NaNo Day 27:
Viking-2—1777 words
TW—1364 words

Almost there. Almost there. Almost there. I feel like the little engine that could. Three days left and I can see the end in sight, but I have to keep glued to this chair. Can’t let up a second.

This week was a bit of a mixed bag. I took two days off to visit with relatives who came in from Iowa. We went shopping (I bought some beautiful baroque, champagne-colored pearl earrings—that took care of my jewelry fix). But those two days cost me dearly. I had to write for 13 hours straight yesterday. Will do the same today. I will not miss my deadlines!

So, summing up, this last week, I:
* Added 34 pages to Viking-2. I completed heavy edits for chapters 1-16.
* Added 20 pages to TW, and completed heavy edits for chapters 1-2.
* Read around 20 stories for Girls Who Bite, and assigned them to the Reject/Maybe/Yes! folders.
* Completed final line edits for True Heart (coming January 4th!).

By Wednesday of this week, I have to:
* Finish edits of chapters 17-23 of Viking-2.
* Finish writing chapters 5-7 of TW and complete editing too!
* Finish reading all GWB stories, revise those I’m keeping, and plunk them into the manuscript.

Let’s hope I can keep up the pace, because I HATE to be late. Y’all have a terrific week. Think of me. Almost there. Almost there…

NaNo Day 13:
Viking-2—2062 words
TW—0 words 👿

Tomorrow’s the half-way point for NaNo, and I’m moving along nicely.

* Since this time last week, I’ve added 62 pages to Viking-2, and have thoroughly edited through ch 7. My goal was to finish through the rough draft of chapter 17, and I did that, so woohoo!
* I haven’t made as much progress with Girls Who Bite as I would like. I am up to page 93 with stories I like so far, but I still have a ton of reading to do.
* I have the first three pages of TW roughed out, but had hoped I’d have the whole first chapter done.
* I finished writing and editing my contribution to Girls Who Bite.

So a mixed bag, mostly good news.

This next week, I want to finish through chapter 20 of the Viking book, plus get through chapter 15 of edits. I want to write through chapter 3 of TW, and I want to done with weeding through the GWB entries. It’s a lot, but I can do it. I just have to knuckle down, spend my time wisely, and bribe Mr. Muse with tons of coffee and chocolate. I can diet in December. 🙂

Okay, so that was my annually resurrected Pumpkin Butt picture. Happy Halloween!

Do you sense a note of “Bah! Humbug!”? That’s because I don’t have time to go play. November’s Hell Month.

Like I’ve said before. I have three books due on December 1st. So, I have to hunker down and “get ‘er done” (*gagging* I may have lived in Texas but that phrase makes me cringe).

What am I doing to make sure I get there?

I’ve gone no mail on most of my loops because I’m getting ready to drop off the face of the earth for 30 days. Not that I won’t still be here. Blogging is so ingrained. It was a hard habit to make, but now it’s like getting up to pee first thing in the morning.

I’ve joined National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) again this year. See the blue calendar icon on the left? If ever you see red on any of those days—get on my ass!! It means, I failed to meet goal. And if you’re a writer and planning to NaNo too, here’s my profile page so you can friend me and nag me up close and personal. I’ll do the same for you. Delilah’s NaNo

I have most of the family on board with the idea that I am crawling into a hole and only coming up for air when I can’t stand the smell or need something to feed the engine. Most, I said, because I still have to contend with kids.

I have stocked up on teas and coffee. Have a box of energy drinks stored next to my fridge.

My desk and office are clean, ready for that starting gunshot…

So, you want to know how I actually plan to get 75,000 words on the page (most NaNo’ers are going for 50,000) by the end of the month? By writing 2500 words every damn day, come rain or shine. And if I knock ’em out in the morning, I can actually spend some time doing something lazy. But if I screw around, or get covered up in kids, I’ll be up late, sucking on Red Bull.

I’ll be back later tonight with my monthly wrap-up.

Before I get to my report card, I want to express some heartfelt gratitude.

Thanks to reviewers for the following lovely comments:

From Fresh Fiction on Darkness Captured: “Another hot read of dark sensuality, riveting situations and jaw-dropping desire.”

5 Stars (Orgasmic heat) from Just Erotic Romance for Bad, Bad Girifriend: “…Ms. Devlin puts you right in the thick of things and you feel the emotion that drives their decisions. The characters are well developed and the story is satisfying to the end. Make no mistake, this short is scorching HOT! So be careful, your toys may burst into flames…”

4/5 from Book of Secrets for Pleasing Sir: “…Delilah Devlin knows how to write a scorching hot short story!…There is a wickedly delicious twist at the very end that I don’t want to give away. I’ll just say that Raelie is one lucky girl!”

And huge thanks to readers, who’ve made Pleasing Sir and Four Sworn such stellar successes!

Amazon stats for Pleasing Sir:

Amazon stats for Four Sworn:

And, back to the report card…

I’m settling into a routine. One that has me running to the keyboard every spare moment I have. I have a six-year-old and a 20-month-old underfoot during the week, and they are both darling little time-suckers. But I am making progress.

I wrapped up the next installment of my serialized free read, Bad Moon Rising. I sent it through the Rose’s critique group, and should have it back today. Then I’ll revise quickly and ship it to my webmistress for her to put up on the site. Depending on how booked up she is, you should be able to read it by Tuesday or Wednesday.

I’ve also made progress on a new short for the Cleis collection, Women in Lust. I have a woman lusting over a trucker and taking matters into her own hands.

And then there’s the Viking story. And, at last, I feel the groove. I’ve made significant progress and have the story in my head for the next few chapters, which means I will be able to whiz right through the pages. In between diaper changes.

(My T-shirt contest is still running. See last Saturday’s post for details! ~DD)

It’s been a while, but maybe that’s because I haven’t felt very “in the zone” as a writer—what with illness and family crises going on all around me.

However, this past week I got my mojo back. I read through the final typeset galley of Ravished by a Viking this week, and I loved the story. It’s brash, sexy, has high adventure(sea serpents, battles, spaceships)… Okay, you get the idea. It’s gonna be fun!

I finished revising the crap out of the opening for the second Viking book and it feels “right” now. I couldn’t have explained why it didn’t before until a crit partner of mine, Rachel, told me what didn’t work for her. Thank you, thank you, Rachel!!

Also, yesterday I met with a couple of my closest friends to do a first run through of the entries I’ve received thus far for the Girls Who Bite anthology. I have received 32 entries to date. I know the bulk will come closer to the deadline and I wanted to get a jumpstart so I’m not reading myself blind at the very last moment. We read, talked about problems with some of the entries (I’ll be asking some folks for revisions), and ate lots of pizza. (It was an all-nighter, so I’m actually sitting at my friend’s breakfast table writing this. :))

Did I mention that I have three projects due to editors on the exact same date? Yup, on December 1st (which I am calling D-Day), I have Viking-2, Girls Who Bite and a Nocturne Bite all coming due. I have to move out smartly and with a razor-focus for the next two months. And expect me to grow increasingly nuts and panicky the closer the end time comes. My family is already preparing the barricades.

Next week is not going to be a big writing week. On Thursday, I will drive to Little Rock where I’ll meet up with Shayla Kersten to catch a plane to Ohio. Ellora’s Cave Romanticon is going to be so much fun! And after having to miss Lora Leigh’s big party because I was sick, I am ready to have twice as much fun!

Have a terrific week. I’ll have some great guests holding down the fort on my blog while I’m gone. Make them welcome! Toodles for now! ~DD

First, I have to get thank you’s aside. “For what?” you might ask.

My straight-to-Kindle experiment, Pleasing Sir, is a success due entirely to your support. I let you know when the book was out—you bought it, wrote reviews, clicked on tags—and it rose high enough on the erotica chart that others who don’t know me as well took a chance and ordered it too!

Then there’s Four Sworn, which is still on MBaM’s top ten list and is sitting pretty in the Kindle store too!

I’m hoping you will all work some magic for my print book, Darkness Captured, which released this week. Remember, if you’ve read it and are moved to tell somebody about it, please post a review on Amazon’s or Barnes & Noble’s websites. They do matter! You can influence whether some other reader decides to buy it.

So, back to business. I finished Breaking Leather this week! If you liked Four Sworn, you will love this one as well. The Kinzie brothers kidnap their dream girl and there’s tons of sexy persuasion goin’ on to get the girl to say yes! I’ve shared some sneak peeks with the folks on my yahoo group, and they seem eager to read more. 😉

I’m working through the final typeset pages of Ravished by a Viking. I can’t wait to share more of the story with you! And I have some fun things planned that have to do with the launch of that book. So stay tuned!

I’m back to writing the the follow-up story. Chapter One gave me an inordinate amount of grief. But I worked and worked to get it right. What do you think about a proud Viking who’s been sold into sexual slavery? Uh-huh. Thought so.

This next week I’ll have little ones underfoot, but I still hope to blast through Chapter Two and Three. Wish me luck! And thanks again, chicas!

This will be a dismally short report card. I dithered away this last week.

Okay, so I didn’t exactly accomplish nothing. I had to finish a final round of copyedits for Ravished by a Viking, which called for me to retool chapters 13 and 14. That was more work than expected. Which meant my plans for everything else were hosed.

I only completed one chapter of the fourth Lone Star Lovers book.

What does that mean for this week? I have to work like a bitch on crank. I’ve been so good for so long about keeping ahead of deadlines that this lapse is causing me a great deal of stress. Add to the fact I have to help watch kids and dogs this next week for my daughter’s family, and I hope like hell I can get through all the work I need to or I’ll be even farther behind.

Wish me luck and health (and sanity).

And because I feel like I have to put my goals out there or I will cheat, here’s what I HAVE to complete by this time next Sunday:

* Complete through chapter 7 of LSL-4
* Complete chapter four of Bad Moon Rising
* Re-envision and restart work on Viking-2
* Publish Pleasing Sir on Kindle and Smashwords
* Get the prep work done for September’s Plotting Bootcamp with Rose’s Colored Glasses