I’m no club princess. I’m a cut-rate Cinderella. I’m the redheaded stepchild.
Jude is the crown prince of the Lords of Carnage MC. He’s handsome, cocky, untouchable.
The entire time I’ve known him, I’ve had to pretend he means nothing to me. When in fact, he’s always been everything.
But when my world collapses and I’m running for my life I have no one else to turn to but the Lords of Carnage. I don’t even know if they’ll remember me. I don’t know what I’ll do if they don’t help me.
When those ice-blue eyes bore into mine for the first time in two years I know I’m a goner. Jude has always seen right through me. And now, he’s about to find out all my secrets.
When I’m laid bare to him, will the cocky prince see my biggest secret of all… That I’d do anything to be his?
𝗝𝗨𝗗𝗘
She’s tough as nails. Trouble coming and going. Lila Dunn is a spitfire in combat boots. She needs no one. She’s as independent as they come.
But one day she shows up at the clubhouse Battered and broken And all grown up. She’s in danger. And only the club can help her.
When she told us what she’d done, we swore to protect her. Now I’m falling hard and fast for her. She’s gonna be mine. I just have to keep her alive. Nobody f*cks with Lila. And nobody f*cks with the Lords. Because the Lords f*ck back.
My cat is contentedly munching on kibble behind me.
I just got back from a walk in the snow, so the top of my head is wet.
And right after I write this newsletter update, I’m going to crack open my draft of Jude’s book and get some words in!
So, yeah, JUDE update:
By the end of today, I’ll be about 10,000 words into the first draft! (Cue triumphant trumpet fanfare!) 🎺🎺🎺
If you’ve been reading my newsletter for a while — or if you’re in my Facebook readers’ group, Daphne’s Divas — you know that 2020 was a rough year for me writing-wise.
With all the craziness going on last year, I really struggled to concentrate the way I need to when I’m writing a book.
But so far, it seems like turning the metaphorical page to 2021 has been good for me in terms of being able to be productive!
I’m not sure why, to be honest. It’s not like a ton has changed. But whatever the reason is, I’ll take it. All I know is, I’m not struggling the way I was when I started Striker’s book.
Yay!!!
It is definitely bittersweet writing JUDE, though.
I’ve been looking forward to telling this story for a while, so that’s great. But it’s the last book in this original Lords of Carnage series, so it feels really happy-sad, you know?
These guys and their women have become like family to me (and I hope they have to you, too). It feels really weird to know that in just a couple of months, their stories will all have been told.
But…
I do have some plans for you to see some of your favorite characters again when I pick the Ironwood MC series back up.
And, I also have plans for another MC series as well.
And of course, one of these days, it’ll be time for a next generation of Lords of Carnage, starring the kids!
So, never fear, you haven’t seen the last of these guys!
(And of course, you can always re-read them…)
By the way, if you want to preorder Jude and you haven’t done that yet, here’s the link to do so.
(And even though the “official” release date for the preorder is June 30, I have every intention of getting the book out before that.)
Well, that’s about it from me for now. I hope your 2021 is starting out okay. I’m sending love and virtual hugs to all of you. 🥰
Buttoned-up lawyer meets down-and-dirty biker… What could possibly go wrong?
EMBER
I’ve had enough trouble with men to last me a lifetime. All I want is to live my life, build my law practice, and focus on my career.
But everything changes when I’m hired to represent a member of the Lords of Carnage MC in a child custody case… and Striker Rossi is assigned as my bodyguard.
The minute his eyes lock on mine, I know this man is damaged. Reckless. Trouble.
The way he looks at me does things to me I don’t want to feel.
I get the feeling he knows a thousand ways to get down and dirty.
And I don’t want to like it as much as I do.
STRIKER
I traded a broken past for a brotherhood I could count on.
The Lords are all the family I have. My oath to them is the most important thing in my life.
But when my best friend and MC brother asks me to provide protection for a buttoned-up lawyer
The last thing I expect is Ember Wells.
She’s off limits.
She’s absolutely gorgeous.
She makes me feel things I never thought I could feel.
Ember is a spark. I’m playing with fire.
Together, we’re lightning in a bottle.
And I’m determined to make her mine.
STRIKER is an opposites attract, enemies to lovers, damaged hero bodyguard MC romance. It is the eleventh book in the Lords of Carnage MC series, but can be read as a standalone. As always, this book has no cheating, no cliffhanger and has a guaranteed HEA.
This giveaway is open internationally, so if you can receive mail, you can enter. I’ll pick the two winners at random on Friday, December 4 (which is the day after STRIKER goes live on Amazon).
In the meantime... Have you preordered the ebook of STRIKER yet? Preordering will guarantee that he slides right into your library just as soon as he goes live! 💙
I’ve had enough trouble with men to last me a lifetime. All I want is to live my life, build my law practice, and focus on my career.
But everything changes when I’m hired to represent a member of the Lords of Carnage MC in a child custody case… and Striker Rossi is assigned as my bodyguard.
The minute his eyes lock on mine, I know this man is damaged. Reckless. Trouble.
The way he looks at me does things to me I don’t want to feel.
I get the feeling he knows a thousand ways to get down and dirty.
And I don’t want to like it as much as I do.
Striker
I traded a broken past for a brotherhood I could count on.
The Lords are all the family I have. My oath to them is the most important thing in my life.
But when my best friend and MC brother asks me to provide protection for a buttoned-up lawyer
The last thing I expect is Ember Wells.
She’s off limits.
She’s absolutely gorgeous.
She makes me feel things I never thought I could feel.
Ember is a spark. I’m playing with fire.
Together, we’re lightning in a bottle.
And I’m determined to make her mine.
STRIKER is an opposites attract, enemies to lovers, damaged hero MC romance. It is the eleventh book in the Lords of Carnage MC series, but it can be read as a standalone. As always, this book has no cheating, no cliffhanger and has a guaranteed HEA.
Hey… have you read the Stone Kings MC series yet? If not — or if you’ve read them in Kindle Unlimited but don’t own them yet — I have an awesome sale on the complete series box set! It’s only $1.99, now through Saturday!
🧡 🧡 🧡Only $1.99 THIS WEEK – LIMITED TIME OFFER! 🧡 🧡 🧡
Yep, that’s right — get the ***complete*** collection of the Stone Kings Motorcycle Club Romance series for only $1.99 in the US and UK! 🔥
Four smoking hot stories of bad boy bikers — over 200,000 words, with no cliffhangers, no cheating, and guaranteed heart-stopping HEA for every book!
(Unless you’re in the southern hemisphere, that is, in which case… spring it is!)
Personally, I am not a fan of pumpkin spice, but the leaves are starting to change here in Minnesota, and it’s quite beautiful. I love seeing the trees start to change color on my morning walks — even though I am looking forward to winter even less than usual this year, because of Covid. Bleah…
But… enough negativity. Like I said, the trees are changing, and so far it’s really gorgeous! And I’m in a good mood this morning, so let’s just go with that, eh? 🤣
So, I’ve decided that while I’m getting Striker’s book ready to reveal to you, I’m going to do a new thing in my newsletters and on my blog.
A thing I am going to call, “Backlist Spotlight”!
What does that mean?
Well, I’m going to introduce you (or re-introduce you) to some of the books in my catalog. If you have already read them, it will be a trip down memory lane! And if you haven’t, maybe this feature will give you a new book or a new series to try out.
Today, the SPOTLIGHT is on… STAND!
(Cue gritty, romantic mood music)
STAND is the last book in my four-book Stone Kings MC series. It, like all my books, can be read as a standalone, since I never do cliffhangers for the main plot in my books. STAND is the story of Cal and Andi. Cal is in the Stone Kings MC, and Andi is his sister Seton’s best friend. Andi works in the same bar as Seton, and she’s also a gifted musician and performer.
When a stalker from Andi’s past resurfaces in her life, she finds herself turning to Cal for help… even though she has always kept her distance from him before due to her attraction to him. The fireworks between them are explosive, even as Cal puts everything on the line to keep Andi safe.
Andi is very different from me, but a lot of her experiences have roots in my own life experiences. She’s one of my heroines that I feel closest to. I hope you will, too.
(Note to my Australian and New Zealand peeps: substitute winter for summer)
In many ways, even though the weather has been summer-like, it hasn’t felt much like summer at all.
Lately, you’ll notice my emails to you have been about food, especially summer foods. I wonder why that is? 🤣
I’m sure it has to do with the fact that it feels like this summer, there’s a lot of things we’re all missing out on. Food is much more than nourishment. It’s tradition, family, friends, fun, seasons… All sorts of emotions are wrapped around the experience of eating. So I think my newsletters about food might be my way of talking about the emotions I’ve been feeling in these very abnormal times.
And those emotions have been running high — and affecting me more than I would like. 2020 has been the hardest year ever for me to write. My concentration is really suffering. And therefore, so is my word count.
I’m what some people call a “discovery writer.” That means that, rather than start a book with a very detailed plot, I prefer to start with a sense of who my characters are, what the main conflict is, and where they’re going to end up… and then I “discover” the rest through the process of writing. It’s much more fun for me that way, and I definitely prefer it for that reason.
But what that means is that sometimes… the words just don’t come. And this year, with all the upheaval due to Covid-19, that’s definitely been more the case for me.
I apologize to all of you, dear readers, for not publishing as many books this year as I normally do. I am definitely still working, but I can’t release a book until I feel like it’s “right.” And sometimes, the books, and the characters fight me on that. (grrr….)
Anyway… The good news is that I’ve been working on Striker, and I’m happy to say that his book is finally starting to take some good shape. I don’t have a release date for you yet, but I’m hoping that in the next newsletter I send you, I will not only have that, but also a preorder link. Cross your fingers for me, will you???
Striker is Book 11 in the Lords of Carnage series. Striker is a damaged hero, and his story is ripping at my heart a little bit. But he’s going to get one hell of a happy ever after with his lady love (name TBA).
I promise he’ll be worth the wait!
In the meantime, I’ve put together a two-book box set of the two very first novels I ever wrote. They’re both standalone MC romances, and if you want to get a glimpse of my first steps into creating fictional worlds, these are it!
In the last month, if you’ve been following my newsletter, you know I’ve been craving:
1) corn dogs; and
2) toasted (well, burnt) marshmallows…
And yeah, I definitely got my chance to eat both of these delicious treats!
The corn dog came from a state fair booth… in a Harley Davidson store parking lot.
The s’more, I’m embarrassed to say, I made by toasting/burning the marshmallow on my gas stove. But hey, that s’more was freakin’ delicious, so no regrets.
Today, I’m gonna talk about maybe even my favorite summer treat of them all. And this one is even healthy! (whoa)
I’m talking about… TOMATOES!
Tomatoes are the best in the summer. There’s nothing like the taste of a ripe tomato picked straight off the vine. This year, our garden has cherry tomato plants and regular tomato plants. Thankfully, our cherry tomatoes are producing a lot, because the larger tomatoes aren’t doing great. We’ve only had 3 ripe full-size tomatoes, and usually we’d have tons by now. Boo!
The silver lining for us is that we have a friend who is a gardening MANIAC. He has a veritable urban garden on his acre of land in the middle of the city. And this year, he has (get this)… 130 FREAKING TOMATO PLANTS in his back yard!
This nutcase obviously can’t eat all those tomatoes by himself — even after canning and otherwise preserving his ass off. So, in a few days, Mr. Loveling is going over there and he’s gonna basically fill up our entire car with tomatoes. I. CANNOT. WAIT.
And in case you’re sitting there reading this, admiring me for how healthy I’ll be after eating all those tomatoes…
Probably half of them will be consumed as part of my very favorite food in the whole universe…
Two weeks ago, I wrote to you about the great corn dog vs. pronto pup debate.
It was a subject that was on my mind, because normally this time of year, I’m getting ready to go to the Minnesota State Fair and eat my weight in food on a stick.
This year, though, the fair has been canceled, so I’m in mourning.
And I definitely had corn dogs on my mind.
(Note: If you haven’t read that blog entry, here’s the post)
Well. You’ll be happy to know that I FOUND myself some corn dogs!!!!
Mr. Loveling and I tracked down a fair food stall that had been set up in the parking lot of a Harley-Davidson store near us.
So on Sunday, we went and gorged on corn dogs, deep fried cheese curds, and even mini donuts!
It. Was. Glorious.
Seriously, it was just what I needed.
I’m still sad about missing the fair this year, but getting to munch on some fair food made me feel a ton better.
Then a couple of days ago, I ran into another burning summertime question.
And I immediately realized I need to know your answer, as well…
How do you like your marshmallows?
Me? I’m a #6 all the way. Burn that sucker, baby!
In fact, whenever I roast a marshmallow, what I basically do is put it on the stick, then immediately hold it directly into a flame so it catches fire.
When it stops burning, it’s done!
Then I peel off the outer crust, eat that, and do the same with the next layer.
And so on, and so on, until the marshmallow disappears.
Half the time, the marshmallow doesn’t even make it in between the graham crackers for my s’more.
I can’t believe it’s mid-July already… how did that happen?
And what a weird July it is, too.
In a normal year, mid-July would mean one thing for this Minnesotan:
I’d be starting to think about the Minnesota State Fair.
In a normal summer, the best state fair in the entire United States (fight me) would be gearing up to start in just about one month.
I love the fair. And other than the baby animal exhibits, 99% of the reason I even like going is because of the food.
Foods on a stick, fried foods, weird foods… I love it all. I love trying the new stuff they introduce every year, and I love revisiting my old stand-bys.
And with that, mid-July also brings up the perennial burning question in the minds of all respectable fairgoers:
Corn dogs or pronto pups?
It’s a question that has polarized more than one family.
The implications of one’s choice reach deep into the psyche. This is important stuff, people!!!
Are you a corn dog connoisseur?
Or a pronto pup proponent?
Pretty much everyone has a ready answer to the above question — right?
Right?
Okay, maybe not everyone cares about this as much as I do.
Heck, maybe my non-US peeps are scratching their heads right now, squinching up their faces and saying… “Daphne, I honestly don’t have any idea what you’re on about.”
Well, if you aren’t up on the “lingo” —
or if you somehow mistakenly thought “corn dog” and “pronto pup” were interchangeable (shame on you!) — let me set you straight.
Both corn dogs and pronto pups are hot dogs on a stick, with a delicious fried batter coating.
But, my friends, there is where the similarities end. Because:
A corn dog uses corn meal or corn flour in its breading/batter.
A pronto pup is generally made with a flour or pancake batter.
Which one is better?
Well… I guess opinions differ on this.
Even though there is an objectively true answer.
(What?! If I think it, doesn’t that make it the truth?)
The answer is…
CORN DOGS ARE BETTER, PEOPLE!
But whether you prefer corn dogs or pronto pups, one thing is sadly true…
I don’t get to go to the Minnesota State Fair this year to eat them. 🙁
This makes me very sad.
But maybe next year, right? Yeah, next year for sure.
One moment, my only priorities are my bike, my club, and my freedom.
The next, my ex dumps a little girl off on my doorstep with a note saying she’s mine.
Then, everything goes to hell in the MC, when an unknown element blows up a rival club and starts coming for us.
That’s when fate plants a fiery, brown-eyed beauty smack in the middle of the whole mess.
She’s got a body that just won’t quit
And a mouth that makes me want to argue with her almost as much as I want to kiss her.
She sees right through me.
And it’s pretty damn clear she doesn’t like what she sees.
But I can tell by the heat in her eyes
And what it does to me to watch her hips shimmy as she storms away from me…
Ain’t no way one night will be enough to quench a flame this hot.
One moment, my only priorities are my bike, my club, and my freedom.
The next, my ex dumps a little girl off on my doorstep with a note saying she’s mine.
Then, everything goes to hell in the MC, when an unknown element blows up a rival club and starts coming for us.
That’s when fate plants a fiery, brown-eyed beauty smack in the middle of the whole mess.
She’s got a body that just won’t quit
And a mouth that makes me want to argue with her…
Almost as much as I want to kiss her.
She sees right through me.
And it’s pretty damn clear she doesn’t like what she sees.
But I can tell by the heat in her eyes
And what it does to me to watch her hips shimmy as she storms away from me…
Ain’t no way one night will be enough to quench a flame this hot.
Wow, this is the third blog post I’ve done this week! Could it be that I’m… procrastinating writing? LMAO
Yes, yes it could.
But today, I at least have an excuse.
Here I am, sitting at my desk, and I only have a few minutes before an appointment I have to leave for. I’m not great at writing in short bursts, so opening up TANK and finishing a chapter is something I’ll have to leave for later today.
In the meantime, then, I got an idea: How about telling people about a few of the things I have around me in my office that help me write?
So: Here’s installment one: my coffee mug!
This is a mug I actually haven’t had very long. A reader sent it to me for Christmas this year. But I absolutely LOVE it! It cracks me up every time I put more coffee in it. (And I have to admit, I may have tortured people I know in real life by putting them in my books once or twice…)
This mug helps me write because: A) it justifies me doing that, lol; and B) COFFEE, which is like putting gas in my tank in the mornings.
I’m not sure where she got this mug, but I do know you can find one on Amazon here.
So, if you are a writer, or have any writers or aspiring writers in your life, consider this a great gift idea. You’re welcome. <3
Yep, you read that right! Grey, Levi, Trig, and Cal and their feisty lady loves are available on audiobook now — read by the fantastic Troy Duran and Anastasia Watley!
You can check them out and listen to a sample here:
I’m writing to you from the shores of Lake Superior — and this is me yesterday, sitting on my balcony, sipping a delicious adult beverage and watching the waves crash against the shore…
I really know how to take a vacation, don’t I? 😉
To be honest, it’s really cool up here. I’m in northern Minnesota, somewhere north of Duluth. It’s about 15 degrees right now, heading down into the single digits today. I’m on what authors call a “writing retreat” — which is a fancy term for leaving my everyday life behind and spending some time alone in a cabin trying not to spend too much time on social media.
Mr. Loveling is with me, so I’m not entirely alone. I’m working on TANK, book 10 in the Lords of Carnage series, which I hope to get out in March. Cross your fingers for me that I get some good words in while I’m up here!
Here’s another picture of Lake Superior from the balcony, taken yesterday:
It’s beautiful. In a harsh, haunting way.
I hope your January is going well so far — any New Year’s Resolutions? My main one is to eat better and hopefully get rid of a few pounds. (Me and half the population of the United States, I’m sure…)
I hope to have more updates for you on Tank’s book in my next newsletter, coming in a couple of weeks.
Meanwhile: thinking to warmer weather, what are you doing in June?
Start your New Year by snagging tickets to Authors Rocking Little Rock. 🖤
June 6th, 2020 in Little Rock, Arkansas!
I’ll be there, as will tons of other awesome romance authors! Check out this list!
I hope that all of you who celebrate Christmas had a restful, relaxing holiday — full of good food and good friends.
Here at the Loveling household, we had a very quiet Christmas — even quieter than usual. We usually have at least one of my two stepdaughters and her family here for Christmas day. But this year, my younger stepdaughter was with her husband’s family, and my older stepdaughter was on her honeymoon to Spain! So it was just me and Mr. Loveling.
Thankfully, our best friends in town were on their own this year, too, and they invited us to their place for Christmas dinner. They are amazing cooks, so the food was absolutely fantastic. And then two days after Christmas is my birthday, so we had them over to our house for dinner that day!
Lots of food, lots of fun, and very relaxing. Just the way I like it.
But yeah, my New Years resolution is definitely to drop the pounds I gained from all that eating and drinking… and then some! 😉
But tomorrow is New Year’s Eve, so there’ll be one more celebration before I tighten my belt — literally!
We always go out to the same restaurant with two groups of friends on New Year’s Eve. We’ve been doing this for close to ten years now. It’s nice, because we never have to ask ourselves what we’re going to do on NYE! And we’re generally back home in plenty of time to ring in the new year just the two of us(on the rare occasions that we manage to stay up until midnight, that is…).
How about you? What did you do for your Christmas celebrations?
What do you have planned for New Years Eve?
Email me at daphneloveling@gmail.com and tell me — I’d love to hear from you!
It’s Christmas at the clubhouse.
Angel, Jewel, and the rest of the Lords of Carnage family are getting ready to celebrate the holiday.
But an unexpected visitor throws the club into turmoil,
Dredging up secrets from the past…
What will Christmas bring for the LOC?
Catch up with Angel and Jewel, Jenna and Ghost, Brooke and Beast, and the rest of the LOC couples and find out! ❤️
As my Merry Christmas gift to you, Forgiveness is on sale for 99 cents on Amazon for *one day only!*
*** As always, it’s FREE with Kindle Unlimited***
Happy Monday! I have an *awesome* giveaway for you:
Check out this ❤️Blizzard of Books!❤️
Follow all 12 authors on Bookbub for a chance to win a fabulous stack of TWELVE signed MC romance series starters from twelve of your favorite authors! 📚
One lucky winner’s Christmas will be especially merry and bright this year! Follow us on Instagram for bonus entries!
***Open internationally***
The contest runs from December 1 to December 15, 2019
“Oh my goodness, I am in love with this book! Bullet is my new book boyfriend.” Amazon 5-Star Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
“The engaging storyline is filled with action, excitement, deep emotions, bright splashes of humor, secrets, steamy passion and a truly heart melting romance.” Amazon 5-Star Review ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I was consumed by vengeance.
Living in a dark place that only fire and death can cleanse.
Then I found her.
She’s running from her past.
Closed off and afraid to accept help from anybody else.
She’s the light to my shadow.
She’s everything I want. Everything I need.
There’s no way I’m letting her walk out on what we have.
I’ll do anything — kill anyone – to save her from the trouble bearing down on her.
Six is mine. And I protect what’s mine.
A story of vengeance, loss, love and redemption. 𝑯𝑬𝑨𝒈𝒖𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒅.
BULLET is book 9 in the Lords of Carnage MC series, and can be read as a standalone. Note: A shorter, novella-length version of this story appeared in Wanted: An Outlaw Anthologyunder the title “Rebel Ink.”
“Is it the number of times you’ve broken a man’s heart?” he teases me. “Because if so, you’re about to make it number seven.”
I laugh in spite of myself. “No, that’s not it either. Face it, you’re never going to get it.”
“Would you tell me if I did?” Bullet challenges. He gives me a sexy wink. “Come on, now. I bet I already guessed weeks ago.”
“No, you honestly haven’t,” I tell him, flushing slightly.
Although he is right.
I wouldn’t tell him, even if he guessed.
The name I go by — Six — is a frequent source of interest and amusement here at Rebel Ink. Though, if you wanted to find a place where a weird first name would blend in, a tattoo parlor is probably one of your best bets. I work here as a receptionist and aspiring tattoo artist. I fit right in among Chance, Sumner, Hannah and Dez. Most of my customers hardly even blink when I tell them my name. Hell, a lot of them go by handles even stranger than mine.
Like Bullet, for example.
But so far, Bullet is the only one of our customers who’s been this insistent on trying to find out what my name means. The first time he came into the shop — all leather-clad, tattooed, and gorgeous — and introduced himself, I tried to deflect his question by pointing out that his name was just as weird as mine.
But then he immediately told me his real first name is Wyatt, and that Bullet is the road name given to him by the Lords of Carnage MC. Apparently, ‘road name’ is what motorcycle clubs call the nicknames their members go by. If he can be believed, Bullet has an actual bullet lodged in his body. Hence the choice of monikers.
And hence why he keeps insisting I need to reciprocate, and reveal to him why I go by Six.
Bullet leans forward now, one elbow propped up on the counter of the reception desk that separates us. He’s close enough to me that I can’t help but notice the flecks in his golden-brown eyes. Beneath his short, dark beard, one corner of his full mouth twitches with mischief.
“I think I know what Six stands for,” he murmurs in a low voice. There’s an intimacy to his tone that sends heat straight to my core. Dammit, this man has no business being this hot. I swallow audibly and try to look unaffected by his words.
“Oh yeah?” I retort, but my voice comes out a little less steady than I want it to.
“Yeah,” he breathes. “It’s the number of times I’m gonna make you come.”
Jesus. His words are so unexpected that I pull back in surprise, knocking a cup of pens and pencils off the counter and onto the floor. The clatter is loud, and I jump, pulse rate spiking as my heart starts to hammer in my chest.
“Sorry to startle you, darlin’.” Bullet gives me a wicked, satisfied smirk. He glances down at the mess I’ve created. “You need some help with that?” he asks, lifting an amused brow.
“No, no,” I mumble hastily as I bend down behind the counter to gather up the pens. I feel my cheeks flush even redder than before. Bullet loves to flirt with me when he comes into the shop, but my God. He’s never said anything remotely that direct before.
If it was any other guy, I’d give him a piece of my mind. I might even go as far as to tell the owner, Chance, that one of his customers was sexually harassing me.
But as I pick up the cup and pens with shaking hands, I realize there’s a reason I won’t say anything to Chance. And it isn’t because Bullet is a member of the Lords of Carnage MC — the local motorcycle club that gives our shop all of their tattoo business. It’s not even because I’m afraid of getting on the wrong side of a man who’s probably not used to being refused anything, by anyone.
The real reason I won’t say anything?
It’s because I’ve fantasized about exactly what Bullet just said.
Waymore than six times.
While I’m still down on the ground, I take advantage of the two or three seconds where I’m hidden from view to take some deep breaths and try to come up with a smart-alecky response — one that won’t reveal to Bullet how rattled I am. But thankfully, just as I’m picking up the last pen, my boss, Chance Armstrong, comes striding down the hall.
“Bullet. My man,” his booming voice calls out in greeting. “Shit, you’ve been in here a lot lately. You here for some more ink?”
I stand up awkwardly just in time to see Bullet turn and lift his chin at Chance. “Hey, man. Yeah.” He grins easily, spreading his hands. “What can I say? I got some time, and some space to fill.”
“This is the third tattoo in two weeks,” I point out, breathing a little sigh of relief that the subject has been changed. “I don’t know how you have any more space on your body left.”
For some reason, even saying the word bodyin reference to Bullet makes me shiver a little, but I try hard to ignore it.
Bullet glances at me, looking slightly feral. “Don’t worry, I still got some room.” He winks at me again, and my mind can’t help but slide into dangerous territory, wondering exactly where he is and isn’t tattooed.
A low thrum starts up on my skin, which feels almost electric. I try to ignore it, but it does no good.
“Shit, Bullet, I don’t have any open appointments until later this afternoon,” Chance frowns, glancing at the clock on the far wall. “I guess I can fit you in though, if you want to come on back.”
“Actually,” Bullet replies easily, “I was thinking Six could do the tat.”
What the what?
“Me?” I ask in surprise. I glance uncertainly from Bullet to Chance. “But… I mean… I’m still in training.”
“I trust you,” Bullet murmurs. “You’ve been training with Chance for a while now, right? He wouldn’t have taken you on if he didn’t have confidence in you.”
Actually, Chance took me on as a favor to Hannah. She started out here as a receptionist, too. Chance didn’t know me from Adam (or Eve) when I first walked in the door to Rebel Ink. I’ve worked my ass off to pay him back for taking a chance on me, learning everything I could and taking all the grunt jobs just to show him how thankful I am. So far, he’s never had any cause to complain about me. He’s even said once or twice that I’m a quick learner, and that I have a good eye.
Still, it’s one thing to do a simple flower on some twenty-year-old girl’s ankle. It’s entirely another to ink a member of an outlaw motorcycle club. I could completely ruin Rebel Ink’s reputation with the MC if I fuck it up. If Bullet’s tattoo turns out bad, and one of the other Lords asks about it, that would be enough to harm the shop. Which is why I look again at Chance, hoping like hell he’ll refuse.
But instead, he just gives us a brief nod and shrugs.
“Sure. I’ll have Dez come out and man the phones,” he says swiveling on his booted heel. “Come on back, Bullet. I can come in and supervise Six while she works.”
Desperately, I cast around in my head for some excuse to say no. But before I know it, Chance and Bullet are already walking down the hall toward one of the free rooms.
With a helpless sigh, I stand up and follow them, stomach already churning. On the way down the hall, Chance stops by Dez’s room and tells him to go out front and man the desk for me.
Then, almost before I know it, I’m sitting on a stool, with Bullet in front of me.
Looks like this is happening.
Well, shit. Here goes nothing, right?
* * *
BULLET will release on Amazon Thursday, November 7!
The other day, I asked my private Facebook readers’ group Daphne’s Divas what they would like me to write about in future blog posts and in my newsletter.
(By the way, if you aren’t a member of Daphne’s Divas but you want to be, all you gotta do is click here to join!).
I like to ask my Divas about this stuff because, left to my own devices, I would probably just fill my blog and newsletter with cat pictures. And on that note, here are some cat pictures. (Petunia is on the left, and that’s Nigel on the right.)
Okay. I get that my cats are cute as hell, and I can talk about them all day. But I should probably not let myself go down the Cat Lady rabbit hole. So instead, I’m going to start writing about some of the subjects my Divas told me they want to hear more about.
Here’s the first question, asked by Mercy P:
“I like to know about you because you are not only a great author but a great person, not everyone can write and make people feel so much emotion.”
First… Awww, can I just say, that gave me SO many warm fuzzies to read!! ❤️
Second… Okay. Here we go.
Author J.A. Huss recently did a blog/newsletter post on the occasion of her fiftieth birthday. And in it, she kind of summed up her life by decade. I decided after reading that post that I was going to do the same. So here is the abbreviated Story Of My Life.
I was born in a small town in northwest Iowa. I’m an only child. My mom was a secretary, and my dad was either a salesman or an assembly line worker for most of his career. The first four years of my life were spent in that small town. And then my dad, who always had a bit of wanderlust, moved our family to a town in Colorado, more or less on a whim. We lived in that town for two years, and then moved to Nebraska. Four years later, we moved again, to a new small town in southwest Iowa. And then a year later, to another town, elsewhere in Iowa.
All of that was in the first thirteen years of my life. It was a lot of moving. And a lot of being “the new girl.” I was shy, and bookish, and I had thick glasses that I sort of hid behind. I was outgoing and funny once you got to know me, but I was also a bit of a loner. I don’t know if I was that way by nature, or if it was something I learned by being moved around so much. But the end result either way was that I was a kid who was used to spending a lot of time alone.
And I was a reader. Oh, boy, was I a reader. I learned to read at four. My mom didn’t even know I could read by myself until one day when we were visiting a friend of hers who had two younger kids who were toddlers. Mom and her friend were in the kitchen chatting over coffee when she overheard me in the next room, telling a story to the two kids. She went in to investigate, and found me holding a Dick and Jane book, reading from it. She knew I was actually reading because we didn’t have any Dick and Jane books at home. I had never seen the book before.
As soon as we left her friend’s house, she immediately took me to the library, to get my first library card.
My love affair with books started early. And since I was so often alone and without friends in a new town, they were my refuge. Thankfully, my mom let me read pretty much anything I wanted to, and never sought to censor me. One of my favorite stories about this is about the summer I was eleven years old, and I read A Tree Grows In Brooklynfor the first time. (That is one of my very favorite books of all time, by the way). If you want to read about that story, I talk about it here in a blog post.
Books have always been like dear friends to me. They’ve gotten me through some hard times. They’ve taught me so much about life, and about worlds and people’s experiences. I feel that books have made me a more compassionate person. They’ve taught me to have sympathy and empathy for people whose lives are nothing like my own. I can’t imagine a world without books. My life would be so much less rich without them.
The second decade of my life, my teen years, were spent mostly in a smallish town in Iowa where we had finally settled down, for better or for worse. These years were not always easy. My parents were not getting along. My dad lost his job for almost two years. We almost lost our house, and but for the generosity of my grandparents giving my parents a large loan, we would have been homeless. The strain on our family was great. I got a job as soon as I possibly could, and did my best to be self-sufficient, and to try not to add to my parents’ stress. I was a pretty good student. I thankfully fell into a group of friends who were not, as they say, a “bad influence.” Honestly, I feel like I could have fallen into some pretty bad shit if it wasn’t for those friendships at a time where I really needed them.
I graduated high school. And one thing my mom had pushed on me since basically the time I could talk is that I WAS going to college. That was never in question, and if I had tried to resist, I think she might have actually put me in handcuffs and forced me there at gunpoint. Neither she nor my dad had been to college. My dad barely graduated high school, in fact. My mom had been very academically talented, but never had the opportunity to pursue a degree after high school. She was determined that I would not be the same.
The decade of my twenties was all about education. I went to college, and learned that even though I was pretty damn smart for my small high school, college was more of the big leagues. College was where I learned to work. It was where I learned that “I will” is more important than IQ. I ended up graduating with honors. And then I went to graduate school, surpassing my parents’ expectations.
If my twenties were about getting an education, my thirties were about teaching. They were also about my first, failed marriage. I had had relationships here and there along the way. Some of them were fine while they lasted. Others were… bad. Let’s just say bad. (Maybe I’ll do a blog post about that sometime in the future.) But when I met my future first husband, I was mesmerized. I really thought he was it, you know? He was an amazing boyfriend! He literally gave me flowers every single Friday for our entire relationship. Sounds great, right? Like, I used to tell people that with such pride! As though it was the proof that he really loved me. Proof that he was good.
The thing is…
What I didn’t know… what I didn’t SEE… was that he was doing that as kind of an insurance policy. And a way to manipulate me. To feel good about himself and give himself an out for basically anything else he did.
Because every time he did something shitty to me, he would never apologize. He would just act like I was too demanding. Or too sensitive. Or too… something. After all, he gave me flowers every week! He reminded me of that all. the. time. In his logic, if I didn’t appreciate him, it was because of something flawed in me.
Yeah, it was messed up. Once we actually tied the knot, the relationship got bad, fast. I was gaslighted, manipulated, mocked, belittled… oh, and then there was that time he tried to kill me. But that’s another story. Suffice it to say, the marriage itself only lasted three years. Thank God I had the sense to get out of there. I got divorced at 39. And it was one of the best decisions I ever made.
And then, not long after, I met future Mr. Loveling. And thus, began my forties.
It’s funny. They say that the forties are a time when a lot of people experience less happiness in their lives, before life satisfaction starts to pick up again around fifty. For me, though, I’d say it was almost the opposite.
Mr. Loveling is my perfect match in pretty much every way. And weirdly, meeting him actually made me gladabout my previous failed marriage. Because the shittiness of my life with husband #1 made me truly, deeply appreciate everything I have with Dave. He’s amazing. He’s kind. He’s funny. He’s romantic. And best of all, he loves with his whole heart. He doesn’t keep score. He doesn’t give me flowers as an insurance policy against ever having to apologize or admit he’s wrong. In fact, he never gives me flowers at all.
He just gives me him.
With Dave also came his two daughters. I never had children of my “own” – biological children. And I have to admit, I was a little intimidated at the idea of the stepmom gig. Because you hear tons of stuff about how hard it is, right? And wow, you hear about evil stepmothers from basically the time you’re born, in fairy tales and stuff.
Thankfully, though? All my fears were baseless.
Oh, sure. I’m not going to say there were never difficult moments. It turns out there’s no manual about how to be a stepmom. Or about how to be a step-kid. It’s not easy to figure some of that stuff out at first. But you know what? I honestly would not trade having my two bonus daughters for anything. I tell people I was, and am, so lucky to have won an “insta-family” when I met my husband. I feel so fortunate to have not only my husband, but his daughters, their partners, my younger daughter’s two sons (so I’m a grandma, too!), and also my parents-in-law, and my siblings-in-law. It’s all such a gift. Truly. Especially because my own parents died while I was in my late thirties. And I don’t have brothers and sisters. So someone/something was smiling down on me at precisely the right time, giving me a family at the exact moment I was losing the one I was born with.
My forties were also the decade I started writing fiction. And then, a few years ago, I decided to leave my teaching job and start writing full-time. I’ve been doing that for three years now. And because of all that, I’ve connected with you.
What will the decade of my fifties hold? I haven’t got a clue. All I know is, even though no one’s life is perfect, mine feels pretty great right now, all things considered. It’s crazy, isn’t it, that when you look back on your life, you never could have guessed some of the things that would happen? I definitely never would have predicted I’d be sitting at this computer this morning, writing the story of my life to my readers, as a full-time author.
A few weeks ago, Mr. Loveling and I realized that we (especially I) hadn’t had a vacation in a pretty long time.
I was really craving a little rest and relaxation, and a change of scenery and a break from my routine.
Funnily enough, about a day after we had that conversation, I was leafing through the travel section of the Sunday paper… and what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a gorgeous-looking spa and resort on a lake just a couple of hours from where we live in St. Paul, Minnesota!
Immediately, I started having visions of delicious margaritas sipped lakeside, with nothing to worry about but whether I should take a nap or read my book. I gave Mr. Loveling my best doe-eyed look and asked him if pretty pleasewe could plan a long weekend to visit my stepdaughter and her boyfriend, and stay at that resort for a night or two on the way?
Well, Mr. Loveling is helpless in the face of my considerable charms, so he agreed. I immediately jumped online and got us a reservation.
And friends: It. Was. Glorious.We were only there for a couple of days, but wow, was it relaxing. Good food, good drinks, flawless weather… We even got a couples massage together, which we had never done before.
My massage therapist told me I had one of the worst cases of “tech neck” she had ever felt. (Oops.) She spent most of the hour just working out the kinks in my neck and upper back. It hurt like hell (hello, deep-tissue massage) but I felt 100% better afterwards. And I realized I might have to start allowing myself to have monthly massages to counteract the effects of sitting at my desk and writing full-time.
As soon as we got back from our mini-vacay, I booked myself a massage for two weeks from now so that I won’t put it off. So I guess a little bit of our vacation followed me home after all. I hope I manage to keep it up.
Here are some pictures of the beautiful resort we stayed at! (I’m a bad photographer, so this is the best I could do, lol!)
Have a wonderful weekend, everyone! I hope you’re able to relax and enjoy it. For my US peeps, have a fantastic three-day Labor Day weekend! And for those of you in Florida in the path of Hurricane Dorian — please stay safe! <3
Today is the 3-year anniversary of my book CRASH: Stone Kings MC! This book has a special place in my heart, so I’m celebrating Levi and Cherish’s anniversary by setting CRASH to FREE on Amazon! Happy reading, and Happy Anniversary to one of my very favorite couples! <3
She’s a good girl … from a world I left behind years ago. One where virtue and purity are all that matter. She’s never learned about desire, about lust. And how a fire can burn so hot that you’ll risk anything to quench the flames.
I’m going to change all that. She’s got a body that was made for pleasure — she just doesn’t know it yet. And I’m just the bastard to teach her.
She’s come to me for protection from the cold, cruel world. Trouble is, the thing she needs protecting from most of all … is me.
CHERISH
He was just a name — my only chance to escape from the way I was raised. I went to him in desperation, hoping for help, for refuge.
I found a man unlike any I’ve ever known. And now I understand: purity is easy when there’s no temptation.
His touch fills me with forbidden longing. He sets me on fire … until burning up sounds like heaven.
So, I don’t blog super-regularly. I just do this sometimes so that I can connect with readers and just tell them about my life. So, whenever I do a blog post, you can be assured that this is uncensored, un-edited, and just me saying whatever.
It’s early August right now. Which, like WHAT THE FUCK? How in the hell has this summer gone so freaking fast?
I feel like I have barely had time to catch my breath. This summer has been a lot about me trying to take advantage of my own life. Which is weird. Like, why is it that I have this great life, where I get to work from home and write all the werdz every day and I get to be my own boss, but then somehow I STILL feel like I’m super stressed and that my life is out of control???
I honestly think that we all just put so much damn pressure on ourselves. It’s crazy. Like, I used to be a teacher, which meant that my salary was very regular, but it would never really get any bigger, because teachers sort of don’t get cost of living raises. So, I knew exactly what I was going to make for many years going forward, and I knew it would sort of shrink based on cost of living, but at least I had one specific number, you know?
And now that I’m a full-time author… my income varies WILDLY from month to month. I have never had this experience before. I honestly go into every new month just like, “Wheeeeee! Let’s see what this month earns me, shall we? Maybe it will be zero dollars, or maybe it will be a MILLION dollars!” (Spoiler alert: it’s NEVER a million dollars…)
I mean, it’s cool. You just have to budget better with this kind of life. You never really know what you’re going to make in a given month, so you have to be careful. That’s okay, because I’ve always been really careful with money. I’ve never had a lot, so, you know… you just learn to adapt, right?
But it’s weird that it all feels kind of random. You just really need to be conservative as hell. It’s fine. It’s just… different.
So… that’s kind of my blog post. I probably literally don’t have a lot to say. It’s just me, saying… I’m an author, paying the bills like any of you. Trying to budget.
I say this because sometimes I think readers have the impression that authors are a different species, or something. But we’re not. We have to keep the lights on. Just like y’all.
I’m really lucky because the work I do to keep the lights on, I can do in my jammies.
So, thank you all for that.
I know a lot of you are gearing up for back to school shopping now. Your budgets are tight. You’re trying to figure out what you can afford for each kid.
I’m lucky. Because my (step)kids are all grown now. But damn, do I remember the back to school shopping budget.
Stay strong, Mamas. You got this.
You are all amazing. I am so, so SOOOOO thankful for you.
Iron Heart is live on Amazon, readers! It just released, and as usual, I’m leaving it at 99 cents for a few short days. And as always, it’s free to read in Kindle Unlimited!
Tori and Dante’s story is especially close to my heart. The inspiration for Tori comes from a dear friend of mine, who shares Tori’s feistiness, her determined nature — and her riot of blond hair! 😄
Early reviews are already coming in, and readers are loving it — which makes me so happy!
Here’s what a few of them had to say about Iron Heart:
“This release has so much substance and creativity, I literally sat devouring it in one sitting. I just couldn’t put it down.” – Love051300, Bookbub review
“Daphne did it again. I have a new book boyfriend. Dante and Tori had sparks flying and it helps that he is an electrician. Can’t wait for the next book.” – Jennie, Amazon review
“I think this is my favorite Lords book yet!” – Cmew, Amazon review
“If you’re a fan of MC romance stories with an intriguing storyline and packed with drama, secrets, lies, suspense, betrayal, off-the-charts chemistry, action, and hot sex scenes, then you definitely need to read Iron Heart by Daphne Loveling.” – Cheryl, Goodreads review
Don’t miss out! Grab your copy of Iron Heart in time for the weekend! One-click now!
It’s cover reveal day! And an exclusive signed paperback giveaway just for you!
Hello, readers! I’m SOOO thrilled to write to you today to announce my latest upcoming new release!
IRON HEART, a standalone full-length romance novel in the Ironwood MC series, is coming to Amazon on July 25, 2019!
I hope you’ll be as excited as I am to dive in to Dante and Tori’s book! Cover reveal and book description are below.
Also, make sure to read all the way to the end of this blog post, because I’m also doing an exclusive signed paperback giveaway just for you!
DRUMROLL…..
💜💜💜IRON HEART 💜💜💜
Lords of Carnage MC: Ironwood Chapter
RELEASING: JULY 25, 2019
TORI
I’ve been living on borrowed time since I was born.
My dreams were big. But my reality cut them down to size.
The life I’ve settled for is small.
Safe.
Stifling.
Until I meet him.
He’s my forbidden fruit. My guilty pleasure. My greatest danger.
He has me dreaming of a life I never thought I could have.
He teaches me to hope. To want. To crave.
If I’m not careful, Dante D’Agostino will have me dreaming of happily ever afters.
And that’s the most dangerous dream of all.
DANTE
I don’t believe in miracles.
Fairy tales are for chumps.
In my world, only the strong survive, and love is a weakness.
Then I meet her.
She’s no princess in a tower.
She’s a fighter. A warrior.
She’s the strongest woman I know.
Before I knew it, she set my life ablaze.
Then, before I could stop her, she melted my iron heart.
This sure as f*ck ain’t no fairy tale. I don’t know what the f*ck it is.
This Lois Lane doesn’t need a superman. She doesn’t want a protector.
But protect her I will. With my life if I have to.
Tori Lowe has changed my life forever.
And I’m never going back.
Iron Heart is a complete standalone and a part of the Ironwood MC series
Since IRON HEART is almost here, I’m giving away three signed paperbacks of IRON WILL, the first book in the Ironwood series, to three lucky winners!
The giveaway will run from today through Saturday, July 27. I’ll pick and announce the 3 winners the following week. This contest is open internationally — so if you have a functioning mail service, you have a chance to win! 🙂
I realized the other day that it’s been a while since I did a blog post about… just stuff.
I’ve been working a lot lately the past few months — on the first book in the new Ironwood MC series, my novella for the Outlaws charity anthology (which I’m going to be turning into a full-length novel in a month or two), on my Christmas novella Dirty Santa, and most recently, on a short story for a charity anthology connected to the Motorcycles, Mobsters, and Mayhem book signing in April.
So, somewhere in all of that, I kind of forgot about this blog, and that it’s kind of fun to just come on here from time to time and talk about whatever, just for a few paragraphs. No editing, no thinking too much about what I want to say — just writing. To you.
So, today, I’m taking a little break from work to answer something I get asked a lot — especially by readers I meet in person at signings:
What is it like to be a full-time author?
Well. I have a lot I could say about this. Mostly good, some not so great. But all things considered, I do love being a full-time writer. It’s radically different from my prior life as an educator, for sure. So, here are some thoughts about what it’s like for me to do this as a career.
First, it’s really a job where you have to be good at setting deadlines for yourself and following through!
Being a writer, for me, means working at home most of the time. I’m alone in my office, every day, Monday through Friday. I don’t have a boss, other than myself. So, if I want to, I can just decide not to work today! I can go to the mall, and hang out, or go to my favorite place for a fancy lunch, or just go to a movie, or hell… go do a spa day! And hey, why not do the same thing tomorrow? And the next day? And the next…?
What will happen if I do that? Nothing! No boss will fire me. I won’t get “written up.” I won’t miss any important appointments. (Mr. Loveling might notice, and ask me what I’m doing, but other than that…)
So, if I don’t have the self-discipline to sit my ass in this chair every day and do the work… well, the work ain’t gonna get done. I won’t get that next book finished. My income will go down. I’ll disappoint my readers.
Some people need others to set deadlines for them, and the fear of being fired to spur them on. Some people aren’t cut out to be self-employed. Thankfully, so far I don’t seem to be one of them.
Second, it’s a job where introverts tend to thrive.
I think it would be really hard to be a writer if you were the type of person who really needs to be around other people. I spend my work days talking to no one but my cats. And that’s fine with me.
But: it’s also a job that makes it easy to disconnect with the outside world.
I actually do interact with a lot of people during my work day — on line, that is! I love the internet. It quite literally makes my job possible. It makes doing research much easier than it would have been thirty years ago. And it makes me able to talk to readers from all over the world, which is AWESOME. But: it also makes it very easy to just spend all day indoors and never go out and talk to real-world people. And since I’m an introvert, I’m not very bothered by that. But it’s not good for me. So I have to make an extra effort to see friends and meet new people, because I don’t have the built-in daily social interaction I used to have when I worked as an educator.
And: it’s really easy to neglect my physical health!
The thing about writing is, you have to sit in a chair to do it. (Unless you’re a writer who can use dictation, in which case you can write while taking a walk. But dictating doesn’t work for me.) And when I’m really being productive, it’s extremely easy for me to say to myself, “Hey, Daphne, let’s just skip the gym today. We’ll totally go tomorrow, though. Right? I mean, totally!”
Yeah. And then tomorrow comes and… nope. And the day after that… and the day after that…
The dumb thing about that is, I’m actually much more productive when I take time out of the day to get some exercise. Raising my heart rate for a while, and getting my head out of the book I’m writing, is incredibly rejuvenating! Time and time again, I have found that when I’m exercising regularly, my writing is the better for it.
So… why is it so damn hard for me to remember that? 😀
Good question! All I know is, it’s a constant struggle for me. Like right now: I decided to take a break from working. And what did I decide to do instead?
REBEL INK is a new standalone novella in the Lords of Carnage MC universe. It will appear for a limited time in WANTED: AN OUTLAW ANTHOLOGY.
Release Date: January 8th, 2019
Pre-order your limited edition copy of Wanted: An Outlaw Anthology here for only 99 cents: books2read.com/wantedanthology
CHAPTER ONE
Six
“Is it the number of times you’ve broken a man’s heart?” he teases. “Because if so, you’re about to make it number Seven.”
I laugh in spite of myself. “No, that’s not it either. Face it, you’re never going to get it.”
“Would you tell me if I did?” Bullet asks. “I bet I already guessed, weeks ago.”
“No, you honestly haven’t,” I tell him.
Although he is right.
I wouldn’t tell him, even if he guessed.
The name I go by, Six, is a frequent source of interest and amusement here at Rebel Ink, where I work as a receptionist and aspiring tattoo artist. Though, if you wanted to find a place where a weird first name would blend in, a tattoo parlor is probably one of your best bets. I fit right in among Chance, Sumner, Hannah and Dez. Most of my customers hardly even blink when I tell them my name. Hell, a lot of them go by handles even stranger than mine.
Like Bullet, for example.
So far, Bullet’s the only one of our customers who’s been this insistent on trying to find out what my name means. The first time he came into the shop and introduced himself, I tried to deflect his question by pointing out that his name was odd, too.
But then he immediately told me his real first name is Wyatt, and that Bullet is his “road name,” which is what motorcycle clubs call the nicknames their members go by. Apparently, Bullet has an actual bullet lodged in his body. Hence the choice of monikers.
And hence, the fact that ever since he’s been telling me that since he told me all this, I need to reciprocate and tell him why I go by Six.
Bullet leans closer, one elbow propped up on the counter of the reception desk. He’s close enough now that I can see the flecks in his golden-brown eyes. Beneath the short, dark beard, a corner of his mouth twitches with mischief.
“I think I know what Six stands for.” He murmurs the words deep and low, like they’re just for me.
My heart does a little flop in my chest as I swallow and try to look unaffected. “Yeah?” I challenge, hearing that my voice is a little less steady than I want it to sound.
“Yeah,” he rumbles. “It’s the number of times I’m gonna make you come.”
Jesus. His words are so unexpected that I pull back in surprise, knocking a cup of pens and pencils off the counter and onto the floor. The clatter is so loud that I jump.
“Sorry to startle you, darlin’.” Bullet gives me a lazy smirk. “You need some help with that?”
“No, no,” I mumble as I bend down behind the counter to gather up the pens. I feel my cheeks flush with heat. Bullet loves to flirt with me when he comes into the shop, but he’s never said anything remotely that… direct before. If it was any other guy, I’d give him a piece of my mind, and probably even tell the owner, Chance, that one of his customers was sexually harassing me.
But as I pick up the cup with shaking hands, I realize the reason I won’t say anything to Chance isn’t just because Bullet is a member of the Lords of Carnage MC — the motorcycle club that gives our shop all of their business. It’s not even because I’m afraid of getting on the wrong side of a guy who is probably not very used to being refused anything, by anyone.
The real reason I won’t say anything?
It’s because I’ve fantasized about exactly what Bullet just said.
Way more than six times.
While I’m still down on the ground, I take advantage of the two or three seconds where I’m hidden from him to try to come up with a response that won’t show Bullet how rattled I am. But thankfully, just as I’m picking up the last pen, my boss, Chance Armstrong, comes striding down the hall.
“Bullet. My man,” his booming voice calls out in greeting. “Shit, you’ve been in here a lot lately. You here for some more ink?”
I stand up awkwardly just in time to see Bullet turn and lift his chin at Chance. “Hey, man. Yeah,” he grins. “What can I say? I got some time on my hands, and some space to fill.”
“This is the third tattoo in two weeks,” I point out, breathing a little sigh of relief that the subject has been changed. “I don’t know how you have any space on your body left.”
For some reason, even saying the word body in reference to Bullet makes me shiver a little, but I try hard to ignore it.
Bullet glances at me, looking slightly feral. “Don’t worry, I still got some room left.”
“I don’t have any appointments until this afternoon,” Chance frowns. “I can fit you in though, if you want to come on back.”
“Actually,” Bullet replies, “I was thinking Six could do the tat.”
“Me?” I ask in surprise. I glance uncertainly from Bullet to Chance. “But I’m still in training.”
“I trust you,” Bullet murmurs. “Chance wouldn’t have taken you on if he didn’t have confidence in you.”
Actually, Chance took me on as a favor to Hannah, who started out as a receptionist here, too. Chance didn’t know me from Adam (or Eve) when I first walked in the door to Rebel Ink with her. I’ve worked my ass off to pay him back for taking a chance on me, learning everything I could and taking all the grunt jobs just to show him how thankful I am. Thankfully, he’s never had any cause to complain about my work. He’s even said once or twice that I’m a quick learner and I have a good eye.
Still, it’s one thing to do a rose on some twenty year-old girl’s ankle. It’s entirely another to ink a member of an outlaw motorcycle club. One that could ruin the shop’s reputation with the club if I fuck up.
I look toward Chance, hoping he’ll help me out of this situation. But instead, he just gives us a brief nod and shrugs. “I’ll have Dez come out and man the phones,” he says. “Come on back, Bullet. I can comein and supervise in between my appointments.”
Desperately, I cast around in my head for some excuse. But Chance and Bullet are already walking down the hall toward one of the free rooms. With a helpless sigh, I stand up and follow them. Chance stops by Dez’s room and tells him to go out front.
Then, almost before I know what’s happening, I’m sitting on a stool, with Bullet on the table in front of me.
Looks like this is happening.
Well, shit. Here goes nothing, right?
Pre-order your limited edition copy of Wanted: An Outlaw Anthology here for only 99 cents: books2read.com/wantedanthology
Did you know that GHOST is now an audiobook, too? Yup!
AND it’s available via Whispersync on Amazon, too!
Whispersync is Amazon’s technology that lets readers switch back and forth between a Kindle book and Audible professional narration – without ever losing your place.
The way it works is that you first buy the Kindle book, and then for Whispersync enabled books you can add the Audibile audiobook to the purchase
GHOST is narrated by the awesome Troy Duran as Ghost and Jillian Macie as Jenna.
So, I was at a writing conference a couple of months ago, in Ecuador. I was one of the presenters there. I did two presentations. One of them, at the request of the conference organizers, was about how to write a sex scene.
When they asked me if I could do a talk on that, I said, “Sure! I have strong opinions on that!” (Anyone who knows me knows I have strong opinions on a lot of things.)
But as the date got closer, I started to think about preparing my talk. And I realized, oh, my God. I am going to be standing in front of 30-40 people talking about sex! That’s, uh…
Embarrassing.
Frightening.
Horrifying.
And potentially hilarious, if I’m gonna be honest.
Because sex is embarrassing to talk about. And one use of humor or laughter is for humans to diffuse situations that are embarrassing.
So, sexual humor is often a mask for our embarrassment in talking about it.
And, maybe, our obsession with it.
And it stands to reason, then, that it’s also embarrassing to write about.
Also, there are SOOOO many bad sex scenes out there! You know what I mean. A lot of romance readers tell me they often skip oversex scenes in books, because they’re just badly written. Which I totally get. Because, secret? I do, too.
Today’s post is a little more focused on the writing part of romance, for the authors and aspiring authors out there. It’s also a little longer than most of my blog posts. But I hope that the readers will be interested in it, too. Ready? Here we go!
As a romance author, I read a lot of romance novels. And even in some of them where the story is good, I sometimes find myself skipping over the sex scenes. Because they can actually be really boring, with NOT AS MUCH EMOTIONAL DEVELOPMENT AS IN THE REST OF THE BOOK!
BORING might be the worst possibility…
In those books, these scenes are sort of just placeholders to me. Like, in my brain, I just say, “And then they have sex,” and turn the page to get back to the actual relationship development.
OR maybe there IS worse than boring.
FUNNY is worse. As in, laughing at the language or the positions or… CRINGE-Y. Sheesh. There’s nothing more embarrassing than a scene that’s supposed to be sexy but just makes you go, “EEEEK, yeah, no!”
So. How DO you write a good sex scene?
Well, I may not be the world’s leading expert, but judging from what my readers say, I do a pretty good job. Here are some thoughts.
FIRST: THINK ABOUT WHY THE SEX SCENE IS THERE
It depends on the genre, of course. But assuming the sex is supposed to be pleasurable, it’s there to communicate something about the relationship between the characters, of course. A change in relationship? Or a deepening of a relationship? Or a sameness in the relationship? Is it first-time adolescent fumbling? Is it comfortable, long-time married sex? Is it a fling between two people who know they have no future together? All those things make a difference, and are going to be communicated through the way the characters experience the encounter.
Now, of course, I write romance. So, I write about sex between two people who are falling in love. I generally end up having about three sex scenes in my book. And it’s not really that I count them. It’s just the way the relationships tend to develop in my books. I’m a big fan of the “slow burn.” That’s when the two main characters try as hard as they can to resist each other, but in the end they just can’t take it anymore and fall into each other’s arms. So in my books, the characters never really have sex until about halfway through the book. So the first half has a lot of smoldering sexual tension.
That’s really important, the sexual tension. You have to build it up like a pressure cooker, until things get too hot and they explode. So, I like to say, the sex scene doesn’t start with the first kiss or touch. It starts with the first time the two characters meet. Make sure you’re not just tossing them in bed together when you decide they want to have sex. Prepare them. Make sure you’re developing their emotional relationship as well as their attraction for each other. Prepare the reader. Make us all want it – craveit – so by the time they do fall into bed together, the reader is SOOO happy! FINALLY, I’ve been WAITING for it and here it finally is!
NEXT: HEAT LEVELS
I’m not going to say too much about this, but if you’ve ever read any romance, you know there are lots of different sub genres to the main genre. Right? Cowboy romance, regency, sweet, Christian, small town, steamy contemporary… There are really way too many to list here. If you write romance, or you want to write romance, you had better know what your subgenre is. And the explicitness of your sex scenes will be dependent on the subgenre you choose. Make sure you know what is expected within that genre. You have to read your genre in order to know how to write your genre.
ANTICI….PATION!
I am a huge fan of the slow burn in romance stories. I simply hate it when two characters fall into bed in chapter 2. Because romance is nothing without the sexual and relationship tension. After all, we know how it ends: Happily ever after! Or at least, happy for now. If it wasn’t for the anticipation part, we could just skip to the end, read the last chapter, and blow off the rest of the book, right?
So. The characters need to fight their feelings for each other. That’s true of the romance part, but also for the sex part, in my view.
EMOTION is REALLY important in a good sex scene! And if they don’t have an emotional relationship/feelings for each other, the sex is going to be hard to write in a way that’s convincing.
Remember: the sex scene doesn’t start with the first touch or kiss. It starts with the first time they meet. The looks they steal at each other. The hitch in their breath when their eyes meet. The way their heart speeds up, or their skin flushes. Those physical reactions to the other person’s presence. Don’t neglect those. Give the reader some foreplay. Then finally, when they FINALLY touch, we know how much they’ve been dying for it. And the reader has been dying for it, too! Remember, they say the brain is the biggest sex organ. Give them brains. And give the reader access to their thoughts!
Which brings me to:
POINT OF VIEW (POV)
What point of view is the book written in? Is it 3rd person? 1stperson alternating? Whatever point of view it is, the reader still needs to get into the heads of at least one of the characters. What are they thinking about the other person? What are the naughty thoughts that they would be SO embarrassed if the other person found out they were thinking? What are their fantasies of what the other person’s lips would feel like? What they want to do, or have done to them? Remember your choice of narration affects how much you can get into their heads, and in what ways.
USING ALL THE SENSES
Think about the little details you notice when you’re attracted to someone. The rasp of their voice. The curve of a neck. That really delicious V of a hot guy’s torso. Think about things that your character can notice or imagine about the other person in anticipation. Try to be creative. Little details are more than just the obvious. And try to make the things they notice actually reflect on the character/noticer’s personality. (If you don’t have particular characters and this is for the future: Think of a time when you were attracted to someone and wanted a relationship to develop. Make yourself into the character for your author to write about. What do you as the character notice?) Think of things you notice from each of the five senses: sight, hearing, taste (this might just be that you taste whiskey on his tongue, for example), smell, touch.
THE ACT
EEK! Here we are! We’re gonna have sex! Oh boy!
Okay. SO. This is the nuts and bolts (LOL – I said nuts!) of the sex scene.
This is a lot more than “insert Tab A into Slot B”, right?
So. Let’s break it down. Think everything through that we just talked about.
What is this scene ABOUT? Yes, it’s about sex, but it’s ALWAYS more than that. How to think through what this scene is doing to advance or reveal the characters internal conflicts and the delicious push-pull of falling in love or in lust.
Begin with the end in mind– no, this doesn’t mean skipping foreplay! Emotional content and always be thinking about what this scene will do to advance the relationship. It’s “not” sex.
The vocabulary appropriate to your heat level (again, read it to write it…)
The five senses (again) — remember to use them during the whole act!
RHYTHM! This isn’t something we’ve talked about yet, but it’s super-important. It’s about tension, and how to create it. Your sex scene may involve a change in style, as the primal mind takes over. You’re narrating what’s going on in the character’s head just as much — if not more– than the physical aspects/description. Talk about breathing, changes in body temp, etc. Sex is titillating, but it’s also part of the dance. Use it to reveal their internal fears and external conflicts as well.
You can use language more poetically here, to convey the characters’ feelings in the sentence structure and pacing. As their brain gets more excited, and they get more involved, you can use some poetic license: Run on sentences might be fine, because they imitate stream of consciousness, the breathlessness of the moment… don’t be afraid to do this, at least in the first draft. Let yourself get caught up in the moment. You can read it over later and decide whether to change things.
ONE LAST THING: Don’t get TOO caught up!
Don’t forget that you have to keep track of the reality that the characters are in a physical space. They need a place to lie down, or brace themselves against, etc. Is it hard? Soft? Slippery? rough? They also have clothes on at the beginning, probably. How are you going to get them off? It can be helpful to think through all this at the beginning, so you don’t spend too much time puzzling through how to get rid of a bra or a pair of pants while you’re trying to find the rhythm of the scene.
FINALLY: THE AFTERMATH!
Don’t forget that the characters will be thinking about this awesome sex afterwards. What will their reaction to it be? How will it change them and the relationship? How will it change the story? If the sex scene really needs to be in the book, it WILL change the story. If it doesn’t, then it’s not meaningful enough. It either doesn’t need to be there, or it needs to be changed so that it has more importance in the characters’ lives. After the scene, both characters need to be thinking some form of “this changes everything!” And if it’s in the middle of the book — helping to develop the plot — it ought to (at least temporarily) make things WORSE! Oh my God, I just slept with my boss! Oh my God, how am I going to handle having to see this person every day from now on?! AAAAAHHHH!
Well, that’s it! My strong opinions on sex scenes! I hope it was entertaining. I enjoyed it, for sure! But it also gave me a huge excuse to procrastinate on my daily writing quota for my next book… OOOPS! 😀 So, I should probably stop here, go grab a cup of coffee, and get right on that.
Strong, feisty women and the hot-as-hell outlaw men who can’t resist them. Action, romance, and the loyalty of the Lords of Carnage MC — all in one huge package!
They call me Ghost for a reason. Silent and in the shadows, I don’t make my move until I am absolutely sure of everything.
Four years ago I was sure about Jenna. My best friend’s kid sister had grown up into a spitfire I couldn’t resist.
One night we stopped resisting…
We promised we’d keep it a secret. It was a one-time mistake, but we’d put it behind us. Jenna left but I kept my word.
Jenna tried to get out of our corrupt town, but it pulled her back in again. Now she needs help. She needs protection. I’ll do all of that for her, if she’ll just shut the hell up and let me. She can even keep all of her secrets, except for one…
HAWK
I lost everything years ago. My brother. My family. Everything that ever meant anything to me.
Now the Lords of Carnage are my life. Anything I need, the club provides. Anything else is unimportant.
At least, that’s what I tell myself until I meet Samantha Jennings. She stirs something inside me I haven’t felt for years. Back when I had hope. Back when I thought life would give you what you asked for if you wanted it bad enough.
Wanting is dangerous. I’ve learned that lesson. But when I look in those deep brown eyes, I want Samantha. I want to possess every inch of her body — to hear her call my name when she loses herself in pleasure.
If I was smart, I’d push her the hell away. Do anything to make her hate me.
But I know I won’t. I’ll never stop until I have her. Even if it destroys us both.
BRICK
Sassy, sexy, and hot-headed,
She came into town like a wildfire.
She’s got secrets, I can tell.
But Sydney Banner’s keeping her cards close to her chest.
She can fight it all she wants,
But as the Enforcer for the Lords of Carnage,
I have a way of getting what I want.
And I want her in my bed.
Every. Damn. Night.
She says she doesn’t need protecting.
I know better.
My inner caveman is in overdrive. Something’s keeping Sydney from telling me the whole truth.
She doesn’t want a savior. But this time, she doesn’t have a choice.
I’ll do whatever it takes to keep her safe.
GUNNER
I live by the cut. It’s a brotherhood.
Sex, crime, and power.
It’s all I know, and all I care to know.
But when I see the sexy, feisty little number, in over her head at the biker bar,
I want to pummel the son of a bitch who threatens her.
Taking Alix back to my club for protection is all I can do.
Even though hell, I want to do so much more.
She wonders if I’m dangerous. Loaded question…
But she needs my help anyway. She has to know I’m her only hope to find her sister, before the clock runs out.
And after that, Alix is mine.
Whether she knows it or not.
It’s time to meet Beast and Brooke —
I hope you’ll LOVE their story!
I truly fell in love with them when I wrote it. It’s a second-chance romance that will melt your heart
(and your panties)!
Also, as a special incentive, I’ve included GHOST — the first book in the Lords of Carnage series — as a free bonus book!
So if you haven’t read the series yet, now’s the perfect time to start!
Ever seen this hilarious clip of Homer Simpson about alcohol?
Yeah… that’s kinda how I feel as an author about the internet sometimes.
Ahh, the internet. To be honest, I can’t imagine being an author without it. How did writers manage to do their research without it, back in the day?
I mean, I know how they did it. They went to the library. They went undercover with the cops. They consulted experts. They talked to people who lived the things they wanted to write about.
Which I do, too. (Well, maybe not the library one. Or the cops one. Yet.) But wow, it must have taken SO much time, and so much effort. It’s no wonder that most successful authors in the past were people (mostly men) with money, and time to do this stuff.
But me? Now, if I need to find a person who has lived through something I want to write about, I can connect with someone online. If I need to find out a fact, or a date, or something like that, there’s Google. If I need to watch an open-heart surgery, I can even do that, on YouTube! It’s amazing! For someone who has a thirst for knowledge like me, it’s a fantastic tool. Not to mention, it certainly speeds up the research process. It used to be that writing a book a year was lightning-fast. I wrote six books last year alone. And that’s not even that fast, by romance author standards.
So, the solution to all my problems, right?
Yeah… Except… Facebook. And Twitter. And all the news and information sources I read. And the cat videos people send me. And… and… and…
And this blog. Seriously, I AM SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING CHAPTER SIX OF BEAST RIGHT NOW!!!!!
Damn, the internet is a DISTRACTION! It’s such a distraction that I literally came on the internet to whine to all of you about what a distraction it is — hence, it has just become even more of a distraction. And let’s not even get started about the rabbit holes I frequently fall down when I’m doing research for something. What I think will be a simple search can turn into an hour-long fact-finding mission. Or, I will find the information right away, but the article it’s in is so fascinating that I have to read the whole thing, and then it links to something else that’s even more interesting. And when I’m done with that, I just HAVE to get on Facebook and share this cool thing I’ve just learned…
And then I’m back in social media hell.
What is the point of all this rambling?
It’s mostly just a vent. Which the internet is GREAT for, too. If I didn’t have it right now, I wouldn’t have anyone to complain to, at all. (Except my cats, and they don’t care.)
Except… if there wasn’t internet, I wouldn’t be wanting to complain about the internet…
(Sigh.)
Okay. Back to work. For real, now.
(This rant brought to you by the Daphne Loveling Society for Useless Internet Rants.)
THORN, my latest Lords of Carnage book, is coming out in just a few days! It’s the story of a hot-blooded Irishman who’s a cold-blooded killer, and the woman he’s sworn to protect.
Here’s a special sneak peek of Chapter 1, just for you!
CHAPTER 1
ISABEL
“Izzy, come on!” my best friend Deb cries.
“Jeez, I’m coming!” I retort, trying not to wobble on these insanely high heels I borrowed from her.
The back entrance we’re heading toward definitely doesn’t look like it’s for customers. But the dimly-lit parking lot of the roadhouse was full, so Deb ended up having to park way in back, next to a dumpster. We’re not wearing coats against the early November chill, and this door was propped open with a rock, so of course Deb made a beeline for it to get inside as quickly as possible.
I shoot one last glance back into the parking lot, just to check for myself that there’s no one watching or following us. Reassured, I slip through the heavy steel door behind my friend.
Buzzy’s Roadhouse is a few miles outside the city limits. I’ve never been here before, but Deb says she came here once with her brother. The building itself is a wreck. The outside is poorly constructed clapboard and faded siding that makes it look like it’s likely to fall down in the next strong storm. Inside, it smells like smoke and body odor. The lights are so dim you can barely see anything.
Buzzy’s is known for being a dangerous place. Somewhere no “decent” girl would go — especially unaccompanied by a male companion. People turn in curiosity to look at Deb and me as we walk in. We’re clearly not regulars, and they probably think we’re scared. Or at least, that we should be.
But most people don’t know my father, or the family I grew up in. This? This is nothing.
Deb, on the other hand, probably ought to have thought twice before coming here. Or at least she should be less eager and excited than she is. But as long as I’ve known her, Deb has never been afraid of anything. She’s always been the kind of girl to run toward the fire instead of away from it.
Paradoxically, of the two of us, I’m the more cautious one. Not because I’m afraid, but because my life has had more than enough chaos in it already.
Deb’s dad is an important lawyer in our town. She grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth. But hey, we always want what we don’t have, right? So of course, Deb has always been tempted by walking on the wild side, the wrong side of the tracks. She loves the idea of coming here to Buzzy’s to find some dangerous, shady guys to flirt with.
As for me, I’m usually happy to curl up with a book and spend my evening that way. But these days, since I’ve basically been under house arrest for the last month, I was more than willing to break out and have a little fun at Deb’s request. Besides, as shabby and potentially dangerous as Buzzy’s is, it does have two major things going for it.
One: none of the dumbasses we knew from high school are likely to be here.
And two: neither is anyone from my dad’s club.
Once we’re inside, I finally start to relax. The prospect of a couple of hours of freedom is a happy one. I follow Deb through a dubious-looking hallway. We pass a couple of closed doors with faded, smoke-stained signs labeling them. As we go by the men’s bathroom, a door opens, and a large, beer-gutted man comes out. The stench he leaves behind wafts into the hallway. I reflexively wrinkle my nose and take a step back in disgust. But Deb, excited as she is, doesn’t even seem to notice.
“Come on!” she calls again, reaching back to grab my hand. She practically drags me toward the bar, and I almost stumble on my high heels trying to keep up with her.
Inside the main room, the din of music and voices is deafening. The smell of sweaty bodies is worse in here. It’s just short of stifling. My lungs feel like they need a big, deep gulp of fresh air, but there’s none to be had in this crowded room. Instead, I take shallow breaths through my mouth and try to ignore the odors.
Deb makes a beeline for the bar to get us drinks. I watch as she stands up to balance on her tiptoes, and leans over the counter to yell our order to the bartender. Her breasts half-spill provocatively from her low-cut dress; the barman stares openly and gives her a wolfish grin.
While she’s busy, I take a moment to look around. The place is packed almost wall to wall with people. Most of the men are large, hairy and tattooed, with muscles running to fat. The women are younger, with a few exceptions. They’re tarted up, like me, and dressed like offerings to the male population. Clothing-wise, I’m certainly not out of place, although my sluttiest black dress and Deb’s heels are actually a little on the conservative side compared to most women here.
Though I’m certainly not scared, I’m already starting to wonder if coming to Buzzy’s was a good idea. I came here for a rare night out with my BFF, and away from the gaze of my overprotective father. But I’m starting to wish we’d chosen someplace a little tamer, with a little less testosterone. Sure, I wouldn’t mind a little flirting myself. And maybe I was hoping in the back of my mind that there’d be a hot guy my age to do a little lip-locking with. But right now, as the hungry gazes of the males in this bar start to shift toward me, I’m starting to feel like a piece of packaged meat on display. With a neon sign overhead that says eat me.
“Here!” Deb calls into my ear, handing me a plastic cup full of beer. “You can get the next round.”
I accept the cup from her. We raise our glasses in a mock toast, and I take a drink. It’s cold and soothing against the smoke that’s burning my throat. I let out a sigh of pleasure, even though the beer itself isn’t that good.
“Have you noticed how many guys are staring at us?” I murmur into Deb’s ear.
“I know!” she crows happily, and flips her hair back in a flirty, seductive move. “I told you this place would be cool.”
“That’s not what I…” I shoot back, but before I can finish my sentence, a tall, stocky man with a long dark beard comes up behind Deb and grabs her around the waist.
“Well, well, well, darlin’, haven’t seen you here before!” the man bellows. “You look good enough to eat!”
Deb laughs and moves out of his grasp to look at him. “Hey,” she simpers, cocking her head at him.
“I’m Ralph,” he says.
“Deb,” she answers. “And this is my friend Izzy.”
“You girls are new around here,” he says, looking each of us over slowly and with obvious pleasure. “I’da noticed you around.”
“You a regular, then?” I reply. Distaste tinges my voice, but he doesn’t seem to notice. He’s not bad looking, honestly, although he’s not really my type. But he’s so obviously looking to score with anything in a skirt that I’m immediately turned off. Deb, however, doesn’t seem to share my feelings.
“Here every weekend,” he says proudly. I just manage to stop myself from snorting. “Wished I’d seen you before. I coulda bought your drinks for you.”
“There’s always the next round,” Deb smirks, and bats her eyes at him. Oh, brother.
Ralph takes this for the invitation it probably is, and takes a step toward Deb. He pulls her close and cops a feel of her ass. “You are tasty,” he leers.
“How would you know?” Deb shoots back. “You haven’t tasted me yet.”
Then before I even know what’s happening, Ralph’s tongue is so far down Deb’s throat I’m pretty sure he’s checking to see whether she still has tonsils.
If you’ve ever had to stand around while two people suck face in front of you, you’ll have some idea of how awkward this is. I take a long sip of my beer, and look around the room like the clientele is fascinating. But when I look back, Deb and Ralph are still going at it. Ralph’s got his hand on her thigh and he’s inching his hand under her dress. Deb’s not doing anything to stop him. In exasperation, I wonder whether they’re going to start going at it right here, in full view of everyone.
“Um, guys?” I say snarkily. “Really?”
Deb breaks away from Ralph’s mouth and gives me a little pout. “Come on, Izzy. We’re just having a little fun.”
Ralph looks up at me, and flashes me a wink that he probably thinks is sexy. “Are you ladies a twofer?” he asks with a leer.
Ugh. Gross. “No,” I reply crossly, but Deb actually laughs.
“What’s the matter, handsome? Am I not enough for you?” she whines, placing a hand on his forearm.
“More than enough,” he growls. “Let’s take this somewhere else. I got a truck out in the parking lot. Back seat of the cab’s pretty comfy.”
Deb flashes me a half-apologetic glance. “I’ll be back in a few, Iz, okay?”
Suppressing a sigh, I wave her off. “Fine. I’ll be here.”
“The offer still stands,” Ralph tells me. I shoot him a disgusted look. “Suit yourself, candy ass.”
Ralph leads Deb out the front door, nodding to the bouncer on the way. I take a deep breath and let it out, then look toward the bar for a free stool. Looks like I’m going to be here for a little while.
With a little difficulty, I slide up onto the only unoccupied bar stool I see and try to make myself invisible. I’d much rather be an observer than one of the observed, especially while Deb is off having fun with Ralph. Absent-mindedly, I finger the small gold starfish that I wear on a chain around my neck and glance around the room. It’s kind of amusing, actually. The guys in this bar are all puffing and posturing, trying to look tough and dangerous. They don’t scare me, though. They look like pansies compared to the guys in my dad’s club, the Death Devils. My dad, Oz, is the president of the MC. And as much as I’ve grown to hate the club and everything associated with it, I have to admit they’re ten times the men that these guys are.
Still, I’m definitely attracting attention, and I can tell I’m not going to be alone for much longer. Reflexively I reach in my purse and finger my pepper spray, reassured that it’s there in case I need it.
“Hey. You look lonely.” A hint of beer breath comes wafting toward my nostrils. Grimacing slightly, I turn to see a greasy-looking guy with unwashed shoulder-length hair staring at me with an expectant grin.
“No. I’m really not,” I tell him, and turn away. But of course, he’s not about to be deterred so easily.
“Oh, come on, girly. Give me a smile. I bet you’re beautiful when you smile.”
Ugh. “Sorry, but I don’t owe you a smile, or anything else. I just want to sit her and be left alone, thanks.”
I should have known my refusal would set the greasy stranger off. “You’re kind of a bitch, you know that?” he snarls.
“Yeah. I know,” I hurl back. “So leave me the fuck alone.”
Asshole leans over in the other direction and mutters something, and then a moment later there’s a second man standing in front of me. “What the fuck is your problem, bitch?” he challenges me. “My friend here was just trying to offer you a drink.”
“No, he wasn’t,” I retort. “He was trying to get into my pants. Which are closed for business. So there’s no need to keep making conversation.”
I turn away towards the bar, but the second guy grabs my bicep and pulls me back around.
“What are you, a fuckin’ dyke?” He’s towering over me now, flecks of spittle appearing on his lips as his face contorts into an angry mask. I know he thinks he’s scaring me, but fuck that shit. I’ve had enough of this bullshit.
“Yep. I’m a fuckin’ dyke,” I agree, and stand. “Now, if you’ll excuse me. I’m gonna go into the ladies room, and find a hot young girl to eat out, because I know I’ll do a better job of it than any of the clowns in this bar can.”
I stand up and try to shake the second guy’s hand off my arm, but he tightens his grip and wrenches me toward him. Bracing myself against the bar for balance, I bring my spiked heel down hard on his foot, crushing it against his boot and breaking off the heel in the process. But it’s enough: the guy lets go of my arm and howls in pain.
I make a break for it before the first asshole can grab me, limp-running through the bar toward the hallway where we came in. I don’t stop at the bathroom, in case they decide to stand outside the door and wait for me. Instead, I head through the back door out into the parking lot where we came in.
Outside, I keep going until I’m far enough away that I’m not easily seen from the back entrance. In spite of myself, my heart is pounding a little bit as I take a few deep breaths and look around to assess my situation. I’m safe, but my shoe is fucked. And I’m without transportation until Deb is through boinking Ralph in the back of his truck.
The night air is cool, but not so cold that I can’t stay out here for a while. I wander over to Deb’s car and lean against it. I send her a quick text, which she predictably does not respond to.
For a few minutes, I wait on high alert. No one who looks like the guys who were harassing me comes out the back or the front, so I start to relax a little. I do a scan of the parking lot , looking for a rocking truck, but there are so many pickups here that I’ll never be able to see Ralph’s in the dark. Since walking is kind of a hassle right now, I settle in to wait for them to finish, figuring I’ll catch up with them when they head back toward the bar. Taking out my phone, I decide to pass the time by checking social media for a while.
It’s my own stupid fault that I’m not paying as much attention as I should to the comings and goings in the parking lot. My father’s trained me better than this, but for some reason his training has momentarily gone out the window. Which is why the soft rustling behind me doesn’t register in my conscious brain for a second.
Turns out, it’s a second too long.
Before I know what’s happening, a rough hand has clamped itself over my mouth. My phone flies from my hands as my arms are wrenched behind my back. I start to scream as a hood is pulled roughly over my head. Before I can try to thrash away, my wrists are bound, and I’m being lifted and carried in the opposite direction from the bar.
I hear a van door open, and I’m tossed roughly into the back. Whoever nabbed me climbs in beside me, making the shocks dip, and the door slides shut. A key turns, the engine starts, and the van pulls away and accelerates quickly, driving off into the night.
It’s December, and as I write this it’s ten days until Christmas. I’ve always thought of December as “my” month, because it’s the month I was born — two days after Christmas, to be exact. (And no, I’m not going to tell you how old I am. Everyone’s got to have some secrets, after all.)
I know a lot of December babies say they hate it because they don’t get as many presents as someone who was born in, say, June. But I loved my December birthday as a kid. Because my birthday falls in late December, between Christmas and the New Year, when I was growing up I never had to go to school on the actual day. So, that whole week just kind of felt like a special present from the universe, to me.
There were a few disadvantages to a December birthday. For example, the above-mentioned tendency by people to give you one present and tell you they spent twice as much and it’s for your Christmas and your birthday. (Pro tip: Don’t believe it. They did not spend twice as much. They spent like $5 more and then did a little private fist-bump that they got out of buying you two presents.) Another sort of sucky thing, if you lived in the Midwest like I did, was that certain presents weren’t exactly winter-friendly presents. Like the year I got my first bike, and there was so much snow on the ground that my dad couldn’t even take me out to teach me how to ride it. I spent the day of my birthday sitting on the bike in my parents’ living room, propped up on the kickstand next to the Christmas tree. I didn’t even get to ride the damn thing for the first time until February.
Yeah, I’m still bitter about that.
But… you may have noticed the title of this blog is about my favorite Christmas gift ever. And you may have also noticed that I’m 4 paragraphs into this blog post without even mentioning it. Sorry, it’s Friday and I’m feeling a little wordy today. Anyway. My favorite Christmas gift ever was another one of those gifts that was not winter-friendly. I got it the year after I got my first bike, when I was seven.
A pogo stick.
Have you ever ridden a pogo stick? I find it’s actually not something a lot of people have done, at least not successfully. Learning how to pogo takes time and effort and patience. These are things that the average seven year-old does not possess in abundance.
As it turns out, learning to ride a pogo stick takes something else that I did not have in great supply as a gangly seven year-old.
Weight.
I was so excited to get this pogo stick. I couldn’t wait to get outside and try it out. Of course, my mother put her foot down and absolutely forbade me to do it in the house. Unfortunately, it was one of those years when snow had packed on the driveways and sidewalks and streets, so doing it outside wasn’t really feasible either. In the end, I grabbed the stick, put on my coat, and excitedly went out into our unheated garage to try the sucker out.
I put my foot on one of the pedals, did a little hop and got my other foot up there.
And managed to move the spring about an eighth of an inch before I lost my balance and fell off.
I tried again. Same result. It was only barely different from jumping up and down on the floor and expecting it to move.
In the days that followed, I went out to the garage again a few times, dejectedly trying to ride my prize present, but no dice. It just wasn’t happening. Eventually, my mom got sick of it cluttering up her pristine garage (my mom was a serious neat freak, y’all) and hung it up on the wall with a nail. Where it stayed.
For years.
Wow, some present, huh? You sure know how to tell a story, Daphne.
Well, yeah.
But after all, I never said that the pogo stick was my favorite present that year.
So. It’s years later. We’ve moved to a different town, in a different state. I am now eleven years old. Still gangly. I’ve grown into a relatively unathletic, bookworm type. The type that would eventually grow up and begin a career as a romance author. I’m an only child, which means I spend a fair amount of time with my nose in a book, or wandering around looking for things to do because I don’t have any siblings to fight or play with.
It’s summer. I’m in the garage. Looking for something to occupy my afternoon. My eyes happen to fall on the pogo stick. The same pogo stick that I got when I was seven. Hanging there, in a different garage, by a different nail. I remember I suck at pogo sticking. But for some reason, I decide to give it a shot.
I put my foot on the peg. I hop on.
The spring compresses. I bounce. Once, twice.
I fall off.
I try it again. I bounce once, twice, three times.
I fall off.
I get back on.
You see where I’m going with this.
I spent the entire afternoon on that thing. And the next day, I did the same thing. I became freaking obsessed with counting how many times I could bounce, and then beating my previous record. Pretty soon, I reached three-hundred bounces. Then I beat that record. Eventually, it got to the point where I could pretty much bounce indefinitely without falling. I even briefly contemplated going for a world record — except this was in the days before the internet, and I had no idea what the record was.
I started pogo’ing one-handed. Then I started doing it while drinking a can of Coke.
Years later, even now, if I had to, I bet I could beat practically anyone in a pogo sticking contest. I am freaking good at pogo sticking, people.
So, why is the pogo stick my favorite Christmas gift ever?
Because it was the first object in my life that ever taught me the lesson of progress, and readiness, and growth — both physically, but also mentally. I was physically unready and incapable of using the pogo stick when I got it. Years later, when I was ready, I was able to appreciate it fully — much more fully than I would have if I’d just been able to hop on and play with it for a while that first year. Who knows? If I had been able to do that at seven, I might have just played with it for a couple of afternoons, and then forgotten about it. Instead, I became a full-fledged pogo sticking ninja.
The lesson of the pogo stick taught me that there would probably be other things in my life that I would not be ready for, but would eventually grow into. The lesson, frankly, was kind of mind-boggling for a kid that age. And I doubt it was a lesson that any person could have taught me so well just by telling it to me. It was something I had to learn, and understand for myself. And learning it in such a physical way… well, it stuck with me, because it was a lesson I could actually feel as well as understand.
So, that’s the story of my favorite Christmas gift ever. And a postscript: while I was looking for a funny image to put at the end of this blog post, I learned that pogo sticking is actually an excellent form of exercise for the back, core, legs and butt. And that pogo’ing has had a little resurgence with adults because of those “recess” – type fitness classes.
Huh. Maybe it’s time to ask Santa for a pogo stick this year…
Meet cocky linebacker Mason Robichaud and Anna Wilder, the woman he wants to make his fake fiancée! This steamy football romance is a perfect escape read to warm you up on a dark, chilly fall evening.
“Yes!” Kayla screams, pumping her fist in the air so wildly she almost topples off her chair. “Drink, Aaron!”
My buddy grins at the red arrow pointing to him and grabs the shot glass, downing it in a quick gulp. “Yeah!” he roars, and holds it up to the bored-looking bartender behind the counter. “Another round!”
“You gonna join in on this one, Mase?” Aaron asks me, cocking his head with a taunting grin.
“No can do, man,” I toss back. I try to look like I’m bummed about it. I don’t think I do a very good job, but everyone’s too toasted to pay much attention.
I try to not to roll my fucking eyes when Aaron calls me a pussy. I don’t know how much longer I can fake like I’m having fun watching them play drinking games before I can’t take it anymore. We’re hanging out at a sports bar called the Penalty Box. I’m here with a couple of guys from the Springville Rockets — the pro football team I’m hoping to get signed to any day now — and the chicks they’re currently banging. Kayla, the girl who’s here with me, is one of the cheerleaders for the team. My buddy Aaron Brooks introduced me to her about a month ago.
Aaron and I went to the same university, where we played college ball together for four years before we both went pro. Two years ago, Aaron got signed on as a linebacker for the Rockets. It’s a crazy coincidence, because if all goes well, starting this season I’ll be playing alongside him again.
If all goes well.
My stomach does an unpleasant flip, and I push the negative thought that’s forming out of my mind. I’ll get signed, I tell myself. I will. I’m doing everything right. It has to pay off. It has to.
The bartender sets out another round of shots in front of the group. They’re playing a stupid-ass game called Spin the Shot. Spin the Shot centers around this spinner thing with a red arrow on it, and a holder just big enough for a shot glass. Each person takes turns setting a shot into the holder, then spinning the arrow until it lands on whoever has to take the shot. The group started out with strawberry margarita Jello shooters, but now they’ve moved on to their second round of something called a Blue Hawaiian shot. It’s made with some sort of vile-looking blue-colored Jello. From the smell, I’m guessing the alcohol is rum. Since I’m not drinking, I just sit back in my chair nursing a Coke and watch everyone else play.
It’s Aaron’s turn to spin the arrow. It lands on Kayla, who squeals and grabs the shot from the holder so roughly she’d have spilled it if it wasn’t Jello. Tipping her head back, she slides her tongue into the shot glass and scoops the Jello into her mouth and down her throat. She chews a few times and swallows, then sticks out her tongue dramatically and coughs at the alcohol. Her tongue is dark blue. Everyone else laughs like it’s the funniest fucking thing they’ve ever seen.
One thing I’ve learned since I stopped drinking: drunk people are never as funny as they think they are.
Aaron’s teammate Mike Brandt drinks next. Then it’s the turn of the girl he’s with, a big-titted redhead named Ashley. Then Kayla again. At this point, Kayla’s starting to get pretty fucking sloppy. I realize pretty soon she’s gonna be too drunk to do anything but pass out in the passenger seat of my SUV. Inwardly, I cringe at the thought of her ralphing up blue puke all over my interiors.
I decide it’s time to go. Before that vision becomes a reality.
“Come on, Kayla,” I say, grabbing her gently by the shoulders. “I think it’s time for us to call it a night.”
“But I’m having fun!” she protests. She gets up, though, and stumbles a little on her high heels so I have to steady her.
“I know, but it’s time to continue the fun somewhere else,” I tell her, even though I’m already starting to have second thoughts about that.
Kayla lets out a little bleat of laughter. “We’re gonna go fuck!” she announces to the others drunkenly. The girls start to giggle loudly and make sex eyes at me, like they wish they were in Kayla’s shoes. But they’re at least as wasted as she is, and anyway I’ve got my hands full enough with her.
“Okay, then,” I say to my buddies. “You guys have a good night.” I toss a couple bills on the table, even though I only had a soda and a couple mouthfuls of the nachos we ordered earlier. Everyone calls goodbye to us and we turn toward the front door of the bar, Kayla wobbling beside me on her heels.
“Are we going to your place?” she asks me eagerly as we walk out into the cool night air.
“Nah,” I shake my head. “How about yours?”
“Come on, Mason,” Kayla croons at me, screwing up her face into a little pout. She must think that look is sexy, because she does it to me a lot. “You never take me home!” she whines. “I won’t even stay the night if you don’t want me to.” She sidles up to me and breathes into my ear. “You know how good I can make you feel, baby.”
In my pants, my cock stirs, but irritation overrides any attraction to her I’m feeling. I’m pissed that I have to have this argument with her again.
“My place isn’t really moved into. You know that,” I say, trying hard to sound reasonable and not pissed. It’s actually true. Even though I bought the house over a year ago, a lot of my stuff is still in boxes. Shit hit the fan shortly after I moved out here. So I haven’t been exactly motivated to unpack and decorate.
But that’s not the real reason I don’t wanna take Kayla home. The real reason is, I don’t want the hassle. Kayla’s hot, but she’s not all that. I can get any woman I want, without having the expectation that I’ll have to take her home and let her spend the night. It’s just not worth it to have to make small talk with her tomorrow morning while she thinks up excuses to stick around.
“Look, babe,” I murmur, grabbing her hand and pulling it away as she starts to reach for my crotch. “There’s a hotel just down the road. A nice one. Why don’t we go there?”
But Kayla’s having none of it. “No!” she complains, her voice rising. “I’m sick of this, Mason. Why don’t you want to take me home? Are you ashamed to be with me or something?”
I’m not with you, I almost say, but manage to refrain. Goddamn it, Kayla knows going home with me isn’t an option. I make it clear to every woman go to bed with. And that we’re just having fun, nothing else.
“Kayla, Jesus,” I sigh, running a hand through my hair. “It’s not that…”
“You know what?” she interrupt me. “Fuck this. You’re nothing but a drunk and a loser anyway,” she screeches at me. “You’re not even a Rocket yet. I bet you won’t be one, either.” She gives me an ugly, angry sneer. “I’m done, Mason.”
I shrug, more relieved than anything that I won’t be spending the night fighting this. “Fine by me.”
Kayla blinks a couple of times uncertainly, like she was expecting me to argue with her. She opens her mouth to fire back at me, but pauses. Then finally:
“I have to pee.” She announces it loudly and defiantly, like it’s a stellar comeback.
“Fine,” I grumble. “Go.”
She goes back inside to the restrooms that are by the front door. I wait for her, trying not to get pissed at the insults she hurled at me. In one respect, Kayla’s not wrong. I’m not a Springville Rocket yet. Oh, I had been — for all of three weeks or so. The team had signed me for last season, and everything was all set. I even moved here to Springville and bought my house. But then, all the fucking shit hit the fan, and… well, I ended up getting un-signed. And sitting out last season completely.
And now, if they decide at the last minute they don’t want me this year…
Shit. I shake the thought from my head, for probably the millionth time. I need to move forward. I can’t afford to get stuck worrying about something that hasn’t happened yet. All I can do is hope things keep going in the direction they are, and that the team will sign me for this season. Once that happens, I’ll be in the clear. I’m one of the best linebackers in the league, and they know it, too. My agent has told me as much. I know I can perform. I know I can make myself one of the most valuable players on the team, if they just give me a chance.
But the Rockets have had more than their fair share of scandals in recent years, and they don’t need another one. Which means that any whiff of trouble makes the owners and managers gun shy.
And unfortunately, there’s a whiff of trouble around me that just won’t seem to go away.
Kayla takes fucking forever in the bathroom. I wait, then wait some more, and finally, she comes back out of the bar, smelling like re-applied perfume. She’s put on more lipstick, too, I notice. But underneath the cherry red color, I can see the blue tinge on her lips from the Jello shots.
I gesture over to my SUV in the parking lot. “Come on. I’ll drive you home.”
Kayla lifts her chin. “Fuck you,” she sniffs at me. “I called an Uber.”
“Fine by me,” I say, relieved. I was anticipating another big argument when I dropped her at her place. Now I won’t have to have it. Pussy like this is too much damn work.
Even though I want to get out of there, I wait with her until the Uber arrives out of a sense of obligation. The whole time, she sits on a bench with her arms and legs crossed, pointedly ignoring me. A few minutes later, a Toyota sedan pulls up. The driver’s side window rolls down and a guy pokes his head out. “You call an Uber?”
“I did,” Kayla announces, standing up from the bench where she’s been pouting. “Not him.”
“Hey,” the guy peers at me as Kayla goes around to the passenger side. “Are you Mason Robichaud?”
“Yeah,” I say, giving him my best for-the-public smile.
He’s fucking asshole Mason Robichaud!” Kayla shouts toward me as she opens the car door. She throws herself inside, making the car shake, and slams the door violently. I grimace and look apologetically at the guy.
“Dodged a bullet?” he murmurs at me knowingly.
“Looks like it,” I nod with a tight grin.
He snorts, then his face brightens. “Hey, man, can I get an autograph?”
“Sure thing,” I tell him. I wait as he rummages inside the car and pulls out a scrap of paper. I can hear Kayla bitching at him, but he ignores her. He holds out the paper and a pen to me. I sign it on the roof of the car and then hand it back to him. “Have a good one.”
“You too,” he smirks, giving me a knowing look.
I watch the Uber drive off, and take a deep breath of relief. For a second, I consider going back inside to hang out with Aaron and Mike, but the prospect of watching them get drunk just isn’t doing it for me. Instead I decide to just go home and call it a night.
As I’m stepping off the curb toward my car, a commotion off to one side makes me turn my head.
“You fucking, stupid, old, beat up fucker!” a voice yells.
The voice is female. It’s coming from the parking lot of the place next door. In the light of the street lamp, I can just make out the silhouette of a woman in a dress. She looks to be throwing a tantrum next to a car that I’m assuming is hers.
I’m too far away to see what the woman looks like. But I’m close enough to see that her dress is form-fitting, and that she’s wearing heels. From here, it looks like she has a killer ass. And legs to next Tuesday.
I watch in amusement as she continues swearing a blue streak and starts pounding on the hood. The corners of my mouth quirk up. Whatever’s wrong with her car, that’s sure as hell not gonna fix it.
Curiosity gets the better of me. Instead of walking over to my SUV, I cross the parking lot and head toward the chick beating up on her car. Hell, since Kayla took off, I’ve got nothing else pressing to do with my evening anyway. I may as well spend the next few minutes playing hero to this chick.
And who knows? I might even get some action out of it and salvage this night after all.
I was just talking to a new acquaintance at a dinner party a few weeks ago. She’s the wife of a friend of my husband, and although we’ve interacted a little bit on Facebook, this was my first time really talking to her face to face. She, like many non-writer friends, was fascinated by the idea that a “regular” person can just write a novel — let alone many novels.
I certainly don’t blame her. If you’d told me five years ago that someday (like, this week), I’d be publishing my fourteenth full-length novel, I would have questioned your sanity. I mean, sure, I’ve always been a voracious reader. And given how many books I’ve read in my lifetime, I probably have a better sense than the average person of how a novel “works.” But to go from that to actually writing one? No way!
Fast forward to today. It amazes even me that I’ve written more than a dozen novels. By this time next year, I’ll probably be approaching twenty books. How have I done it?
Beats me.
LOL.
Okay, that probably sounds dumb, or like I’m pretending ignorance. The fact is, I certainly have learned a lot over the last few years about writing. And I’m always learning more. Clearly I’m not a “newbie” anymore as a writer. But every single time I start a new book, I still take a deep breath, look at the blank screen on my monitor, and will myself to believe that it will work out. And so far, it always has.
Going back to the dinner party — my new acquaintance, whom I’ll call Katie, asked me one of the questions I get a lot from people who find out I’m a romance author: do you start out with a book knowing everything that’s going to happen, or do you just make it up as you go along?
The answer is… a little of both.
In the writing community, we often talk about “plotters” vs. “pantsers.” A plotter, as you can probably imagine, is someone who writes out a detailed plot, down to what will happen in every chapter, before he or she ever starts actually writing the book. A pantser is someone who does the opposite: just starts writing. In other words, someone who “flies by the seat of his/her pants.”
In a way, I guess I think about plotters vs. pantsers as people who are setting out on a road trip. The plotters have a detailed map of how they’re going to get to their destination. The pantsers know where they’re starting, and where they want to end up, but they’re going to turn on the car, point it in more or less the right direction, and leave it up to serendipity to find the “scenic route” to get to their destination.
In my daily life, I’m definitely the kind of person who NEEDS to have a plan. I’d no sooner leave my house with no idea how I’m going to get to my destination than I would leave the house wearing a snorkel and a pink sparkly tutu.
But as a writer? I’m definitely a pantser.
I start out every novel with a sense of who my main characters are. I know their names, what they look like, and what their childhoods were like. I know what their internal and external conflicts are, and how those conflicts are going to get in the way of their falling in love. I know that by the end of the novel, they will have surmounted those conflicts, and declared their undying devotion to each other. I might even have some ideas for a few funny, or sad, or tense scenes.
But beyond that — the novel evolves the way it wants to evolve.
I’ve plotted books before. But the fact is, I don’t like writing that way. One of my favorite things about writing books is letting the relationships between the characters develop organically. And for me, that just happens better when I’m letting the characters drive the plot, not the other way around. When the characters show me the way — where they want to go, what they want to do — their relationship evolves more naturally. They know what they’re doing. The process reminds me a little of a quote attributed to Michelangelo (not than I’m anything like Michelangelo), saying that when he sculpted, he took a piece of marble, saw the figure living inside it, and then chipped away everything that wasn’t that figure.
In my case?
I put my hands to the keyboard, and let the characters tell me who they are.
99% of the time, if you wonder where I was when I was writing, formatting, or editing the book you’re reading, I was right here. With my a** planted right in that chair. (And probably with Petunia sitting right where she is, too, taking up most of the space on my desk.)
This is my home office. It used to be a second bedroom, which is where my stepdaughters would sleep when they were over for the weekend. But now my stepdaughters are grown and living on their own. So right before I decided to go full-time as an author, Mr. Loveling said to me, “It’s time to give you a place of your own to work, where you’ll be happy spending many hours a day creating worlds and characters who fall in love.”
Well, he probably didn’t say it exactly like that! He probably just said, “You need an office. Go make one you like.”
And I do like this space. It’s actually pretty small. But it’s mine. No one goes in it but me, for the most part. My daily commute is about ten seconds — from the front sun room where I hang out with Mr. Loveling until he has to go to work, to the back of the house, and my office. When I come in here, I’m in work mode. A switch flips in my head, and for the next few hours it’s down to business, writing my word count for the day.
I know a lot of authors like to write in coffee shops, or at the library, or even just sitting on their couch with a laptop in their laps. I’m not one of those people. I do occasionally work in a coffee shop (like yesterday, actually). But if you see me working in my favorite cafe, I’m probably editing or formatting, not writing. It turns out, I need the predictability of a set routine in order to write well.
And, it also turns out that I write best when I’m sitting there in my jammies, my hair pulled up in a messy bun and my glasses on, with my mug of coffee next to me. I like to write first thing in the morning. Before I’ve put in my contacts, or taken a shower, or styled my hair, or anything like that. (Yup, that means before I’ve brushed my teeth, too. Sorry. TMI.) Once I’ve let the distractions of the world in for the day, my concentration goes out the window. Sometimes I go out to the gym or for a run at lunchtime, then come back and write some more. But the bulk of the writing I do happens in the morning — before I have to see or interact with anyone except for Mr. Loveling and the cats. In the morning, the only people I’m “talking” to are the characters in the book I’m working on — who are doing their damnedest to resist falling in love with one another.
So, now you know the full, ugly truth of where I am when I’m writing. That picture up at the top? I took it literally right before I started writing this post. So my a** is now planted in that chair. Petunia is now sleeping in the same spot — stretched out all over my papers, of course. I’m one cup of coffee down, and just about to get up and refresh it. And start writing for the day.
I hope your day is starting out well, too. Make it a great one!
Biker. Criminal. Bastard.
✨SIZZLING SUMMER MC AUTHOR GIVEAWAY 
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