This post is proudly a stop on the TEXAS TWO STEP Blog Tour. For a complete listing of all stops on this tour, please visit here. All contests are for U.S. residents only unless otherwise noted. Comments left on this blog will be counted toward the Texas Two Step Faithful Follower Gift Certificate. To see a complete listing of Blog Tour Prizes, click here. Be sure to check out the freebies. Yours for the asking as long as they last.
A mega-thank you to Delilah for hosting this stop on my blog tour. DD has been an unfailing supporter and friend. She listened to me whine, complain, and basically kvetch about everything from a muse who took an ill-timed vacation to judges who just didn’t like my voice. When I sold to Samhain, DD was one of the first authors I turned to for advice, and she’s never led me wrong…well, maybe astray a few times, but there was alcohol involved and we agreed never to mention it again.
The hero of Texas Two Step (Mitch Landry) doesn’t have a sister, but like most men, he knows the rule about messing with a friend’s little sister…which is, Don’t Do It. In college, he was in a fraternity with Travis and Jason Montgomery. During that time, he heard a lot about their little sister, Olivia (the heroine of Texas Two Step) and even met her once. But she had been in high school…just a kid, he’d thought to himself at the time. Now at SMU (Southern Methodist University) law school, he shares classes and a friendship with Jason Montgomery. He remembers Olivia as a teenager until he meets her at The Bourbon Cowboy bar on her twenty-first birthday.
Texas Two Step opens about ten years after this inadvertent meeting at The Bourbon Cowboy. So much of the time when a story opens and the couple has a history, we only get to hear about it in flashbacks or musings during the story. But Olivia and Mitch have such a love affair that I thought it only fair to share snippets of their past in a Texas Two Step Prequel. Today’s installment is The Meeting-Part Two. If you missed part one and want to read it before today’s episode, click here.
I never had an older brother to “watch” out for me or shoo the boys away. I had an older sister, but I’m thinking that’s different.
What I want to talk about today is the older-brother-younger sister dynamics. Did you have an older brother? Was he protective of you like we romance authors like to portray older brothers? Did you ever date one of his friends? What are the rules of dating your brother’s friend?
Today’s TTS Blog Tour Prize
Many guest bloggers can offer a copy of a backlist book to be given away as a potential prize for a blog commenter. As a debut author, I don’t have a backlist. But I do have some awesome author friends who have stepped forward and offered one of their books as a prize.
Today’s TTS Blog Tour Author Sponsor is Turquoise Morning Press author Keri Ford. Keri will send Uninhibited inApple Trail, Arkansas Vol.2 to one lucky person who leaves a comment. To find out more about today’s Blog Tour Sponsor, you can visit her website, Twitter or Facebook.
Oops! I promised on Facebook that I would choose a winner to receive a free download of Arctic Dragon from Saturday’s commenters. That winner is (by random number generator)…Cindy Bartolotta! Cindy, send me an email to arrange delivery of your free book! And remember, if you didn’t win this time, on Thursday, I will name The Believe Fairy Contest winner—so be sure to post a comment!
I had fun last night, tweeting during the Grammy’s. I probably wouldn’t have watched the whole thing, but it was so much fun keeping company with Dakota, Emma and Joy and a host of others who praised and panned the performers, that I stuck through to the end. How wonderful was Adele’s performance? And Jennifer Hudson’s? Bruno Mars has a new fan girl here too. His performance was so much fun!
I’ve been thinking about making the drive to Little Rock this week to watch a movie in the near future. I live in the boonies, so movies require an hour’s drive. I spent some time yesterday checking out trailers to see what looked like fun. I found this one…
Doesn’t this look like fun?! Looks like Julia Roberts’ evil queen will steal the show!
Do you have any upcoming movies you want to see on the big screen?
A note, first. I spent the night at my daughter’s last night. We were playing with our new Razr phones, adding apps, battling Angry Birds, when the first message popped up about Whitney. Both of us were saddened. The Red-Headed Hellion was a huge fan. I remember her dancing in the living room as a very little girl with karoake mike in her hand, singing, “I wanna dance with somebody…”
* * * * *
Chirping Like a Bird
Music means a lot to me. This morning, I wanted a reason to smile. I dare anyone who watches the video to not be twittering like a bird after watching this video.
We’re hoping to snag tickets today for Tom Petty’s concert at the Verizon, April 12th. Regina’s opening for him!
* * * * *
Sunday Report Card
This was a more productive week than last week. TG!
1) I have something in the works for Ellora’s Cave. Another My Immortal Knight. I have new covers for books 2-4 that I hope will attract new readers to the series, because I want to continue visiting that world. The first thing is a repurposing of a quickie I self-published. My freaky little succubus story. Following that will be the completion of Viper and Mariah’s story. Yay! Viper’s been waiting for an HEA forever!
2) I submitted a paranormal story that’s half-written to a publisher. Witches, demons, a bit of police drama in the mix. Cross your fingers!
3) Lastly, I am nearing the end of Dragon’s Desire. I hope to finish it up in the next couple of days. Since it’s a straight-to-Kindle project, it won’t be long before you can read it.
* * * * *
Remember, The Believe Fairy Contest continues! Be sure to click the link for the rules! And post a comment to enter! Ciao, for now!
Enjoy an excerpt from an oldie set in a cold, cold place. The setting’s perfect for the pair you’re about to meet. I used a Russian Fairytale, a little Norse myth, and stirred it in a bowl together to come up with this odd little fairy tale. 🙂
“…ARCTIC DRAGON is a captivating fairytale…”
4 Kisses, Two Lips Reviews
“…Delilah Devlin is an awesome author who knows how to get a reader’s attention and keep them coming back for more…Ms. Devlin has written a fantastic story that explodes right off the pages…”
5 Angels & Recommended Read, Fallen Angels Reviews
Headstrong, and seeking a little respite from a suitor’s relentless wooing, Queen Larikke rides the arctic wind far beyond the bounds of Northland, only to have her horse bolt at a shot from a hunter’s gun. Her “rescuer” is a handsome, mysterious man who lives alone in the wilderness, his cabin filled with erotic images of women.
Rather than fearing her fate, Larikke sets out to seduce him, hoping for one last fling before she settles down to do her duty and wed. Thinking he was saving a life, Drake dragged a very strange woman home, stripped her, and warmed her by his fire. Now he finds his long, self-imposed isolation may have made her allure impossible for him to resist and that he’ll endanger her when he shares his special kiss.
A blanket of fresh powder muffled his footsteps. For a moment, the bitter cold wind died down. The stillness invited him deeper into the clearing. Something in the air alerted him, an intuition that was part of his true nature told him to wait.
Wind had blown snow against large tree trunks, forming deep banks where the tall green sentinels stood close together. Everywhere pure, pristine white dusted the tops of branches, cloaking them in rich, thick wonder. Precious sunlight peeked from behind a dark gray cloud and refracted like a billion tiny prisms on frozen crystals that gilded the uppermost layer of the snow.
His breaths seemed loud, intrusive and he concentrated on being quiet so that he didn’t disturb—not that anyone was would hear him this deep in the wilderness.
Rather, all was hushed, expectant. Quiet like he preferred now. Content at last with his own company.
The first few months had been the worst. The silence had nearly driven him nuts. Now, he barely noticed. Sounds other than voices, the hum of electricity or the roar of a passing engine were replaced with softer, more predictable ones—the rustle of pine needles as a breeze swept through outstretched branches, the resonant creaking when snow weighed the branches down. The rustle of animals as they scratched in the snow for food.
The voices inside his head had also faded. The strident ones that had called him a freak and the startled screams—well, they couldn’t reach him here.
If he missed the company of a woman—so be it. Other parts of his existence flourished in the solitude. Almost filling the aching void. The decision he’d made had been the right one. He’d spend the rest of his life—however long—alone.
Do no harm.
He lived by that rule now. At least in regard to people.
For now, he had a stew pot to fill, and he’d tracked a lone deer through the forest to this spot. A soft snort, and he found the doe digging with her hooves to uncover whatever she could still forage beneath the snow.
Drake tugged off his mittens and raised his rifle, setting the stock snug against his shoulder. He had the doe in his sights and slowly pulled back on the trigger, when an unexpected tinkling sound, like bells carried on the wind, drew his attention. His gaze strayed for only moment. As his attention returned to his quarry, a sudden icy wind swept up snow, obscuring his view.
The shadow of the deer still in his scope, he pulled the trigger, jerking the barrel upward at the last moment when he realized he wasn’t looking at a doe at all—but a woman on a bay-colored horse! Read the rest of this entry »
Ladies, I will be rich and sell many books and win tons of money and have love. Bethea and other physics said so. Really. Cool, huh?
Bethea emailed me one evening and said she awoke from a sound sleep thinking about me. She was dreaming about me, yeah, me. I thought for a minute she knew something I didn’t, maybe that I was naked and… Nope, she saw me deliriously happy with all the money I could want, even better. She saw me in love, too, with the perfect man. Now I don’t know about you, but that sounded wonderful to me!
Hmmm, I wonder, why would she dreamed about me, when we’ve never met. She promised me what most of us want, security and love. These seductive promises have been luring folks to fortunetellers and psychics forever.
This woman is good! She has offered me a FREE session and other beautiful totems, some even ancient relics. Well, actually, I can pay for them and she will refund my money if I am not thrilled. She said there were angels watching over me, druid priestesses wanting to help me, and she herself has cast spells for me. BUT there are evil forces keeping me from having the riches I deserve. Well, damn!
BUT, if I send her money to cast a bigger, more powerful spell, she will send me a pendant, or a bracelet, or a statue, or a rearview mirror charm for my car for only $19.99, or $29.99 or $39.99. Hmm, that doesn’t sound free.
Marie the Magnificent, my own personal fortuneteller, said that if I do this, Bethea will have my money and my credit card info, and I won’t EVER see a penny of it, even if I complain. MM suggested that if she had mentioned selling books, we might be inclined to believe her.
Why do I even read these emails? Because I enjoy seeing the predictions that I will have money for all the things I need (maybe a boy toy or three?), that all will be well in the future.
Now, I have a prediction for you. I see you reading Haunting Refrain, a book about a love story in the past and one in the present. Yes, I see you reading the love scenes and sighing or grabbing someone on whom you can try the sexy stuff. I see you straddling a handsome man in the front seat of a Mustang, with the driver’s seat reclined as far back as it will go. I see you riding that man and moaning with….. You can write the rest.
Tell me what you think about psychics and fortunetellers or a story about an experience with one, and you can will a free download of Haunting Refrain. I’ll give away 2 downloads.
“The train wreck of my life boards in an hour. Can’t be late.”
– Megan Carlton, Private Scandal
I love quotes. On Pinterest I have a whole board of them. I love when someone has solidified a feeling so perfectly in words. And who doesn’t love a one-liner?
“Dreams aren’t real until you make them happen.”
– Heather Tindall, Her Cinderella Complex
One of my favorite things to do when procrastinating is checking out what people highlight on their Kindle for my books. Shelfari has an Extras function where I can see which lines resonated with readers. Knowing I connected to a reader in that way makes me think I’ve done my job.
“Love. It is an incredible sensation. An amazing gift. All consuming and yet as light as a whisper. Once you’ve been in love you don’t ever want to find yourself out of it.”
– Lance Strong, Compromising Positions
Most of the time I like it that way, but every once in a while it’s nice to look over and see that I connected with someone, even if only for the length of that one line. I told them a story that they liked enough to find quotable. Or highlightable for the Kindle folk.
* * *
Jenna has new releases for both traditional and e-readers. For Kicks, her business-trip-turns-sexy book, came out a few weeks ago in all ebook formats. Private Scandal, her heiress-makes-her-ex-pay story is available for hand holding now. For more about Jenna Bayley-Burke, check out her website, blog, Twitter (@jennabb), or Pinterest — but her Pinterest has nothing to do with author Jenna, so she cannot be held responsible for pinning addictions!
The Writing Process. It sounds so…ominous. And important. And honestly, I have no idea what exactly it means. What IS a writing “process,” anyway? Is it like…processing cheese, or what?
The obvious answer is, of course, that nope. Writing is nothing like making cheese. At least I assume so, since I’ve never actually made cheese, at least not on purpose. There were a few times when the milk got left out in strange places and we ended up with SOMETHING in the bottom of the cup that looked a lot like cottage cheese…Hmmm. Come to think of it, maybe the writing process is a lot like that, after all.
You put a bunch of stuff in the cup, and you let it sit in a strange place until it curdles and becomes something else.
Like magic!
For me, all books or stories start with a big WHAT IF. Sometimes these are random and meaningless and never turn into anything good. Sometimes I think they’re the best ideas, ever, but they turn out not to sustain a full plot. Other times, these WHAT IF moments are tiny sparks that seem like nothing and turn out to be some of my all-time favorites. TEMPTED started out that way. Just the kernel of an idea — a man in love with his best friend…AND the best friend’s wife. How would that work out? To this day, Tempted is the book I wrote the fastest. It was like a roller coaster. I got on it every morning and I wrote and wrote and wrote, and by the end of the day I was still interested in the ride.
Other times, it’s not so easy. ALL FALL DOWN came about with an idea about what happens to the people who are left behind when a cult implodes. I had a lot of ideas about how the story would go. Who’d be important in it. Subplots. Introspection. As I wrote it, though, the core of the story became more apparent and more important. The ideas I’d had about what being in a cult would mean became streamlined, and I’ll confess, I found a place in which I understood why someone would want to go back to a life most people would consider horrifying and strange, how our “normal” could be terrifying to someone without the ability to process it.
So, I guess that’s my writing process. Start with an idea and stir it up with a bunch of other stuff. See what sticks. Watch what comes out of it. Add different ingredients and let them ferment. Sometimes, boy, do they ever stink. But sometimes what comes out is ambrosia!
If I wanted to explore the idea of a writing process further, I’d have to admit that I do have a technical process. I sit at my computer (or less often, some other location) and I write. I write some more. I break for Twitter and email and instant message and Facebook. I write more. Then some more. When I’m done with that part, I print it out and go over it a few times, making changes. I enter them into my computer document. I read it again. Then again. I tweak and polish and change until I’m satisfied. I listen to music while I write. I drink Coke Zero and coffee and hot tea and pink lemonade. I don’t often switch things up like some writers I know who write in longhand or change their location or work on different projects. My technical process is pretty simple. I sit down. I write. I edit. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Somehow, it seems like it should be more magical than that. Something with elves or something. Fairy dust. Billowing white curtains and ivory candles, my muse trilling gently in my ear while the words trip one by one from my fingertips onto the page…
Now THAT would be a process!
Writers — do you have a process?
Readers — do you have an idea of what a writer’s process is like, or has the internet and posts like this ruined the idea of us slaving away in our garrets by candelight, swilling wine and whiskey and dancing to the tune of invisible voices?
This post is proudly a stop on the TEXAS TWO STEP Blog Tour. For a complete listing of all stops on this tour, please visit here. All contests are for U.S. residents only unless otherwise noted. Comments left on this blog will be counted toward the Texas Two Step Faithful Follower Gift Certificate. To see a complete listing of Blog Tour Prizes, click here. Be sure to check out the freebies. Yours for the asking as long as they last.
The hero of Texas Two Step (Mitch Landry) doesn’t have a sister, but like most men, he knows the rule about messing with a friend’s little sister…which is, Don’t Do It. In college, he was in a fraternity with Travis and Jason Montgomery. During that time, he heard a lot about their little sister, Olivia (the heroine of Texas Two Step) and even met her once. But she had been in high school…just a kid, he’d thought to himself at the time. Now at SMU (Southern Methodist University) law school, he shares classes and a friendship with Jason Montgomery. He remembers Olivia as a teenager until he meets her at The Bourbon Cowboy bar on her twenty-first birthday.
Many guest bloggers can offer a copy of a backlist book to be given away as a potential prize for a blog commenter. As a debut author, I don’t have a backlist. But I do have some awesome author friends who have stepped forward and offered one of their books as a prize.
To learn more about me check out these links:
Bethea emailed me one evening and said she awoke from a sound sleep thinking about me. She was dreaming about me, yeah, me. I thought for a minute she knew something I didn’t, maybe that I was naked and… Nope, she saw me deliriously happy with all the money I could want, even better. She saw me in love, too, with the perfect man. Now I don’t know about you, but that sounded wonderful to me!
Most of the time I like it that way, but every once in a while it’s nice to look over and see that I connected with someone, even if only for the length of that one line. I told them a story that they liked enough to find quotable. Or highlightable for the Kindle folk.
