Yesterday’s winner will be named at the end of this posting! ~DD

Here’s hoping everyone spent Christmas day surrounded by family.

My parents and I descended on my daughter and her family. So we got to watch the 11-month-old unwrap gifts (translated: play with wrapping paper). The six-year-old is in Texas with her daddy, and we missed her, but got a chance to concentrate on the other baby’s first Christmas. Getting to Hot Springs was a little tricky though. With all the rain we’ve had, the roads leading to Arkadelphia were flooded. At Clear Lake (someone with a wicked sense of humor named it because it’s a murky swamp with alligators), I did try to see how far I could get, but when the water got 6-inches deep and I couldn’t see the edges of the road, I turned back and took a different route.

Our meal was great and very relaxed—something I will no doubt look back on with fondness because I’m back on my diet today. Turns out I only gained six pounds on the trip. I didn’t backslide that far!

But it was enough to keep me out of those “booty jeans” yesterday. 😥

Anyway, back to the cruise. A funny thing happened in St. Thomas. I forgot to take pictures of the town because I got caught up in a shopping frenzy. If you’ve never been there, it’s a mecca for jewelry. I caught the fever! I bought two sets (ring, earings, and pendant) of bright blue topaz and purple tanzanite and tons of semiprecious stone bracelets, which I gave away as Christmas gifts. So the photos that follow were taken after I’d finished most of my shopping.

Except these first two. When we debarked at the dock, these tourist taxis that sat a dozen people met us to take us into town. All of them were brightly colored and decorated. We didn’t ride with “The Muscle Man” but I had to snap a pic.

Here’s a view of St. Thomas from the dock.

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I’m taking a break today from cruise pictures to wish you all a very Merry Christmas! ~DD

If you post a comment today, you’ll be in the running
for a free download of this book!

Today, I’m giving you an excerpt from my one and only holiday story. Silent Knight was released in December 2005 by Ellora’s Cave and exists in the My Immortal Knight realm.

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

From eCataRomance: “…The perfect holiday read! Delilah Devlin took a Christmas tale to a whole new level when she crafted SILENT KNIGHT.”

From Romance Divas: “…[SILENT KNIGHT] is a sizzling hot vampire story tht will take you on a short escape — the perfect read for a busy holiday season. Sexy and fun, make sure Silent Knight is on your holiday “must read” list!”

From A Romance Review: “Erotically decedent and thrillingly carnal, Noelle and Magnus’ story is enough to make a person self-combust with want.”

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Noelle Moyaux questions her gift of sight until a chance encounter with a mysterious stranger sets her on a path to save his soul.

Magnus Thornton is a millennium-old vampire who has found evidence of an old foe’s evil at work in the demolished city of New Orleans. Weary of the fight, he decides to greet the coming dawn after a night reveling in his favorite things—a bottle of Bordeaux and a willing woman.

Noelle seems the answer, but she quickly creeps into his heart-the vampire, so jaded from life he never speaks, must now persuade Noelle to flee the city before it’s too late.

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

Noelle Moyaux flicked off the battery-powered Christmas lights that ringed her metal cart, folded her purple tablecloth into a small tidy square and tucked it and the folding table inside the cart before latching the lid closed.

She wheeled the cart across the busy street and waved to her friend Gerard, the owner of a small Cajun restaurant. Continuing around the back of the eatery, she stowed her palmistry kiosk in the storage unit she’d rented from Gerard since before the troubles.

Today’s earnings were slim, despite the unseasonably warm weather that allowed the thin-blooded residents of the city to roam the streets in light jackets. No one believed in a future amid the chaos—and some questioned her ability since she’d received no divination of the coming catastrophe. Indeed, Noelle questioned her gift daily as she sat beneath her umbrella in front of the embroidered cloth advertising “Noelle’s News”.

If not for the little nest egg of money she’d saved from substitute teaching before the flood, she’d be in dire straits.

Clutching her purse close to her side, she headed down the street toward home.

One last night. One last chance to lose myself in The Hunger, a fine glass of wine and the body of a willing woman. Before my last sunrise—the first I will see in nearly a thousand years…

Noelle heard the quiet, fleeting thought as she passed through the crowd ambling along Bourbon Street and spun to find the owner. The inner voice that accompanied the thought was masculine and raspy. Added to the familiar spark of connection when her skin had brushed against his was a wash of the blackest melancholy she’d ever sensed. It nearly drowned her in despair.
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Just a quick detour before I get back to the cruise pics. I was browsing through Amazon yesterday and found this! I have a short story in this print collection Cleis is publishing, called “The Out-of-Towner”. It releases June 1, 2010.

Every woman has a girl crush — that physical and emotional fascination with another intriguing, provocative woman who inspires the thought, “What if?” Girl Crush answers that question with an inspiring range of erotic short stories about women acting on their desire and sometimes getting more than they bargained for. Teresa Lamai offers an erotic take on revenge in “Mirador,” when a woman has hate sex in a nightclub bathroom with the person her boyfriend is cheating on her with. In “Getting to Work,” David Erlewine writes about a hot young lawyer who has a lot of work to do to make a demanding, sex-craved partner happy. Writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel shows us the unexpected in “Great Lengths,” when an unrequited crush finally evolves into something more — and something less. In Girl Crush, what happens next is always a surprise, to straight women, bisexual women, and lesbians alike.

One more quick note: Sasha White posted pics from Labadee Island, Haiti. So be sure to head over to her blog!

On the afternoon of Day 3 of our cruise, we pulled into the port of San Juan, Puerto Rico. A really lovely place. And since it’s a U.S. territory—free cellphone minutes! Anyway, this pic is of a fortress on one side of the bay that I snapped as the ship pulled into port.

A view of the city. It’s a shame you can’t see the photos as I took them. Here they are very degraded by WordPress and small. Maybe I’ll load them into photobucket or Flickr and send you a link.

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I have tons of pictures and am having a terrible problem culling! So I thought I might do a chronological thing. But you won’t get 10 days of pics, promise.

Sasha White and I decided to add one extra day to the front and end of our trip so that we wouldn’t have to stress if a plane or boat arrived late. On the day of my flight to Newark, New Jersey, I was so excited I couldn’t sleep, so I left for the airport at 2:00 AM. I stopped in Malvern, Arkansas for breakfast at a Waffle House and joined the skater crowd of kids who all looked a little high. I was so early at the airport the airlines swapped me for an earlier flight, so I had time to kill before meeting Sasha at her gate in Newark.

We arrived at the Days Hotel in the early afternoon. The hotel was nice, but we knew we weren’t in a good part of town when we saw the tall chain link that surrounded the parking lot that was topped by strands of barbed wire. Add the armed guard in the guard shack at the entrance of the lot and you know we were glad we’d only be there one night.

Because we had so much extra time on our hands we road a shuttle from the hotel to the mall. We ended up sharing the ride with a woman who could have been the poster child for too much plastic surgery. And when she moved her hands and spoke, we realized she was probably a transgender person as well. Had to mention that because when I got back to the hotel, I passed another in the lobby, and rode the elevator with another. Must have been a convention. And you know me. I wanted so bad to ask one of them if I could see their new parts. I thought maybe they’d be like strangers you meet who are so proud of their new tattoos that they will pull up their shirts or push down the waistband of their pants and show them to you. But I refrained.

Anyway, the camera came out the following day.

It was freaking cold when we arrived at harbor. Royal Caribbean had a large heated, semi-permanent tent set up to process everyone through passports. Still the windchill was in the 20’s and I only brought a rain jacket. I was glad to finally get through this door.

Inside, I stood in line with 2800 other people waiting to process in.

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Thanks to all my guest bloggers for being here while I was gone. I hope everyone enjoyed it.

My friend, Sasha White, and I had an AWESOME trip. Part much-needed vacation, part writing retreat—we seriously have to plan another adventure! Over the next few days we’ll both get pictures of our trip up. Sasha and I will coordinate postings so we don’t cover the same topics.

Until then, I just want to say I’m glad to be back. I missed my morning blogs and talking to you. I did get some work done while I was away, which you can tell if you check out my progress meters to the right. I should have the next chapter of Bad Moon Rising ready to go within a week—written to your specifications! It’ll be a late present from me!

Until tomorrow! ~DD

Welcome my friend and reader, Heather! I should be back from my trip and online again tomorrow! Thanks to the authors and readers who contributed to my blog!! ~DD

Reading was always my escape.

As a 1st grader I was reading at recess and by the time I was a freshman in high school I had completed all the books on the sophomore, Junior, and Senior reading lists. It was an easy feat because reading came easily to me and I enjoyed all of the books. My AP English teacher eventually let me read the books I wanted because she couldn’t keep up with my demand.

I was teased for always having my nose in a book. I even read on the bus for my senior trip when everyone else was watching movies. In my defense, it was Mission Impossible.

Books meant everything to me. At 31, they still do.

As I got older I started exploring fiction, which was mostly Anne Rice. Her book Belinda will forever be a favorite of mine. It was shortly after college I discovered Delilah Devlin. Her books quickly became my favorites and she soon introduced me to a lot of my favorite authors today.

I love that many of the characters in all of the books are full of life. The plots are always varied and of course the sex and romance is off the charts.

When I started graduate school, I had to cut back on my recreational reading, so books became my reward for completing my weekly work early. The reward I got for completing my semester with the grade I desired. I stick with authors I know because I am terrified of reading a book that stinks when I am rewarding myself. I review books as well, so I know that the market is flooded with stinkers.

This June when I got my MBA, I read erotic fiction all the time. Often times reading a book a night. Many amazing authors filled my nights while Chris Daughtry blared on my iPod. The books helped distract me from the rest of my life which was in turmoil. The Time Travelers Wife broke up over a solid month of erotic fiction. The Time Traveler’s Wife is an amazing read if you haven’t read it already.

Books have always been there for me when I needed them. They helped partially shape me into who I am. Often times it’s just helping me relax from a busy day or helping me forget the things that keep me up at night.

Happy Holidays everyone and treat yourself to a book!
~~Heather

Welcome guest blogger, Ashlyn Chase! ~DD

Why do people think I “don’t work?” Not readers or writers. I mean the people in my life. My husband, in-laws, friends…

Heck…I’ve been busy! I had three releases in September. One free short story for the Ellora’s Cave website, one for their fundraiser, and a Total-e-Bound novella, which is the only one that will put bread on the table. It’s called Oh My God and is an erotic comedy about the Greek God Dionysus. It was nominated for a CAPA and an Eppie award and is still one of my personal favorites. The cover is so spectacular, readers have told me their first words are the same as the title: Oh. My. God!

During that time, I was working on edits for my first mass market paperback which is being released in June by Sourcebooks. I’m happy to say it’s off to copyediting and proofreading now, and I’m very proud of it. I can’t wait to share it with the world!

For several weeks now, I’ve been writing its sequel. I’m under contract for a series of three books. It’s known as the “Strange series.” LOL. Book one is called Strange Neighbors and it’s a light urban fantasy set in an apartment building populated with paranormal misfits. The second one, which I’m working on now is Strange Bedfellows. By the time the third one rolls around, I hope to have another Strange title. I’ve never written books this long before (90,000 words) and it’s quite a challenge.

Sometime during the summer, I was asked to participate in a themed series with three other authors. It’s like The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, except with older women and a pair of red stilettos! I couldn’t resist! I got became especially excited about it when the awesome and talented Delilah Devlin signed on!

Our proposal was approved, so I wrote that “in my spare time.” Now I need to submit it to my editor when the others are ready. I read Delilah’s story and looooved it! I think the series will be titled Red Stilettos, but that isn’t written in stone yet.

My next release will be coming from Total-e-Bound in December. It’s a novella called Green Card. It’s not my usual erotic comedy, but it’s a hot Rubinesque contemporary. It’s about a recent immigrant, Katia, trying to make some extra cash as a life model to send to her family back home.

The cover is so beautiful, I had to keep it even though the woman in the picture is fair and thin and my heroine in the story is dark and on the chubby side. But she’s the perfect inspiration for the hero who prefers to draw voluptuous women in his sensuous artistic style. He makes her feel special and perfect just the way she is. I like a man who can see past superficial “flaws” and find the beauty within.

So, yeah, I don’t work at all. I just lie around the house all day eating bon-bons, and if I feel like doing a little housework, well good for me. LOL.