Heroes…

Okay, I have a confession to make. I’m huge fan of Survivor, but not for the usual reasons. To be honest, I wasn’t at first, the idea of a bunch of people trying to out-nasty each other just didn’t do it for me. One show, though, was different. I won’t give the season because it doesn’t really matter. They were having one of their challenges, a test of strength and endurance, this one involved bags of sand. All the attention was on the two big muscle men on the show. Neither of them won. Instead it was the quiet lawyer who was the leader of one of the tribes. He didn’t make a big deal out of it, he just stood, endured and got the job done. The fact that he was sort of cute in a lean and sexy way didn’t hurt. (Yes, I wrote a book about him, but not the one I’m talking about today.)

From then on I was hooked. Not on the ‘stars’ but on those people, the ones in the background, the ones who get the job done. Once or twice, they’ve even won.
My heroes have always been different. One of my favorite authors was mystery author and ex-jockey Dick Francis. For many reasons not least of which that I loved his heroes. They were simple stories of good men trying to do the right thing against all odds. They weren’t anti-heroes nor were they your classic hero types. They weren’t snide or mean, they didn’t sneer or smirk, they just got the job done. Stand-up guys, the ones who are there when you need them.

He was the only three-time winner of the Edgar awards and a romance story in his own right. He was deeply in love with his wife, who was his researcher on many of his stories until her death. When she died, he was heartbroken and retired until his son Felix got him writing again. He and Felix wrote three stories together before Dick Francis died. Now he is reunited with his Mary.

There are a lot of people who write stories of Alpha males, of dominance and whatnot and they write them really well, so I think I’ll let them keep doing that. *grin* I want to write stories of good guys, of strong men who defy all the odds, strong men who respect strong women. I liked 300 for the same reasons, that Leonidas was a great King, powerful and sexy, with a strong Queen.

So, you’re asking, how does a book about Demons fit in there? Aren’t Demons the bad guys? Especially Asmodeus, the Prince of Demons himself?

I had started writing the story of Asmodeus because a lot of people were writing stories of vampires and werewolves and I wanted to do something different. (And I’d written one myself.) Just as suddenly I started noticing there were lots of stories about big bad demons popping up.

Well now, that’s the other thing. I don’t tend to write anything the way anyone expects. I like to put a new spin on things, look at them from a different perspective. So from there I went to, what if? What if everything everyone thought or was taught about demons was wrong? As a student of history I knew that over the centuries various groups have been ‘demonized’ for reasons that were just as varied, tribe, religion or race, or a bad case of I just don’t like you or I want what you have.

And then I had it, that first scene, when Gabriel, the heroine, meets Asmodeus for the first time. It was clear and sharp in my mind’s eye.

The stage or platform area captured her attention. She was transfixed, riveted by what she saw there. Her heart seemed to stop.

Completely naked from the top of his horned head to his clawed feet, it was impossible for her to miss any part of him.

All six foot five or six or so of gleaming muscle, silken hair, rampant… Oh, sorry…

Didn’t I say I don’t tend to write your standard leather clad Alpha males? I don’t and he isn’t.

He was naked. *grin*

Did I say he wasn’t sexy? No.

It probably doesn’t hurt that Asmodeus is not only gorgeous but has some mad skills in bed and out. And up against the wall, among other places. Then somehow, something else was introduced into the mix. When I wrote it I was a little concerned because he has some…uh…extra…assets. Then I read a few books by other authors and stopped worrying. He wasn’t given the title Demon of Lust for nothing. The boy is talented. That little something extra doesn’t hurt either.

To find out more, you’ll have to read Demon’s Kiss, coming from Ellora’s Cave this week on January 26, the first book in a possible series called Demon Allure. You’ll also learn about the Book of Demons and meet battered, scarred Ashtoreth, the hero of book two. But that’s for another day. For now, I hope you enjoy Demon’s Kiss.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Book 1 in the Demon Allure series.

F.B.I. Agent Gabriel Nicholas is kidnapped and dragged into a vast, underground chamber. Spotlighted in the center of that room is something—someone?—quite unbelievable. He’s also, without doubt, the most magnificent specimen of masculine beauty she has ever seen. He is absolutely stunning.

Despite the circumstances, Gabriel burns to touch all that gorgeous, gleaming skin—a living palette of shifting red and black. She wants to run her fingers through his silken, ebony hair, feel those strong hands on her flesh.

He is Asmodeus, the Demon of Lust, legend come to life. But Gabriel soon realizes that Asmodeus is just as much a captive as she is.

Let’s see… It’s Saturday, so I must be in Mexico! I’ll be thinking of you, although you may have the last laugh. The forecast is for rain!

I know I’ve shown you this excerpt before, but when the topic for today was listed as “Bad Mood”, there wasn’t another scene I’ve written lately that better describes it. True’s an ornery, grumpy man. Enjoy! I’ll be back on Tuesday! ~DD

Two men plus one woman equals three bodies on fire…

True Wyatt’s hands are going to be full enough keeping the herd alive through the dead of winter. The last thing he needs to hear is that his brother Lonny has rented out their isolated hunting cabin to a reclusive writer—especially a sassy, disaster-prone brunette. Who has the time to babysit a city girl until Spring?

With a deadline looming, erotica writer Honey Cahill is looking forward to six distraction-free weeks to finish her next book. However, between Lonny’s flirty sensuality and True’s hard-edged intensity, the Wyatt brothers set the stage of her imagination for a winter of wicked delights.

The fire that destroys the cabin, though, is as real as it gets. Forced to seek a bed under True and Lonny’s roof, the temptation to experiment—all in the name of research, of course—is overpowering. One night in their arms doesn’t feel like enough; it feels like more. Particularly with one cowboy who fires all her cylinders…

Warning: It’s a Devlin ménage—expect men with stamina and not an ounce of mercy to behave like sex gods, and the lucky woman to love every minute of it. A little domination goes a long, long way…

True Wyatt prided himself on control—control over the multitude of responsibilities that came with riding herd over a successful ranch; control over his brother, who thought life should be enjoyed rather than conquered; and control over the desires he’d kept in rein since the demise of his marriage. And yet, the sight that greeted him this cold winter day told him he’d only been fooling himself.

From his perch high atop the ridge overlooking the lonely cabin, True Wyatt watched the shapely brunette as she made another trip to her car to pull boxes and suitcases from her backseat, one after the other. Grumpily, he wondered how she’d managed to stuff so much inside a Corolla. The trunk had held a similar assortment of printer-paper-sized boxes, which she’d manhandled into the house, her face growing rosy with exertion.

Despite the biting wind, she’d dispensed with her down coat and wore only a sweater with a crew neck, the sleeves pushed off her wrists. The dark blue knit hugged her upper torso, defining a lovely bosom and narrow waist. Every time she bent to pull out another box her designer jeans hugged her small rounded bottom, and his loins tightened.

Which annoyed the hell out of him. Fact was, he wished he could turn his horse away and pretend he hadn’t noticed trouble had arrived on his mountain. He knew exactly who to blame. His anger smoldered like hot coals ready to erupt into a full blaze. The clop of hooves approaching behind him carried just the fuel to add to the fire.
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Freed by HD

by Adele Dubois

“No one looks good in HD”, an actor said on TV. I had to laugh at his remark, because it’s true. High definition resolution shows every flaw on an actor’s skin. Scars, pimples, lines and moles that make-up and filtered lenses used to hide are impossible to cover in high def.

Seemingly overnight, celebrities have transformed from impossibly perfect icons into regular people dressed in their Sunday best. We’re able to see them as they really are—flaws and all—and I find the change refreshing. It not only removes the impossible standards women, especially, are pressured to emulate, but also levels the playing field for us authors, who never had the benefit of filtered lenses, plastic surgery or make-up artists in the first place.

At book signings, I always wonder how readers see the people behind the stories. We authors aren’t celebrities like the actors on TV. We’re more like the man behind the curtain in Oz, whose stories might intrigue us, but whose appearance might sometimes be better left a mystery. As long as there have been books, there have been ordinary people behind the stories. Our imaginations, not our physical forms, are what inspire readers.

I like that high definition television has opened the wizard’s curtain and let us see actors a bit clearer. It makes life so much easier for the rest of us.

REV ME TWICE Summary:

Crystal is a bad, bad girl in the most delicious ways. She tries to be good and is tempted to commit to her Navy MP boyfriend, Tomas, but has no experience with an exclusive relationship or healthy family structure. She likes her life as a cable TV stripping weather girl and sex party host, and resists conforming to the traditional lifestyle Tomas craves. Without her weekly ménages and wild orgies, can she become the partner Tomas wants?

When Crystal receives death threats, a media frenzy erupts. During a break-in, the threatening letters are stolen, erasing evidence that thwarts an arrest. Tomas sports Crystal away on his Harley to protect her, but a deadly crash changes everything. Faced with the choice between self-interest and self-sacrifice, Crystal must decide if she will embrace a new life with Tomas or walk away.

Buy The Book!

*****

Adele Dubois Website
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Hello all, and thanks to Delilah for letting me blog here today!

So sometimes when an author writes a story they have a playlist of music they listen to. It can vary depending on what they’re writing (genre, heat level, etc.)

I tend to go back and forth. Sometimes a list demands to be made for a book, sometimes not. Sometimes I listen to rain meditation music because I can zone out and just type. Tonight I’ve turned off everything because we’re having a windstorm and I love the sound of the wind whistling through the tree branches.

My most recent book out is a Command and Control, a novella from Samhain. It’s the second book in my Holding out for a Hero series. The series follows three brothers in a small town, all who’ve chosen heroic careers to go into, and they’re journey in finding love.

My hero in Command and Control is Trevor. He’s my army guy. He’s a war veteran, and he has some serious baggage. This book didn’t really have a playlist, it had a song. Hammerhead by The Offspring. I kind of stumbled on it and really loved it. It worked for my hero. It was his song. It showed his frustration. His anger. His struggles. (Disclaimer: The end of the song gets kind of weird and there’s debate on whether this song is about a soldier, or more of school shooters type of thing. I went for soldier. I tend to just skip that little last bit of the song.)

Anyway, that’s a little peek at Trevor and this book. Leave a comment and I’ll have Delilah draw a winner to receive an ebook off my backlist!

I’m off again! Seems like I just got back!

This time to Miami, Key West, and Cancun! Good thing it’s for a conference because I’d really be mad at the forecast—rain, sun, cool, hot. I know I packed way too many clothes.

While I’m gone, I have guests coming to entertain you. Please drop by and make them feel welcome!

Thursday—Shelli Stevens
Friday—Adele Dubois
Saturday—Snippet Saturday (Bad Mood)
Sunday—V. J. Devereaux
Monday—Taige Crenshaw

I’m not sure whether I’ll want to pay for Internet access aboard ship. It’s only five days. Guess it depends on whether I’m having an awesome time. Y’all stay out of jail. Or just make sure the fun was worth it! ~DD

I admit it, when I said I’d guest blog for Delilah I thought, “Cool, I can pimp Meandros.” I do have some stuff to say about that story, but I’m not really in the mood for straight book pimping. I have so many other things I want to say, so this is gonna be a bit of a mish-mash post, but there will be a point, so go for it, you might enjoy the way I ramble. *grin*

Meandros was the first story I ever wrote where the character actually took over the story and ran away on me. To a certain extent all my characters do that, as I’m not a real big plotter. I tend to start with a wish and dream and ride the wave as I go. And yes, I’ve tried to get Delilah to teach me how to plot, but whenever we start to do so, I get a panic attack. Seriously, at one point I was almost in tears because I just don’t get it. Ask Delilah, she’ll tell you. Sasha can’t plot.

With Meandros it was a freaky thing though. You see, I’d set out to write a Hot Holiday story with a couple honeymooning in Greece. And it started that way, on the plane, a little steamy action happening, until the end of that first scene when my character (I was writing in first person POV) shocked the shit out of me with one sentence. Want to see it? Check this out…

With that comment, he’d edged out of the tiny stall and left me to readjust my clothes. I savored the knowledge he was just as dirty as I was. He was my perfect other half. I gloried in the knowledge that, with him, I’d found the kind of love I’d given up on ever finding—bone deep and unconditional.

The kind of love that made it unbearable to contemplate what life had to offer me now that he was gone.

Gone? What did she mean gone?!

It took me months of fighting with her, and getting nowhere, before I gave in and went with it. And honestly, I think to this day Meandros is one of my best works. It’s not really a romance, not really erotica. It’s full of emotion and sex, and hope and at times, joy. It’s special to me because of the story itself, but also because it taught me to trust my characters.

But I think I might’ve taken that trust a bit too far. Or maybe started to rely on it too much, because after doing that for several years I’ve been blocked with my writing for almost three years now. One of the things I did to try and break that block was to try doing things differently, hence Delilah trying to teach me how to plot. Yeah, that didn’t work either. LOL

Right now I’m taking a workshop on self-editing because I’ve always worried that my grammar sucks. I graduated from high school with good grades, and English was my top subject. ( I always thought it was because I could talk and wasn’t shy when giving reports.) However, maybe it’s so many years of being a waitress/bartender, I still sometimes get that self doubt about my lack of education. Especially since I became a writer. At first it didn’t bother me because when I started writing I just wrote, and submitted. I didn’t have a critique partner, or a community I belonged to. I didn’t have any friends that were writers. But as success came, and the friends came, and I grew to be part of a community, I slowly started to doubt myself. Not just my ability to tell a story, but my writing skills. And I think that doubt is what’s crippled me.

I have some great friends, like Delilah, who’ve told me I’m too talented to quit. I’ve had numerous reader emails asking when will my next book come out, and telling me how much they love my stuff. I’ve even had some great reviews from critical reviewers. Yet, the doubt still crept in. I’m not sure how it did, but it did. And that doubt talks louder than any praise.

Sad, isn’t it?

The good thing is, that because I recently signed up for that online editing course, I’ve become part of a new community. And something….karmic happened the other night.

One person posted about writers block.

Maybe it’s because I don’t know any of the people on that loop just yet, I don’t know, but I posted about my own struggle, and WOW. The response has been amazing. And helpful! It was in talking with these people that I realized that the problem at the core of my block has been fear. That little bit of doubt about my own skills has festered into something that actually stopped me from writing. I thought it was burnout, (and it was …partly) but after I recovered from the burnout, I still wasn’t writing.

I’m writing again. Not as much as I should, and I’m still struggling a bit. And I know I probably will for a while, but the most important thing I learned is that I’m not alone. Even when my closest friends couldn’t help me, I wasn’t alone. I think it’s super important that we understand that as solitary as this writing gig is, we’re only alone if we want to be. If we don’t want to be, all we have to do is reach out, and someone will reach back.

The point is, that we’re never alone, and we all have fears. The key to success is to not let your fears keep you from doing whatever it is you want to do. I’m not going to.

“You block your dream when you allow your fear to grow bigger than your faith.”

~Mary Manin Morrissey

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Only once more, always once more.

Dancer Tammi Johnson thought she knew everything about her body–until she was almost crippled in a car accident. She’d resigned herself to a life without joy until the sexy and dynamic Tom showed her that dancing wasn’t the only passion, or pleasure, she could experience. He taught her to live and love with her whole body–and her whole heart

But when tragedy strikes again, Tammi is devastated. Until she acknowledges that the only way to honor the love of her life is to celebrate what he taught her, and for Tom, she’d do anything once more.

The winner of Saturday’s drawing for a free download is at the bottom of this message! Also, I posted an excerpt from True Heart on the After Midnight Fantasies blog—so be sure to stop by and say hello!

I’m back from Mississippi! Thanks to the ladies who visited my blog while I was gone! The workshop was a lot of fun and everyone plotted stories I’m eager to read!

While I was gone, an old friend of mine from my days in Germany contacted me. We’d lost touch; something I always regretted. I haven’t made many really close friends outside of family over the years, but she was one I really missed. My head’s spinning with travel plans now. I have to get back to Germany to see her and her husband. Not sure it will be this year, but I don’t have any firm plans for the fall, so who knows!? She’s into cemetary photography. I’ll have to send her links of my cemetary pics. 🙂

Just to catch you up on what’s happening writing-wise… I finished a short for a Cleis anthology. Am hoping it’s accepted. If not, you’ll be reading it on this blog or Everything Erotic, no doubt. I’m still working on a cowboy threesome which I hope to publish with a couple of friends. I’ll likely have to finish it up on board the cruise ship.

Did I mention I’m leaving this week, Wednesday to be exact, for a writers’ conference aboard a Carnival ship? I fly to Miami on Wednesday and will board on Thursday. First stop is Key West, then on to Cozumel. I have a new digital camera, a Canon Rebel Eos, so I’ll break it in on that trip. Hopefully, I’ll have it figured out by then. So not a lot of writing planned before I leave. I need a pedicure today. Hair tomorrow. Have to dig my passport out of my file cabinet.

Thanks to everyone who sent me messages regarding True Heart and Ravished by a Viking. I LOVE that you’re loving both. True was #1 on the MBaM site until today. Remember, that if you read them, it would be much appreciated if you tagged or starred or reviewed them. Tell a friend you enjoyed them. Every sale means a lot. Means I may be able to write more in the series.

Winding down now, I have to get changed to hit Tony’s Nails before it gets packed. The winner of the free download of any of my Samhain or Ellora’s Cave backlisted books is…Nicole! Nicole, email me with your choice of story!

Until tomorrow…