Another Sunday and time to plan out my week. Let’s pull a card…

This morning, I pulled the King of Cups. Who is he? The lute was a big hint. Orpheus, the King of Thrace, was given a lute by Apollo when he was born. Orpheus grew into a gifted singer who could heal men’s souls with his songs. He accompanied Jason on his quest to retrieve the Golden Fleece. While he was a healer and a priest and a gifted singer bringing light to everyone around him, his own story was tragic. He married Eurydice who was attacked in the woods by a man when she was alone. She fought him off, but when she ran away to escape him, she was bitten by a snake, died, and was dragged down into Hades. Orpheus used his gift of song to charm his way into the Underworld. Hades gave him a chance to retrieve her. He could lead her out of Hades, back into the world, but he could never look back or he would lose her forever. Yup, just as he was ready to step out of the Underworld, he glanced back to make sure she was there, and she was gone. His end was sad as well. Dionysus–you know the god of wine and pary–was jealous of Orpheus’s popularity, so he sent his minions after him. They tore him into pieces. The Muses were so grieved they gathered his parts and buried him at the foot of Mount Olympus.

So, what does his card mean for me? Gah. Gifts, love of family. Tragedy. I’m not sure. In the picture, he holds a golden chalice and his lute. He wears his crown as King of Thrace. He wears his finery as he sits on his golden throne which sits on firm fertile land but also on the water. So, I’m going to say I can hold my gifts—talent (work), but must balance my seat (my writer’s chair) between my work, which is shared with others and those who hold my heart (my family, like he held his wife).

Knowing NaNoWriMo starts this week, I think it means I have to make sure I don’t shut the door on family while I make my daily wordcount.

See how this works? I stare at a card to divine its meaning, but I see that card through the filter of my obligations. Anyone can read cards!

So, what does The Mythic Tarot book say? “…it is time for the individual to experience this ambivalent side of himself or herself…” That’s helpful?!

Open Contests

1. Flashback: Brotherhood Protectors — Guarding Hannah (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!
2. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Sweetest Day Celebration! — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!
3. 10 Things I love about Halloween (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Gabbi Grey: Trying It Short! Rise — Out now! (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!
5. Meet your Weekend Book Boyfriend–Dylan O’Hara–and get ready for Halloween! (FREE Book!) — This offer ends soon! Everyone, get your FREE book!
6. A Reminder & the Saturday Puzzle-Contest! — Win an Amazon gift card!

UPDATE: The winner is…Diane Sallans!
*~*~*

This is a reminder that my current call for submissions for the next Boys Behaving Badly Anthology is drawing near. I’m considering pushing out the submission date to accommodate writers but want you to keep this challenge in mind. Follow the link to learn more about what I’m seeking. These anthologies are always fun!

The link:  Call for Submissions

The Saturday Puzzle-Contest

Since “secret identities” are on my mind today, I chose a very pretty picture of a possible heroine in such a story! I have to choose a theme for my own story. It’s raining outside. It’s been raining a couple of days now and there’s no end in sight. The temperatures are warm for this time of year, but I’m at last ready for the cold to arrive. This picture feels “fall-ish” or maybe even a little “Christmas-y”—it’s the colors, I guess. Enjoy it!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me what sort of secret identity story you’d like me to write. Have fun with the challenge!

Yes, this is the worst, most laughable meme ever, right? My daughter made it for fun when I gave her a list of things I wanted the meme to reflect: Weekend Book Boyfriend, a Halloween party, vampires… She made this one, and another (if you can believe, it’s worse!), as a joke but didn’t realize how perfect it really was. If you’ve never read Sm{B}itten, then you won’t get it. Which means you have to now, right?

And just so you know, I had fun with the title of the story. I couldn’t decide between Smitten and Bitten and decided it was both. I pronounce it: Smuh-Bitten.

I hope you give it a try. It’s Dylan and Emmy’s romance. It’s funny. She’s an innocent who walks into a world she’s not prepared for and he’s the vampire trying to save her from her own bad choices. I wrote this book a long time ago, and it started a series I still haven’t finished. I know, I know. I will. When I’m ready. But for now, there are a ton of the stories in the series, and I hope Emmy and Dylan’s story will convince you that you can’t miss the journey. But be warned!! The book is very, very sexy. If erotica is not your thing, skip it!

So, pick up your FREE copy and enjoy! If you want to read more Night Fall stories, head over to my series page and take a look: Series Webpage

Happy Reading!
~DD

Sm{B}itten

True love bites!

Emmy Harris knows she’s not perfect. She has a little extra padding and isn’t the brightest bulb, but you’d think she was a sexy rock star the way everyone at a certain night club treats her from the moment she walks through the door. In fact, the two sexiest men there can’t seem to keep their hands off her, until one of them sweeps her away to his private domain. A girl like her isn’t going to waste a chance like that! So he’s a little rough and likes to take a nibble or two while he pleasures her. For a girl who didn’t know she’d never experienced a full-blown orgasm before, Dylan’s eccentricities are delicious!

Dylan O’Hara only wants a night of passion to slake his lusts, but finds Emmy is a full-bodied, red-blooded siren whose innocence and humor draw this Master vampire like a moth to a red-hot flame. When Emmy attracts the attention of a serial-killing vampire, Dylan vows to protect her, but he fears he’ll lose Emmy once she discovers he’s not quite human.

Get your FREE copy now!

The winner is…Diane Sallens!
*~*~*

Hello Delilah!  Thank you for letting me visit today to discuss a fantastic project I’m involved in.

I write all different kinds of queer fiction, and when this contest entered my radar screen a few years ago, it caught my attention.  This is the third year I submitted a 300-word short story, and I was thrilled my story was chosen with 119 others to put together this wonderful collection.  My story is a lesbian shifter romance—not something I’d written before.  I love the speculative nature of Sci-Fi and paranormal. This isn’t our world and yet how does it relate to us? Which elements are the same and which are different?  I invite readers to sink into stories that pack a hell of a punch, even with the short word count.  I know I used every single one to craft a story I hope readers will love.

As a bonus, today, I’d love to give away a $5 Amazon Gift Card.  To enter, just drop a note in the comments.  Let me know—do you read paranormal or Science Fiction?  Is there a particular subgenre you like?  Good luck!

Rise

Every year, Queer Sci Fi runs a one-word theme contest for 300-word flash fiction stories, and then we choose 120 of the best for our annual anthology.

RISE
(Noun, Verb)

Eight definitions to inspire writers around the world, and an unlimited number of possible stories to tell:

1) An upward slope or movement
2) A beginning or origin
3) An increase in amount or number
4) An angry reaction
5) To take up arms
6) To return from death
7) To become heartened or elated
8) To exert oneself to meet a challenge

Universal Buy Link: https://www.otherworldsink.com/book/rise/
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CJQM596P

Rise features 300-word speculative flash fiction stories from across the rainbow spectrum, from the minds of the writers of Queer Sci Fi.

Pairings (if a romance): MM, FF, MF, NB, etc.
Genres: Fantasy, Horror, Paranormal, Romance, Science Fiction
LGBTQ+ Identities (if applicable): Ace, Bi, Demi, Gay, Intersex, Lesbian, Poly, Trans

Series Title: Queer Sci Fi’s Annual Flash Fiction Contest

Authors: This year, 554 authors entered the Rise contest. 120 of them were chosen, and their stories are included in this anthology.

Queer Sci Fi Website: https://www.queerscifi.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/qsfdiscussions
Mastodon: https://mastodon.otherworldsink.com/@queerscifi

The days are getting shorter, and the air has a distinct bite to it. The trees are losing their leaves as the wind whistles through their branches. Pumpkins are appearing on porch steps and children of all ages are getting excited about the upcoming holiday.

We’re days away from Halloween, the time of year where creatures of the night such as vampires, demons and ghosts, but most especially werewolves seem a little more real to us all. Why do I say most especially werewolves? It’s simple really. I’m celebrating the fact I have a new werewolf book.

But seriously, what makes these shapeshifters so appealing to readers of all genres, especially romance readers? Personally, I think it’s the fact that they’re stripped down to the basics. They rely on their animal instincts when dealing with others—human or those of their own kind. They are strong and can be brutal, when necessary, yet nurturing and caring to those they consider family or pack. They live by their own set of rules, and these differ from those which humans live under. They change, transforming themselves, sometimes at will and other times needing the light of the full moon to do so—depending on the writer penning the story.

Elemental best describes them. They are powerful creatures, in tune with the earth. We can all easily picture a lone wolf on a hillside howling at the moon. It makes us shiver in dread at the same time it makes us wish we could be closer to the wolf. The wolf calls to us on a primal level. We admire it even as we fear it.

What happens when that wolf is a true lone wolf, one who answers to no alpha or pack, whose destiny is to be both judge and executioner for rogue werewolves? Find out in Taming the White Wolf.

Taming the White Wolf
Lone Wolf Legacy, Book 1

White wolf Devlin Moore has spent nearly the last century following his destiny: hunting rogue werewolves. His fate is to be the only one of his kind—hardened, feared, and brutally ruthless. Only now, Devlin’s not alone. There are two others. And if that wasn’t unsettling enough, Devlin is drawn to New York City for what appears to be a human…

As far as Devlin can tell, vibrant artist Zoe Galvani is no threat. But there’s something about her— from her unusual eyes that look similar to the same shocking hue as his own, to his growing need to mark her as his that suggests magical forces may be at play.

Now there’s no escaping each other, or the attraction that grows stronger by the second. But no one, especially a human woman, should have this effect on a lone wolf. And just when he’s sure that having her could be his undoing…the truth steps out of the shadows.

If you want to read more, you can find Taming the White Wolf here:

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7NTXG92/
Entangled Publishing: https://entangledpublishing.com/books/taming-the-white-wolf
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/taming-the-white-wolf-n-j-walters/1143634327
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/taming-the-white-wolf
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/taming-the-white-wolf/id6450183902

About the Author

N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, assassins, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Visit her at:
Website: https://www.njwalters.com
Blog: https://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Sign Up: https://eepurl.com/gdblg5
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/njwaltersauthor
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/NJWalters
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/n-j-walters

UPDATE: The winner is…Jeanette Whetzel!
*~*~*

We’re counting down! It’s just a week away now. We still haven’t painted our pumpkins, and I know my dd is dreading the mess. The kids love doing it, but whoo! Paint gets everywhere so we do it on the lawn with a large throwaway tarp or tablecloth. This weekend, they’re going to the theme park in Hot Springs for a scary Halloween night. I’ll stay home and enjoy the quiet. The kids all have plans for Halloween night—which neighborhoods and community buildings to hit, which friends they’ll bring along… Fun will be had by all.

Here’s a fun list of 10 things I love about Halloween…

• 👻 “The veil” between the worlds of the living and the dead thins
• 🎃 The family decorates pumpkins
• 📺 Halloween movies play
• 🌃 Kids play in the dark
• 🧛 Vampires are cool again
• 🧟 Zombies come out to play
• 👹 Monsters carry candy buckets
• 🤡 Clowns become rightfully scary
• 🧹 Tiny wicked witches arrive at the door asking for candy
• 🍬 Candy becomes an acceptable food group!

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, tell me five things you love about Halloween or share a memory of a Halloween past!

Okay, not this kind of mole. Although, I think it would be a fun holiday to celebrate although my only interaction with this mole is when I skim them out of the pool (poor things).

What mole are we celebrating? Not the dark spot on your skin. Not the insectivore. Not the double-agent variety. Only a science nerd (chemists, in particular) would know what I’m talking about.

By definition (Merriam-Webster): A mole is “the base unit of amount of pure substance in the International System of Units that is defined as having exactly 6.02214076 x 10²³ indivisible units (such as atoms or molecules) of that substance.”

Yeah, that went over my head, too. I prefer believing we’re celebrating the insectivore. BECAUSE…when I saw it on a list of holidays, my mind went straight to my “mole hole” of an office in the basement, which is devoid of windows and natural light where I can claim silence and privacy to do my work.

So, I’m celebrating the mole who digs the underground holes like the place where I create.

If you were going to celebrate this holiday, which mole would you choose?