Be sure to pop by the AMF blog today. I’m the author on the spot, and you know I hate looking like I don’t have any friends. 🙂

Here’s the link: After Midnight Fantasies

I’m a slug. I’m hovering at the end of this BDSM story. I’ve wanted to be done with it for two weeks now, but I keep letting life get in the way. Someone, please nag me. Tell me I’m worthless—no, don’t do that, I might start to wonder if you were someone who read their first DD book and thought it sucked, then I’d suffer all kinds of new issues and NEVER write another word. Maybe if you beg me, very nicely, or tell me your dying sister doesn’t have long to live but wants to read THAT book before she does… You get the picture. I need a kick in the ass.

This week, I worked on taxes and things like release planning and promo spending. I also got my copyedits back for Handy Men. It shouldn’t be long before you see it on the Coming Soon page on Ellora’s Cave’s site.

This next week, with your well-placed boot, I hope to finish the BDSM story and revise the heck out of a short story, expanding it to novella length. I plan to release that novella in a volume with my sister in a straight-to-kindle project. Oh, and I should start today by finishing the copyedits for HM! Yeah, lots on my plate. I have to stay focused. Now, do your part!

I hope you enjoy today’s snippet. I’m off to Little Rock for my monthly RWA chapter meeting. I really, really hate the drive, but I love to see my friends. Wish I could convince the lot of them that they need to come to my podunk town for the meetings.

I didn’t get a lick of work done yesterday. (What does that phrase mean anyway? A lick of work?) Daughter and I spent the day together. We hit a rock shop. Uh huh. Picked up stone “power wands” and a couple of new worry stones. I bought another of my animal totem carvings. And now you know how thoroughly strange I am.

Y’all have fun today. Enjoy your weekend. I hope the excerpt gives you just the right start!

“…loved everything about SIN’S Gift…the way Delilah Devlin sets up her world makes it feel like nothing I’ve read before…”
5 Angels and RECOMMENDED READ!, Fallen Angels

“…A turbulent relationship and sexy, spooky thrills await readers in SIN’S GIFT…This is a well written and engrossing tale with complex characters who have hidden depths. Enter into other realms with the highly recommended SIN’S GIFT.” RRT Erotic

“…Wow, I loved this novella. It’s fabulously exciting and a fast, exhilarating read…I recommend this book to everyone that loves hot, sexy paranormal story. I love Delilah Devlin’s books and this is one of her best yet…”
5 Hearts, The Romance Studio

Police Officer Sinead O’Rourke returns to duty months after being shot in an incident that also claimed her partner, Danny. Despite being cleared of any negligence, Sin knows her fellow officers wonder whether she’s partially responsible for his death. One more problem is that everyone knows she claims she’s seen Danny. After months of rehabilitation and counseling, and lying like hell about the fact she’s not seeing spooks anymore, Sin’s determined to get back into the saddle. But her first day back in the patrol car, Sin sees something more horrifying than the ghost of her dead partner and enters a deadly new world. Jake doesn’t want to partner with Sin. Been there, done that—couldn’t keep his hands off her the first time around. She’s too much of a distraction and her penchant for rushing into trouble scares the hell out of him. Despite wishing she’d quit her job, he’s still deeply attracted. When an armed robbery goes down and something happens that rattles Sin to the core, he’s right there—ready to cover her back and her sweet body.

“Sure you’re ready for this?”

Sin stifled a groan. How many times would she hear that today? She especially didn’t want to hear it from Jake Chapa’s lips. Lips she knew the texture and taste of all too well.

She didn’t respond, still fuming because he hadn’t even offered to let her drive. That had been only one of the bitches she’d had partnering with him before. He’d never trusted her. Not with the car. Not with his back.

Now he’d been just fine playing house with her for a while, but he was too much of a chauvinist to ever accept her working at his side.

She’d looked him over when she strode through the garage to the car. He hadn’t changed a bit. Same thickly muscled frame, hair so “high and tight” a Marine DI would weep, same sensually charged expression that always made her stomach clench. He’d been a god in bed, but a total asshole as a boyfriend. What was the lieutenant thinking? She thought she knew the answer.

He hoped she’d wash out in a week, and he wouldn’t have to worry about her getting anyone else killed.
Read the rest of this entry »

I’m still making great progress on that BDSM story. Yeah, it’s sex, sex and more sex—but with a really yummy hero and a very messed up heroine. Cross McNally is just the sort of warrior-hero that knocks me off my socks every time. I’m hoping to be done with it tomorrow. My EC editor won’t know what to do with herself—having me turn in two stories so close together. Then it will be onto a mad rush of revision as I get a short story expanded into a short novella. Never any rest for the very wicked. 🙂

I was looking at the titles of the email in my spam filter:
Save with our cruise specials!
Italy travel deals!
Vacation in Hawaii!
Looking for an exotic vacation?

How’d they know I’m getting restless? Sure, I have a trip planned for nearly every month this year, but they are writing-related conferences. Maybe I’m feeling restless because my sis and family are headed to Italy today. I’m seriously jealous. It’s been forever since I was in Italy. I’d had dreams of going to Iceland with the hellion this year, but her life has gotten busy really, really fast, so that’s not an option, and I don’t want to go alone. What’s a girl to do?

What sort of trips do you have planned? Anything close to home? Or are you going pretty far afield for your next adventure?

Dreams are extremely important.
You can’t do it unless you imagine it.
~ George Lucas

Speaking of dreams, I had a doozy last night. And it feels familiar, like I’ve had it before.

I lived in a house in the very exclusive Dominion area in San Antonio, Texas. The house was huge with a pool just outside the door. I sat at a glass table eating breakfast and reading ads from the newspaper. Only these ads were “live” ads that talked and described the items on sale at a department store. I wondered aloud when they’d make ads interactive so I could ask useful questions like, “Would that TV fit in my entertainment system cabinet?” The Progressive woman looked up from her ad and said, “Well, have you measured the space?”

I have to put that in a book.

Yesterday, I got my butt in gear. I wrote nearly a chapter. All of it sex. And I really, really liked the sex I wrote. My hero’s a big dude with very commanding ways. *sigh* I’d like to finish the story today or tomorrow, but I can’t keep them in bed forever, so today’s likely to drag as I figure out what they’ll say to each other when they aren’t acting like bunnies.

Psst! Yesterday’s winner is named at the end of this post! ~DD

Using Romance Clichés for Fun and Profit

by Anitra Lynn McLeod

You’ll never believe what inspired my erotic Onic Empire series . . .

wait for it . . .

a romance cliché.

Yep.

You know the one where the woman is almost always a virgin and the man is a total slut? Yeah, that always bothered me because all the guys must be banging one very tired (and IMHO one very lucky) woman.

Now, this cliché has really gone by the wayside, but when I started reading, this was practically a standard part of romance novels.

So, I was thinking about virginity, and why it’s so sacred for a woman but not a man, and then I got to thinking about what if everyone lost their virginity in the same manner at roughly the same age, and what if the act of taking virginity was a religious rite?

And so the Onic Empire was born.

It’ll take more than one man’s love to tame her wild heart.

Bithia, newly crowned empress of Diola, indulges herself with as many men as it takes to satisfy her voracious passion. Now that it’s time to continue the family line, though, her advisors expect the unthinkable: for her to submit to one man from a sexually primitive planet.

Drahka disobeyed his tribe’s strict sexual rules once. The shame still haunts him. He longs for a fresh start, but breaking one cardinal rule—a man gives, a woman takes—is not an option. His struggle to learn local customs is complicated by a mentor whose eyes hunger for the empress…and for him.

Viltori is exhausted. He’s tried to teach Drakha that there are many ways to find pleasure, only to be met with anger, even violence. Touching the handsome primitive only sharpens his unbearable lust for Bithia, making him wonder if execution for failure wouldn’t be a blessing.

When Bithia witnesses the results of Viltori’s training, she realizes only these two men can fill her empty heart, inspiring her to take command of the throne at last. Except those who’ve held the reins thus far have a sinister reason for keeping Bithia—and her new consorts—in their place.

Warning: This erotic romance contains a lusty empress, a primitive alpha male, a dedicated acolyte with domineering tendencies, copious amounts of hot m/m and m/f/m sex, secret torments, burning desires clashing with duty, and a little bit of meddling by future gods.

Read an Excerpt

Yesterday’s winner is…Dawn Jackson! Dawn, congrats, and email me about your prize!

If you post a comment today, you’ll be in the running
for a free download of Jacq’s Warlord!

Nice, eh? THE WARRIOR will be out May 1st! And it’s a time travel back to an ancient time when women were in charge. And since we’re on the topic of time-travels, here’s the only other one I ever wrote (along with my sis, Myla)…

“…Set in the time and in the battles fought as Henry takes the English throne, the combination of battle action and sexy romance makes this story a standout.” 5 Stars, Just Erotic Romance Reviews

“…if you are looking for a book full of action, adventure and lots of humor I recommend that you suspend your disbelief and find yourself drawn into the vibrantly portrayed world of JACQ’S WARLORD…” 4 Crystals, Erotic Escapades

With proportions that would make Xena weep, Jacqueline Frazier despairs of ever finding a lover she can’t intimidate. Until the day she ignores an itty-bitty warning regarding the use of a family heirloom, and finds herself swept off her feet by a knight in not so shining armor, back to the twelfth century. Forced to accept the protection and sexual attentions of the overbearing, beast of a man, Rufus of Rathburn, Jacq struggles to find her place in the past while searching for a way back to the future. In the meantime, she aids Rufus’s war cause with a little 21st century ingenuity. Nothing like shaking up the warlord with lessons in bomb-making, guerilla tactics, and the Joys of Sex.

At first unwilling, and downright ungrateful, Rufus begins to see merit in Jacq’s odd ways. Through Jacq’s eccentricities and willfulness, Rufus learns she is a woman to be reckoned with, not to mention she is a lusty handful in bed. Will his admiration of her cunning, strength and uninhibited sexuality grow into a love that breaks the barriers of time? And will their love be strong enough for Jacq to plot a different future in the past?

“Damnation!”

Rufus landed on his rear at the entrance of his tent. He saw the silvery glint of stars for a moment before he realized the flashing metal was the water ewer bouncing away. Instinct saved him a second knot on his forehead as his arm came up to deflect the next object lobbed at his head. He rolled to his knees and lunged upwards to face his angry adversary.
Read the rest of this entry »