Don’t go to your stack to talk about the best books you’ve read recently! What will you be curling up with today?

Because I’ve been napping so much lately, I chose a short story collection to read. And I must say, I’m enjoying it very much! This is the book:

Yes, Sir: Erotic Stories of Female Submission
by Rachel Kramer Bussel (Editor)
Pub. Date: March 2008
Trade Paperback, 210 pp

Okay, so I didn’t select it for enjoyment but because I’m working on a short novella with D/s flavorings and wanted to immerse myself in the language and lifestyle before charging forward. But collections like these are addictive—like boxed chocolates. Can you really stop at just one bite? The stories are sometimes strange but always stimulating. Since they are written in first person (at least those I’ve read so far), I feel as though I’m taking a glimpse inside someone else’s bedroom. Very, very stimulating…

Your turn.

Tell me what you are reading and what it’s doing for you.

My sister sent me an email today with these two pictures in it. Both came from Texas and both were about things found in culverts in that state. A time or two I’ve been tempted to write a scene with a twister where the hero and heroine had to seek refuge in the open. Guess I’ll count out scurrying into a culvert as a means to escape.

And there I thought scorpions and spiders would be the worst thing they’d face…

An 18-foot alligator was caught here!

87 Rattlesnakes were wrangled from this culvert.

Yeah, I just woke up and didn’t want to think that hard about today’s blog.

I had a very productive week until I hit Thursday, about which I’ve talked enough, right? Up to that point, I slammed through the first four and a half chapters of a very sexy novella. I reviewed half the galley for Darkness Captured. I contacted a publisher I love and asked for advice on how to submit an anthology project to them. And I have completed research and dreamed up the premise for a short story project.

This next week, I have to complete reviewing and editing the galley for Darkness Captured and I plan to complete the sexy novella—hopefully by Tuesday. I’ll start writing the short story and draft the description for my anthology proposal. A little ambitious, but I want to make up lost ground. Also, next Saturday, I have to teach a class to my RWA chapter, which reminds me I actually have to come up with content to teach. Oy!

I found out today that a story I wrote a while back for an anthology, Warlord’s Destiny, will be reissued on its own June 14, 2010. If you haven’t read it yet, June will be a good time to pick it up. It’s one of my favorite stories—a futuristic with a medeival flavor to it—another of those wonderfully manly men… Okay, now I’m wanting to go back and read that opening scene again when the hero strides into the heroine’s hall. Mmm-mm.

I believe really good drugs made me temporarily psychic.

I had surgery on Thursday. They used some sort of anesthesia that allowed me to drift in and out while the doctor removed a very ugly under skin lump from my shoulder. When I drifted in, I’d feel something of what they were doing and an “Ow!” would elicit another dose of whatever it was they pumped into me.

I remember telling the doctor they’d removed an alien implant. When I got home, my sister called me and asked if I thought I’d ever write again now that the alien inhabiting my skin was gone. Hmmm….

Coincidence? I think not!

On the way home, my mother, who drove me to and from the hospital, decided to stop at the store for milk. While she was gone, I remember distinctly wanting to call her back and tell her to get some white powdered doughnuts—something I only crave once or twice a year, and something I never buy.

I didn’t see what she bought, but later that day when I stumbled into the kitchen for something to drink, there sat a box of powdered doughnuts on the counter.

See where I’m going? I’m still on drugs and feeling a little goofy. So that’s all I’m saying. I’m hoping today when the drugs wear off and I’m finally parked in front of my keyboard for the long haul that I don’t find out that the alien they removed was indeed my muse.

The winner (by random number generator) of yesterday’s contest is….Valerie! Congratulations, Valerie. Be sure to email me and let me know which of the MIK eBooks you’d like sent.

Catch me today at Access Romance’s All-A-Blog. Leave a comment there, and you’ll be eligible for a prize!

BTW, surgery went well. I have great pain-killers, and I’m going to take one now and crawl back into bed! Later! ~DD

That sounded dramatic, didn’t it? No biggie. Having a lump removed, is all. But I won’t be here for most of the day, and when I get home I probably still won’t be all here for a while. I’ll leave you with a question so I can enjoy the answers when the painkillers wear off.

If you could wake up every morning, open your bedroom blinds, and look out a huge glass window at the perfect view, what would that view be?

For me, it would be the mountain ranges of Antartica. I’m very into Antarctica after watching Whiteout.
Later, gators! ~DD

No light without darkness…no love without danger…

From Fallen Angels Reviews: “…STONE’S EMBRACE is a wonderfully descriptive story…The mix of Greek mythology with Christian elements is intriguing and adds to the subtle layering of eroticism and exoticism…this story is fantastic and a super-hot read!”

From Just Erotic Romances: “…The sex in the book was off the charts hot!…It was a wonderfully different story with a strong characters and a fun plot that left this reviewer breathless!”