Love this day–always so much fun. Kids and their excitement about dressing up and knocking on doors to collect enough candy to feed a small army always makes me smile.

I’m going to start your day off by offering treats! First, the one and only Sylvia Day has a new release out NOW! A Passion for Him looks super yummy and I can’t wait to dive in.

Miss Amelia Benbridge is ready to leave behind a past filled with heartbreak for a sensible marriage. Until temptation itself comes calling, with an invitation to seduction…

SHE LOVED AND LOST HIM ONCE…

Amelia Benbridge and the Earl of Ware are the most anticipated match of the Season. Lord Ware is handsome, wealthy, and kind, and he understands that her love will always belong to her childhood sweetheart, Colin. When Colin died, Amelia believed she would never feel such passion again. But her primal reaction to the brooding stranger who approaches her at a masquerade, coaxing her into a moonlit minuet and a single, sensual kiss, proves otherwise…

Colin Mitchell knew a pairing between a peer’s daughter and a gypsy stable boy was impossible. Amelia’s mistaken belief in his demise afforded him the opportunity to return to her as a man of means. But time has slipped through his fingers. She is preparing to wed another and danger prevents him from revealing the truth. Colin can only bid her a secret farewell, but he underestimates her determination to unmask her phantom admirer. A forbidden kiss leads to her ardent pursuit and a soul-scorching affair. Amelia is perfectly attuned to his every desire, every thought–and hungry for stability he can’t offer her. For deception lies at the heart of their love, waiting to drive them apart once again…

Day follows A Passion for the Game with a scintillating desire-in-disguise sequel that tugs at your heartstrings while keeping the sensuality and action moving at a rapid pace.
- Kathe Robin, RT BOOKreviews

Click HERE to read an excerpt!

Scoop up this no-cal treat and devour it down without guilt! To order A Passion For Him, click the title–it’s a link to Amazon!

And because I can’t pass the day without sharing some eye candy (and in case you haven’t seen this elsewhere), enjoy!

Gang, I know I’ve been remiss in blogging lately while I obsessively wrote the end of Tempt Me With Darkness, but 2 pieces of great info…

1) It’s DONE!!!! I have a few people reading and dealing with last minute changes at this point, but for the most part–it’s completed (at least until my editor reads and wants changes…)

2) Tempt Me With Darkness is already available for pre-order!! Just click the title–it’s a link! This is such a huge thrill for me because it makes the whole idea of my first paranormal novel so real. It’s doubly exciting because I’ve wanted to write this book for a decade. Seriously. I kept having trouble with the ending; it just wasn’t right. This time…it all fell together, and I think it’s because the book always knew it was meant to be part of a series. Me? I had no clue until recently. If you have no idea what I’m talking about and want to know more about the series, check it out here.

I can’t wait to see a mock-up of the cover. Covers are my favorite part, and I sent Pocket some really cool images to work with. Their covers are, by and large, some of the most eye-catching around, so I have high hopes for something both edgy and sexy!

Moving on to Decadent info–and this is cool stuff!!

***Decadent debuted at #2 on the Barnes & Noble Trade paperback romance list!***
This is something I’ve really been working hard and hoping for, so to see this goal achieved is just spectacular for me. A big thanks to all the posters and lurkers for their support. Good numbers mean I get to write more books!

Decadent is also a Two Lips Recommended Read!
“I absolutely loved this book. Right from the start I knew I was hopelessly hooked. Then it really heated up. By the end I realized I’ve found not only another book to add to my short list of favorites, but another favorite author as well. Shayla Black writes all-consuming primal lust like nobody’s business. A lusty page turner from the get-go, Decadent lives up to its title, grabbing readers from the very first chapter and not letting go until the very end with a shuddering climax worthy of any keeper shelf.”

Because it’s Monday, and I’m supposed to give you some eye candy, how about this:

Or there’s always this…

Either way, have a great Monday!!

If you’re not familiar with the Wicked Writers, we’re a group of writers – Sylvia Day, Mackenzie McKade, Charlene Teglia, Catherine Fox, and moi – who have lured a very fun bunch of readers, other authors, aspiring writers and reviewers to our loop. In any given day, we talk about everything from how hot Shemar Moore is, to the difference in an author’s royalties between print and e-publishing (and why print publishers in general are behind the trends in e-publishing), to this bit about superhero sex, which one of our members posted (and I couldn’t resist sharing). This cracked me up!

I’ve long thought that different superheroes would have different sexual proclivities. I’m interested to see what you guys have! I’ve posted only my own ideas below…

And I wish I could claim this one, but it was someone else’s brilliant idea that Spiderman is into Shibari and suspension!

Later, it was suggested by another Wicked member that Batman, Robin and Batgirl were into threesomes and rationale was discussed. Now, come on, who wouldn’t want to be part of this wild gang? If you’re interested in joinining, click here, subscribe, then pop in to introduce yourself and chat!

Do you have any superhero sex ideas of your own?

Sometimes, you just have GREAT days, the ones that sort of stick out and make your really happy to be where you are at the moment. Allergies aside, I’m loving the weather right now. It’s GORGEOUS!! 84, not a cloud in the sky, not humid, slightly breezy. Seriously, the sort of days you dream about and rarely see.

To make it better, the Dallas Cowboys won their game today. When you’re into football, yes, these things are important. If we keep this up, we might even find ourselves in the NFC championship hunt with home field advantage. Squee!!

I also got RAH (Romance Author Husband) back. He was gone for a week on business, so it was very nice to claim him from his peers, get him off the evil airplane, and get him home.

But the sweetest for me was finishing the first draft of Tempt Me With Darkness. It’s not ready for my editor’s eyes. It’s nowhere near the shape I want it to be in. But I have a first draft and will soon cross this one off my list. Next up, Dangerous Boys and Their Toy for Ellora’s Cave and A Perfect Match for Samhain, followed quickly by Delicious for Pocket. Whew!

For now, I’m just savoring the great day.

The good news: I’m VERY near the end of my first paranormal romance for Pocket, which releases September 2008. Tempt Me With Darkness is the title, and I’m hoping it will be the first of the Doomsday Brethren series. It’s due to my editor on 11/1–and writing it has been a wild ride!

The bad news: Whenever I get near the end of a book, I go into this sort of rush. It’s like a trance; I just don’t think about much else…including blogging. I’m so close to the end, not only can I taste it, but it overwhelms my brain. I’m like a TV stuck on the same channel. It’s really tough to get my brain to move beyond the trials and tribulations of characters I hope you’ll come to know and adore soon the way I have.

I’m hoping to get back into good blogging habits once this book is done. That might even be as early as next week! Now, I’m just waiting to see the cover look for this book. Squee!

This is a question I’m often asked…and frequently dread. It’s a little like asking where I get the air I breathe. Ideas sort of run amok in my head. After over a decade of marriage, my husband can just look at me and tell when something new has struck me. But where they come from… Overactive imagination? Probably.

I get a lot of ideas, believe it or not, in the car. Probably because when I’m driving, I’m often alone. I’m almost always blasting music. Okay, there’s something. I get a lot of ideas from music. It’s the way my brain works. Some songs trigger storylines for me, which is why I frequently find songs that correspond to my current or upcoming work and use them to inspire me through a plot. Most people are visual. I’m wired different. Shocking, I know. I’m very auditory, and for me it’s not a picture that’s worth a thousand words, but a really evocative song.

Books are easier for me to write when I have a “soundtrack.” Wicked Ties and my current release, Decadent, both have theme songs from Depeche Mode, oddly enough. Jack in Wicked Ties was represented to me by the song Enjoy the Silence. Can’t say why. It’s not really the lyrics, just a vibe. Something about that song just felt like Jack. Decadent seemed to be spelled out in some ways by the song Precious. Upcoming books in the series, however, are represented by totally different songs and artists, so I’m not just a Depeche Mode freak. I promise. Logan’s song is by Three Days Grace, while Hunter’s is by Hinder. Luc…I’m not saying a word. :twisted:

A lot of writers go through different processes to arrive at their plots and characters. Me? I’m all about getting the right feel in some music. Then whatever is in my sub-conscious will work its way out. Can I write a book without music? Sure. I’m doing it currently with my first paranormal romance, Tempt Me With Darkness (Pocket, September 2008). I don’t have a song that represents Marrok or Olivia or the overall plot. It’s harder, I confess. Not impossible, thankfully. I’m almost finished!

Some ideas are like ghosts–they just haunt you. The idea for this paranormal is one I conceived of about a dozen years ago. I couldn’t figure out the ending. And I couldn’t figure it out, and I couldn’t figure it out. I worked on it so many times, only to put it away, knowing the time and the plot wasn’t right. Now music did help me solve the problem. There may have been a bottle of wine involved, too. So even though I didn’t find theme music for the book, per se, I did find my imagination in music. Which is exactly where I love it to be.

If you’re writing, find the process that works for YOU. And stick with it. Just because music does it for me or charts/graphs for others, doesn’t mean you have to do the same thing. There’s no greater joy as a writer than FINALLY knowing that you have a working process that enables you to find the right elements to fit the pieces of a book together like a perfect puzzle.

I’m taking a few breaths to write a quick blog. In addition to spending lots of time promoting DECADENT, I actually did a little writing, too. TEMPT ME WITH DARKNESS is due in a few short weeks, and I’m not done. I hope to make it on time. However, I may be a wee bit short in my blogs until then.

But I’m having help (or hinderance, depending on your point of view) in the distraction department. First, it’s football season. I’m usually really productive on the weekends, but dang it…I hate missing football. I grew up with it, so doing completely without is painful–and not happening. (As a total aside, do you believe the Cowboys’ miracle win in Buffalo tonight?) Then there’s fall TV. The return of Dancing with the Stars and Heroes are definitely on my “must do” list. I made the mistake of picking up Moonlight, too. Those are can’t-miss shows for me.

But wait–there’s more! To top it off, someone evil at Lora Leigh’s RAW a few weeks ago gave me this 80′s music trivia quiz. 222 pieces of lyric. No melody. You provide the song title and artist. I’m on the competitive side. Can I just say, this thing drove me nuts for days??? There were lines I KNEW that I knew (or should know) and I just…couldn’t wrap my brain around the words. Dammit.

Out of 222, I managed to get 148. Some of them, I really should have remembered and I totally drew a blank. Like these:

“Are you more than hot for me, or am I a page in your history?”

“And though she will mess up your life, you want her just the same.”

“He turned to me as if to say, ‘Hurry boy, it’s waiting there for you.’”

“You make the sun shine brighter than Doris Day.”

“Is it so wrong to be human after all?”

Those are just a few examples, and all from songs I know well. I have the answers, and I finally put myself out of my misery. Couldn’t afford to waste time anymore. Hopefully, now I can move on.

Speaking of distraction, it’s been a while since I actually provided the man on Monday, so…I’ll sit back and watch while you try to be productive.

CRAZY busy week!! So sorry I haven’t blogged. Release week and I’ve said nothing. Bad, bad author.

I want to say a few words, then answer some common questions:

First, thank you to all the people who have left comments and dropped me emails about Decadent. I’ve answered many emails personally, and I’m hoping to respond to my blog more specifically this weekend. You all are the best group of readers! You seriously make me smile more often than you know. I appreciate all of you and the supprot you’ve shown me, especially this week.

I won’t give any Decadent spoilers here, but this series will be continuing with characters you know. Delicious will be released April 2009. There will be another book following, likely about Logan or Hunter, in late 2009/early 2009. Kimber’s brothers both have interesting stories to tell. *Rubbing hands together.*

The suggestion to clone myself is an interesting one. There are times I think that would be fantastic. Then I look at RAH (Romance Author Husband) and figure that saintly man already puts up with enough. More than one of me would drive him over the edge.

I can’t possibly loan out Deke and Luc and/or Hunter and Logan for even 24 hours. Really, at this point, the waiting list would be pretty long. Popular guys, it seems!

Any other questions? Jot me a quick comment. I’ll get back to you.

Tomorrow is a booksigning, which will take up most of the day. I will do my best to write a big ol’ blog on Sunday to make up for my naughty blogging ways.

Happy weekend!

DECADENT is out today!!

I am so incredibly excited! Finally… I know a lot of you have been waiting, so now the wait is over!!

Already I have great news! And I have you, readers and fans, to thank. As of today at Amazon.com had me listed at #1 in Erotica and Adult Fiction!!!

I really never expected to zoom to the top of these lists on release day, but I’m just so bowled over… Okay, I’ll move on. RAH says I’m easily amused, and now you’ve seen it in action. If you read Decadent, please drop me a comment or email. I love hearing from readers!

Here’s some happy release day eye candy. From me to you as a big thanks! I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t mind at all if he looked at me that way. Nice Calvins. Wonder if he’d consider removing them… Have a great day!