I’m running a contest to celebrate the release of PLEASING SIR with a $25.00 Amazon.com gift certificate as the prize.
See details in yesterday’s post!

Thanks, everyone, for your support in helping me get the word out about Pleasing Sir! I’ve been getting Google alerts ever since yesterday’s post.

If you’ve been visiting here for a while, you know I always have something happening here. Some new release. So far this year, I’ve had 16 new releases. I’m a very, very busy girl.

And next week, I have another story coming on Tuesday. The third book in the Lone Star Lovers series with Samhain Publishing. Over the next few days I’ll share excerpts from the first two books, from next Tuesday’s release, Four Sworn, and give you a sneak peak at book four that I’m wrapping up next week.

Here’s a little bit about Four Sworn to whet your appetites!

There’s a wild child trapped inside her, and they’re hell-bent on unleashing it…

As the pretty daughter of the town whore, Shanna Davies has always tried hard to toe the line. But she just can’t help it. Her boyfriend, Bo Crenshaw, has lured her untamed spirit out to play once too often. It’s time to get the hell out of Dodge and make a new start where no one knows her past. After she fulfills one last, wicked fantasy.

Shanna is Bo’s first everything. First kiss, first sexual playmate, first love. Yet he’s never managed to convince her that he accepts her—good girl and bad—just as she is. So, she wants a memorable send off? No problem. He’ll give her one that’ll make her think twice about leaving.

On the appointed night, Shanna expects nerves. Yet once she crosses the threshold, the prospect of surrendering to a night of unrestrained passion with Bo and the three Kinzie brothers makes her mouth water—and her courage dry up.

But she asked for it, and now she’s not about to blink first in this game of sexual chicken…

Warning: Four lusty cowboys prove a little domination goes a long way in breaking a stubborn woman to saddle. Lots of spanking, binding, flogging, and double-dipping can keep a girl on her toes, her back, her belly, her knees…

I’m running a contest to celebrate this release with a $25.00 Amazon.com gift certificate as the prize. Details below!

One adventurous little submissive is just what the bosses need…

Raelie might be a submissive in search of just the right Dom, but she’s not the kind to sit back and wait for the right man to happen. When she gets the chance to fill in as Bryce Caldwell’s executive assistant, she decides some subtle seduction is needed to see if he dominates the bedroom the same way he does the office.

Bryce can’t keep his mind off the sexy blonde sitting just outside his office. Especially not after the security cameras in the copier room catch Raelie “misappropriating” office property. A little disciplinary action leads to a whole lot of complication while he tries to find out whether she’s the right assistant to fulfill a special vacancy. Add a second round of interviews, and suddenly, Bryce is finding out he’s not the only one who’s not sure who’s really in charge.

Read an excerpt
Buy your copy at Amazon
Buy your copy at Smashwords

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

Lately, I feel like I’m living on the edge of a whirlpool. I’m swimming along and making a little headway, and then the current pulls me right away. I didn’t plan to be this busy, but I don’t know how to say no, and I really do like a challenge to keep me edgy.

So this is a drive-by. A shout-out to those of you who love my dirty little stories to let you know that I have something new out there, ready for you to read, but you won’t be able to find it in the usual places. Pleasing Sir was a story I wrote as an experiment. A straight-to-the-Internet project to test the Kindle waters.

It doesn’t mean I won’t keep writing for the usual suspects, and doesn’t mean I’m not extremely happy about how they treat me, it just means that I like to experiment and see what else is out there. Maybe the book won’t do well in this venue—in which case, I’ll pull it and submit it for consideration to one of my favorite publishers. Or maybe it will do well enough that I’ll want to do it again. What I like about this is that I’m not dependent on a publisher’s scheduling. And, in the future, I can time the releases of my self-pubbed things for when I have a drought of releases from other houses. I don’t want them to back up against each other, although this one has, but ah well.

And just because this is self-published, don’t go thinking it won’t be any good. It’s still a really hot “Delilah Devlin” book. It’s a full 22,000-word story, comparable in length to a Samhain or Ellora’s Cave novella. I paid a professional editor to find all my typos, so no worries there either. If you’re in the mood to try something with a BSDM-bent and a sexy ménage, go get your copy. If you do buy it, be sure to go back and leave a review. Let someone who’s curious and on the fence know what you thought about the story.

Thanks for all your support. You make it easy for me to get out of bed and hit the keyboard every day.

About that contest!
Help me get the word out! Here’s how you can qualify for the prize:
1) Write a review and send me the link so I can verify
2) Post about the book on your blog (send me the link)
3) Talk up the story on a reader’s loop (forward me the email)

Is Boundless Love Real?

by Nikki Duncan

Boundless.

More than broad, built, or buff we want our romance novel heroes to be boundless in their desire and love. We want them to value the women they’re falling for in every way. We look for believable relationships built on respect and admiration for what makes their heroine strong as well as patience and understanding for the things which make her vulnerable.

As women in real life, we want a sexy man at our side and in our bed, but we also want those unseen strengths that drive book heroes. Dedication. Willingness to admit he’s in love with one woman. Commitment. We covet them with such conviction we’ll defend out decisions to read romance novels, and expect those qualities in real life, when others disparage our choice of genre or even us. I sure know as writers we defend it.

I wonder though how many people truly believe in the kind of relationships found in books. I’m talking the depth of belief we had in Santa when we were children. A belief strong enough to have us turn from something good that could maybe make us happy to instead wait for something great. The belief that has us asking, like Steve from The Wedding Planner, “What if what’s good really is good, but there’s something greater?”

What if?

Now, I’m not saying jump ship from a relationship because of not great moments. I’m not saying anyone should expect perfection or fireworks every day, but I do wonder if more people held out for greatness and then worked to keep it if we’d have more happily married couples. More successful marriages and families. I mean, sure, there’s nothing easy about love, marriage, or family. Nothing. We’re all a little dysfunctional, which if you ask me is what gives life color and personality.

But I still wonder.

Do you think people rush in too fast and settle for something that’s just ‘good’? Do you believe in a boundless love? Have you already found it? Or are you still looking?

Heart stopping puppy chases, childhood melodrama and the aborted hangings of innocent toys are all in a day’s work for Nikki Duncan. This athletic equestrian turned reluctant homemaker turned daring author, is drawn to the siren song of a fresh storyline.

Nikki plots murder and mayhem over breakfast, scandalous exposes at lunch and the sensual turn of phrase after dinner. Nevertheless, it is the pleasurable excitement and anticipation of unraveling her character’s motivation that drives her to write long past the witching hour.

The only anxiety and apprehension haunting this author comes from pondering the mysterious outcome of her latest twist.

To learn more about Nikki, visit her at www.NikkiDuncan.com or www.SensoryOps.com.

Nikki’s book SOUNDS TO DIE BY is available now in print and digital formats here: My Bookstore & More

SCENT OF PERSUASION is available in digital format only at this point.

I don’t know about you, but August flew by! I’m sure it feels that way because two weeks of the month were spent on my jaunt to Canada and the Pacific Northwest.

That’s the plan anyway.

The following is from authors Mandy Roth and Michelle Pillow… ~DD

Big thanks to Delilah Devlin for letting us come here and play today! We’ll get started with our first Q&A.

How You Doin’?

Q: The two of you have some very beautiful covers. Do you have any creative input on these? If so, how much or how little?

Michelle: I’m very lucky to have a really good friend, what was her name?, who does coverart for me at a couple of my publishers, man I wish I could recall… Steve…Bob…Nat…

Mandy: Hmm, odd. Wonder who the friend is. We should send her a fruit basket. Or hunky male cover models WITH fruit baskets. LOL. All joking aside, I really think that over the years we’ve been very blessed when it comes to cover art. There have only been a few that made me cringe. No. I won’t name names but I will say, they still make me cringe today. LOL. It was hard to recontract a few things because I loved the covers so much and knew they’d change. Like Gypsy Nights. I loved, loved, loved its first cover so much it was hard to agree to re-release it elsewhere.

I feel very strongly that cover art can make or break a book. Unless you’re to the point that your name on a blank screen will sell a book, you do need to be mindful of art. I’m curious, how do readers feel about cover art?

Michelle: Natalie Winters! That was the name. (*cough* aka Mandy Roth’s art penname)

I agree, cover art can really make or break a book. It’s the first thing a person sees while browsing. I, too, have had some covers that make me want to cry. I won’t list them, but I’m sure you can pick some out if you browse our websites, lol. New cover art day is like a holiday for me and a bad cover is like getting a single pair of plain white socks for Christmas—sure, you needed socks, but who wants to open that gift? A good cover is like a box full of coffee beans. Mmm… coffee…

Featured M&M Book of the Day:

Buy Link

Raven Books
www.theravenbooks.com
Raven titles are available on Amazon.com as well as other third party sites

Mandy M Roth
www.mandyroth.com

Michelle M Pillow
www.michellepillow.com

Thanks for letting us hang here, Delilah! Everyone, remember that to be entered in the contest at the end of the tour, you need to comment on the posts. You can enter as much as you like.

Join us tomorrow when we visit Stephanie Julian.

So, say you saw this picture on the cover of a book…
What do you think the story is about? Have fun with it!

This will be a dismally short report card. I dithered away this last week.

Okay, so I didn’t exactly accomplish nothing. I had to finish a final round of copyedits for Ravished by a Viking, which called for me to retool chapters 13 and 14. That was more work than expected. Which meant my plans for everything else were hosed.

I only completed one chapter of the fourth Lone Star Lovers book.

What does that mean for this week? I have to work like a bitch on crank. I’ve been so good for so long about keeping ahead of deadlines that this lapse is causing me a great deal of stress. Add to the fact I have to help watch kids and dogs this next week for my daughter’s family, and I hope like hell I can get through all the work I need to or I’ll be even farther behind.

Wish me luck and health (and sanity).

And because I feel like I have to put my goals out there or I will cheat, here’s what I HAVE to complete by this time next Sunday:

* Complete through chapter 7 of LSL-4
* Complete chapter four of Bad Moon Rising
* Re-envision and restart work on Viking-2
* Publish Pleasing Sir on Kindle and Smashwords
* Get the prep work done for September’s Plotting Bootcamp with Rose’s Colored Glasses