If you could swallow a pill that would stop anything of your choice from ever happening to you again—anything except keep you from getting sick—what would the pill permanently end?

My answer is I’d love to take a pill that stopped me aging. Not because I’m vain or afraid of it, but because I’d like to keep active and not lose any more of my mental faculties than I already lost in my 20’s.

What would you like to end?

Some of you may wonder why anyone would give up South Texas with the cowboys in tight Wranglers, Tex-Mex food, wide open skies and a rich, varied culture for the backwoods of Arkansas. So I thought I’d give you a glimpse into one reason I did that very thing.

The scenery changes from season to season, but also varies according to the amount of rainfall and bright sun we get. An ice storm or high winds can change it irrevocably, so once in a while, I like to take a camera into the yard.

We had a lot of rain the past few weeks, and today when I stepped outside I spotted what I thought were flowers growing underneath the massive white oak in the backyard.

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Some places are just meant to be portrayed in fiction. Last year, I sped to Memphis for some location research with Shayla Kersten. I blogged about my adventures there—the long conversation with the police officer investigating a robbery, my travels with John the trolleyman and the church he suggested I could desecrate (for my story, of course).

One place in particular that caught my eye was this “castle” in a seedy area of the city.

I made Shayla pull over so we could take pictures. Ashlar Hall is creepy and used to be owned by a local personality who goes by the name of “Prince Mongo” from the planet Zambodia. I’m not kidding, I swear. He exists and this is his picture.

Gotta love a man who’s not ashamed to wear a rubber chicken.

Anyway, the property was surrounded by wrought iron fencing which was padlocked, and since I’m not much into climbing these days or being arrested, I didn’t get any closer than this to take pictures.

Love the car parked outside. It totally adds to the decrepit air of the place. I’ve tried and tried to come up with a nice creepy story set inside this house but haven’t hit upon the right idea. Most of my ideas are more suited to comedy. It seems like the kind of place that would appeal to Emmy O’Hara from the MIK stories.

When you look at the pictures of the house (try to blot out of your mind Prince Mongo’s pic!), what sort of story comes to mind?

I know you want to learn who won yesterday’s prize, but you’ll have to read to the bottom to find out!

I finished my Intrigue binge last week. Nothing that impressed me other than sis’s book. Again—no prejudice there!

Then I picked up a couple contemporary erotica novels and read them over the last few nights. It took me that long because the stories bored me.

I really, really wanted to like one of them. It was written by an author I normally love and was a contemporary Western. Right up my alley, right? But the characterization sucked. EVERYONE talked the same—the men, the women. The guys were way too concerned about their feelings. And their language was so coarse, their lives so tawdry, I felt dirty. Funny, given what I write!

Now, I love a well-paced curse word during times of danger and high tension—and especially during sex. But constantly? I wanted to toss it against the wall, but I paid for the book so I was damn well going to finish it.

The other was so stupid—girl on vacation at a luxury island resort who gets turned out by a Dom—I had to finish it out of morbid curiosity. There had to be SOMETHING in it I hadn’t read a million times already, but no. Yawn. I wouldn’t have minded a done-to-death premise if the author had given it a unique twist.

I won’t tell you either titles. It’s not fair to the authors. And you might love the stories if you haven’t read a sex resort story already or would love to read a story that can really make you crave a bubble bath.

Maybe I’ll have something better to report next week. I’ve whittled down my choices to a Karen Moning (my mom says I HAVE to read her) and a YA book called THE NAMED. I also have a YA book written by Richelle Mead and another demonology research book coming in the mail.

Then again, I can’t always stick to the plan. I might turn to my crammed bookshelf and pick something at random. Something by someone I’ve never read before. Don’t you love discovering something wonderful when you least expect it?

If you have something wonderful you’ve read lately that you think I might like, let me know!

All right, you suffered my ramblings (rantings, really), I’ll end the suspense and name yesterday’s winner.

The winner (by random number generator) of a free download
of Prisoner of Desire is…Mari!
Mari, congrats and send me an email!

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

This week, I’m giving you an excerpt from my very first published book. POD was released in July 2004 by Ellora’s Cave and was the first in a three-book series.

Why pirates, you might ask? Geek-me had just finished reading a true story about a prison ship headed to Botany Bay in the 1800s that was captured by pirates. Female prisoners were taken by the pirates and never seen again. I like to think they enjoyed their abduction. 😉

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

From Romantic Times BOOKReviews Magazine: “…First-time author Devlin truly catches the reader’s attention with this hot and sensual book. The intense passion is accentuated by the goals of Adam and his men, making it a great read.”

From Sensual Romance Reviews: “…PRISONER OF DESIRE is Delilah Devlin’s first novel. I can’t wait to see what she can come up with next. This is a very erotic adventure that you won’t want to put down…I highly recommend this novel for anyone who loves pirates and romance.”

From Just Erotic Romances: “Devlin will definitely go on my auto buy list!”

Captain Adamarik Zingh and his pirate crew have captured many a ship, pillaged their cargoes, pleasured their women, while thumbing their noses at the Dominion’s authority. But pirating is a lonely business and Adam and his men have entered a pact to set down roots, self-govern without Dominion interference, and raise families on an uninhabited planet at the edge of the known galaxy. What they need now are wives.

Evena McClure is the elected Cell Block Captain aboard a Dominion penitentiary serving her time along with nearly 400 female prisoners. When pirates overtake their ship Evena resists, mindful of her duty to protect the women. When the pirate captain offers freedom to only a hundred of the prisoners, Evena and the women form alliances to broker a deal to free more of their sisters.

The pirates and the prisoners have only a week to seduce the other side to their will.

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

“Captain, pirates are boarding!”

Cold dread settled in her stomach. “Get to the security room. Arm yourselves. Sound the general alert.”

Evena raised her club and entered the room. It was overflowing with men—brightly dressed men. And more were climbing through the docking port. Four of her guards were struggling wildly to escape their captors’ arms.

“Release the women,” she shouted.

All eyes turned toward her. Evena wondered whether she should’ve waited for reinforcements as one man strode toward her. Unlike his comrades, he was dressed entirely in black. His dark, disheveled hair brushed the tops of his shoulders, and a many-days-old beard-stubbled his chin. Dark eyes swept over her in a single quick appraisal, burning her skin.

Evena’s pulse pounded loudly in her ears, and a quiver of awareness fluttered deep in her belly. He was a large man, broad-shouldered and heavily muscled, and despite his wary scowl, a handsome one.
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I’m late! I’m late!

I’m channeling the Mad Hatter. I took a test on Facebook yesterday to see which Alice in Wonderland character I am—and I was the Mad Hatter. It sooo fits me today. I went to bed at 1:00 AM last night. As soon as my head hit the pillow, I remembered I had a doctor’s appointment 70 miles away at 8:00 AM! So needless to say, no morning blog. And to make matters worse, I’m at Access Romance today talking about “Following my Manic Muse”.

I’d love for you to drop by and keep me company. Here’s where you go:
Access Romance

See ya there! ~ DD

I’ll recap the last week.

As you can see from the progress bar to the right, I finished Unbroken, then wrote a quick short story for Cleis’s upcoming Girl Crush anthology (which got accepted yesterday—woot!). Unbroken is a very sexy cowboy story about a couple having to get past infidelity. The Cleis thing was a short challenge for myself—just 3000 words about a lesbian affair. And don’t forget about my new release, Eye of the Storm. It’s my 11th for the year!

We had so much rain this past week that the pool cooled from 90 to 80 degrees and I had to drain off the excess water three times. The ground is so saturated, a large apple tree fell and knocked out a portion of the back fence. The deer gorged on the leaves of the tree—so there’s your silver lining.

My daughter and I threw around ideas for a Young Adult novel, and I think I have the opening scene for something really spooky. Will have to do a lot of plotting for this one because there will be a larger cast than I normally deal with and a spookfest I have to nail.

Then I went on a reading binge of intrigue books. At the end, plots started swirling in my head, and I came up with one that I’d love to start writing, but will require research of its own.

So, this next week will be spent in geek-mode, reading through my library of occult books and surfing the net for bomb-making and Homeland Security-related articles. But I can’t spend the whole time reading, so I think I’ll start a new story, something quick and light that I can pound out in between all the hard, boring work.

According to The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Wicca and Witchcraft, August’s moon is the Wyrt moon. WTF does that mean, you ask? Wyrt is the Old English word for plant, so Wyrt moon refers to the Plant or Herb moon. It’s time to collect your magical herbs, time to reap the harvest.

What does that mean in a metaphysical sense? This is the time to reap what you sow. So hope like hell you’ve built some great karma.