The contest for the pretty journal continues. See yesterday’s post for details! ~DD

Last night was exciting—wind causing the trees to bend and crack, thunder and lightning, tornado warnings… You get the picture. I had the red-headed hellion, the six-year-old and the two-year-old camped out in my basement as we listened to the weather radio. Then the power goes out. Luckily, I have a thing for candles too. They climbed into the bed down here and went to sleep. I stepped outside under the covered deck to watch. Mother Nature gave me quite a show. No funnel clouds, but lots of jagged lights.

So, not much sleep. I’m on my third cup of coffee and starting to feel alive again. 🙂

Today, what I’d like to do is tell you about a story that’s releasing in a little over a week. It’s my first Nocturne Bite for Harlequin. I’d love for it to be a success, because I’d like to do more of them.

The story isn’t one I would have conceived on my own. The concept was already born as part of Nocturne’s Time Raiders series. I was invited to write a Bite to continue the series and given a premise to work with. Or at least a historical/mythological figure to build a story around. I’m flexible like that. You know that about me if you’ve roamed my site before. I have little control over the direction of Bad Moon Rising, which is the story my readers have helped me plot every step of the way. Anyway, the figure I was given was Queen Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons! Fun, right?

If the premise and the excerpt from The Warrior’s Touch intrigue you, click on the cover and head over to Amazon.com right now to pre-order this story! And I don’t have to tell you, you’re gonna love the hero, melt over the sex, and have a spanking good time.

Lieutenant Farideh Kalani expected her time-traveling assignment in ancient Scythia to be difficult, but fitting in with Amazon warriors is easy compared to being partnered with Sergeant First Class Caleb MacAvoy. The Texan soldier is infuriatingly smug and undeniably sexy. Then with one kiss, he awakens all Farideh’s desires. Now she’ll have to keep an eye on her mission and try to resist her attraction to Caleb. Because he’s the one man who might be able to breach the walls she’s built around her heart….

Farideh Kalani gritted her teeth to keep them from chattering as she felt herself being pulled one way and then another while spiraling downward. She arrived with a jolt, her thighs spread over the back of a large black stallion, her body bent over his neck as the two of them thundered across rolling hills, the horse’s hooves cutting into grass and stone. Which would have been a problem before the time jump, because she’d never ridden anything larger than a pony at the county fair. However, now she reached down to catch the trailing reins, and forced herself back, pulling at the stone bit in her mount’s mouth.

The horse gave a shrill whinny and a little buck, but Fari pressed her knees into his sides, and gradually he gentled, easing into a trot.

She grinned, then raised her head and breathed the clean, brisk air of ancient Scythia. Heavy gray storm clouds were rolling in from the south, whipping up a wind that carried the scent of the sea, and salt she could taste.

Glancing down, she noted she sat atop her horse with only a padded saddlecloth between her dark wool trousers and the animal’s warm back. Her boots were stuck in leather stirrups sewn to the saddlecloth. She wore an embroidered jacket trimmed in fur around the cuffs and neck, with a row of gold appliqués embossed with gryphons and lions along the hem. She slipped a gloved hand under her sleeve to check for the silver ESC cuff, her ticket home, and breathed a sigh of relief to feel its warmth against her skin.

Grasping the reins with confidence, she trusted the skill that had been implanted in her mind, along with her new knowledge of the geography around her.

If she didn’t make the fortress city of Tanais by nightfall, she’d be pitching a tent, of sorts, in the rain, tying together two cushioned saddlecloths with those leather stirrups.

Although she had the knowledge to construct the tent, she wasn’t eager to lie on the hard ground within the tiny shelter, huddled for warmth against her current companion.

Sergeant First Class Caleb McAvoy was already too smug and too sexy for her peace of mind.
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I love to shop. Not for clothes or shoes or groceries. My thrills come from acquiring jewelry (junky and fine), office supplies (I know there’s a fetish in there somewhere), and anything of a medieval or paranormal bent. Which is precisely why I own two large jewelry boxes, why one wall of my office is crammed floor-to-ceiling with every imaginable office machine, stacks of notebooks and Post-its, and why the rest of my office has figurines and pictures of dragons, fairies, and knights cluttering up every surface.

My obsession has led to my friendship with a woman who owns a tiny specialty shop in town. She keeps an eye out for things she knows I’ll dig. This week, I came home with a grocery bag full of things I bought just to share with you. I had to have them all, but I have no where to store them. So I figure that if I offer one contest a week for some really random prizes that you might poke your head in the door pretty often to see what’s up, and I’ll have found a use for SOMETHING I’ve bought!

Here’s this week’s prize:

The journal is covered in a short velveteen; the pages are a nice thick stock; and the image is one of two female fairies, one light and one dark, the tips of their wings interwoven. Very pretty. And very, very hard for me give up because I want it!

What do you have to do to win? Just post comments wherever I am blogging—this includes my daily blogposts that show up on Facebook. The more times you post, the better your chances to walk away with this lovely journal.

So, post a comment here and you’re entered. Come visit me at Everything Erotic where I’ve posted a short story and you have a second chance! This contest will end next Tuesday when I’ll reach into my bag for the next random prize. Good luck!

Today, I’m hoping that I can unclutter my office and my mind.

I have a housekeeper coming to clean my place. Does that sound like the height of decadence? It is. But she’s inexpensive and a lot more thorough than I am, and when she’s done, somehow, it feels cleaner than if I did the work myself. While she runs the Hoover and mops, I’ll be decluttering my desk.

Not that I’ll give up a single dragon or fairy figurine, or King Kong hugging his NY skyscraper, or my Cinderalla and Sleeping Beauty Pez dispensers. Those aren’t clutter. They’re friends. Along with the small stuffed unicorn and carved stone alligator, frog, bear, wolf and elephant, they are things I can hold in my palm and caress when I’m running into trouble with my WIP (Work in Progress). When I stroke a thumb across their surfaces, they unlock dreams like a genie’s lamp.

The decluttering has to do with the stacks of papers I have laying on every surface—on the desk, the file cabinet, the printer—yes, even on the floor. I’ve been sick and have let more stack up than usual because I haven’t been able to concentrate. But no more excuses. I have to attack the stacks, then settle down to write some pages. I have books due. I’m late. Feel free to nag!

And woot! Riding a little high this morning. A reader plopped a brand new review up on Amazon for Pleasing Sir. “…It’s not Romance, though you will feel the pinch of love and desire found in some of the best of contemporary romances. This is erotica at it’s finest. There is a difference, and Delilah is the master and making that clear.

And if you’re inclined to hop to another blog today, I have a post on another site about my two April releases, Handy Men and Moonstruck. I’d love a comment or two or even just a wave so I don’t look like a loser. 🙂

Hop on over to After Midnight Fantasies.

It was a very sad week for me. Not a single word was written. After arriving back home from LA on Sunday with a cough, I suffered a full-blown upper respiratory thing all week accompanied by horrible fatigue. I can work with a cough; I can’t create when I’m wrung out. End of story. Needless to say, I’m woefully behind on all my goals. I need to rethink my plans, which makes this my shortest report card ever. 😥

This week’s topic is characters doing something active. Get your minds out of the gutter! In my case, Shanna and Bo are dancing, and it’s the start of Four Sworn. Shanna is one of my favorite heroines because even though she’s very earthy, she’s also innocent. She’s a coltish, clumsy, vulnerable woman who won’t admit to herself that Bo’s “the one”. Enjoy meeting Shanna and Bo as we meet them for the first time.

“…what you get is explosive, emotional and endearing, something Delilah Devlin does better than anyone…” 4 Cherries, Whipped Cream

There’s a wild child trapped inside her, and they’re hell-bent on unleashing it…

As the pretty daughter of the town whore, Shanna Davies has always tried hard to toe the line. But she just can’t help it. Her boyfriend, Bo Crenshaw, has lured her untamed spirit out to play once too often. It’s time to get the hell out of Dodge and make a new start where no one knows her past. After she fulfills one last, wicked fantasy.

Shanna is Bo’s first everything. First kiss, first sexual playmate, first love. Yet he’s never managed to convince her that he accepts her—good girl and bad—just as she is. So, she wants a memorable send off? No problem. He’ll give her one that’ll make her think twice about leaving.

On the appointed night, Shanna expects nerves. Yet once she crosses the threshold, the prospect of surrendering to a night of unrestrained passion with Bo and the three Kinzie brothers makes her mouth water—and her courage dry up.

But she asked for it, and now she’s not about to blink first in this game of sexual chicken…

Warning: Four lusty cowboys prove a little domination goes a long way in breaking a stubborn woman to saddle. Lots of spanking, binding, flogging, and double-dipping can keep a girl on her toes, her back, her belly, her knees…

“Dance with me, cowboy.”

Bo Crenshaw didn’t know what surprised him more. Her wanting to dance—or her asking him. She always cringed over her inability to master a simple two-step, and she usually avoided him like the plague in public.

But he wasn’t arguing. It was Friday night after a long week of wrangling cattle. He wanted to replace the musky smell in his nostrils with something a whole lot sweeter. Giving his drinking buddy a shrug, he let Shanna Davies tug his hand and lead him onto the dance floor, pretending a reluctance he didn’t feel.

Not that dancing with Shanna wasn’t pleasurable—if a little painful. She danced the same way she lived—a little too fast and completely out of synch with everyone around her.
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You all know I love using a visual to get the old gray matter firing. I saw this truck in a parking lot. Loved the name of the business and his slogan! So tell me what sort of adventures Nick the Plumber might get up to!

Although I was sick for most of the conference last week, I did manage to stir from my room to meet friends. It’s the best part of conference, seeing old friends and making new ones. Here are some of my favorite pics.

Of course, I had to meet the man on my Moonstruck cover, Jimmy Thomas. This was his display at the booksigning on Saturday. You can see Moonstruck on the upper right corner!

I shot this after one of the panel discussions I participated in. In the picture are my BFF Kimberly Kaye Terry and the fabulous L.A. Banks!

More KKT and me! Doesn’t she look amazing?!

L.A. at the booksigning!

Just to prove it’s not all female authors at RT! I bought Jeremy’s book, Hungry for Love—what can I say? I can’t get enough of zombies!

The promo princesses themselves, Megan Hart and Lauren Dane!

I sat next to the very sweet and funny, HelenKay Dimon at the booksigning!

Richelle Mead is signing Frostbite for me!

Another very sweet lady—Taige Crenshaw!

You never know who you’re gonna meet at conference. Here’s my beta-buddy, Virginia E taking a pic of me while I’m taking a pic of her!

Virginia without the camera. 🙂

Kimmie with the rockin’ Vivia Anna!