Delilah Devlin's Blog, page 18

Saturday Puzzle-Contest — Favorite Fast Food

It’s Saturday, and I have a list a mile long of things to place in my rear window. So, here’s a quick puzzle. The topic came to mind because…I’m hungry.

Solve the puzzle, then let me know what your favorite fast foods are for a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card!

The post Saturday Puzzle-Contest — Favorite Fast Food first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

Personal Update!

I have a huge To Do list that I keep trimming because I’m running out of time to do everything I thought I needed to get out of the way before my surgery next Tuesday.

My surgery is scheduled for some time on Tuesday. They’ll call the day before and let me know when. My sister, Elle James, has already volunteered to take me to Little Rock the day before. We’ll hole up in a hotel near the hospital, then she’ll be with me there for the duration of my stay. My lovely daughter will come for the surgery but has to head home afterward because…kids and animals. If all goes well, I’ll be there for two nights, then I’ll be sent home.

She’s having my lift chair moved to the living room while I’m gone because I won’t be able to go up and down stairs for about six weeks. I’ll be “installed” in the living room, which will be annoying for them, but I expect I’ll sleep a lot. I’ll be in the chair because my daughter, who had a hysterectomy years ago, says I won’t be able to comfortably get in and out of bed. She has it all planned out how she’s going to care for me. I hate that I’ll need that kind of help, to and from the bathroom, getting up to walk, etc. I know I’m going to be miserable, and a lot of things will fall by the wayside while I recover. Google says I won’t be able to swim for six weeks, and she just smiles and says I probably won’t feel like it anyway, but I hope to prove her wrong. Full recovery will take about six months.

I’ll be stranded away from my desktop for six weeks. Which means, I’ll be using my laptop, which I don’t love. I’m not sure how that will work. Likely, she’ll have to find some sort of desk/tray thing to place over my chair so I can reach the keys. How soon I’ll be back online is a huge question. I do have some guest authors’ posts to pre-post so this website won’t be completely dead. I’ll ask you all to support them, and me, by sharing their posts online. You won’t mind that, right?

I figure I’ll be back to editing in a couple of weeks—in short spurts. Lots of rest in between. The kids will watch movies with me so I don’t go stir-crazy. I think I’ll like their noise and commotion, the sounds of living, being around me upstairs.

Am I scared? It’s odd. I’m not. I know a million things can go wrong, but hey, I’ve made it this far, and this journey has been surprising. I’ve come farther than I could have hoped at the start last August. I hope I fly through surgery, that I avoid any major infection. The worst I will let myself consider is dealing with the discomfort and pain. I can do that. I already have experienced some of that. I’m feeling positive and making plans for the future. When they put my under, I’ll hold to an image of me floating in my pool with the sunshine beating down on me—my favorite place and activity in the world.

The post Personal Update! first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

Krysten Lindsay Hager: College Basketball Second Chance Romance that’s F*R*E*E in Kindle Unlimited

I always love watching basketball in Spring because the games have such high stakes and the fact so many friends and family members get behind their teams that make it to the tournament. I always have my main team (the school I went to) and then my other faves with teams that family or friends went to or that I took classes or went to conferences at. So, it made sense that I would write a college basketball romance where a teen soap opera star named Valeria runs into the ex she never got over on the streets of New York City. Davis St. James is still as adorable as ever and now he’s transferred to a school nearby where he’s playing basketball.

The two reconnect after Davis has a scary situation that Valeria helps him through. Pretty soon they become each other’s support systems again as she is dealing with self-doubt in her acting career and he’s stressed over the upcoming basketball tournament. But can two teens from different worlds make it work?

I had fun writing this one—especially the scene where Valeria and her friends watch the game and help coach by yelling at the TV—it’s pretty much what I do when I watch. Do you watch college basketball?

 

You can pick up a copy of the book here. It’s free in Kindle Unlimited.

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Stars-City-Krysten-Lindsay-Hager-ebook/dp/B0C19THWX3
Amazon CAN: https://www.amazon.ca/Stars-City-Krysten-Lindsay-Hager-ebook/dp/B0C19THWX3
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stars-City-Krysten-Lindsay-Hager-ebook/dp/B0C19THWX3
Amazon AUS: https://www.amazon.com.au/Stars-City-Krysten-Lindsay-Hager-ebook/dp/B0C19THWX3

About the Author

Krysten Lindsay Hager is a bestselling author of YA and contemporary romance. She writes romance because she loves bringing people swoony moments and hope-filled happily ever afters. She writes about falling in love, fame, fitting in, frenemies, first loves, and finding your way in the world. She loves reading, watching movies, and lipstick.

Website: https://www.krystenlindsay.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/krystenlindsay/
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/krystenlindsay/

The post Krysten Lindsay Hager: College Basketball Second Chance Romance that’s F*R*E*E in Kindle Unlimited first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

Tell Me a Story… (Contest)

I love this photo. I’m sure there’s a story there. So, why don’t you take a stab at describing the story?

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, tell me a story. It doesn’t have to be long, or even good, just have fun with the assignment! 

The post Tell Me a Story… (Contest) first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

Word Search: Favorite Book Hero Jobs (Contest)

I’m late posting today! I had some administrative things to handle before I could move to fun things!

I have a puzzle for you. The theme is Favorite Book Hero Jobs! I listed some of mine.

For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, list yours!

The post Word Search: Favorite Book Hero Jobs (Contest) first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

Anna Taylor Sweringen/Michal Scott: Eliza Potter — Hairdresser, Social Critic, and Myth Buster (Contest)

In my blog posts, I do my best to destroy the myth of the single narrative usually painted of African Americans in the 19th century, i.e., destitute, formerly enslaved, and/or dependent on the largesse of well-meaning Whites. Eliza Potter with her book, A Hairdresser’s Experience in High Life, does the same only to depictions of aspirational black women who sought only to uplift the race. Eliza bettered her personal situation first and then used that experience in her book to turn a mirror not only on the “high life” superiority assumptions Whites had about themselves, but also on blacks who exploited blacks.

Depending on your source, Eliza Potter was born of mixed-race parentage in 1820, either in NYC or Virginia. Little is known about her formative years. She married twice, the first time to Mr. Johnson and the second to Howard Potter in 1853, who died in 1860, a few months after her work, A Hairdresser’s Experience of High Life, was published in 1859.

Potter first made her living as a nanny/nurse and a domestic to families of the American “ton” in places like Newport R.I. and Saratoga N.Y. This enabled her to travel not only across the country but to Europe. In 1841, while in Paris, she learned to dress hair, which she did once she returned to the US and settled in Cincinnati. There, she pursued a full-time higher-paying career as a beauty expert and one knowledgeable about European standards of “ladylike” behavior.

Her memoir also falls into the category of travel narrative, popular in her day, because of the various places she visited but she didn’t just provide a travelogue. She commented on what she saw, particularly on slavery as she traveled the South. With her account of a black woman who owned slaves and was just as vicious as white slave owners, Potter shocked abolitionists who wanted to portray all blacks as victims.

The tone she employs in her book defies the deferential posture 19th century blacks and women in particular were supposed to adopt.  Historian Henry Louis Gates in his chapter on her in The Portable Nineteenth Century African American Women Writers, describes her memoir not only as gossipy but sharp-tongued. In her introduction to A Hairdresser’s Experience Professor Xiomara Santamarina describes how deftly Potter’s critique comes off as advice on breeding rather than criticism.

When she died in 1893, she was reported to own $2400 in property, roughly seventy-two to seventy-five thousand dollars in today’s money. And lest I give you the impression she was self-serving, Potter regularly helped others. In Cincinnati, she served as a trustee of the Colored Orphan Asylum. While on a visit to Louisville, KY, Potter shared information on the Underground Railroad that helped a slave to freedom. For this act she was extradited, jailed and tried, but fortunately acquitted.

I’ll be forever grateful for the legacy left by 19th century African American women like Eliza Potter and for the efforts of those who selflessly share so I can learn about them.

For a chance at a $10 gift card, share your thoughts on my post in the comments below.

“Put It in a Book” by Michal Scott
Inside Stranded

Trapped in a book by a sorcerer for rejecting his sexual advances,
an ex-slave’s daughter discovers one hope of rescue – a nosy thief.

Excerpt:

“No one will ever read your story,” he whispered with snake-like malice. His laugh bruised her heart each time he congratulated himself on his ingenuity. “You will remain hidden in these pages until you give yourself to me.”

Never had been her answer when he’d propositioned her a week after she’d arrived in Liberia. Never was her answer when he’d caught her pleasuring herself by the river’s edge after her morning swim. Never remained her answer from the day she’d awakened entombed within the pages of her own story to this.

How often had hope flared at the possibility of someone opening these pages and setting her free?

Too often.

How many times had Morlu’s possessive grip caressed her prison’s spine, his wet thumb sliding down the edges of its pages?

Too many.

“Everyone I’ve imprisoned yielded within a day. You’ve resisted for thirty,” he exclaimed. “I must dedicate a chapter to your resilience.”

He splayed his fingers across her prison’s pages, too accurately mimicking the spreading of her thighs. Her captive limbs shuddered. His calloused finger slid along the book’s gutter. Her inert hands tensed, unable to shield herself from the erotic—albeit vicarious—chafing his touch provoked.

“Your opposition makes your eventual capitulation that much sweeter.” He slid his finger faster, deeper between the pages. “And make no mistake…you will surrender.”

Each time he placed her back on the shelf, he planted a cold kiss on the book’s spine. Aziza quivered against the chill, unable to staunch the revulsion roiling in her throat—or at least, where she imagined her throat might still be.

“Until then,” he whispered.

Her spirit cringed at those words. She’d escaped from plantation owners eager to punish her for secretly teaching slaves to read. Her spirit had remained unbowed after fourteen harrowing weeks crossing the Atlantic. Even the hardships that had killed more than three-quarters of all who had emigrated to Liberia hadn’t vanquished her. If neither threats to her life nor dangers at sea nor the high mortality rate could defeat her, she’d be damned if this self-serving sorcerer would.

Buylink: Amazon – https://amzn.to/3dLd9rM

The post Anna Taylor Sweringen/Michal Scott: Eliza Potter — Hairdresser, Social Critic, and Myth Buster (Contest) first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

Report Card & Open Contests

Report Card

Last week…

I completed one author’s edits and began two new projects!I worked on getting caught up on some administrivia to get ready for my upcoming surgery and recovery. I’m soooo easily distracted I didn’t get far.I attended a meeting of the local art group. It was nice to see friends.I’ve been painting every day as part of #the100dayproject.

This next week…

I will complete two sets of author’s edits.I have more administrative things to do this week to “get my affairs in order” before surgery.I’ll continue working on #the100dayproject, but only if I have time. At some point, I’m going to have to pause and resume after the surgery.Open Contests

Be sure to check out these posts and enter to win the prizes that are still up for grabs:

The Key to Happiness (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!Happy Alfred Hitchcock Day! (Contest) — Last day to enter! Win an Amazon gift card!It’s Jewel Day! (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!Flashback: Fun with Dick and Jane (Contest) — This one ends soon! Win a FREE book!Happy St. Patrick’s Day & 5 Ways to Celebrate (Contest)! — This one ends soon! Win an Amazon gift card!Memory Game: Animals to Write About (Contest) — Win an Amazon gift card!Gabbi Grey: How I figure out what comes next! (FREE Read + Contest) — Get your FREE read, plus enter to win another FREE story!Get your FREE read! WITH HIS ROCK BAND! — Pick up your FREE read. This is a limited time offer!Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Welcome Spring! — Win an Amazon gift card!The post Report Card & Open Contests first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Welcome Spring!

Happy Saturday, y’all! We’re one day into Spring, and we can sure feel the difference in Arkansas. Looking at the forecast, we’ll have temperatures rising into the seventies and nearing eighty in the next couple of weeks. Whew! I’m getting geared up for surgery on the 1st, so I’m trying to get some things done ahead of time and close out some editing gigs I have to get back to authors before I go under the knife. I’m feeling a little squeezed for time. But, one bite of the elephant at a time… I keep telling myself that. Now, if I could just keep the distractions to a minimum. That’s going to be hard to do with the kids being on Spring Break. LOL

Anyway, it’s Saturday, so it’s puzzle time! For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle (it’s so pretty!), then tell me about any plans you have to enjoy the Spring!

The post Saturday Puzzle-Contest: Welcome Spring! first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

N.J. Walters: Spring is in the Air!

Reaching the spring equinox means winter is starting to release its icy grip.

The snow is melting—we haven’t had nearly as much as usual this year, for which I am eternally grateful. The days are getting longer, and the temperatures are slowly creeping upward. We may still get a freak snowstorm or two—a very likely possibility where I live—but the promise of warmer days is here.

One of the biggest things I look forward to every spring is shedding the heavy winter layers. I live in a winter clime, so I have to put on boots, a sweater, scarf, long coat, headband, and gloves before I even consider venturing through the door. I long for sneakers and a hoodie. I’m also looking forward to not having worry about the snow and ice on the way to the bus stop.

While curling up with a blanket and a book on a winter evening is cozy, I long for the days when I can read on the balcony with a cold drink at hand. I love the sunshine, so the dreary winter days can be difficult. The longer days and more frequent sunshine boost my mood.

Trees will soon start to bud, and the first flowers will poke their heads out of the ground. We may get daffodils and tulips in late April, or they might not show until May. Things move a little slower up here, but now that spring has arrived summer is on its way.

Whatever the weather is like where you are, I hope you enjoy spring!

Taming the White Wolf
Lone Wolf Legacy, Book 1

Destined to be alone…only to discover he’s not—in this intensely sexy new Lone Wolf Legacy series from New York Times bestselling author N.J. Walters

There’s only supposed to be one lone wolf. When other shifters see me coming, see my white fur and pale eyes, they know things are about to get real. Because my job—my fate—is to take out the wolves who go rogue.

Only now something has changed.

For the first time ever, there are three of us: one white, one gray, one black. And if that’s not ominous enough, my senses have pulled me to New York City…for a human.

There’s something almost supernatural about the connection between me and Zoe Galvani. It’s not just the crackle of heat, the blood pounding through my veins—or even that her eyes are the strange, pale hue of my own.

It’s that she makes my wolf come alive. It’s unlike anything I’ve ever felt. Almost like magic.

Which is when I learn that someone’s out to hunt me. That I’m their prey.

…and Zoe is the bait.

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C7NTXG92/
Entangled Publishing: https://entangledpublishing.com/books/taming-the-white-wolf
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/taming-the-white-wolf-n-j-walters/1143634327
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/taming-the-white-wolf
iBooks: https://books.apple.com/us/book/taming-the-white-wolf/id6450183902

About the Author

N.J. Walters is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author who has always been a voracious reader, and now she spends her days writing novels of her own. Vampires, werewolves, dragons, assassins, time-travelers, seductive handymen, and next-door neighbors with smoldering good looks—all vie for her attention. It’s a tough life, but someone’s got to live it.

Visit her at:
Website: http://www.njwalters.com
Blog: http://www.njwalters.blogspot.com
Newsletter Sign Up: http://eepurl.com/gdblg5
Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/N.J.WaltersAuthor
Twitter: https://x.com/njwaltersauthor
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/NJWalters
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/author/njwalters
BookBub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/n-j-walters

The post N.J. Walters: Spring is in the Air! first appeared on Delilah Devlin.

Get your FREE read! WITH HIS ROCK BAND!

It’s Thursday! The week’s nearly over, and my To Do List is getting longer! I spent too long yesterday rewatching episodes of Eureka. I forgot how addictive it is, and I’ve missed Jack Carter. Anyway, I’m popping in here just to do a quick giveaway. If you’re looking for a quick, hot read, look no further! Get your copy now!

When a social media star decides to surprise her rocker stepbrother while he’s on tour, she’s the one shocked…then seduced…by two sexy rock gods…

Get your copy here!

The post Get your FREE read! WITH HIS ROCK BAND! first appeared on Delilah Devlin.