After five days camped out with my daughter, I’m finally back home. Yay!—although I do feel horribly guilty over leaving her today of all days. We’ve been finishing up renovating/painting/cleaning the “new” old house this week in preparation for today. My duties were mostly babysitting kids and animals while she and hubby worked at the house. I pitched in yesterday to help with the final cleanup. I had laid on movers, but the numskulls told me at the last minute that while they moved things, they didn’t actually pack anything, so they were fired and we had to recruit family members to help with the actual pack and move today. To top off everything else, it looks like the pregnant dog I was watching is about to give birth. So daughter has her hands full.

However, I have a conference to head to tomorrow and while I decided to forego getting my hair done, I still have packing, nails, car cleanup, and email catchup to do today. She’s on her own. I hope she survives. I hope her marriage survives her nerves. 🙂

One little note. Okay, three really. My m/f, f/f short story, Marmalade, was accepted by Mischief (a HarperCollins publishing arm); another short story, Soldier Girls, was accepted for a lesbian collection with Cleis; and I have it on good authority that there is a contract in the works with Montlake  for a longer book I have partially written. Some of my beta readers out there might remember my strange little dark paranormal/police drama with witches and wraiths… It’s finally going to be published! Woot!

So, while I’m doing my last minute scramble to get out the door to Dallas, I’ll leave you with a question. I always love to see the answers!

If you could have been there to witness any specific moment in history,
what moment would you choose?

Can a Heroine be too Strong?

If you’d asked me this question a few years ago, when I started writing my snarky, kick-butt heroine Astra Q Phelps, I’d have said, absolutely not! But now, I’m not so sure. I’m currently reading a series by a very talented author whose heroine is so strong she has no time for, or real interest in, the hero. Huh? Now, granted, this is an urban fantasy series and romance isn’t a necessary component in UF, but the author introduced the romance, she put it out there, and IMHO, her heroine is dropping the ball with it.

This heroine is so strong she believes she can and should do everything herself. That’s not really the most attractive or interesting trait in a character. Especially since it’s obvious she can’t! I, as a reader, enjoy seeing a little vulnerability in a heroine. It gives her depth and enables me to relate to her. Besides, there’s so much opportunity for insight into characters when they interact with each other. Without this interaction the author is forced to go inside the character’s head to flesh her out for the reader. Bleurgh!

This leads us right down the thorny path to angst.

Sure enough, in the course of not needing anyone else, this character is constantly mired down by personal angst. My least favorite thing in a heroine. Yes, a story needs some angst, but when the plot, key relationships, and romance are mired in it, it’s not a good thing. In my opinion as a reader, a character should occasionally have brief moments of introspection, learn from them, and then move on to complete her destiny.

Yup, my dirty little secret is out…I live in a no wallowing zone. 🙂

I don’t want to read about a character who does it all and doesn’t need anyone else. It’s kind of sad. And it makes for very one dimensional reading. I love a strong heroine, but I also want her to recognize that she has needs she can’t fulfill on her own. I want her to need her hero. I mean, we can certainly survive all alone in the world, but why would we want to? And when you have a perfectly good hero standing there, all hawt and interesting, why wouldn’t you put him to good use? I mean, let’s not confuse strength with stupidity, ladies!

~~*~~

“Sam Cheever does it again in a thrilling tale that features one of my favorite heroines of all time. Astra is a perfect blend of our favorite champions for justice. She’s a healer, a lover, a fighter, and sometimes just a big softie. Her never give up attitude and ability to kick some serious trash has endeared her to me throughout this series.” ~ The Romance Studio

~*~

The Devil You Know – Good versus Evil has never been this much fun!

Astra Q. Phelps is turning twenty-five in a few months and she’s starting to feel the effects of her Settling, the time when a half angel, half devil Tweener decides whether to embrace her dark nature or her light.

The delectable Dialle, king of the Royal devils, really needs Astra’s help in Hell to deal with an insurrection. But Astra’s Settling pretty much has her thinking of only one thing—S.E.X.!

Sex with Dialle, sex with her yummy partner Emo, sex with a molten-hot dragon slayer she meets along the way, and sex with assorted other randy Royals cavorting among the fires of Hell. It’s a constant struggle just to keep her mind and body pure so she can concentrate on the business at hand, but Astra Q Phelps is definitely up for the challenge.

Excerpt!

BUY the ebook!

The Devil You Want releases 4/11/12!

Astra Q Phelps gave her boyfriend a magic hickey. Usually not a world-changing issue. But in Astra’s case, her boyfriend is king of the Royal Devils. And Royals have always thought that only males could mark their mates. So how did she do it? Even Astra doesn’t know. That’s the first of her problems.

Now somebody’s trying to kill the naturally curious Astra, which is always a problem.

Thirdly, there’s Slayer. He’s shown up on Astra’s turf and wants her to hire him. Given their undeniable sexual chemistry, that’s probably not going to go over well with her boyfriend. Not to mention that he’s got some baggage that’s gonna come back to bite Astra big time.

Add in the nearly constant sexual need caused by her Settling and you have a whole lot of stuff for Astra Q Phelps to handle. But, as you probably know by now, she’s definitely up to the challenge.

Excerpt!

I think I’ve mentioned it before, but this past week has been insane. My daughter’s moving from in town to the house and acreage across the street from where I live in the country. I’ve been camped out at her place in town babysitting a pregnant dog, two cats, two wild children, and doing chores around here (dishes, laundry, etc.) while waiting for folks to pick up items we put on a Facebook swapshop that we don’t want moved to the new place. The Red-Headed Hellion has had it much rougher cleaning out a house a hoarder used to live in, overseeing renovations, and painting.

I’ve been spending nights here, so it’s really hard to get any writing done. Tonight will be the last night, thank God! I can’t wait to slip into my quiet little writer cave and catch up on everything.

So, since I’m a little buried here, I have a quick question. I like life simple. I have a fish in a little bowl in my office, a feral cat I adopted whom I feed and pet (now that she’s learned to accept affection), but who lives outside, and that’s it. I’m not anti-dog and have had many over the years, but like I said, I like things simple. Cats, to me, are simple.

What about you? Do you consider yourself a dog or a cat person?

The Art of Being Intractable

When I was five my Kindergarten teacher pulled my mother aside to tell her it was a damn shame her charming daughter was so retarded; she would probably never learn to read and certainly would never be able to write.

What the teacher failed to take into account was the fact that we come from extraordinarily stubborn stock, my mother and I. Immediately Mom began studying child development and brain patterns, researching everything she could about learning disabilities. She convinced me that my challenges were actually a gift—the ability to look upon the world through new, fresh eyes. I wasn’t stupid or weird, she told me. I simply marched to the beat of a different drummer.

The real gift I’d been given was a mother who refused to see limitations. She taught me to love a challenge and never give up. She taught me to dream bigger and hold tighter than common rationality would recommend.

These lessons came in real handy when I decided I wanted to be a writer. Not because I couldn’t tell the difference between a 3 and an E. Or a p and a q. Or an S and a 5. Or the fact that letters and numbers rarely had the courtesy to hold still long enough for me to make sense of them. I figured all that out by learning to memorize patterns. (A three rarely appears in a word, for example.)

Nope. Mom’s lessons on perseverance came in handy because writing—and the quest to be published—quite frankly, was the toughest challenge I ever took on. Tougher even than pushing out an eleven pound baby.

I wanted to be published, be an author, so bad I could taste it. But that brass ring seemed always just out of reach.

There were times, more than I can count, when I thought I was nuts for wanting such a thing or hoping for such a thing or dreaming of such a crazy crazy thing. There were times—when I found an idiotic mistake in a manuscript I’d read a hundred fricking times—when I thought, perhaps that Kindergarten teacher had been right. Doubt lived with me, every day. Steeped itself in my teapot. Soaked in my bath.

But I’d remember Mom, pushing me forward, encouraging me, daring me to try, and I’d keep going. And I’d roll another sheet into the typewriter (metaphorically speaking).

I read voraciously and when I wasn’t analyzing someone else’s prose, I was writing. Composing. Plotting. Experimenting. Creating. I wrote an epic fantasy novel (topping out at 175,000-words), a sci-fi horror, an animated children’s book, a middle grade about a dyslexic dragon, women’s fiction, men’s fiction, screenplays and romances by the score. None of them sold. Once I discovered it, a steamy Delilah Devlin in fact, erotic romance became my drug of choice.

Probably not what my mother intended, but there you have it.

I started entering contests. Started winning. Before long, I was addicted. Ironically, this didn’t increase my confidence as a writer, because I never sold, and all that really mattered to me was selling. But contests were fun. They made me feel like a writer. Like I was doing something.

I guess that’s all it takes sometimes. Doing something.

 If you read the Secret (and didn’t we all?), you understand that concrete action can set up ripples in the universe. And even if it doesn’t, it’s nice to think that it does.

It’s nice to think that doing something, does something.

And it does. It gives us a sense of power. A sense of control over the universe, or at least our tiny corner of it. And after a while, those little somethings we do in pursuit of our dreams pile up. Gain momentum.

I entered hundreds of contests in my career and, to the chagrin of my fellow contest whores, won a lot. (Sold not). But it only takes one. One winning lottery ticket, one dream come true. One editor or agent who likes the order in which you throw words onto paper.

In November of 2011, I got an e-mail from an editor at Ellora’s Cave asking, very politely, if she could please acquire my book, which she had received as the result of the Novella’s Need Love Too contest sponsored by the Celtic Hearts chapter of Romance Writers of America. (I said yes.) In December she bought the second book and in January, another. In February she snapped up the fourth.

Maybe my life is destined to be a feast or famine proposition.

I’m okay with that.

I walk away with another lesson. A new lesson: Sometimes mulishly pursuing your dreams feels like a folly. And sometimes, just every so often, it doesn’t. Every so often, dreams do come true.

So much happened this last week! My life is completely nuts. Let’s see if I can break it down for you…

Wild at Heart

First, for all you writers out there, the deadline for submitting your stories for inclusion in the Wild at Heart anthology, which will directly benefit the Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge is APRIL 1st! Please get your stories in. They are short—just 1500 to 4000 words, and who doesn’t have an idea for one? You’ve been to a zoo, right? You’ve watched National Geographic. You don’t have to be an animal expert to be able to write about some exotic animal in need of refuge. There’s still time. Read more about it here: Wild at Heart

About Three Stories

Three developments, book-wise, happened this week.

1) All Hallows Heartbreaker, the second story I ever published, is being offered for free! But this deal doesn’t last forever! For more information, follow this link:  Free Story

2) The eighth book in the My Immortal Knight series, My Sweet Succubus, is out! It’s Moses Brown’s story, and I know there are those of you out there who have been waiting for him to have his happy ever after. Well, he gets it all right. Just not sayin’ where. 🙂 If you’d like to read more, click on the cover.

3) And most exciting for me, personally, is that I have a brand new contract to edit another anthology collection for Cleis Press! One more to follow Girls Who Bite (out last September), She Shifters (coming in July 2012) and Cowboy Lust (out in August 2012).  It’s strange how much of a thrill this gives me. I should only want to write my own stories, right? But it’s so much fun. I get to read great stories, “meet” established authors, and nurture new authors. It’s work, sure, but it’s also very, very satisfiying. And something different to do. I like mixing it up. So if you hear me talking about smokin’ hot firemen over the next coming months, that’s what this is all about.

Sunday Report Card

But what did I really accomplish this week? Not enough.

1) I worked through stacks of papers to burn, shred or file away in my newly neatened file cabinets.
2) Did some “back and forth” with my Cleis editor on the new anthology, wrote the call for submissions and sent it out to the world.

Notice there’s no mention of pages written. I have tons of good reasons—all centered around the fact I’ve been making tons of trips to Hot Springs to buy building supplies. The Red-Headed Hellion and her family are moving into the house across the street from me this week, but we’re down to the wire with renovations and now one of our contracted workers is a no-show. So SIL is learning very quickly how to repair and texture dry-wall so he can get walls and ceilings painted. In the meantime, I’m babysitting cats and dogs, doing laundry and cleaning their other neglected house to get ready for the movers. I hope to have some downtime in between to get some pages in, because I have a novella due tomorrow. Eeek!

Have a great week. Hope you’re getting lovely spring weather like we are here in Arkansas. Have to check the pool temperature. Won’t be long…

Enjoy the excerpt! I’m busy at the moment trying to wrap up the sequel to this story, Two Wild for Teacher, so I’ll have my head down for the next couple of days. Enjoy!

“A FOUR-GONE CONCLUSION is a prime example on how a novella should be written; fast and fun, touching characters that pull you in and a story that is completely fulfilling.”
4.5 Cherries, Long and Short Reviews

One devilish night…or a chance at heaven?

Sam Logan’s foster sons have a bad rep in Two Mule, Texas. Most of it earned. When it becomes clear they don’t plan on giving up scootin’ after ever pretty pair of boots in town anytime soon, he issues the one thing he knows they can’t resist: a challenge. Find a wife.

The oldest, Johnny, is actually grateful. He’s had his eye on Mean Ellie Harker for a long time, and Sam’s challenge is the kick in the pants he needed to ask her out. Except before he can make his move, his brothers kidnap her right out from under his nose. Now, instead of being one question away from victory, he has to compete for the woman of his dreams.

Ellie thought she’d be a dried up old spinster before Johnny finally untangled his tongue long enough to ask for a date. But instead of teaching him better uses for that tongue, his brothers have whisked her away to the ranch. At first she’s furious…then intrigued when she starts to wonder what it might be like…

Warning: Four handsome cowboys. Four choices. Would it be a single sordid night or a chance at heaven as she savors every luscious inch of the Logan brothers?

Rolling up to the garage, Johnny noted the twins’ truck parked at an angle in the center of the driveway.

“Guess they were in a hurry. Must have got lucky.”

Johnny didn’t reply. For a short while as they’d killed time in the Feed and Seed, purchasing supplies while waiting for the diner to close, he’d felt lighter, anticipating an evening spent with a warm, willing woman. An attractive woman with rosy cheeks and a sharp-eyed gaze. Now he’d have to listen to the sounds his brothers made as they entertained a girl. And it would be a girl, he thought sourly.

He and his brother piled out of the truck and walked through the breezeway and straight into the mudroom off the kitchen.

Voices sounded from the living room. One voice in particular caught his attention, the feminine edge so familiar his body grew instantly taut.

“I am not sleeping with you! Get it out of your head right this minute.”
Read the rest of this entry »

Please pass this along to all your writer friends out there! ~DD

* * * * *

Smokin’ Hot Firemen: Firefighter Romance Stories
Editor: Delilah Devlin
Publisher: Cleis Press in Summer 2013
Deadline: June 15, 2012 (although sooner is better!)

Smokin’ Hot Firemen is open to all authors.

Editor Delilah Devlin is looking for hetero firefighter stories for a romantic erotica anthology tentatively entitled Smokin’ Hot Firemen: Firefighter Romance Stories.

A firefighter is one of those iconic heroes who inspire a jumble of sexy images at just the mention of the word—a soot-covered face, sweat dripping from hard, chiselled muscles, the sexy snap of suspenders—yes, only a fireman can make suspenders sexy!

Smokin’ Hot Firemen will seek stories that satisfy the reader who craves the romantic idea of that soot-covered, smokin’-hot man while exploring stories set in American cities and small towns, as well as international settings. The stories will be contemporary. While traditional themes are likely to be featured, writers are encouraged to imagine greater in order to create tales that, while featuring this iconic hero, may also surprise.

Think about the big-city firehouse, teaming with sexy firemen, responding to a high-rise fire; firefighters arriving at the scene of an accident to pry a victim from a burning car; a strong, sexy man carrying a child from a burning house… All heroic acts we expect from our local heroes. Then think about the smoke-jumper parachuting into the hot zone of a forest fire; the sexy rancher next door, who’s also a volunteer firefighter, responding to an out-of-control brush fire; or even an oil-rig worker whose extra duty is to respond to a catastrophe on a rig in the middle of the ocean…

Then imagine the romantic possibilities of being held against that massively muscled chest by a man whose mission is to protect and serve…

Published authors with an established firehouse world may use that setting for their original short story.

The stories may be as kinky or vanilla as the writer wants—but a deep sensuality should linger in every word. Exotic locations and scenarios are welcome. Keep in mind there must be a romantic element with a happy-for-now or happy-ever-after ending. Strong plots, engaging characters and unique twists are the ultimate goal. Please no reprints. We are seeking original stories.

How to submit: Prepare your 1,500 to 4,500 words story in a double-spaced, Arial, 12 point, black font document with pages numbered (.doc, NOT.docx) OR rich text format. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch and double space (regular double spacing, do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). US grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) is required.

In your document at the top left of the page, include your legal name (and pseudonym if applicable), mailing address, and 50 words or less bio in the third person to smokinhotfiremen@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you’d like to be credited as. Authors may submit up to 2 stories. Delilah will respond in September 2011. The publisher has final approval over the stories included in the manuscript.

Payment will be $50.00 USD and two copies of the published book upon publication.

About the editor: Ms. Devlin has published over a hundred erotic stories in multiple genres and lengths. Her published print titles include Into the Darkness, Seduced by Darkness, Darkness Burning, Darkness Captured, Down in Texas, Texas Men, Ravished by a Viking, and Enslaved by a Viking. Her short stories are featured in Zane’s Purple Panties, and Cleis Press’s Lesbian Cowboys, Girl Crush, Fairy Tale Lust, Lesbian Lust, Passion, Carnal Machines, Dream Lovers, and Best Erotic Romance. She is published by Avon, Kensington, Harlequin, Atria/Strebor, Ellora’s Cave, Samhain Publishing, and Berkley. In Fall 2011, she debuted her first anthology with Cleis Press, Girls Who Bite. In 2012, Cleis Press will release She Shifters and Cowboy Lust.

Direct any questions you have regarding your story or the submission process to Delilah at smokinhotfiremen@gmail.com.