School Days, school days
Dear old Golden Rule days

How many of us can fill in the three ‘R’s that make up the next line?

I’ll bet many, if not all of us can. Those three ‘R’s explain why, in this country, education prizes what’s right-brain over left-brain, what’s in the head over the heart or the spirit. But it’s what’s in our hearts and our spirits that enables us to thrive. It’s in our hearts and our spirits that the fourth ‘R’ lies, and this ‘R’ to my mind is so much more needed if I am ever to make use of the other three.

It’s this fourth ‘R’ that pulsed through Gloria Gaynor’s I Will Survive and Helen Reddy’s I Am Woman. It’s this fourth ‘R’ that showed up big time as thousands of women marched in January 2017 in Washington D.C. and all over the world. It’s this fourth ‘R’ that rings loudly and proudly in Maya Angelou’s poem “Still I Rise”. It’s this fourth ‘R’ that I found (and continue to find) over and over again as I research African-American women for my historical romances. I found inspiration for my latest heroine in one of those women, Frances E.W. Harper.

Born in 1825, Frances and her family were free blacks living in the then slave state of Maryland. She started publishing poetry in 1845 and wrote regularly for anti-slavery newspapers. She left Maryland in 1850 and taught at Union Seminary in Ohio. She began lecturing in 1854 and from 1856 to 1860 spoke for the Anti-Slavery Society in Maine. Imagine if you will the harassment a woman of color must have encountered during the pre-civil war era, yet she persisted. That takes heart. That takes spirit. In short, that’s resilience. During reconstruction she persisted in her activism, and in 1896 she helped found the National Association of Colored Women. By the time of her death in 1911, she had at least six collections of poems and several novels.

I’m grateful for women like Frances E.W. Harper and hope I do justice to the resilience in lives like hers by the resilient heroines I create for my stories.

From STRANDED, Put It In A Book
by Michal Scott

The daughter of ex-slaves, Aziza Williams uses her freedom to teach slaves to read, a law-breaking activity that forces her to flee the United States for the Free and Independent Republic of Liberia where her independent and injustice-confronting ways garner the unwanted sexual attention of a dibia, Dulee Morlu. In a cruel twist of fate, Morlu uses Aziza’s love for education against her and imprisons her in a book. He declares she will remain there until she submits to him. After a month of imprisonment, Aziza despairs that Morlu is right: no one will ever read her book. Fear that she may surrender to him begins to overwhelm her. Then one day, hope flutters through her spirit as she senses the unfamiliar touch of Sekou Caine, an audacious and inquisitive thief, leafing through her pages.

Excerpt:

A multiple volume encyclopedia stood on shelves at chest level in a far corner. Morlu would want his wealth within easy reach. Sekou pulled down the first volume and riffled through the pages. Paper currency of all types fluttered to his feet like leaves whirling from the branches of bombax trees in winter.

Clever, Dibia. But not clever enough.

Sekou chuckled and rifled through volume after volume. By the time he reached Z a pile of money lay on the floor. He scooped the cash into his swag sack, laughing quietly at his haul.

He thrust the last volume back into place, knocking a slender manuscript off the shelf.

The Story of Aziza.

He recognized the title of the book with which Morlu had taunted him. He picked it up, fanned the pages with his thumb. A sigh drifted past him. Startled, he crouched and looked left then right. Only the night breeze disturbed the silence. He fanned through the pages again. This time a scent – light like rain, sweet like honey – graced the air.

He stared at the face of a withered old hag on the book’s cover. The image had repulsed and fascinated him. The gaze in her eyes shone with intelligence and defiance, so unlike the villagers lionizing the dibia at this moment.

Sekou opened to the flyleaf. There the image of a black beauty stared back at him. Her skin was as smooth as the hag’s was wrinkled, but the same intelligent defiance shone in her eyes. He traced the outline of her chin jutting forth with pride.

“So, ladies…” He feathered his fingers along her full lips then examined the woman on the cover again. “To which one of you does this story belong?”

Aziza’s chest heaved. Warmth from the intruder’s fingers suffused the book’s cover, intoxicating her mind and her spirit with hope. The rapid flutter of her prison’s pages kindled arousal along her labia. She shivered as delight saturated her deadened limbs.

Once again, the rapid riffling of the pages sent tremors of pleasure through her. She knew not whose hand cradled her prison, but the respectful caress told her this couldn’t be her captor. Dared she hope this might be a person she could trust to set her free?

Pre-order link: https://amzn.to/2JyIK4V

About the Author

Michal Scott is the penname of Rev. Anna Taylor Sweringen, a retired United Church of Christ and Presbyterian Church USA minister. A native New Yorker, Anna is a recent transplant to the Southwest and is enjoying the great weather along with her husband of twenty-nine years and their two cats. Her loves of history and romance came together in her first novella with Wild Rose Press, One Breath Away.

Anna has been a member of Romance Writers of America since 2003 and holds membership in six of their chapters. She also writes inspirational romance as Anna Taylor and gothic romance as Anna M. Taylor. You can connect with Michal on Twitter @mscottauthor1 and learn more about her writing at www.michalscott.webs.com.

This has been one helluva month.

With everything happening on the home front, I haven’t been able to get pages written, so the release of the book I promised this month, Big Sky Wedding, is delayed. So, what’s going on? Too many things, family-related, to go into, but the big thing is my dad’s deteriorating health.

If you’ve been following my blog, you know that he broke his hip last year and went through surgery and rehab. He has other health-related issues—heart disease, kidney failure, diabetes, etc.—so, any new issues are always exacerbated. While in rehab, he developed ulcers on his feet. Since November, he’s been treated by a wound doctor and has had to remain off his feet, which hasn’t helped his hip surgery recovery. My dd and I have pitched in to clean and wrap his feet daily. Everyone’s pitched in to get him to his appointments. Sometimes, he’s on a walker, sometimes in wheelchair, when we take him to dialysis or his many appointments. Well, recently, he complained that he couldn’t breathe. Yes, too much fluid in his chest and around his heart. We’re pretty sure this is it. The fact he’s lived so long—he’s in his 80’s—has been a testament to his stubbornness. Right now, he’s back in the hospital, and my mom and aunt are staying nearby (the hospital is an hour-and-a-half away). I’m holding down the fort at home and preparing for them coming back soon, we hope. Anyway, that’s where we are with all of that, which has put me in a state of flux so far as work is concerned.

I have edits due on a story I wrote for Entangled. I have edits due back on two other authors’ projects. I have that book to write and a new collection to edit now that I’ve made the selections of the stories that will go into the volume. And that’s really what I’d like to take about now…

In case you didn’t see the notice I posted on my Collections website, I am pleased to announce the final lineup of authors who will be part of the Stranded: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology! Congratulations go out to:

A.C. Dawn – The Kiss of a Stranger’s Flame
A.J. Harris – Shelter From the Storm
Ara Geller – Reviving Artemis
Delilah Devlin – Quincy Down Under
Kenzie Mathews – Hourglass
Kimberly Dean – Out of This World
Kimberly Lithe – Burning Stars
Lucrecia Christina – Switching Call
Melanie Jayne – A Change of Predicament
Michal Scott – Put It in a Book
N.J. Walters – Undercover Lover
Sam Heathers – Too Deep
Sukie Chapin – Going Down

UPDATE! My winners are…Laura, Colleen, Buttons, Debra and Sheryl!
*~*~*

I just finished laying out my release schedule through June, and I’m super excited! I have tons of pages to write, but the stories are going to be so much fun! What do you have to look forward to? These are just a few in the works!

Big Sky Wedding (Montana Bounty Hunters #8) — coming this month!
Stepbrothers Stepping Out: With His SEAL Team Part 6 — coming in March
Gilded Cage (a dark ff vampire story) — coming in March
Adventure Girls box and print set! — coming in March
Stranded (A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology) — coming in April

My wonderful cover artist (aka Elle James) has been hard at work giving me some very inspiring covers for the new stories. I can’t wait to share them all, but for now, have a look at Stranded!

I’m still making my final run through the stories some wonderful authors have submitted for this collection! I’ll be putting together my final lineup this week before announcing who made the cut! I’ll also be including a short story of my own, something related to my Montana Bounty Hunters. Someone who will get the full-size treatment very, very soon in his own story!

Stranded will be a nice, hefty compilation, filled with juicy erotic romances from some authors you know and some you’ll be excited to meet! You can preorder your copy now! Best news? The anthology sells for only $0.99! So go ahead and reserve your copy now! Get your copy here!

Contest

For a chance to win a free download of one of these previously released anthologies, tell me what you’re excited to see in the lineup or what you wish was there!

  

UPDATE: This giveaway has ended!
*~*~*

Just because, here’s a free story.
Click on the cover to claim your free copy!
Enjoy!

UPDATE: The winner is…Yolaine Clark!
*~*~*

I’m working on my next short story collection — Stranded: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology. The themes all center around a hero or heroine who is stranded, and then rescued by a bad boy. Think, a plane crashes in the jungle and you have to count on a smuggler to see you to safety; or your ship sinks and you find yourself on a deserted island where rescue comes from a man with no intentions of delivering you home anytime soon. Yeah, men taking advantage—not without our hero/heroine’s consent or pleasure, of course!

While I’m reading through the many stories some wonderful authors have sent me, my sister, Elle James, and I are kicking around the cover design. I wanted someone who looked a little scruffy, maybe a mountain man kind of guy. What do you think of these images? Vote in the poll for the one you like best, then offer comments about what you like or don’t for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

  

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Writing short fiction suits my personality. It’s kind of episodic. You gotta get in quick and figure stuff out fast. I approach it the way I do my daily work-outs. I try to mix them up. Example, today I shot a bunch of hoops, then in between, ran through an obstacle course, did some weighted hula hooping and finished up with a bunch of push-ups, all while throwing frisbees to my three Golden Retrievers. I just finished a two-week flash fiction class where we wrote a 500-word story every day then posted it online so members of the class could make comments. At first, I was so stressed. That’s just me. I’ve been writing a long time, but to do new things under a quick deadline with strangers commenting on your work can be scary. The surprise was that I got such wonderful feedback.

One writer said my work was beautifully cinematic. Another said I was a sentence-level writer. I had to look that one up. I took it to mean I love putting words and phrases together in a lyrical way, which I do. Someone else said my writing had beautiful movement, a quick rapid-fire pace and startling imagery. I was lucky. This was a really kind group. If any of you are wondering what the definition of flash fiction is, the instructor described it as combining the prism of the poem with the just slight indulgence of a short story. For the past year I’ve been working on my third book, a collection of short fiction called Little Earthquakes. Here’s an excerpt from a story I’ve titled “Teyana Lee”:

She spits her gum out in my hand. I don’t know how old she is. She could be 20, she could be 17. Her father/director/boyfriend/captor hands me his gunmetal grey suit jacket. No eye contact. Mr. GQ flies First Class often. My work husband James gives me the side-eye when we both realize the girl is barefoot with a brand new white band-aid on her pretty face. With much work to do for both of us on this New York to London flight, I forget about them.

The take-off is shaky, storm winds, a flock of birds maybe. I struggle to push my cart of drinks down the aisle. James will follow with warm nuts and exotic cheeses. Mr. GQ asks for two glasses of Champagne. It’s late. 

The girl came onto the plane with no carry-on, so probably no ID. I pretend both drinks are for him. The girl looks at me, her eyes waxy raw, her body turned into itself. Her feet are filthy. She’s not a girlfriend or his daughter. I sense this girl is playing a dangerous game. ‘I was the Trivia Dancer today on Kelly & Ryan,’ she tells me. Mr. GQ smiles. His eye mask is around his neck, ready to block out the world for the next eight hours. ‘They let me co-host during the Win-A-Trip segment,’ she says. ‘I wanna be a co-host for real someday.’

The plane hits a bit of weather.

‘She’s got quite the imagination,’ Mr. GQ says.

The girl lifts her hand to her face as if suddenly the overhead light is revealing too much. She quickly turns it off. Before their mini-suite goes midnight dark, I read the word SECRETS on her see-through skin. James snatches the drinks off the tray table. ’That’ll be all, miss,’ Mr. GQ says to me, covering himself and the girl with a blanket. In our stewardess training program, the instructor said to think of turbulence as angry air wrestling its demons. Smooth air is never far away. The girl pokes out from under the blanket, lights a match, holding it very close to her face. 

I reach over and blow it out. The girl pinches my cheek hard. ‘Hey,’ I say, ‘that hurt.’ I push her arm away. ‘It means I like you,’ she says defiantly. Something keeps me standing there. ‘Should I worry about you?’ I ask the girl. ‘No one ever has,’ she tells me as if she was a piece of sky…

Thanks for having me, Delilah and readers! Find out more about me on my website: www.rp-author.com/MKE
I’m on Twitter #Word Actress or on Instagram @wordactress

BONUS: If any of you like entering writing contests, check out the Soul-Making Keats Literary Contest: www.soulmakingcontest.us
Deadline is November 30th. I’m the Flash Fiction Judge.

Other categories include: Novel Excerpt, Short Story, Poetry, Humor, Memoir, Young Adult Poetry & Prose.

Winners come to San Francisco to read from their winning stories. I’d love to see you there!

STRANDED: A BOYS BEHAVING BADLY ANTHOLOGY
Editor: Delilah Devlin
Deadline: November 15, 2018

STRANDED is open to all authors.

Editor/Author Delilah Devlin (me!) is looking for stories for a romantic erotica anthology tentatively entitled STRANDED: A BOYS BEHAVING BADLY ANTHOLOGY.

Why write a short story for this collection? Well, it’s certainly not about making a lot of money, so why do it at all? I have several thoughts…

Writing a short story for a call for submissions is a chance to flex your writing muscle! It can be a chance to experiment with a genre you’ve never written. If you’ve never written a story in first person but don’t want to begin by writing an entire novel using it, start short! For myself, I’ve written stories in new genres or with fresh themes that ended up being so much fun to write they’ve spawned entire series.

You have a deadline! I don’t know about you, but I have trouble keeping my butt in the chair without one!

It’s a promotional opportunity! If selected, you’ll be joined by 12-15 other authors for the launch, sharing your audiences and, hopefully, picking up new readers along the way. Having your story in the collection is another chance to be “seen.”

And remember, you retain the rights to your story, so you can republish it for individual sale or give it away to attract subscribers to your newsletter. You might even decide there’s more story to tell and expand it into a novel!

Here’s what I’m looking for…

STRANDED: A BOYS BEHAVING BADLY ANTHOLOGY will include stories that satisfy the reader who craves stories about women who find themselves in extremely challenging circumstances—vulnerable to the elements and/or to their rescuers! But don’t create damsels in distress who don’t have an inner core of resolve to save themselves. Heroines must be strong characters, otherwise, how will they attract and capture the love of a strong alpha hero?

I’m eager to work on my next delectable anthology—this one filled with stories about women who find themselves—STRANDED. Your heroine could be a castaway on a desert island, have her car break down in the mountains, be stranded in the ocean while snorkelling, crash land in the jungle or on an uninhabited planet… Don’t limit your imagination to these ideas! Have fun with the concept.

I’m open to any subgenre of erotic romance you want to write. I’ll accept contemporary, historical, science fiction, or paranormal stories, and I won’t be picky about whether the stories are hetero, LGBT, ménage… Basically, you, the author, can go anywhere your imagination takes you so long as 1) the woman is in jeopardy, and 2) the story is a romance, and 3) you have a bad boy somewhere in the pages! Should you write that LGBT story, consider making the couple’s adversary or helpmate a roguish man—because, hey, I’m looking for men who behave badly.

The anthology will be sold at a low price—my intent is exposure for you and your writing. The more readers reached, the better! You will retain the rights to your story, so that, at a later date, you can republish your stories individually.

I’m seeking hot and inventive stories from authors with unique voices, and above all, I’m looking to be seduced by tales filled with vivid imagery and passion.

Published authors with an established world may use that setting for their original short story.

This is erotic romance, so don’t hold back on the heat. Stories can be vanilla or filled with kink, but don’t miss describing the romantic connection between strong-willed individuals learning to trust and love one another. A deep sensuality should linger in every word. Keep in mind there must be a romantic element with a happy-for-now or happy-ever-after ending. Strong plots, engaging characters, and unique twists are the ultimate goal. Please no reprints. I want original stories.

How to submit: Prepare your 2,500 to 5,500 words story in a double-spaced, Arial, 12 point, black font, Word document (.doc or .docx) OR rich text format (.rtf), with pages numbered. Indent the first line of each paragraph half an inch, and double space (regular double spacing; do not add extra lines between paragraphs or do any other irregular spacing). U.S. grammar (double quotation marks around dialogue, etc.) is required.

In your document at the top left of the first page, include your legal name (and pseudonym, if applicable), mailing address, email address, and a 50-words or less bio, written in the third person, and send to boyswhobehavebadlystranded@gmail.com. If you are using a pseudonym, please provide your real name and pseudonym and make it clear which one you’d like to be credited as. Authors may submit up to 2 stories. I will respond no later than December 30, 2018 with decisions.

Payment will be $25.00 USD ninety days after publication at the end of that month.

Who am I?

Delilah Devlin is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of erotica and erotic romance. She has published nearly two hundred stories in multiple genres and lengths, and is published by Atria/Strebor, Avon, Berkley, Black Lace, Cleis Press, Ellora’s Cave, Entangled, Grand Central, Harlequin Spice, HarperCollins: Mischief, Kensington, Kindle, Montlake, Penthouse, Running Press, and Samhain Publishing.

Her short stories have appeared in multiple Cleis Press collections, including Lesbian Cowboys, Girl Crush, Fairy Tale Lust, Lesbian Lust, Passion, Lesbian Cops, Dream Lover, Carnal Machines, Best Erotic Romance (2012), Suite Encounters, Girl Fever, Girls Who Score, Duty and Desire, Best Lesbian Romance of 2013, and On Fire. For Cleis Press, she edited Girls Who Bite, She Shifters, Cowboy Lust, Smokin’ Hot Firemen, High Octane Heroes, Cowboy Heat, Hot Highlanders and Wild Warriors and Sex Objects. She also edited Conquests: An Anthology of Smoldering Viking Romance, Rogues: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology, Blue Collar: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology, and Pirates: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology.

Direct any questions you have regarding your story or the submission process to me at boyswhobehavebadlystranded@gmail.com.