While I’m away, I let my friends come out to play. Welcome Shayla Kersten… ~DD

Imagination is such a quirky thing. Where would we be without it? Probably extinct. *cackle* Human imagination has given us inventions from rudimentary weapons of survival to spaceflight. And in the process, unleashed the written word on a world curious to know everything from vampires to alternate realities to aliens.

I’ve been in love with the idea of space since I was six years old watching the original Star Trek on an old black and white television. What an amazing thing for someone to dream of! And then there we were…humans…men from earth catapulting into space atop massive rockets, walking on the moon. I still get chills remembering that fateful July day and those words—“One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind”. I just knew the future held the starship Enterprise, alien creatures and amazing explorations. I wanted so bad to be part of it, to explore space, to go where no man—or woman—had gone before. *le sigh*

Alas, being blind as a bat ruled out anything to do with flight. A lack of ability with real science limited my options. The closest I came to my dream was the military. I mean, the Federation was a military of sorts, although it espoused peace. After all, they used military ranks, right?

So instead of exploring outer space, I turned to the space between my ears. My head was full of ideas for all kinds of stories. I wrote stories of cops and vampires, of men loving men and happily ever after. But I hesitated when it came to scifi. I had some ideas but not a clear enough picture to explore a universe of my own creation. Until last year.

In a chat, our most adorable Delilah asked readers what stories they’d like to see from her or from me. Brandy W spoke up. She said she wanted to see something from me with vampires and angels. Hmmm… Okey dokie. My brain did a double take. I already have a vampire series—Eternity—and I still needed to finish the last book for it. But it was an interesting idea. Okay. I filed the prompt—vamps and angels—away for later. And went on with the stories I had in process.

A few months later a lot of buzz came around about space opera being big. You know the type of story, Star Trek, Star Wars, Firefly… Cowboys in space kind of thing. Okay… My brain took a left turn. Vamps, angels, space… Vamps, angels, space… And the next thing you know, ANGEL MOON is born. The first in a trilogy of stories with more to possibly come. I’m already into book two and book three is nagging me for attention. Hopefully, the words will flow as fast as the ideas are now! *cackle*

ANGEL MOON
By Shayla Kersten
Copyright © SHAYLA KERSTEN, 2010
Now available at Ellora’s Cave
For all of Shayla’s Ellora’s Cave’s book, check out her page
For more about Shayla check out her website

What the story’s all about:
Terra offers sanctuary to Angellum and Virkola. Unknown to the natives, a truce exists there. To Terrans, the two species exist as myths. One is a frail winged creature from religious texts. The other, a demon of the night, living off blood. Both are far from the truth…

Sorin thought sanctuary was the answer to their problems. Terra with its plentiful creatures, full of fresh blood and off limits to the millennia long war with the Angellum—who wouldn’t think it paradise? Except paradise comes at a high price. Claiming a bounty on a renegade angel hasn’t ended up the way he planned.

Teo loves his ship, his life in space, but he loves Sorin more. The plan seems sound but the bounty is a fraud and now the price is on him and Sorin. He’ll make the best of the rest of his life with Sorin, even if it were only a few weeks.

But when hope appears from an unexpected source, both men grab chance by the wings.

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

“You and your fucking bright ideas!” Teo dodged behind a stack of crates as heat sizzled past his leg. The acrid smell of ozone raised the hair on his neck. Popping out from behind his cover, he squeezed off a burst of return fire. Sweat matted his hair and kept trickling down his forehead and into his eyes. The thin atmosphere made every breath a chore. He rubbed his coat sleeve across his face but the water-resistant material just moved the sweat around and added grit to the mix.
Read the rest of this entry »

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.

Welcome fellow EC author, Kathy Kulig! ~DD

Thanks Delilah for letting me guest blog. I thought I’d do something with a holiday theme.

I love listening to Christmas music, at home, on the way to work and at work, beginning from Thanksgiving until after the New Year. I checked out Amazon to see what the top selling CDs are. I was surprised the traditional ones I listened to as a kid weren’t in the top 10. Bing Crosby was #27, Burl Ives didn’t even make the top 100, Nat King Cole was #100. They’re really old songs but ones I hear every year on the radio. Personally, I enjoy Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra.

Does anyone remember the house in Ohio that had their lights synchronized to “Wizards in Winter” by Trans-Siberian Orchestra? I think Coco-Cola used it in a commercial later too. Here’s the YouTube link if you want to check it out: Wizards in Winter

Some fun facts: The illuminated Christmas tree started in England during Queen Victoria’s reign 1832, and through immigration spread to North America and Australia. The first known electrically lit Christmas tree was in 1882 by Edward H. Johnson, an associate of Thomas Edison, and vice-president of Edison Electric Light Company (now Con-Edison in NY City). He hand strung 80 red, white and blue incandescent light bulbs the size of walnuts. (From Wikipedia, where else?)

Where did Christmas songs originate? In AD 129, a Roman Bishop said that a song called “Angel’s Hymn” should be sung at a Christmas service in Rome. The first specifically Christmas hymns that we know of appear in fourth century Rome. Latin hymns such as Veni Redemptor Gentium, written by Ambrose, Archbishop of Milan. St. Francis of Assisi in 1223 in Italy started his Nativity Plays with songs or “canticles” that told stories. The carols later spread to France, Germany, Spain and other European countries.

For classic songs, one of my favorites is: “Do You Hear What I Hear?” What are your favorites?

Wishing everyone a happy, safe and healthy holiday!

I have a free read with a Thanksgiving theme on my website if you care to check it out: A Moveable Feast For Demons

Warm regards,

Kathy Kulig

Read Kathy’s latest!

While working on an environmental project in the Arizona desert, research scientist Amy Weston finds herself caught in the war between two men. Dante Akanto lures her into the desert to explore the dark side of her passions, pleasuring her in ways she never thought possible with his bizarre sex games. And park ranger Jake Montag has a compelling mysticism and powerful sensuality that’s impossible to resist.

But the two men, demon and shapeshifter, are engaged in a supernatural fight between worlds. Amy and her high level of life force energy is the key. Dante’s world and his immortality depend on claiming her as his own. The choice Amy makes between the two men will affect both her world and her future.

Reader Advisory: Contains scenes of mild bondage.

Give a warm welcome to Mary Alice Pritchard! ~DD

All I want for Christmas is a weir wolf or maybe a weir tiger. Really! I love shifters. What is it I love about them? Well, besides all that gorgeous male anatomy, there is the dark tortured soul that just begs for someone to save him. Those alpha males with their dark sides are so sexy to me. Can you imagine waking up Christmas morning to one under your tree? I can dream can’t I?

What else might I want this Christmas? I don’t think we have enough time for me to give you the entire list but just to name a few: an e-book reader; a back up drive for my computer; a gift certificate for Amazon; and my list of e-books I want for my e-book reader. I don’t want much do I? Seriously, what all do you guys want? I might pick up some ideas if you share them with everyone. Leave a comment. I’d love to know.

What do I like most about Christmas? Watching people unwrap their gifts. Especially if it’s something I’ve given them. I like to see that first look on their faces when they realize what it is. Nothing is as sweet as watching children though. They get excited about everything. Well, everything except clothes that is. The younger they are the more fun it is to watch. They have just as much fun with the boxes and paper as the toy itself. I remember watching my nephews open their presents when they were younger and thinking I could have just wrapped up empty boxes for them to play with.

I write shifter books because I love to read them. I’ve probably own or read just about everyone ever written. My house is full of books. If you love to read like I do you know what I mean. Hence…the e-book reader for Christmas. Are there any other shifter fans out there? Let me hear from you. Which type do you like the most, the wolves or the cats? I’m partial to cats myself. If you read my blog you’ll learn just how much.

Right now, I have a cat shifter book out, Jaguar Nights. It’s about a jaguar shifter, Cole, who has trouble with his temper and fears he will lose his pride if he can’t control it. He meets his mate, a human who has been bitten by a rogue wolf and finds that she can help him calm his beast. Since he had to heal her using his blood, he doesn’t know if she will turn wolf or jaguar if she turns at all. Can he claim her as his mate without knowing for sure? Will he provide the home she has always wanted or will he be the death of her? The sequel to Jaguar Nights, entitled Leopard Dreams, will be out later next year. It continues the story of the weir cat pride and their struggles.

You can purchase Jaguar Nights, the first in the Tales of the Cat series at www.thewildrosepress or at www.amazon.com
Mary Alice Pritchard

Hope to hear from you about all your favorite things soon!

Another of my Texas friends! ~DD

Hi, all, I’m Meg Benjamin, and I write about South Texas where I lived for twenty-plus years, mostly about a mythical Hill Country town called Konigsburg. However, my DH and I recently moved northwest of Denver. Just before moving, I retired from twenty years of teaching writing, Web design, and desktop publishing.

Be My Baby, released by Samhain on December 8, is the third book in my Konigsburg series. The hero is another Toleffson brother, Lars, an accountant who broke up with his vicious wife Sherice in Wedding Bell Blues. My heroine, Jess, is the babysitter for Lars’s two-year-old daughter, but she has problems of her own in the form of some nasty, kidnapping former in-laws. In the excerpt, Lars and Jess have both been awakened by noises outside her house (where Lars is staying as a live-in bodyguard). As you’ll see, there’s a lot of unacknowledged sexual tension between them that finally comes to a head (so to speak). Hope you all enjoy it!

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

There’s no room in her life for love. Love has other ideas…

Konigsburg, Texas, Book 3

If Jessamyn Carroll had only herself to consider, staying in Pennsylvania after her husband’s death would have been a no-brainer. Her vindictive in-laws’ efforts to get their hooks into her infant son, however, force her to flee to a new home. Konigsburg, Texas.

Peace…at least for now. She’s even found a way to make some extra money, looking after sexy accountant Lars Toleffson’s precocious two-year-old daughter. She finds it easy—too easy—to let his protective presence lull her into thinking she and her son are safe at last.

Lars, still wounded from enduring a nasty divorce from his cheating ex-wife, tries to fight his attraction to the mysterious, beautiful widow. But when an intruder breaks into her place, and Jess comes clean about her past, all bets are off. Someone wants her baby—and wants Jess out of the picture. Permanently.

Now Jess has a live-in bodyguard, whether she wants him or not. Except she does want him—and he wants her. Yet negotiating a future together will have to overcome a lot of roadblocks: babies, puppies, the entire, meddling Toleffson family—and a kidnapper.

Warning: Contains Konigsburg craziness, creepy in-laws, a conniving two-year-old, a lovelorn accountant, a sleep-deprived Web developer, and lots of hot holiday sex.

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

Jess stood next to the sink, her bathrobe pulled tight across her chest. She was leaning forward, trying to see out the kitchen window.

“Jess!” he whispered.

She whirled toward him, her hands over her mouth.

“Sorry.” He stepped beside her. “What do you see?”

“N-nothing,” she stammered. “I don’t know what’s making the noise.”

He put his hand on her shoulder, moving her gently to the side. Beneath his fingers, her skin felt like ice.
Read the rest of this entry »

Welcome my old friend, Masha Holl. We’re buddies from my days in San Antonio. ~DD

Delilah and I share a passion…and it’s not what you think. Sure, I’m as, um, seduced by her stories as any reader, but I get a particular enjoyment out of the mythical dimension she gives them.

Writers of paranormal, fantasy and science fiction must learn quickly that when they create a hero that is more-than, or other-than human, they must also create a villain, or at least obstacles, that will adequately challenge the hero. But what adds to Delilah’s stories is that she creates a whole world that fits her characters. A whole new structure, a whole new set of rules, beliefs, a whole new reality.

And why would that please me particularly?

Because I’m a folklorist.

I don’t just read and know folk tales and songs. I don’t just collect traditional recipes and study articles on the theoretical relationship between African spider stories and the Norse trickster god Loki. I look at how people lived with all these tales and beliefs.

It does help when I have to take myself into the heart of the story-world I am creating.

But you have to wrap your mind around concepts that are as alien to a modern person as particle physics are to a sixth-grader, to put yourself in the shoes of a medieval peasant.

At the core of traditional, non-scientific thinking we have the opposite kind of perception: magical thinking.

How does this work?

Modern man believes in science. I mean, we all know science, and we know that science works. From the simplest things like boiling water to sterilize it, or wiping surfaces with alcohol or bleach to disinfect them, to more complex concepts like computers and phones, which we may not be able to fix, but we know someone knows, they’re just objects made of other objects, and not constructs working on the mystical power of spells.

We don’t need to perform arcane rituals in order to propitiate some power before we turn on the TV, or else it might blow up in our faces. We just hit a button.

That’s science.

We only read about magic. In Delilah’s books, maybe.

The world centered on magical thinking works differently.
Read the rest of this entry »