Thanksgiving passed in the Devlin household without any fuss. We’re waiting until tomorrow to have our turkey feast. The red-headed hellion’s hubby had to work last night at the prison, so we decided to hold off until they both could join us. Today, I’ll be cleaning house. Mom and daughter will be cooking. They never ask me for help with that (possibly because they want to be sure no one gets poisoned!).

The quiet day gave me a chance to finish up a novella. Think cowboys rescuing a woman from a frigid creek and you’ve got the gist. Add lots of nasty sex. Some questionable postions and acrobatic moves. That about sums it up. Yum!

I have a short story to wrap up today and Sunday, and then all my goals for the month will be accomplished. Did I mention I’m at the halfway point for the fourth Dark Realm story too? I’ve had a very productive month.

December won’t be any easier. I might be posting my “to do list” a time or two to keep me motivated. I’ve been doing a lot of reading. Mostly Mesopotamian myths and witchcraft books. Trying to play with some things for future stories. Research isn’t really work though. It doesn’t add page count. And I enjoy it way too much to take it seriously. Work’s supposed to be hard, right?

On Sunday, I’ll be hosting Ellora’s Cave’s chatters loop, so be sure to pop in and say hello. I’ll be posting plenty of sexy excerpts, running scavenger hunts and generally having a really good time. ~DD

I’m heading to Dallas today to take the 4-year-old to her daddy, so I won’t get a chance to read your comments until tomorrow. You’ve got loads of time to be creative!!

If you could have any object or place in the world completely to yourself for one day, what would you choose?

I’ll let you know my choice tomorrow! ~DD

…at Romance Junkies. Although you won’t know it unless they edit the post and add my name. The darn thing published before I had a chance to add the final two paragraphs and my signature block.

Join me if you can, and someone please say my name so everyone knows who they’re talking to!

Progress on Dark Realm-4

Progress on tentatively titled Snow Bound

I’ve had my head tucked like a turtle’s while I’ve been working this week. I haven’t read my email, have barely answered my phone. My progress listed above isn’t impressive wordcount-wise, but I’ve been doing some revisions.

Yesterday, I shipped off the copyedited manuscript for DARKNESS BURNING, the third book in the Dark Realm series. That cut into writing time too. Also, I’ve been giving a lot of thought to what’s next for me and what sort of proposals I want to get out to publishers. I’m wondering if I need to switch some things up and maybe even jump genres. Not entirely, but just to experiment. Writing isn’t a linear kind of career. You can reinvent yourself again and again.

Is there anything in particular you’d like to see me doing?

And in case you haven’t already seen it, here’s the cover for DARKNESS BURNING.

…over at the After Midnight Fantasies blog! I’d really love the company! *smooches* ~DD

Okay, I’m not asking you to change the world or anything, just give us a hint about your unique personality!

If you were completely deaf but were somehow able to hear for one hour each month, what would you most often want to hear in that hour?

For me, it would be the four-year-old’s recantation of what had happened to her in pre-school that day. Just hearing what she got “time out” for and the way she tries to spin it so it wasn’t her fault makes me smile. That child is a natural storyteller. Your turn!

Progress for Dark Realm-4

I’ll admit I was a slacker last week. Only 27 pages total progress. The previous week’s 80-something pages left me feeling pretty smug. The muse swatted me like a fly for being so arrogant. I lost the story for a while, couldn’t dream what came next, didn’t like the loosey-goosey pages I had, and really had to work hard to get them into shape. I’m still not there, but hey, it’s a rough draft. So long as the story is working, I can move forward.

Tomorrow will be a real test. My hero has to enter hell. Haven’t figured out quite what it looks like. Maybe it will come to me as I go. In the meantime, I have a bunch of books gathered on my TBR stack and it’s way too hard a decision which one I should read first. Maybe I’ll watch the movie I TIVO’d, “The Good Witch,” with Catherine Bell from JAG. It looks light and with just enough of a paranormal flavor to keep my interest. ~DD