Reminder: Two Contests ongoing!
1) Give me ideas for the next chapter of Bad Moon Rising. Post an idea, you’re entered. See details here.
2) I’m looking for reviews for Breaking Leather. If you post one on Amazon, Barnes & Noble or the MBaM sites, and send me the link, you’re entered! Prize: $25.00 Amazon or B&N gift certificate.

This wasn’t a terribly productive week. I experienced burn-out after a month of NaNo and rushing toward the end of three deadlines.

* I finished the Berkley Viking book on Monday and shipped it.
* I finished reading through all the Girls Who Bite submissions, edited those I wanted, and arranged them in the order I thought they worked best, then shipped the manuscript to Cleis on Tuesday.
* The last deadline, I stalled on. I am almost to the end of chapter 5, but I’m so tired my mind’s been muzzy.

I took yesterday completely off. Watched a movie (Splice), took a sleeping pill and was out for nearly 9 hours. I’m still stalled, and this next week looks to be very, very hard for me sleep-wise, because I’ll be doing a lot of babysitting for my night-shift daughter. There are reasons people should have babies when nature intended—when they are young! Who has the energy for them otherwise?

Anyway, wish me luck. I have to finish TW this week because I committed to writing two short novellas this month. No rest for the wicked, it seems. 😉

Again, I need you to help me figure out what happens next in my ongoing free series, Cat Tails. You remember. My intrepid erotica writer DiDi Devereaux came to a sleepy little town in the Louisiana Bayou to check out the house her eccentric aunt left her. Along the way, she wrecked her car, met the town’s sexy sheriff and the bad boy, had a sexy threesome with them both while she was under the influence of the sheriff’s sexy “mark”—and now she’s settling into her new home and liking the sheriff more and more.

However, there’s a mystery in the town. One the sheriff’s determined to keep her from discovering. The full moon is rising, and along with it, “The Prowl” is about to begin.

So my first question is: What exactly happens during The Prowl?

I have a hazy idea of what happens in the next chapter, but need you to help me flesh it out. Remember, this is your story, so you have to tell me what happens next.

I think the elders will ambush Mason. He’s taken a vow to stay clear of the The Prowl to ensure the community’s continued safety, which means he should have stayed clear of lovely DiDi. But he’s already in too deep to back away now.

So next question: Why would Mason make a vow like that in the first place? Is there something in his past he feels he must atone for?

In the meantime, DiDi’s back at her aunt’s place, but she’s curious about the rest of the property. She hadn’t realized the dock existed that extends over the river where she and Mason last had sex. Now, she finds a little flat-bottomed boat and decides to head across the river/bayou to see what’s on the other side. I think this will be key to what The Prowl is all about.

So last question is: What does she find across the river?

This is a brainstorming process, so there’s no such thing as a stupid idea. And you can build on someone else’s suggestion. I’m not going to offer the prize to the person who gives me the idea I like best. I will simply draw a name at random among everyone who posts an idea.

What’s the prize? How about a $25 gift certificate from Amazon.com? When will I close this contest down? How about on Thursday? That will give you all plenty of time to think and play.

And as I’ve done every step along the way, I won’t be making the decision of which ideas work best. I will select three or four answers to each question then run a poll for you to choose. We’ve only just begun the fun!

I was roaming the Samhain site late last night, and guess what I saw on their coming soon page? I’ll be sure to share sneak peek of what lies between the covers soon! ~DD

Two men plus one woman equals three bodies on fire…

A Red Hot Winter story.

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 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…

Why I Write Straight from my Shameless, Outrageous, Warped Imagination
by Ashlyn Chase

I just read an article about how comedy writers should not use too much humor and how they should temper it, i.e. curb the urge to let the heroine crawl out the bathroom window. Huh? What’s wrong with that? Hey, I’ve done it myself (and I’m not just talking fiction!).

Fine. Some people aren’t comfortable letting their slips show. Isn’t that what editors are for? To reel us in when necessary? I don’t care if my Freudian slips show and it seems to be okay with my editors. Even more okay with fans. I can hardly believe that I actually have fans or that my work generates great reviews and reader mail! Maybe others are warped too, I don’t know.

What I do know is this. 1) Our world can use a few good belly-laughs and a lot of love. 2) I enjoy writing when I’m having fun with it and the more fun I have the less I care what people think. And 3) Readers can tell when words come from a place of passion and truth. My passion is making people laugh.

And truth? You might think that’s an odd word to describe a fiction writer’s goal, especially one who writes Vampire and Shapeshifter comedies. Here’s the thing…a wonderful quote I read ages ago said it best. “You must be fearless to be a writer.” I wish I could remember the fearless female’s name, but I can’t. The idea being that each writer has some sort of truth to tell, regardless of the manner in which they tell it. It takes guts to tell your own truth with your own voice. If you try to write “safe” you run the risk of boring your audience, and boredom is death to an author.

We all have words to live by. Whether positive or negative, some of these words hit a chord and stick. I’ve found some wonderful mentors along the way who’ve imparted words of wisdom I’ll never forget. My number one wise woman was my mother. She often said to me, “Nothing ventured; Nothing gained.” Yup. She was right. Well, except when great things just fall into one’s lap with absolutely no effort, but how often does that happen? It even takes faith, foresight, and effort to buy a lottery ticket.

She also said people would be jealous of me all my life. Wow, that was a trip to lay on a teenager! But she was right about that too. And you can’t let jealousy stop you. Some people will be jealous of the time you spend writing. Tough noogies. Some will be jealous that you can do something they can’t. Yay you. Who knows…some people might even be jealous that you once had the guts to climb out a bathroom window to avoid a lounge lizard who thought he could charm your pants off. So what? Be fearless enough to write about it. Whatever your gift, embrace it. Be passionate about it. Write whatever you really love and take no prisoners!

For those of you following the Girls Who Bite project (and those of you waiting to hear about who gets accepted)—I wrapped up the book and shipped it to Cleis. I included one or two too many stories in the collection, but will let the editor there do that cut. And until I hear final approval of who remains in the lineup, I’m keeping mum.

I know I hate it when I’m waiting on an acceptance, but now I’m on the other side of the fence. And I get it. Needless to say, I had many, many wonderful stories I had to leave out. Some didn’t follow the guidelines (especially that Happy For Now or Happy Ever After thing), and some were a little too gruesome for a romantic-leaning collection. Some were wonderfully written but with a similar theme to another story I included.

As soon as I hear anything, I will start sending out acceptances and rejections.

In the meantime, I have one more book to wrap up this week. Almost there…

NaNo Day 29:
Viking-2—3185 words
TW—0 words 😥

Today’s the last day you’ll see that annoying little note at the top of the post. The one where I brag or whine about my page count for the previous day. I’m finished with NaNo for 2010—which means, I finished the book. The Viking one, that is.

I wrapped it up early yesterday afternoon after spending a week polishing the pages I had. I only had the last chapter to write after I finished the edits. Sixteen frigging pages today for a total of 406 pages of sexy goodness. And since I was thoroughly sick of it by the time I wrote “The End”—I shipped it to my Berkley editor. Hopefully, by the time she sends it back for her rounds of editing, I’ll recover my enthusiasm.

That doesn’t mean I get to rest. I still have two more deadlined books to complete this week. Last evening, I threw myself straight back into edit mode, but on the Girls Who Bite book. Someone else’s words—a lot of someone elses. I should wrap that one up tonight, and again, I’ll ship it to my Cleis editor. Oh yeah, I have to write the foreword for the book.

I think I better brew a cup of coffee because it’s going to be a long day. Oh! And how cool is this? Last night, Breaking Leather was #1 on MBaM, and Four Sworn made a return appearance at #8! Woohoo!

NaNo Day 28:
Viking-2—1836 words
TW—0 words 😥

The militant not the meek shall inherit the earth. ~Mother Jones

Okay, so that saying’s completely random. Not sure why it struck me as something I wanted to post here. Maybe it’s because I’ve been singlemindedly heading toward this trifecta of deadlines, unwavering in my intent. I’m close. I know the most important of the three will be off my desk late Tuesday. I’m praying the second will be gone Wednesday. But I’m thinking I may need one more day to finish the last one. So one day late on one deadline. Not too bad, huh?

Not that I’m bowing to the pressure. Everyone around me knows to leave me alone. I snap and snarl. My eyes are so bloodshot I look as though I’ve been on a week-long pub crawl.

When the smoke clears, I hope I can recover my bright, bubbly self. And I’ll have to diet for weeks. I’ve been living off coffee, english toffee cappuccino mix and Dove dark chocolate. Since I’ve been wearing only pajama bottoms and sweats, I won’t know the true verdict until I try on my jeans.

Yesterday, I completed another four chapter editing blitz of the Viking book. I read another eight Girls Who Bite stories, corresponded with an author regarding changes to her amazing short, but didn’t touch the TW novella. I just didn’t have the energy left, so I cut off working at six and headed over to spend some time gossipping with the red-headed hellion. If I think my life’s hell, she can always do one better. So I returned feeling smug. Thanks so much dd for putting my teeny-tiny stressors into perspective!

What has you stressed out?