utterly annihilated storylines and caused myself tons of extra rewrites because I came up with a scene that I just couldn’t live without. I guess that’s why they call it a process!

I will continue to hone my practice and do hope to transition to writing full time. I have dreams of writing full-length novels with glossy dust jackets adorned with my picture and having a fan base that stretches beyond blood relatives! For now, I’ll continue to grab the time as I can find it and inspiration where it is granted. I can’t wait to see where my journey takes me next. I hope that you’ll join me along the way!

My website and latest releases, including The Invisible Goddess coming this fall, can be found at acdawn.com or wander over to my Facebook page and follow me there!

As always, many thanks to Delilah for letting me pop in! Until next time…

Here’s a picture of my home base in north Georgia…