Update! The entire family has decided that AQUAMAN is the best super-hero movie ever! We LOVED it! I will say, the dialog wasn’t the best (that honor goes to the two DEADPOOL movies!), but we loved the humor, the CGI-ocean scenery and creatures (I want a seahorse!), and the non-stop action! And of course, for all the girls, Jason Momoa WET for over two hours was a divine treat!

Just a reminder. ANIMAL will release a little after midnight tomorrow night! I hope you’ll keep it on you TBR-right now list! It’s fun and very sexy!

Oh, and I had another really weird dream last night. I know, like you care, right? But dang, I have to share anyway.

Last night, I dreamed that my dad was back in the hospital and scheduled for release. So, I got all domestic and made a stew that took me nine days to get right (I’m guessing that nursery rhyme “…in the pot, nine days old” was in my head). Anyway, he arrived home and I gave him the Christmas present I’d made him—a hand-painted ceramic head of Santa Claus (yeah, don’t know where that came from). He looked at it and put it aside. Said “that’s nice”, which told me he wasn’t impressed, and them my mom popped into the kitchen and brought him back a bowl of steaming…ramen. I was so pissed she hadn’t served him the reindeer stew I’d slaved over, especially given the fact that every time I went outside, Santa’s reindeer attacked me because Donner was in the pot!

Tomorrow, it’s back to the grindstone. I’m starting a new story, Big Sky Wedding, which will revisit Jamie and Sky from Big Sky SEAL. I’ll also be finishing up reading all those sexy Stranded stories, and working on edits for an author friend. So, busy, busy! Have a great week, y’all! ~DD

I finished the book, so guess what I’m treating myself, and my family, to tonight?

I CAN’T WAIT!!!!!!!

Have you seen it? What is your favorite superhero movie?

Does anything out there think a writer’s life is glamorous? Or easy?

Well, let me tell you about my day…

It started at 7 AM. I slept in. Usually, I’m up at around 5:30. Today, however, is Sunday, and I gave myself a little extra rest, because I knew today would be a bitch. I woke up my computer and quickly scanned my emails. Ah. The editing job I’d expected finally arrived. Yay. I scanned the rest of the subject lines and decided nothing else couldn’t wait, so I opened my manuscript.

I wrote, and wrote, and wrote—stopping for a quick breakfast then lunch, stopping to pee, stopping to get up and walk around to regain feeling in my toes. I didn’t stop writing until I’d written 4,210 words. After shipping off pages to lovely beta readers, I closed out my manuscript then darted across the road to have coffee with my dd.

Back at my desk again, I opened the rush editing job I have to finish by Tuesday. I edited 32 pages, closed the document, then picked up the stack of short stories I have to have read this week. I read five while sitting in front of the television, not really watching, but sitting there rather than at my desk was a welcome change. At 10:30 PM, I finished reading five stories and decided I’d done enough for the day.

I have to repeat this cycle tomorrow and the next day to keep on schedule. Now, who thinks a writer’s life is glamorous? As soon as I put my computer to sleep, I’m heading to bed to play a couple rounds of Charm King before I set my alarm…

A Request

Most times, I show up here and babble on about what I’m doing, what I’m writing, or some silly thing that’s going on in my life that I want to share. Today’s a little different. I have a request—a call to action.

The last book I’ll have on pre-order for an entire year is Animal, which releases January 22nd. How did I lose the ability to set up pre-orders on Amazon? Life interfered—my grandmother got sick and died and then my father broke his hip. I missed my pre-order dates for two books and Amazon withdrew the privilege. Why does that make me nervous? Well, pre-orders have been hugely important to my success. People see mention of the next story at the end of a book, follow the link, click Buy, and don’t think about it again until the story appears on their device. Or, they see me mention it, think it might be cool to read, and quickly arrange to purchase it before they forget.

Now, I will have to hope readers see my mentions on my website or my ads on Facebook on the day of release. I’m assuming this will result in a huge downturn in my sales. And face it, I write full-time, this is my only job, and the last thing I can weather is a huge pay cut. So, I’m looking for new ways to advertise new releases.

Some of you already follow authors on BookBub. You hear about new releases, hear about free reads or greatly reduced prices on books. I can use them to notify readers, but only if I hit a magic number of followers through BookBub. I need 250 new followers to make that happen.

So, if you have time, and you want to hear about great deals and want to help me out, follow me on BookBub. I’d be forever grateful!

Follow me on BookBub!

UPDATE: The winner is…Michelle Levan!
*~*~*

I’m a planner by nature and education. I make lists. FOR EVERYTHING. That doesn’t mean I’m super-organized. It just means I track my achievements and know all too well where I fall short.

I teach a free goal-setting class every December to other authors, hoping that while I kick their butts to think about what they want to achieve that I’m inspired to do the same.

So far, I have listed everything I want to do writing-wise. I started out with a goal of making my life a lot easier next year with a sedate writing pace… Yeah. By the time I figured in everything I NEED to write, that easy plan went out the window. Crazy as it is, I have my 2019 writing plan mapped out. But work’s not everything, right?

What about real life? Family fun and obligations. Fitness goals (ha!). My artistic goals (paint for fun, re-open my Etsy store, produce something to sell…). Build my savings. Get ready for retirement (like that will ever happen!).

To get all my goals in alignment, I set up a Bullet Journal. I’ve kept one for about three years now. It’s time-consuming. A pain in the ass to set up and maintain, but everything I need to do is captured in one little journal book. That’s what I’m trying to wrap up today.

So, my question to you is whether you worry about the coming year. Do you plan? Set resolutions? Set up journals or calendars? Answer for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

What a lovely day…

This year, the Devlin family decided to destress a bit. Christmas has always been: get up early with the kids, then rush to prep the Christmas meal. This year, my mom and my daughter decided that neither of them really wanted to cook. (Don’t look at me. I’m never in the equation when it comes to the big meals. I can manage a decent breakfast, but turkey or ham? All the fixin’s? Not in my wheelhouse, and not if you want to enjoy it. 🙂 )

So, we decided to go out, en masse, for a meal at a local restaurant on Christmas Eve. Afterward, we had the adults’ gift-giving (because Christmas morning is all about the kids), and then home for early bed. So, here I am at 8 PM, finally remembering to post. And it’s perfectly quiet. Peaceful. I think this became a new family tradition.

That’s how I feel anyway. Hot, cold, nauseous. I’m going to let my dd pamper me today…