I know it’s Flag Day, too, and everyone will be waving their Stars & Stripes, but it’s also the U.S. Army’s birthday! On this date in 1775, the American Continental Army was founded.

I’m a proud retired Army vet with over 21 years of service, so this day means something to me. The photo below isn’t the best I have, but it was the easiest to get to. That smile looks like more of a grimace—my chin looks really long! LOL! At the time, I served on the general’s staff at Fort Gordon—now, Fort Liberty—Georgia.

I hope you have a great day! Cook those hot dogs. Raise a beer. Or head to the pool, like I will. 🙂

UPDATE: The winner is…Stephanie!
*~*~*

We’re almost there. Now, you can only vote for one theme for the next Boys Behaving Badly Anthology! Don’t know what these anthologies are all about? Check them out here: Delilah’s Collections.

Of course, next, I’ll need to come up with a clever idea for the title. Maybe you can help with that, too…

The Final Poll

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC, take a stab at a title for your favorite theme below!

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FOR AUTHORS!
NOTE: Email me directly at delilah@delilahdevlin.com with your response! You can promote a new or older title/series and connect with my readers!
*~*~*~*~*
Hey there, Authors! I like to host a guest blogger two to three times a week on my blog (www.delilahdevlin.com/blog/). Right now, I need to line up bloggers for dates from July through September 2023. Be quick to grab a date before it’s gone!

I will need bloggers for the following dates:
July 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 20, 21, 23, 27, 28, 30
August 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10, 11, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 20, 21, 23, 27, 28, 30
September 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 24, 27, 28, 29

If you are interested in being a guest, please look at the available dates and let me know if you would like me to pencil you in. I advertise the daily blogs widely. I have 2,993 blog subscribers, who get posts sent straight to their email inboxes every day. My blog also feeds to my Facebook page, which has 4.9k friends, and my Fan Page, which has 4.3k follows. I also post the blog to my Pinterest—total followers 21.1k. If a date isn’t listed but is particularly significant for you, ask me about it anyway! I do try to work people in.

I prefer posts that talk about something more than just new or older releases, but you have room at the bottom of the post for covers, blurbs, links, and short excerpts. You can talk about hobbies, what’s important to you, what inspired this particular book—the field’s wide open, but remember, we wish to appeal to readers rather than other writers. Please keep the number of pictures you want posted to no more than 2, although that’s not a hard and fast rule. And readers love contests and love questions only they can answer that allow them to interact with you!

If you’re interested, contact me! Give me your preferred date(s). First come, first served.

Delilah Devlin
New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author & Freelance Editor

When I sat down to write my current series about three witch sisters, I didn’t know where it would lead me. I’ve been an urban fantasy fan forever though, so I’ve had some key influences. The 90’s TV show Charmed, The vampire film series Underworld and Xena, Warrior Princess to start with.

The Magicians is one of my favorite television shows ever. I devoured the entire five seasons like a rabid were-creature and could almost re-watch the whole thing. I loved it that much—except that my “to be watched” list is as unruly as my “to be read” list!

Eliot was my favorite character; his chill demeanor in the face of a lifetime of trauma really speaks to me. He’s smart and talented and happy to let people recognize it or not. He’s loyal and even with all of that he makes mistakes all the time. Just like every single one of us.

I’m sure that my series has some unintentional Magician’s flavor, I don’t know how it couldn’t. It was too brilliant not to have influenced me.

American Horror Story: Coven, while it edged into “horror” a bit more than I like (I was prepared for AHS to be ‘horror’ don’t worry!) I really enjoyed the story. I love when the lines are blurred between good and evil, and while Fiona was definitely evil, not every choice she made was.

Right now, I’m watching The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and I love the whole aesthetic so much! It’s such eye candy for me, but I have a lot to catch up on.

Obviously, my favorite element of urban fantasy is ritual magic. Like in Alice in Wonderland, I want to believe in impossible things. Magic is one of them.

In my series, The Silver Wilde Chronicles, the main character is the middle sister of a trio of witches. When their mother disappears, the search for her leads their entire worlds to turn inside out. I’d say she’s got a bit of Charmed’s Phoebe, Underworld’s Selene and The Magician’s Kady mixed in there. The free prequel is three chapters showing how she ended up captured by a vampire, which is where book one opens.

What are your favorite urban fantasy films and tv shows?

Life has been… a magical rainbow dumpster hellfire, and it’s about to get so much worse.

I’m Silver Wilde, a Hekate-worshiping witch, with the power of compulsion – which I only use to check alpha holes who need a smack down, of course. And the occasional barista for free coffee.

I thought I was at rock bottom grieving for my best friend, but then it became a mesmerizing, glittery black hole and sucked me right in.

Starting with the sketchy client who said I couldn’t quit… I told him to hold my beer.

Now it’s like I woke up in some alternate universe. Meddling questions. Vampire captors. Gut churning portals.

My mother, the most powerful witch I know, has disappeared. Just… Poof! Nowhere to be seen, astrally or otherwise. WTAF?

And let’s not discuss that pesky death prophecy I never should have asked for. What a thorn in my side.

It’s fine. I’m fine. This isn’t my first creepster rodeo. I’ve had to deal with a shady dude the bloody way before. And, to find my mom, I’ll do it again.

Scorched Heart and Sass is a sexy, snarky adventure in a magical world with witchy, occult flavor, full of unwanted alliances, unwelcome revelations and uninvited emotions.

This is book one of an urban fantasy series with a slow-burn, steamy romance subplot, adult language and adult themes.

Pre-order now!

Get your FREE read!

Download now! Ignite, by Dahlia T. Drake

Follow me on Facebook
Check out my website

UPDATE: The winner is…Beverly!
*~*~*

Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”
~ St. Francis of Assisi

I’m working on updating my plans today. Trying to re-jigger them to fit in everything I have to accomplish. It always looks so…possible, until real life intrudes.

After finishing my #the100dayproject (yay, me!), I feel like I can do anything once I focus. My priorities this week? I need to write some chapters! I have an editing project to wrap up. I want to complete organizing my jewelry-making station in my art room. I haven’t made jewelry in a while, in an organized fashion, because it’s such a jumbled mess, but I’m making progress. I don’t want to get mired in indecisions about where everything should go/how can I make some space/what I should de-stash, etc. Plus, I want to leave time for family fun, too.

The jewelry station feels like the most daunting thing, and it shouldn’t be, because it’s not a money-maker gig. However, I feel less stressed overall as I make improvements in that room. So, health-wise it should be a priority, right? Okay, so maybe I’m trying to justify focusing on it to the detriment of the “real work.”

I’ve accomplished a lot already. The areas underneath my worktables where I have boxes/bins stored, have all been cleaned and only “necessary” stuff was kept. I completed organizing my ink/glasswork station. What’s left? The jewelry station. The art table which has to be cleared/cleaned/and space made for painting. The rolling bins need to be cleaned out and organized, but I am trying to finish one big task per week so that by mid-summer I’ll three stations free and be able to find what I need when I start a project.

In case you don’t remember or haven’t been following this blog for a while, this is what my art room looked like shortly after my mother passed and ALL HER ART SUPPLIES were dumped in here for me to sort through. I barely had room to navigate the aisles on either side of the art table to the left here—standing sideways! It’s nothing like that now, but it helps me to remember where I started. Now, I know my goal is possible. When I finish, I’ll share pictures. It’s not anything fancy. The room itself is painted concrete block walls with 1980s industrial tiles on the floor. The furniture is a mishmash of things. But I will share. A workspace doesn’t have to be stylish to fulfill its function!

And none of that has to do with books. However, I should let you know that while I clean and de-stash, I work through story issues in my head. I have a notepad always ready for ideas. I can’t complete any editing, but I can be working on my own stories, so it’s not wasted time.

I’m rambling. And no doubt you’re bored. So, I’ll close with a contest!

Tell me about any huge organizational challenge you faced and how you overcame it for a chance to win a $5 Amazon GC!

UPDATE: The winner is…Pansy Petal!
*~*~*

It’s Saturday after the first full week the kids have been out of school. Not much happening for me other than swimming, editing, and cleaning. The kids and my dd have had their hands full.

If you saw the video of the ducks being released to the pond recently, that did not last long. We lost two ducks that first night, so it was back to the chicken pen for the rest. The poor things followed my SIL like he was the Pied Piper all the way back to the enclosure because they were so stressed out. So, we filled a kiddy pool for them and they’re perfectly happy. We have 4 ducks now. My daughter got the idea of adding geese to the mix because they are larger and more intimidating, and if they like the ducks, they’ll defend them. We have 3. Maybe, one day, we can try the pond again. But in the meantime, we have baby geese and they are smellier and ugly. Gah, we really do have a menagerie.

My dd put lawn chairs in the chicken pen and they sit out there in the evenings petting the fowl and watching them. I think it’s a bit weird, but then, they think my hermit-like existence when I’m in work-mode is a bit weird, too.

Yesterday, I spotted this beside the fence surrounding the pool. Ignore my weedy grass! We live in the country, and nicely manicured lawns are stupid here.

I’m not sure what kind of snake it was. The thought that a shed skin could be that big and that close to the pool was a tad disturbing. I did have a snake slip over the side of the pool once when I was swimming. I’ve never climbed out that quickly.

And the fact that those two pictures were worthy of sharing with you tells you how peaceful and uneventful it’s been. I do love my life. The past couple of days, the 14-year-old has been helping me with cleaning and organizing my art room. I have 1980s square industrial tile on the floor. It gets gross and dull. She cleaned it and waxed it yesterday for me. I like the old tile. It’s utilitarian, and it doesn’t break my heart when I drop paint on the floor that dries and is there forever. The 9-year-old’s rabbit had been outside during the nice Spring weather, but now that temperatures are approaching the 90s, he’s back in his indoor cage—on my art room floor. I bought a big rubber pad and paper puppy pads to put under it to try to save the wax. The 14-year-old has been doing a slew of special chores for me because she wants a betta fish (like my Loki) with tank, etc., so she’s been looking for little jobs to save up. She’s almost there—and then we’ll be adding to our menagerie.

Puzzle-Contest

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, give me some suggestions about what to do with the geese and ducks. Have fun with it. Even silly ideas count!
And isn’t this painting lovely? I’ll have to try something like this. I love the texture!

Open Contests

1. Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Along came an exo-whatsit? — Win an Amazon gift card!
2. Word Puzzle: Possible Boys Behaving Badly Themes — Win an Amazon gift card!
3. A Poll! Help me choose the next BOYS BEHAVING BADLY theme! — Win an Amazon gift card!
4. Gabbi Grey: Being one of the cool kids (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!

Love and triangle. Two fairly innocuous words. But it’s when they’re paired together in that order that they become possibly the two most hated words in all of romance—the dreaded love triangle.

Whether it was Rory trying to choose between Dean and Jess, Bella between Jacob and Edward, or Elena between Stefan and Damon, whoever she ended up with, I always felt a little cheated. I could never decide who was her perfect fit because each guy matched her in different ways. Why couldn’t she have it all?

And then I discovered my two favorite words in romance. Two words so destined to exist side by side, they’re literally smooshed together. WhyChoose!

A few years ago, I was introduced to a whole new (fictional) world where the heroine could have everything she wanted. Hot Boy Next Door… absolutely! Sexy Bad Boy… yes, please! Sweet Cinnamon Roll… come on down! According to the rules of WhyChoose romance, the more the merrier!

When I decided to pitch my hat in the publishing ring and give penning my own romance a try, there was no question it would be a WhyChoose romance. I wanted my heroine to have three men, each one complex and compelling in his own way and each one able to grow with her and fulfill a different need of hers.

So was born Vasenia and her three love interests, Marek, Gaeb, and Ryfin. In Blade & Thistle, my debut WhyChoose fantasy romance, we get the first installment of their exciting, enemies-to-lovers tale. Be sure to check out the blurb and excerpt below and read for free on Kindle Unlimited. I hope you enjoy reading Vasenia have it all!

Read now: https://mybook.to/Blade-Thistle

Follow me: https://jacindahalebooks.com/thank-you-for-reading/

Blade & Thistle

Vasenia has hated her life in Eretamia ever since her father, Imperator Supreme of the Sadoran Army, forced her to join him on his military campaign in the gloomy, backwater colony far away from the high society of the capital. But when her betrothed retrieves her for their wedding, she assumes the gods have finally shined their favor upon her.

Until her caravan is attacked along the forbidden, northern border and Vasenia finds herself in a hell far worse than Eretamia and at the mercy of three ruthless warriors. No, not warriors—Harrow demons.

Barbarians. Savages. Harrow demons. Warriors Marek, Gaeb, and Ryfin and their people, the half-fae Itheni, are known by many names but understood by few who live south of the magical border that protects their home, least of all by the Sadoran invaders.

But when the three warriors rescue a Sadoran woman on their trek home, they discover she’s more than just another invader. She’s half-fae too, a descendent of the lost women whose connection to their people was severed by a curse a thousand years ago.

When an ancient bond links her to them, Marek, Gaeb, and Ryfin realize they have no choice; they must bring their enemy home. But if they want to keep her, they’ll have to claim her and bind her to the fae by the only means they have: pleasure.

Excerpt from Blade & Thistle…
All three of them stand together near the entrance staring at me and exchanging words in their language. I try to focus on the things that made them so barbaric to me mere days ago. The blue tattoos marring their thick forearms. The hair on their chiseled jaws. Their undisciplined stance as if they could unleash the savage at any moment. I swallow thickly.

Single words filter to me. I understand tonight and seal before Marek motions to himself, Gaeb, and Ryfin. Gaeb nods in response and looks at me, his face wiped of humor.

I take a deep breath as Gaeb approaches.

“Sen,” he says, and warmth fills me at the name. It’s not an endearment, but somehow it softens me in ways Lucius’ my love never did.

“The ceremony on the dais bound us to one another, but the binding must be sealed.”

I nod.

“Sealing requires us to join the Goddess together,” Gaeb pauses to let that sink in and adds, “all of us.”

I can feel Marek’s attention focused on me even though his face remains in shadow, and Ryfin’s back is to me but his sudden stillness tells me he’s paying close attention to Gaeb’s words.

All of us.

I knew it as soon as I was brought here. What other use is there for a bed as big as this one? I’ve been preparing myself for this for hours.

Gaeb touches my waist, a feather-light touch but enough to send a shiver through me.

These men may not be demons, but they’re still my enemies. My body doesn’t care, though, as a now familiar feeling begins to ride my blood. What is it if not power?

He said the power in the wych elm is within me as well. If I can coax it out, learn how to master it, perhaps I can use it against them. My passion won’t be wasted anymore.

Gaeb tilts his head and narrows his eyes, attempting to read me. “You understand, yes?”

I nod again.

He cups my face, moving closer. The firelight illuminates the warm brown of his eyes, and his irises shine like sunlight through amber. “Do you want this?” he asks, his fingers caressing my cheek.

My consent is a tactic, a strategic maneuver.

But his touch settles and stirs me at once, building within me a heat that both loosens my limbs and tightens every muscle in my body. His thumb lands just below my bottom lip, and my mind empties of everything but this hunger I have for him, for all of them.

“You have to answer, Sen. Do you want to seal the binding with us?”

“Of course, she fucking wants it. I can feel her fae from here, so let’s get this over with.”

Ryfin stalks toward me, and I gape at him, at the foreign words that sounded so clear to my ears. But before he can reach me, Gaeb shoves him back.

“No,” Gaeb says, and it’s the only word I understand before I lose the translation.

Lucius didn’t ask my permission. It wasn’t required. Father betrothed me to him, and a lady of Dora is her family’s to possess and give away. Thus, I was given to Lucius and he took me, and not a care was spared for what I wanted.

I wanted Lucius’ family name, the access to power he could grant me, the security of his position. But had I wanted him? As I want Gaeb and Marek and even Ryfin?

Gods forgive me, the answer is no. I never wanted Lucius.

Someday this will be over. I’ll be returned to Father, to whatever Sadoran nobleman will take Lucius’ place, and to the role my mother was meant to play had she not proved a lovesick fool.

My mother lacked the control I possess. She didn’t merely want the Jacquerran man who wasn’t my father; she fell in love with him. I won’t make her mistake. I won’t fall in love with these men before me.

But I will fuck them. And then I’ll seize the power it gives me.

I stare at Gaeb, steeling my expression. “Yes,” I say.