I love Mondays. Usually. I know that sounds crazy to all of you who have Evil Day Jobs, but Mondays, for me, are normally filled with bright shiny possibilities. Sure, I don’t have to travel farther than 25 feet to get to my office from the bed, but Mondays still count.

This Monday is more like my usual Sunday—the day I clear up any messes, run errands and get ready to hunker down for the week to write. After today, everybody is back where they belong and my world returns to normal. I have two family members who went away this last week to opposite sides of the country, and I don’t like that one little bit! I need the people around me to keep to their routines so that my chaotic life and thought processes aren’t excited by their unpredictability.

Selfish, I know. But I never claimed to be perfect.

This morning, I have to head over to babysit for SIL so that he can take my new dog Fenris to the vet to get his junk removed. Then I race back home and try to get some pages under my belt before heading to the airport in the afternoon to pick up the red-headed hellion. I’ll be lucky to write a paragraph. I need isolation to get significant pages done, or a coffee shop where no one knows me.

I’ll celebrate Monday tomorrow.

This has been a crazy busy year, and it’s only half over. Following is a list of upcoming releases with dates where I have them. Mark your calendars.

6/18/10 – UN, DEUX, TROIS, MÉNAGE! anthology (Ellora’s Cave)
07/01/10 – THE OBEDIENT WIFE, Fairy Tale Lust anthology (Cleis Press)
07/??/10 – PLEASING SIR (Me!)
08/01/10 – THE WEEKEND, Lesbian Lust anthology (Cleis Press)
Summer?/10 – VEILED ALLIANCE anthology (Ellora’s Cave)
09/??/10 – FOUR SWORN (Samhain)
09/21/10 – DARKNESS CAPTURED (Avon Red)
11/1/10 – COWBOY FEVER anthology (Samhain)
11/01/10 – THE MORNING RIDE, Passion: Erotic Romance for Women (Cleis Press)
01/??/11 – RAVISHED BY A VIKING (Berkley Heat)
Spring?/2011 – HOT OUT HERE, The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance anthology (Running Press)

Since there’s still time to finish novellas for Ellora’s Cave and Samhain, I might be adding a few more.

So, on to the report!

1) This week I had two new releases, both from Ellora’s Cave. The first was the reissue on Monday of Warlord’s Destiny as a single novella rather than as a part of an anthology. Nice! The second was a surprise release of the print book, Un, Deux, Trois, Menage! on Friday. I hope everyone got their copies!

2) Not a whole lot of writing this week, although I did manage to add to the quickie I’m writing for Ellora’s Cave. It’s a shapeshifter story, BTW.

3) I finally hit on the idea I want to work on for Cleis’s Dream Lover anthology. It’s quasi-plotted, or at least I know who the hero and heroine are and that’s enough for me to start writing.

4) The Plotting Bootcamp is rolling along. Authors are applying themselves to their homework. Sis and I are reviewing it and making suggestions for improvements to help them pummel their WIPs into shape.

5) The really big news of the week was that my Berkley editor approved the synopsis for the second Viking story. So now I can start working on the thing. Since I spoke with her, I’ve been studiously avoiding the book, and working on anything but, telling myself that I have to clear my desk before I dive in, but that’s not true. I never need a clear desk, or even a clear mind, to start something new. I’m just dreading the 85,000 words. LOL

6) Lastly, and this is happy news, the first Viking book has been moved up on the calendar. Ravished by a Viking will be published in January 2010!

What do I plan to accomplish this week?
* Finish EC Quickie
* Write Dream Lover short story
* Work on characters and plot for Viking story
* Plot the next chapter of Bad Moon Rising (no, I didn’t forget all about it!)
* Place order for promo items for Lora Leigh’s Readers Appreciation Weekend

I found out yesterday that this book is available in print, like now!

This is one book I think you’ll want to keep on your nightstand for those nights you need a little inspiration! The stories are fun, emotional, raw, hawt-as-hell—and among the sexiest stories I’ve ever written. And if you’ve read me, you know that means something.

If you’d like to read excerpts from all three of the sexy novellas included in this volume, here you go:
Excerpt from RAW SILK
Excerpt from FUN WITH DICK AND JAYNE
Excerpt from JANE’S WILD WEEKEND

What more can I say than click on the cover and BUY THE BOOK!

NOW IN PRINT! This new book includes the naughty trio of
Raw Silk, Fun with Dick and Jayne, and Jane’s Wild Weekend!

This has been a crazy busy year, and it’s only half over. Following is a list of upcoming releases with dates where I have them. Mark your calendars.

06/18/10 – UN, DEUX, TROIS, MÉNAGE! anthology (Ellora’s Cave)
06/23/10 – VEILED ALLIANCE anthology (Ellora’s Cave)
07/01/10 – THE OBEDIENT WIFE, Fairy Tale Lust anthology (Cleis Press)
07/??/10 – PLEASING SIR (Me!)
08/01/10 – THE WEEKEND, Lesbian Lust anthology (Cleis Press)
09/07/10 – FOUR SWORN (Samhain)
09/21/10 – DARKNESS CAPTURED (Avon Red)
11/01/10 – COWBOY FEVER anthology (Samhain)
11/01/10 – THE MORNING RIDE, Passion: Erotic Romance for Women (Cleis Press)
01/??/11 – RAVISHED BY A VIKING (BerkleyHeat)
Spring?/2011 – HOT OUT HERE, The Mammoth Book of Hot Romance (Running Press)

Since there’s still time to finish novellas for Ellora’s Cave and Samhain, I might be adding a few more. ~DD

I was a little more flush in the pocket than usual this month, so I decided to splurge on some more art for my walls. Remember “Blueberry Blast”? I enjoyed that painting so much, I went back to my friend’s gallery to hunt for more treasure. You may look at my choices and scratch your head, but I don’t always pick the things that go with my decor or that someone might think is the best art—I pick things that speak to me.

I’ve watched this watercolor for months. Every time I went into the gallery, I’d wind up, standing in front of it, reading the little note the artist wrote about the origin of the bottle tree, and yesterday, I decided it had to be mine. I’m going to hang it near my bed, I think. Maybe the bottles in the pictures that trap the “haints” will work their magic on me while I sleep. (Although, really, I kinda like nightmares. Several of my books have stories straight from my dreams.)

I saw this one when the artist dropped it for consignment last month and told her I thought it would be mine. Since it was still there and it felt like the time was right, I bought it. It’s going up in my office, next to my desk. Now, I just need a little fairy door to hang beneath it to entice the fairies to play while I work.

I have another oil painting from this artist of wine with grapes. When I look at them both, I think of when I lived next to a vinyard in Germany. This one’s an oil painted on a tile.

If you have favorite bits of art that you’d like to share, send me a pic and I’ll post it!

My favorite man-meat website, Just Beautiful Men, is at it again. The blog-owner played with photoshop to produce this image. I snagged it, because sometimes, I just need a little inspiration.

So, using this photo as a writing prompt to spur story ideas,
what sort of ideas come to your mind?