Squee! Checking the stats is a true obsession—and so enjoyable—because when I see news like this, I know someone who’s never read me before has just picked up my book. Because I know everyone here already has, yeah?

To those new converts, thanks and welcome!

Pleasing Sir:

Four Sworn:

Okay, enough listening to me brag! Let’s do something fun. Here’s a “getting-to-know-you” question:

If you could bring to life any fictional character from a book or movie,
whom would you choose?

It’s been a while, but maybe that’s because I haven’t felt very “in the zone” as a writer—what with illness and family crises going on all around me.

However, this past week I got my mojo back. I read through the final typeset galley of Ravished by a Viking this week, and I loved the story. It’s brash, sexy, has high adventure(sea serpents, battles, spaceships)… Okay, you get the idea. It’s gonna be fun!

I finished revising the crap out of the opening for the second Viking book and it feels “right” now. I couldn’t have explained why it didn’t before until a crit partner of mine, Rachel, told me what didn’t work for her. Thank you, thank you, Rachel!!

Also, yesterday I met with a couple of my closest friends to do a first run through of the entries I’ve received thus far for the Girls Who Bite anthology. I have received 32 entries to date. I know the bulk will come closer to the deadline and I wanted to get a jumpstart so I’m not reading myself blind at the very last moment. We read, talked about problems with some of the entries (I’ll be asking some folks for revisions), and ate lots of pizza. (It was an all-nighter, so I’m actually sitting at my friend’s breakfast table writing this. :))

Did I mention that I have three projects due to editors on the exact same date? Yup, on December 1st (which I am calling D-Day), I have Viking-2, Girls Who Bite and a Nocturne Bite all coming due. I have to move out smartly and with a razor-focus for the next two months. And expect me to grow increasingly nuts and panicky the closer the end time comes. My family is already preparing the barricades.

Next week is not going to be a big writing week. On Thursday, I will drive to Little Rock where I’ll meet up with Shayla Kersten to catch a plane to Ohio. Ellora’s Cave Romanticon is going to be so much fun! And after having to miss Lora Leigh’s big party because I was sick, I am ready to have twice as much fun!

Have a terrific week. I’ll have some great guests holding down the fort on my blog while I’m gone. Make them welcome! Toodles for now! ~DD

I am participating in THREE great contests running during the month of October! See details below!

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First is a HUGE giveaway, sponsored by authors Vivian Arend and Moira Rogers. Hundreds of dollars in prizes are at stake. Be sure to click on the Fall Frenzy icon to enter!

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I have a featured contest at Coffee Time Romance. The prize includes a Delilah Devlin tote back filled with books and goodies. For details, visit this page: Contest at Coffee Time Romance!

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6th Annual Raven Online Scavenger Hunt
Open: Month of Oct 2010
Over 50 participating authors and even more in prizes!
Contest info: www.ravenhappyhour.com

As promised, here’s a sneak peek at the story coming your way on October 27th!

Part of the My Immortal Knight series

Werewolf Aila Mack is ready to get her groove on during a full moon. She’s a part-time hooker because she prefers to keep her liaisons strictly about the sex. She’s had a taste of were-domination and prefers to be in charge of her own destiny.

Brothers Kynan and Jack Parker are on a mission. Their species is in need of breedable females. They aren’t happy women are selling their bodies in order to take care of their monthly itch. They take action when it’s discovered there’s a fertile female.

Kynan and Jack are given the job of bringing home their mate but discover quickly there’s more going on beneath the surface than simply a stubborn female who refuses to be collared by a mate. Aila’s tempted as never before as the brothers, one gentle and one fiercely intense, peel away the hard shell surrounding her Wolfen heart.

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With a shake of her head, Aila Mack tousled her curls then gave her mouth one last swipe of lipstick. Nothing spelled “hooker” quite like cherry-red lipstick and a skirt so short a sneeze would show off the half-moons of her ass.

And that’s exactly what she was—for this weekend anyway. As tawdry as that sounded, some things couldn’t be left to Mother Nature. Not if she wanted to maintain the life she’d fought so hard to live.

She stepped out of her car, tugged down the hem of her black skirt, and vamped to the door of the mountain cabin where she’d been directed by the agency.

Light glared around the edges of the curtains; smoke billowed from the chimney. The remoteness of this particular client didn’t worry her. If things got a little rough, they could easily take the action out of doors.

After shooting one last glance around the moonlit clearing, she took a deep breath and knocked.

The heavy tread of a man’s footsteps sounded on the other side, and the door swung open. Aila glanced up…and up…locking gazes with one of the most handsome men she’d ever seen—not handsome in a pretty-boy way, but his angular, hard-edged features appealed like no other’s she’d ever seen.

Coal-black hair was brushed back from his forehead. Chilly blue eyes gleamed as his gaze slowly raked her body. A broad, muscular chest above lean hips and powerful thighs made her hopeful that, this time, she’d find her own pleasure in the mating. She was almost envious of the soft chambray shirt and wash-softened blue jeans that hugged his large frame.

He shifted to the side and silently waved her into the room.

All that brawn. Mmm-mm.

She wished he wouldn’t speak and ruin it.

Aila walked inside, set her purse on a table next to the door, and studied the rugged log walls and heavy, masculine furnishings. They suited the man.

“Any trouble findin’ us?” he asked, his deep voice softened by the Southern drawl that rasped across her skin like a caress.

Then she realized what he’d just said. Her head swung toward him. “Us?” she asked, her voice rising.

His frosty eyes narrowed. “My brother and I contracted you for the weekend.”

“I wasn’t told there’d be more than one client. This’ll cost more.” Wear and tear from one lusty animal was bad enough.

His lips twisted, but he gave a sharp nod. “Come into the kitchen. Kynan’s makin’ dinner. Have you already eaten?”

“I’m not hungry.”

His mouth stretched into a predatory smile that bared his white teeth. “Now that’d be a waste, sugar.”

She snorted. How like a wolf…

Still, a job was a job, and she needed the hookup for more than the money. The full moon crept slowly across the sky, pulling her libido along in its wake and making it hard to concentrate when a healthy, attractive male was within arm’s length. She drew in his spicy scent and let the unique smell of his lupine pheromones feed the arousal burgeoning between her thighs. A crude reminder of the one part of her life she hadn’t been able to replace in the human world.

What would happen tonight wasn’t any mystery, but she didn’t have to end the chase at first scent. She wouldn’t offer him that satisfaction.

Without giving him another glance, she rolled her hips side to side, followed the unmistakable sound of a knife thudding against a cutting board, and left the hungry male growling in her wake.

One contest ends today, and two lucky winners have already been chosen! Don’t miss your last chance to win!
1) The newsletter contest (see September 16th’s blog for the details) continues through today!!
2) See the bottom of this posting for Tuesday’s winner announcment!
3) See yesterday’s post’s comments for Lacy’s winner announcement!

I need a 12-step program. Seriously!

Yesterday, I was updating my 2010 publication list adding things that just crept up. When I’d finished, I took a long look and realized I’m completely nuts. My sister and I teach an annual free class through Rose’s Colored Glasses called Write 50 Books a Year! When we put it together, the title was completely tongue in cheek, but now…?

This is the list. The last few items in red are still to be published this year. The rest are out. Granted, some are short stories (the Cleis stories) and some are repackaged anthologies that didn’t require new pages, but still!

1. 01/12/10 – LONE STAR LOVERS: UNFORGIVEN (Samhain)
2. 02/07/10 – LOVE IN BLOOM (Samhain)
3. 02/17/10 – FUN WITH DICK AND JAYNE (Ellora’s Cave)
4. 03/01/10 – MISS ADDIE’S GARDEN, New Love Stories Magazine
5. 03/24/10 – BAD, BAD GIRLFRIEND (Ellora’s Cave)
6. 04/28/10 – FIRST KNIGHT (Ellora’s Cave)
7. 05/01/10 – STONE’S EMBRACE, Captive Souls anthology (Samhain)
8. 06/01/10 – THE OUT-OF-TOWNER, Girl Crush anthology (Cleis Press)
9. 06/14/10 – WARLORD’S DESTINY, individual reissue (Ellora’s Cave)
10. 06/18/10 – UN,DEUX, TROIS, MENAGE! anthology (Ellora’s Cave)
11. 06/23/10 – VEILED ALLIANCE anthology (Ellora’s Cave)
12. 07/01/10 – THE OBEDIENT WIFE, Fairy Tale Lust anthology (Cleis Press)
13. 08/01/10 – THE WEEKEND, Lesbian Lust anthology (Cleis Press)
14. 08/13/10 – RED STILLETOS anthology (Ellora’s Cave)
15. 08/17/10 – TEXTILE FREE (Smashwords)
16. 08/31/10 – PLEASING SIR (Kindle, Smashwords)
17. 09/07/10 – LONE STAR LOVERS: FOUR SWORN (Samhain)
18. 09/21/10 – DARKNESS CAPTURED (Avon Red)
19. 10/27/10 – A LONG HOWL GOOD NIGHT (Ellora’s Cave)
20. 11/01/10 – COWBOY FEVER anthology (Samhain)
21. 11/01/10 – THE MORNING RIDE, Passion: Erotic Romance for Women anthology (Cleis Press)
22. 11/23/10 – LONE STAR LOVERS: BREAKING LEATHER (Samhain)

And I wonder why I’m tired all the time. Tomorrow, I’ll post a sneak peek of A Long Howl Good Night since I’m pretty sure I haven’t mentioned it here before!

The winner of the free copy of Sleeping With The Enemy is…Lynn M! Lynn, contact me directly to let me know where you want the file emailed!

Two contests end today! Don’t miss your last chances to win!
1) The newsletter contest (see September 16th’s blog for the details) continues until the tomorrow!!
2) Yesterday’s winner will be announced tomorrow!
3) **BONUS! See details about Lacy’s contest below!

Welcome today’s guest, Lacy Danes! ~DD

The new fall TV season is upon us. I have eagerly been awaiting several of my favorite series premieres. I typically don’t watch TV but wait until a well talked about show comes out on DVD and then watch the entire season. If I get hooked, then I continue watching until I am caught up to date. Sometimes I start watching a show at its scheduled time, but usually my life takes over and I have to wait until it comes out on DVD the next fall.

Series I currently am watching on DVD:
Mad Men Season 1
The Vampire Diaries Season 1
Charmed Season 3

Series I have completed the DVDs and have to wait until new DVDs come out or watch live:
Bones
The Good Wife

I have also completed several other past series:
The X files
Buffy
Angel

So I am curious, what are some of your favorite shows? And are you optimistic for any new shows coming out this fall?

To celebrate the Fall and the release of so many great stories, including my short Harlequin SPICE Brief DECENT EXPOSURE, at the end of today I will pick one reply to this post for a chance to win one of my books.

Happy Fall,
Lacy

I’m running TWO contests.
1) The newsletter contest (see September 16th’s blog for the details) continues until the 30th!!
2) The second is my usual thing. You post a comment here today and you’re eligible for a free copy of this story.

I don’t know if you know it or not, but I wrote three short stories related to the Dark Realm books. They are only available in ebooks. I don’t have an official copy I can transfer, but I will give away a copy of the story in a .pdf file for one winner to read. It was one of the first erotic shorts I ever wrote and I so completely loved doing it that I decided, even though they don’t pay, I couldn’t stop. Enjoy the excerpt! Poor Malcolm is the Revenant who gets the snot beaten out of him at the start of Darkness Captured.

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A lone rogue vampire mingles among his hunters in a blood bar, undetected…until a beautiful woman snares his attention. Suddenly, he’s running, leading her on a chase until she corners him, stake dangling from her slender fingertips. Now he has two choices: play it sexy or safe?

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Malcolm crouched behind a cinder-block pillar of a wrought iron fence, counting the seconds after the last footfalls faded.

Slowly, as the danger passed, his heartbeats settled to a steady rhythm. He drew a deep breath. They’d come close to catching him this time.

He’d been spotted in a known blood bar just outside The French Quarter, a lone rogue vampire among the elite Born trolling for meals with their enslaved, made minions in tow.

If he hadn’t paused to watch one in particular, he might not be in his present predicament.

She’d been playing with her food, ruffling the young man’s hair as she whispered in his ear—and pinned Malcolm with her pale silver gaze.

The challenge in her eyes, along with her feline grace and her strong resemblance to the woman who’d turned him, had caught his interest. The pale hand that smoothed slowly down the chest and stomach of her prey had kept Malcolm ensnared, wanting to see how far she’d take her little game.

She had no interest in the man she teased. When her palm slid down to cup his burgeoning sex, Malcolm had felt the squeeze she delivered all the way to his toes. That same embrace rendered her playmate pliant, rutting into her hand, and ready for whatever she chose to do next.

A quick flick of her slender fingers and she delved inside his trousers.

Malcolm had slipped off his stool then, his dick slowly filling as she slid her lush lips along the young man’s cheek and nibbled on his ear. While the man pulsed his hips, Malcolm tightened, wanting to rake his cock forward and back.

Her lips curved, her eyes narrowed—and Malcolm grew furious with the vampire’s teasing. If she wanted to arouse him, she’d succeeded. If she wanted more than a puling human boy, then she’d played the wrong hand.

Malcolm had forced his gaze away in time to notice she hadn’t been the only one staring at him.

The privileged ones’ gazes had met over the heads of their blood hosts, almost imperceptible nods were shared, and slowly the Born had gracefully faded from the sides of their hosts.

He’d been made. How, he wasn’t sure. Perhaps one of them had recognized him from one of the “mixed” bars, where free rogues and the Born intermingled on neutral ground. However, the how wasn’t important. Escaping was a matter of life or death.

Quickly, without a backward glance at the bitch who’d tried to trap him, he’d slipped out a side door and run like hell.

Malcolm knew better than to tweak the tails of vipers, but once in while in his long, solitary existence he enjoyed reminding them he was there—untethered from their shackles, free to choose his own path just as they did.

He’d been created free, as a human; he’d rejected the tender leash his mistress had offered when she turned him. “Serve me,” she’d pleaded. Although sorely tempted by her beauty and sweetness, he’d refused, knowing the risk, resisting her allure with iron determination. Knowing he’d be forever hunted.

A crisp footstep sounded behind him, and he whirled, straightening to face this hunter.

Before him stood the Born vampire who’d teased him almost to extinction. Now, a long, wooden stake dangled from her fingers.

She was blonde and slender, every muscle honed by her low-carb meals and the activity demanded by her hyperactive metabolism—and sex, lots of it.

Her glittering glance swept down his body, and he braced apart his legs, hoping to reignite the heat he’d witnessed earlier. She’d been hungry, aroused as she’d played with the boy as she’d teased him. He could use that. When her gaze paused over the juncture of his thighs, his lips stretched slowly.

Her fingers tightened around her weapon, and her gaze slashed upward to deliver a glare. Her own thighs, encased in dark sleek leather, tensed as she stayed loose on her feet, ready to pounce whichever direction he chose.

Malcolm remembered well the way her thin silky tee had clung to her breasts back at the bar, ripe little nipples popping against the fabric. “Sorry I interrupted your meal,” he murmured as he leaned back against the pillar, his fingers sliding into the pockets of his jeans as though he wasn’t standing a hairbreadth from death.

Her lips curved, lush and full despite the stretch. “You don’t think I’ll have any trouble finding a replacement, do you?” she asked silkily.

He let his eyelids fall halfway closed as he made a leisurely stroll down her body. “None at all,” he murmured. “But will any one of them satisfy you?”

Her chin rose and pale blonde hair brushed the tops of her shoulders. “I don’t know,” she said, her voice sliding deeper toward a sultry lisp. “It’s so hard to stop with just one.”

There they were again—those little spikes, stabbing at her shirt. Malcolm eyed them, his lips pursing at the thought of pulling one lush nipple into his mouth. When his gaze met hers again, the hard gleaming challenge had heated.

She swallowed, almost unnoticeably. To draw moisture into a suddenly dry mouth?

Maybe he could earn a reprieve yet. “I was on the prowl tonight,” he said, keeping his voice soft. “I’ve already fed. Maybe we could trade.”

“I have to kill you,” she said flatly.

“Because your coven demands it?” He canted his head. “Do you always follow the rules?”

“You’re a rogue—dangerous if left to roam.”

“Perhaps I’ve never met my true mistress.”

“You’re free. You resisted the allure of the one who turned you, so don’t pretend you’d even consider changing your spots now.”

His lips quirked at her quiet intensity. “I bet you colored inside the lines when you were a child.”

“You think I lack imagination?”

“No, I think you like to please.”

He almost smiled at the scowl that pouted her lips and narrowed her pale eyes. “I could take you. You’re all alone. One on one, I might win,” he drawled, noting the way her glare darkened with the insinuation she might not be the victor.

Her fingers clutched the stake tighter. “You’re not helping your argument.”

“I’m just saying…I’m willing to battle you on different field. If you’re strong enough, maybe you can leash me.”

“A different field? Do you really think I’d let you go anywhere.”

“Follow me.” With that, he spun on his heels and leapt, clearing the fence to stand on the other side of the bars. “My place is just down the road.”

Not bothering to wait and see what she decided, he walked away, nonchalantly, knowing he was baring his back to her stake. However, he’d had a feeling about her earlier when she’d stared above the spiky red hair of her host. Malcolm had felt the air crackle with sensual awareness.

The soft thud behind him made him smile. Her steps trailed his, not overtaking, and he breathed easier.

At another gate, this one enclosing the courtyard of the house he’d rented for the summer, he turned and swung it open, waiting for her to pass.

Her face still tight, her lips crimped into a slight frown, she stepped quickly by him and waited as he closed it, trailing him again when he walked to the front door.

Maybe she was simply waiting to kill him once they were out of sight. But he didn’t think so. The scent of her arousal wafted in the air, mixing with the heavy perfume of roses from the neighbor’s garden. Delicious, sultry—she’d be his, if he was clever enough.

His dick filled again, pressing insistently against his jeans, reminding him that while he’d satisfied his bloodlust that night, he hadn’t had sex in while. Little miss vampire would ease the ache tonight.

Inside, he didn’t bother turning on the lights, didn’t pause to politely offer her a drink of another sort. Instead, he strode up the staircase to his room overlooking the gardens, knowing she’d follow. The stiff steps behind him said she was angry at him and herself for being led by her hungers—unable to contain her curiosity about what exactly he offered.

In the bedroom, he pulled apart the curtains and let moonlight flood the room. He heard her step inside, keeping close to the doorway. With his gaze on the courtyard below, he said, “My name is Malcolm.”

“Do you think by giving me a name to accompany your handsome face I won’t follow through?”

He glanced over his shoulder and gave her a smile. “I’m giving you a name to call when I make you come.”