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Guest Blogger: Marissa Day
Wednesday, July 6th, 2011

TAM LIN AND THE ORIGINS OF
THE SURRENDER OF LADY JANE

or “Where I Didn’t Get My Ideas From”

by Marissa Day

All things considered, traditional ballads and broadsheet songs are not a fertile source for good Romance. Seriously. If you are a hero or a heroine in, say, a Child ballad, your odds of successfully achieving the Happily Ever After are really, really small. You’re far more likely to be betrayed by your lady love over a very small misunderstanding, which will cause you to die of a broken heart (Barbara Allen). Better yet, she could kill you herself over a badly timed joke and have her servants throw you in the backyard well (Proud Lady Margaret). On the heroine’s side, you could be accidently shot because your lover turns out to have bad eyesight and you’ve got an unusually large apron (Polly Von), or the guy you thought was going to marry you could show up already married to another woman, after which she kills you, which causes him to kill her follows that up with his public suicide at the wedding feast (Fair Ellen). Alternately, you could elope with a guy who turns out to be a serial killer and have to chuck him in the ocean and then talk your parrot into not ratting you out (The Outlandish Knight).

Mothers are particularly hazardous to your Trad. Ballad couple. Your mother could leave your true love out in the cold (The Lass of Roch Royal), or you could get the double whammy where your mother curses you, and then the heroine’s mother leaves you out in the cold (The Drowned Lovers). Fathers aren’t any good either. They tend to do things like follow up the arrangement an advantageous marriage for you by trying to perform a public confirmation of your virginity, forcing you to either die of embarrassment or turn into a tree (The Arbutus). For an exciting variation, there’s the possibility that your husband will murder both your shapeshifting lover and your son (The Great Selkie of Sule Skerry), or you could just get murdered by your jealous brunette of a sister on general principles (The Twa Sisters).

Of course, this is not a problem limited to the Scottish and British ballads. Do not even get me started on the dope slap needed by all the players in the traditional Appalachian ballad “The Long, Black Veil.” I’m telling you, it is just not a grand ballroom of glamour and romance out there.

And yet, it was a traditional Ballad that furnished me with the basics for THE SURRENDER OF LADY JANE. The ballad was “Tam Lin.”
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It’s green and scaly, but too cute to ignore!
Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

A new contest is here with a very cool prize!

What can you win?
This lovely book dragon that I purchased as a pair from my favorite curio shop. It’s small, but beautifully detailed.

What do you have to do?
Post comments on my blog or my Facebook page. Every comment you make over the next two weeks will count as one entry. How easy is that?

The contest ends July 18th!

And since you need something to start your commenting with other than, “It’s so cute!”, here’s a question…

If you had a great voice and had the opportunity to record a duet with any singer living today, whom would you choose as your partner for the recording?

Happy 4th of July!
Monday, July 4th, 2011

I’m playing today at Wild & Wicked Cowboys! Come join me. I’ve posted a sexy picture of a cowboy and need your help dreaming up a scene in a story to go along with it!

Road Trip — Powell Garden
Sunday, July 3rd, 2011

The contest winners are listed at the bottom of this post!

Another of our stops (this one planned because the Red-Headed Hellion knows I love dinosaurs) was Powell Garden in Missouri. It’s a lovely outdoor botannical garden which I might have stopped for anyway, but this summer they’re featuring the “Jurassic Exhibit”.

Plenty of pretty flowers and trees. Love them. Took pics of them.

We walked the couple-mile trail to find the dinosaurs lurking in the bushes. Rawr!

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Snippet Saturdy — Family
Saturday, July 2nd, 2011

I’ll announce contest winners tomorrow! ~DD

* * * * *

Today’s theme, Family, narrowed my choice of excerpts to the obvious story. Who better than the Kinzie brothers to define what family is? Three handsome, determined, like-minded siblings intent on capturing their girl…

“…Put into the mix three sexy brothers who happen to be cowboys and who are hot for one lucky female? You have a sexual, erotic masterpiece!” 5 Stars and Top Pick!, The Romance Reviews

“…Delilah Devlin just makes this type of story such an adventure as well as a hot ride… You will never go wrong with a Delilah Devlin story and you will never be disappointed.” 5 Cherries, Whipped Cream Reviews

“Cleverly written, Breaking Leather breaks the mold when it comes to ménage stories… Highly recommend.” Sizzling, 4 1/2 Stars, Sensual Reads

One for remembrance…one for healing…and one to seal her heart forever.

Chrissi Page has tried to find one man who heats her bed the way the Kinzie brothers did one shameful night years ago. She’s failed miserably, leaving her with no choice but to bank that inner fire—and keep a lid on her inner bad girl.

She’d been weak, unable to choose between three men who appealed to her in different ways. And when they’d confronted her as a tease, anger had boiled over into a passion so wild, she’s still trying to live it down.

Since that night, Ezra, Cade and Joshua have individually sown their wild oats with pretty much the entire available female population of Two Mule, Texas. Yet nothing erases the attraction they still feel for Chrissi. And when she ends up stranded on the road near their ranch, it’s their last chance to turn their mutual obsession into an unusual proposition.

One weekend, three on one. If she can’t stand the heat, they’ll let her go on with her life. And try to find a way to live with the hole she’ll leave behind in theirs.

Warning: A girl who thinks she can’t have it all, and three brothers who set out to prove otherwise. One on one, two on one, and three on one; bondage in the wild; a bit of riding crop action. And a pickup truck load of emotion.

Chrissi watched Josh lead away his tall roan gelding and breathed a sigh of relief. She’d thought her worst fears had already been realized when Ezra arrived to rescue her. Seeing Josh and Cade, in close proximity to Ezra, had sent her body into apoplectic shock, stirring up all those old memories.

Foremost in her mind, she remembered skinny-dipping in the river with them. Innocent enough since Ezra was her boyfriend and had approved. And how could she resist when the three brothers had eagerly shed their clothes?

Sweet Jesus, the three of them, so alike and yet so different… She’d gotten love-drunk on the sight of them.

Ezra, older by only a year than the other two, had always seemed so much more mature. His body even then had been broad and sturdy—ripped from his shoulders to his calves. His size and strength had always made her feel safe, except during sex—but then his largeness and sexual intensity thrilled her, frightened her almost, she’d wanted him that badly.

Cade had been the quiet one. The nice one. Always courteous, always respectful, but his slow smile, so seldom seen, had had the power to melt her to her toes. And although the most reserved of the three, the memory of being held inside the circle of his strong arms whenever she’d suffered a fright was a cherished one.

And Josh, dear God, Josh was the golden child. Blond where the other two were dark-haired, his tall, lean body and the wicked glint in his crystal blue eyes, as though he was always ready for an adventure, had never failed to make her hot. How many times had she smoothed her thumb over that dimple in the center of his chin and warned him not to break a woman’s heart? Why hadn’t she taken her own damn advice?

That day by the river, the sight of their tall, tanned bodies, lined up prettier than any Chippendales’ review, had sucked the air right out of her lungs.

She hadn’t been as eager to get naked, feeling a little insecure among so much perfection, but they’d teased her, joking with each other, jostling and shoving until she’d laughed at their antics and joined them.

Even then she’d felt their combined illicit allure. Her nipples had prickled, her sex had tightened—but she’d been relieved to know she wasn’t the only one affected as each of the boys’ cocks had hardened.

They’d laughed, as though it was the most natural thing in the world to watch each other get hard. Her stare had lingered as she assessed their size, the slight upward curve of their shafts, the ruddy tan color that gave way to a reddish-purple at their fat, round crowns. When they’d grown silent, she’d dared an upward glance.

Ezra’s steamy blue gaze had locked with hers. “Not anything to be ashamed of, Chrissi. We’re guys. It’s what happens when we’re around a pretty girl. Only you can’t always see it when we’re dressed.”

She’d thought about that often, wondering how many men walked around with hard-ons inspired by a stray glimpse of an attractive woman. Not something she wanted to think about, considering she’d been living like a nun for a very long time.

“Open the door,” Ezra repeated, his voice sounding as rough as gravel. She shivered at the quiet intensity of his order. Even after all this time, she wanted to do exactly what he asked. However, she knew where her submission would lead.
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Road Trip — Joplin, MO
Friday, July 1st, 2011

I was away for a week on a trip that I wanted to be purposely spontaneous. Does that make sense? We had a destination—my brother’s house in Des Moines—but we wanted to be able to stop and explore whatever struck our interest.

The first day out, we drove north from Arkansas and were barely into Missouri when the sign off the Interstate read “Joplin”. We’d watched the newscasts of the aftermath of the powerful tornado that hit there and wondered just how bad it really was.

It was worse than we’d imagined.

Pigs flew. Don’t know why this struck me as wrong, but the only sign of damage at this restaurant was to…well…the sign!

Home Depot had their act together. Their entire store had been flattened, but they’d already had the wreckage pushed to one side of their huge lot and erected this large tent to provide building supplies for the area.

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Your Favorite 5 Heart Review?
Thursday, June 30th, 2011

Begging for It has been accumulating some very good reviews lately, plus inclusion in the “5 Heart Sweetheart of the Week” list at The Romance Studio—which could use your vote to win!

Here’s the link: Vote for Sweetheart

If you haven’t read the book, take a look at the following raves to see whether this might be a book you’d be interested in…

“…I absolutely loved this book and mostly because of TJ. TJ’s character was very complex and very realistic… With these two dynamic characters, the emotional pull of this story was outstanding… As TJ dealt with her nightmares, the horror came across and the reality of war slammed out. Emotions ran the gamut and reached out to draw you in.” ~5 Stars and Top Pick, Night Owl Reviews

“…Delilah Devlin is at her finest with BEGGING FOR IT! BEGGING FOR IT is a steamy stirring novella that shreds the confines of societal norms to give us a beautifully real story… It is heartbreaking but real. Yes, this is a very hot erotic novella but the story really spoke to me… BEGGING FOR IT is outrageous and perfectly delicious!” ~Joyfully Reviewed

“…This story is an emotional rollercoaster that will make you laugh, cry, and overheat… Devlin weaves an enthralling tale around these two main characters, and that’s before taking into account the scorching and erotic sex scenes that’ll have you squirming in your seat. It’s a novella that’s impossible to put down, a definite gem worth reading again and again.” ~5 Hearts, The Romance Reviews

Still not sure? Read an excerpt!

Yes, contest winners and pictures from the trip are still coming…