Samhain Publishing

Today, I’m making the 4 1/2-hour drive to Dallas from my home in Central Arkansas. I’ll be attending the North Texas Romance Writers of America conference. I’ll be signing books tonight from 6:30 to 8:30 at the Hilton Garden Inn Las Colinas in Irving, Texas. If any of you out there happen to be in the neighborhood, be sure to pop in to say hello.

Why am I going? Certainly for the booksigning. There’s nothing more rewarding for an author than meeting people who’ve read your work and like it. I love that spark of recognition in a reader’s eyes followed by a great big smile—and a blush—because they’re outing themselves as major pervs. Just kidding…kind of.

Then there’s the joy of seeing old friends. I haven’t looked at the list of attending authors, but I’ve been around long enough I know a lot of people. I haven’t looked because I want to be surprised. In addition, I’m rooming with my sister, Myla Jackson, and any time we can get away, just the two of us, we have so much fun. Of course, we’re talking stories the whole time. It’s like a secret writer language. Anyone around us who doesn’t write would be bored to tears listening, but writers get the secret code. The subtext. We love what we do. We eat, breathe and dream story.

The best part of this trip, however, is that my Samhain editor (for a little while longer anyway) will be there too. I love the chance for face time. She’s fun. Interesting. Full of energy that gleams right through her skin. Not the best description, I know, but that’s what I see when I’m with her.

When I return home Sunday morning, I’ll no doubt be buzzing with new ideas and inspiration. I’ll have spent two days getting my writing batteries recharged, ready to conquer the world, or at least, the next story.

I'll be the first to admit that some of my heroes can act a little less than heroic. I'm not talking about not being willing to put their lives at risk for someone they love. I'm talking about not being pleasant to be around, not being good friends or good boyfriends. I love someone rough around the edges who just doesn't get it. Or someone who hears the heroine say no, but doesn't want to listen. The fun part for me as a writer is to take someone that raw and stubborn and teach him how to be the man the heroine needs.

In True Heart, True Wyatt was just such a man. The strong silent type with a huge case of grumpy. The trick was to figure out what made him that way, and as it turns out, this big, strong cowboy had a huge insecurity. He didn't believe he had what it took to make a woman happy. He'd failed in his first marriage, so when he meets erotica writer, Honey Cahill, he's slow to make his move, not trusting himself to go about it right.

In steps little brother who has more experience pleasing women. True almost let her get away, but in the end, stepped up and made Honey his own. Which left little brother in the cold. Well, no more.

Lone Wyatt had his own journey to make, far away from his brother and the woman he gave up to make his brother happy. Lone Heart releases tomorrow. Now, you'll get to see the "rest of the story."

So, for me, what makes a hero? A selfless act. The man can be imperfect, bull-headed, stubborn as a mule, but when he puts the woman first, he proves what he's made of.

* * *

When temptation catches fire, saddle up and hang on for the ride.

Lone Wyatt is a long way from his Colorado home. After his brother married the woman they both loved, he figured it’d be best if he was out of the way. He’d like to have his own one-and-only, but he’s in no rush. Until he saunters into a small Oklahoma town and spots Charli Kudrow. One wary glance from her haunted eyes, and he knows there’s hidden fire inside her just waiting to erupt. And he’s ready to tear through every objection she can think up.

Charli intends to slip out of Shooters unnoticed as soon as she’s done pinning a help wanted notice to the bulletin board. But there’s a cowboy at the bar with a killer smile who seems hell-bent on seducing her. And she feels something she hasn’t felt in five long years of widowhood—a spark of attraction. Thinking she’ll never see him again, she succumbs to temptation, only to discover that little “spark” is more like a raging wildfire.

One weekend is all he asks. One weekend to prove there’s more between them than just blazing hot sex…

Warning: Sometimes, love happens in an instant, but it takes a lot of sexin’ up to make one stubborn woman a believer.

Is there anything sexier than a cowboy in Wranglers?

Coming and going?

Imagine little ole me taking a walk down the street in my Texas hometown. It’s Saturday and I want a cup of coffee. I head to the Daily Grind for a latte. A man reaches the shop before I do and tips the brim of his cream-colored cowboy hat, pulls open the door, and says, “After you, ma’am.”

I’m already a puddle of something and then I realize he’s walked in behind me. Lord, is he checking out my ass? Why didn’t I wear something that at least leaves the viewer wondering how big it is?!

I make my order and turn. He’s very close and I catch him taking a sniff of my perfume. My face is fire engine red as I stand aside—and this time the pleasure is all mine.

Wranglers fit! None of that baggy-saggy “does he have an ass or spindly legs?” guesswork. And my cowboy obviously doesn’t sit behind a desk all day. Nice and tight, curved to cup. He turns around and I’m caught!

Why couldn’t I have worn something other than my red T-shirt with the word “Flake” emblazoned across my chest and the picture of a snowflake beneath it. My face and the shirt have to be the same shade.

He tips his hat again, a small grin turning up the corners of his sexy mouth, and leaves—knowing I’m still checking him out as he passes through the door.

That little tease isn’t fiction. For nine years, I lived in the Texas Hill Country near a little town called Boerne. I moved to Arkansas in 2007, but that scene plays through my mind often. I have a hundred little encounters just like that one—stored away like a squirrel’s acorns. When I sit down to write my next cowboy story, I pull them out to savor and set a picture in my mind of what my heroes might be like.

They always say, write what you know. Well, I lived in cowboy country. My yard butted up against a working ranch. They rode on little ATV-mules and horseback. They wore those snug Wranglers. So, when you’re wondering whether I know what I’m writing about, the only way it would be more real is me sitting on that horse beside that lean, sunburned specimen of a man.

Too bad I’m afraid of horses.

Check out my Lone Star Lovers books. They’re set in my beloved Texas, and the cowboys? Well, let’s just say the one with the twinkle in his eye in the coffee shop doesn’t know the naughty dreams he inspired. Be looking for my next release on June 14th, Undeniable, which combines two of my favorite things: cowboys and vampires!

I’m new to blogging here and haven’t figured out how to use all the functions, so no pics today! Plus, I’ve been deep in NaNoWriMo (an annual, month-long international writing challenge), so my mind’s just a bit consumed with the next scene of the story I’m working on.

But I wanted to come by, introduce myself, and promise you I’ll get this all figured out so that we have some fun here in the future!

I’m Delilah Devlin. I have two books published so far with Samhain and two more coming shortly. Three contemporary westerns and one paranormal (gargoyles and gods) story. Over the course of my career I’ve published over fifty stories, many of them in paperback now. Be sure to check out my website to get a feel for what I do.

Being an author is the last career I intend to have. I’ve been an army officer, a project manager, a comptroller, a teacher. I was raised an Air Force brat and continued to travel all over the world when I disappointed my dad with my choice of branch of service. So, I don’t really have any place I call home, although I lived in Texas a total of fourteen years and Germany for seven.

All that traveling, all those varied experiences have fed my imagination. And until I started writing, I lived in two worlds. The real world and my imagination.

Imagine my relief when I started writing and could blend the two!

Now, when I talk to myself I can shrug my shoulders and say I’m working out a character’s dialogue while I argue with the hero. When my daughter nudges me because I’ve zoned out during a conversation, she doesn’t think I’m nuts. She knows I’m in my other world, tearing down a mountainside with a shapeshifting dragon on my heels.

I have the best job in the world and I’m grateful for the talent the “powers that be” have blessed me with.

I blog nearly every day and have an active chat loop. I make time to connect with readers, so don’t be shy about contacting me. And pretty often I go to my readers to ask them what they’d like to see next.

That’s it. Again, I promise to get this thing figured out and then we’re gonna play!

Delilah Devlin
www.DelilahDevlin.com