Delilah Devlin's Blog, page 51
June 10, 2024
Melanie Jayne: My Nightly Conundrum—To DNF or Not (Contest)
Cue “End of the Road” by Boyz II Men to play in the background.
Besides writing romance, I am an avid reader. I try to read a book every two days.
Now, before you credit me with being a speed reader, I will admit that my husband and our bossy mastiff fall asleep early, so I have about three hours to read. I usually pick out a book and start after dinner with interruptions, and after the males are quiet, I can get my reading groove on.
Eighteen months ago, I decided to clean out my Kindle. I had books from 2012 that I had never read. So, I made a deal with myself: read one old and then two new (published in 2023 or later) to make a dent in the TBR list.
For years, I finished the book no matter what. After I started publishing, I felt like I had to hang in and finish a book as a sign of commitment to the writing community.
However, life is too short for bad books.
I felt guilty for not finishing. I’d message my friends and defend my decision not to finish as if the “Kindle Police” were going to report me for having DNFs (Do Not Finish).
Then, I started to notice more people talking about not finishing books. What once had been a somewhat taboo topic was discussed openly.
I have reasons for not finishing. The first is if I find five proofreading/editing mistakes within the first three chapters. Authors are taught that the first three should grab the reader’s attention. So, misspellings, incorrect word usage, or poor grammar causes me to stop.
Recently, I’ve come across three published books where I believe the authors forgot to tap “Accept Changes” before uploading the manuscript and pressing “Publish.” These were not intentional cross-outs—no, they were unnecessary extra words. Again—DNF.
This is a hard rule for me—if the pet dies. I won’t finish and most likely won’t read anything else by the author. True story: I almost dumped a friendship because she sent me a book where at the end, the dog died. I still feel upset about the poisoned pet, and I never read another book by that author.
Excluding Dark Romance, another stopper for me is when a main character is written to be so ugly and hateful that I can’t believe that they are worthy of love. There are times that I think that authors intend to create a strong, outspoken character and instead, they read as a total jerk. I try to keep toxic people out of my life, so I’m not letting them in my reading.
Filler. I accept that some stories are shorter than others. What makes me quit a book is when the author stretches out the tale with multiple-page passages in another language, recounts a prior scene two or three times, and repeats the same reasons for why the couple won’t work. I have a running joke with a friend about a series that we both love. In each book, the couple has officially committed and marching to their HEA. The author adds a final kidnapping, an explosion, or a car chase. Those events don’t add anything else to the story except an action scene and another deep kiss. If I discovered the series today, I might be annoyed by the “one more” to consider DNF-ing.
That brings me to the most difficult to explain—I didn’t connect with it. There are times that I just don’t like the book. It could be that I had figured out who committed the crime too early. A character is too stupid to survive in the real world. I will admit that as my years increase, I find myself getting irritated by characters in their early twenties who run crime syndicates, are running billion-dollar, large corporations, or find the answer to a problem that people have been working on for years.
The great thing about reading is that there is always another book to read. With the explosion of Monster Romance and Alien Romance shorts, I can devour two a night, and that makes me feel accomplished.
Now, I’m curious- What causes you to DNF? A Winner will be chosen at random to win a $10 Amazon Gift Card.
About the Author
Melanie/M. Jayne is the teller of tales of the Novus Pack and an Amazon Bestselling Author. See Me was a finalist for the Holt Medallion. In 2022, the Duchenne Vampire Series enriched her portfolio. She loves reading, luxury handbags, watching sports, and the Bravo Housewives. Learn more at www.readmelaniejayne.com.
The post Melanie Jayne: My Nightly Conundrum—To DNF or Not (Contest) first appeared on Delilah Devlin.
June 9, 2024
Report Card & Open Contests!
Last week…
I worked on two editing jobs for other authors; I finished one.I finished revising, formatting, and uploading Once is Never Enough (the last story in the Delta Heat series),which releases Tuesday, June 11th.I uploaded the stories in the follow-on series, Delta Fire, including finding art and uploading the pre-order for the last book in the series, which has not previously been published, Ignition . Amazon’s KDP has been a PITA so far as loading books 2 & 3 of the series. I’m getting worried they won’t get their act together in time for the planned releases in July-September. We’ll see.I didn’t write a word of the next MBH release, Cyrus , which is scheduled to release June 25th. I have so much on my plate to do with my side gig (editing), the revisions of the Delta Fire stories, and the editing of the stories for the Secret Identities anthology, that I need to push out that publication date. I really don’t want the added stress right now. Yes, I do have limits!I created the Secret Identities webpage on the Collections site! Go take a look!The biggest bummer of the week is that our pool isn’t “swimmable” for now. We were having fits, dumping tons of chemicals and never getting the water perfectly crystal clear, so we decided to replace the sand. When my SIL replaced it and put the filter back together, it leaked. We’re waiting on seals and a collar for the filter, which won’t arrive until Wednesday. I’m crossing my fingers that’s the problem. Otherwise, I’ll be paying a ton of money to have a pool place come out to the boonies to repair the thing. Ugh! All I want to do is swim!This next week…
I’ll celebrate the release of the last of the refurbed/recovered Delta Heat series!I will work on three editing projects for other authors, finishing two, I hope!I’ll be editing stories in the Secret Identities anthology. Plus, I’ll work with the authors to organize a promo schedule.I’ll put out a call to authors who might want to blog on this website, July through September.I’ll continue wrangling with KDP to get my pre-orders up for the Delta Fire series.I’m going to have to re-order my publication schedule, moving the release date of Cyrus because I have to find time to finish the book in my stacked schedule.I have a doctor’s appointment at the VA in Little Rock. I’ll be taking the family with me for a chance to catch a meal and do some shopping in the “big city.”I will resume creating small art daily for #The100DayProject. I fell behind finishing up the last pieces, but I will get to 100!The pool situation will be settled this week!!!!!That sounds like enough, right? Does it seem like my little report card lists are getting longer and longer?
Open Contests
June 8, 2024
Saturday Puzzle Contest: On this day…Ghostbusters released!
Okay, so you’re probably thinking my topic is kind of weird, but hear me out.
Coming up with topics on a daily basis isn’t always easy. Yes, I can talk about books, but doing that every day…? Boring. I have guests, so that changes things up. When I’m reaching for a topic, I love to check the calendar for weird holidays because I love an excuse to celebrate. Today’s holiday was VCR Day, and I thought about it, but got nothin’. So, I moved on. Then I thought about the History Channel’s website. Every day, they have a “This Day in History” post, so I headed on over to steal some ideas.
Some of today’s offerings were…
Muhammed died (632)Robert F. Kennedy was buried (1968)Apache chief Cochise died (1874)Those are sacred dates, so I know better than to have fun with them. Then another one popped up.
Ghostbusters released (1984)
I remember when the movie came out. I think I was pregnant/giving birth at the time, so I didn’t see it in the theaters, but back in the day, we had HBO and a new-fangled way of watching movies we wanted, whenever we wanted, called a VCR (see how I worked that holiday into here?!). Ghostbusters was one of the recordings we made so we could enjoy it whenever we wanted. When my family went with me to Germany for my second tour there, all those taped movies we’d made were sooooo important! Remember, that was before streaming, and sometimes, we only had one channel, AFN (Armed Forces Network) to watch. The library on post had a ton of classic movies (most in B&W) to check out, and I attribute my love of classic movies to that period. However, it was our library of movies recorded off of HBO that saved our sanity. There were many, many kids’ movies among them…
Anyway, Ghostbusters it is, and I did manage to find an image I could use without getting into trouble with a copyright, so enjoy the puzzle!
For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me what classic movies you might have seeing made into a puzzle.
The post Saturday Puzzle Contest: On this day…Ghostbusters released! first appeared on Delilah Devlin.June 7, 2024
Story Cubes — Tell me a story (Contest)
Oh! We haven’t played this game since February!
I bought this little brainstorming tool years ago at some writers’ conference. “Story Cubes” is a brainstorming game. You roll the dice, and whatever pictures appear face-up are the ones you use to riff off a story. You can try to include all the cubes in your “story” or choose a few.
To make this fun, I’ll offer a prize—a $5 Amazon gift card—good for purchasing one or two stories…
Have fun with this! Don’t overthink! Here’s the roll…
The post Story Cubes — Tell me a story (Contest) first appeared on Delilah Devlin.
June 6, 2024
Gabbi Grey: Are we allowed to have favorites? (Contest)
Hello Delilah! Thank you for inviting me here to discuss my newest release. As your readers know, I love writing short stories for anthologies. Especially charity anthologies. I’ve seriously lost count of how many I’ve done over the past five years. My little part to help contribute to worthy causes. I have to say, though, that my favorite anthologies are the LGBTQ ones. Might this be because they hit close to home? Yep, I can say that for certain. This year, Love is All Volume 7’s proceeds are going to a transgender charity. I know several trans people in my life as well as having several friends whose children are nonbinary and trans. That’s a hard road to go down, unfortunately. The vitriolic rhetoric — and the outright lies told — hurt people I care for. People I love.
Okay, so 10 authors have come together in this amazing anthology to bring you great stories of love across the LGBTQ spectrum. This year, my novella is The Boyfriend Arrangement. I admit, I had fun with this story. I was given the trope of arranged marriage for another project that fell through. In the end, I had started this cute little story that I decided to finish, keeping the anthology in mind. This is the story of two young people, destined for marriage. Josette and Felix were born close together. Their mothers are best friends. Naturally, the two will marry. And everyone’s just sort of gone along with this. Felix has become an elementary French teacher. Josette is an interior designer. When Felix comes into his inheritance and buys a dilapidated old cabin, of course, Josette is going to do all the decorating.
There’s just the little step of renovations.
That’s okay, though, because Josette’s older brother, Jacob, is all about helping his younger sister and the guy she’s going to marry. Okay, Jacob might’ve noticed Felix. Their families are friends. And, okay, Felix might have a crush on Jacob. That’s… Yeah. A problem. As he views his cabin with the woman he’s supposed to marry, he comes to the realization he doesn’t love her the way he’s supposed to.
I suspect you can guess the rest of the story — but I love the execution, and I hope readers will as well. Love is All is a project close to my heart. I thank you, Delilah, for letting me share it today. I would love to give away a $5 Amazon Gift Card to one lucky commenter. Easy one – what’s your favorite trope? What will you one-click over and over again? Leave a comment and random might pick you!
Love Is All Volume 7
The Charities
Get ready to turn the page on love, acceptance, and making a difference with Love Is All: Volume 7!
This limited-edition anthology features swoon-worthy novellas and short stories by ten award-winning and bestselling authors, including A.D. Ellis, Chantal Mer, Gabbi Grey, Lee Blair, Piper Malone, R.L. Merrill, Skylar M. Cates, Sophia Soames, Susan Scott Shelley, and Xio Axelrod. Second-chance sweethearts, steamy encounters, and heartwarming friendships all await you.
All proceeds from the anthology will benefit Advocates for Trans Equality, an organization dedicated to protecting and empowering transgender individuals.
Love Is All: Volume 7 is only available for a limited time.
Links:
Universal Link: https://books2read.com/LIAV7
Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Love-All-7-Xio-Axelrod-ebook/dp/B0CTHRJ3GH
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-is-all-xio-axelrod/1145597032
KOBO: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/love-is-all-volume-7
Apple: https://books.apple.com/us/book/love-is-all-volume-7/id6502670886
All proceeds from this year’s collection will benefit Advocates for Trans Equality.
Founded in 2024, A4TE brings together the National Center for Transgender Equality (a previous LIA beneficiary), and the Transgender Legal Defense and Education Fund — two powerhouse champions of trans equality.
About the AuthorsXio AxelrodXio Axelrod is a USA Today bestselling author of different flavours of contemporary romance. She also writes what she likes to call strange, twisted tales. Xio grew up in the music industry and began recording at a young age. When she isn’t writing stories, she can be found in the studio, writing songs, or performing on international stages (under a different, no-so-secret name). She lives in Philadelphia with one full-time husband and several part-time cats.
Chantal MerChantal Mer is an author and optimist. Her stories explore relationships and what it means to be family. When she’s not writing about strong women, strong men, and strong love, she can be found walking her adorable dog, volunteering at her kids’ school (in the library, of course), teaching at the local university, and reading.
Chantal lives outside of Philadelphia with her husband, kids, Toffee the Wonder Dog, and vicious cat, Gracie.
Susan Scott ShelleyUSA Today bestselling author Susan Scott Shelley writes stories with heat and heart, where love always wins. Her romances give readers lighthearted and emotionally satisfying escapes into happily ever after. In addition to crafting stories, she is also a professional voiceover artist and enjoys lending her voice to a wide range of projects.
She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and is an avid fan of her hometown sports teams. Her favorite things include running (honestly, it’s more like jogging), sports (especially hockey), hard rock (but will listen to anything from heavy metal to show tunes), and writing about people from all walks of life finding their special someone.
Lee BlairLee Blair is a queer author from Oregon who writes low angst, funny, M/M contemporary romance. She’s constantly amused by the antics of her two ginger cats, considers daydreaming about future trips to Scotland a part-time job, and is obsessed with Schitt’s Creek to an alarming degree.
Piper MalonePiper Malone is an award-winning author of sweet and sexy romance.
Dog lover. Reader. Foodie. Coffee, please.
Gabbi GreyUSA Today Bestselling author Gabbi Grey lives in beautiful British Columbia where her fur baby chin-poo keeps her safe from the nasty neighborhood squirrels. Working for the government by day, she spends her early mornings writing contemporary, gay, sweet, and dark erotic BDSM romances. While she firmly believes in happy endings, she also believes in making her characters suffer before finding their true love. She also writes m/f romances as Gabbi Black and Gabbi Powell.
A.D. EllisA.D. Ellis is an Indiana girl, born and raised. She spends much of her time in central Indiana as a teacher in the inner city of Indianapolis, being a mom to two amazing teens, and wondering how she and her husband of nearly two decades haven’t driven each other insane yet. A lot of her time is also devoted to phone call avoidance and her hatred of cooking.
She loves chocolate, wine, pizza, and naps along with reading and writing romance. These loves don’t leave much time for housework, much to the chagrin of her husband. Who would pick cleaning the house over a nap or a good book? She uses any extra time to increase her fluency in sarcasm.
A.D. uses she/they pronouns.
Whether she’s writing contemporary romance featuring quirky, queer, and relatable characters or diving deep into the supernatural to give readers a shiver, R.L. Merrill loves creating compelling stories that will stay with readers long after closing the book. Ro writes inclusive romance for the Happily Ever After collective, contributes paranormal hilarity to Robyn Peterman’s Magic and Mayhem Universe, and pens horror-inspired tales and music reviews for HorrorAddicts.net. A mom, wife, daughter, and former educator, you can find her rocking out in her Bronco with Great Dane pup Velma, being terrorized by feline twins Dracula and Frankenstein, or headbanging at a rock show near her home in the San Francisco Bay Area! Stay Tuned for more…
Skylar M. CatesSkylar M. Cates loves a good romance. She is happy to drink coffee, curl up with a good book, and not move all day. Her novels feature strong and passionate men. Skylar loves to craft stories where realistic characters are challenged with emotional situations. Although lately the laundry room is the farthest place she has visited, Skylar loves to chat with folks from all around the globe.
Sophia SoamesSophia Soames is a Scandinavian, UK based, Author of contemporary MM romance. She writes stories of everyday people with kids and families living real life fairytales.
The post Gabbi Grey: Are we allowed to have favorites? (Contest) first appeared on Delilah Devlin.June 5, 2024
Word Search: Inside SECRET IDENTITIES (Contest)
If you didn’t already know, the next Boys Behaving Badly Anthology will release on July 30th! It’s filled with intriguing stories. So, I thought it would be fun to use the themes for the stories inside this upcoming volume for our puzzle today. And if you haven’t pre-ordered your copy, remember, it’s only $0.99 for 14 sexy stories you won’t want to miss! Here’s the link: Secret Identities
In the meantime, here’s a little contest! For a chance to win a $5 Amazon gift card, solve the puzzle, then tell me which of the themes intrigues you most!
The post Word Search: Inside SECRET IDENTITIES (Contest) first appeared on Delilah Devlin.
June 4, 2024
Delta Heat, Book #4 is out now! TWICE THE BANG is available now!
The next story in the Delta Heat series is out! And it’s FREE in Kindle Unlimited! Follow the link to read the opening of the book. Be warned! This story has erotic content! Very erotic content. Enjoy! 
Order your copy now! | Read an excerpt!
The post Delta Heat, Book #4 is out now! TWICE THE BANG is available now! first appeared on Delilah Devlin.
Beau wants Pansy for his own. After a BDSM party thrown by his friends to celebrate their new throuple status, Beau decides it’s time to stake his claim. He’s been taking it slow with the sexy sub, but when he sees he’s not the only one vying for her attention, he realizes a long seduction was a mistake. A handsome fireman has caught his woman’s eye.
Billy may be new to the lifestyle, and a submissive like Pansy is probably out of his league, but he’ll do whatever it takes to have her, even if he has to share her with a cop whose confidence contrasts with Billy’s inexperience.
Pansy’s stuck between a rock and a hard place—or rather, stuck between a smoking-hot firefighter with ice-blue eyes and a dark, mysterious cop who can give her goose bumps with just a look.
Of course, she could refuse to decide between them and let both pursue her and, perhaps, if she’s very lucky, they’ll play dirty.
Product Warnings: Contains scenes with m/f/m, f/f/m, and an orgy of pleasure among friends.
Note: This book was previously published.
June 3, 2024
Cameron Allie: Looking for Red Hot Excerpts?
Starting in July I’ll be sending out a “I want sexy excerpts” newsletter once a week.
What’s in each newsletter?
A theme: Each week the newsletter will follow a theme. For example, shifters, vampires, fake relationships, holiday stories, etc. See below for a comprehensive list, so you know what to expect in each letter.Three excerpts: Each week will feature three hot, spicy excerpts from different authors.If I like the excerpt, where can I buy the book?
The availability of the stories will be a variety. Some will be wide, some in Kobo Plus, some from Kindle Unlimited, some on Ream, and yes, some will be free.
This sounds awesome! Where do I sign up?
Are you an author interested in being featured?
Sign up now, but hurry, the spots are filling up fast!
Will this continue in 2025?
If it’s successful and in demand by both authors and readers, then yes. If the sign-up form is full, and you would like to sign up for 2025, watch my social media and blog, or sign up for the newsletter itself. When the 2025 sign up goes live, I’ll add it to the weekly newsletter.
Weekly Themes:
July 19: Beach Reads/VacationJuly 26: Fake RelationshipAugust 2: Wolf ShifterAugust 9: VampiresAugust 16: RH/Why ChooseAugust 23: LGBTQ+August 30: POC AuthorsSeptember 6: Teacher/ProfessorSeptember 13: BillionaireSeptember 20: AutumnSeptember 27: FantasyOctober 4: Dark RomanceOctober 11: Masked MenOctober 18: AutumnOctober 25: Halloween/Dark/Spooky/HorrorNovember 1: MCNovember 8: MafiaNovember 15: Forbidden LoversNovember 22: Friends to LoversNovember 29: Breeding/PregnancyDecember 6: HolidayDecember 13: Fantasy/PNR HolidayDecember 20: HolidayDecember 27: Fantasy/PNR HolidayJanuary 3: Poly RelationshipThe post Cameron Allie: Looking for Red Hot Excerpts? first appeared on Delilah Devlin.June 2, 2024
Cover Reveal & Contest!
Report Card & Open Contests!
Last week…
I finished one editing job for another author; plus, I began work on three other projects.I finished revising, formatting, and uploading Twice the Bang, which releases Tuesday, June 4th.I found art and had covers made for Secret Identities: A Boys Behaving Badly Anthology and the Delta Fire seriesI resumed writing my next MBH release, Cyrus , which is scheduled to release June 25th.I attended a papermaking workshop!This next week…
I will work on three editing projects for other authors, finishing one!Plus, I’ll work on the Secret Identities webpage on the Collections site.I will begin editing the stories in Secret Identities.I will complete revising the last story in the Delta Heat kink series, Once is Never Enough then I’ll format and set it to publish on June 11th.I will continue writing my next Montana Bounty Hunter story, the first in the West Yellowstone office, Cyrus .I will resume creating small art daily for #The100DayProject.I will find pool time!
Open Contests
