Fantastic Fives of Delilah Marvelle

Five words and/or phrases that describe you:

Crazy,
creative,
quirky,
loves a good challenge, especially when it comes to writing,
and
has a strong sense of justice that always gets me into a lot of trouble but wins me more friends than enemies.


Five people and/or things that inspire you:

My husband (especially during those love scenes...waggling brows),
painting, books,
music
and
chocolate.

Five of your favorite authors:

Edith Wharton,
Judith McNaught,
Ernest Hemingway,
Charlotte Bronte,
and
Shakespeare.

Describe five of your heroes/heroines through your eyes:

Maybelle de Maitenon - quirky yet fierce and oh so funny,
His Grace, Rutherford - traditional, mindful of his mother and stubborn as all heck.
Lord Hawksford - trying to be proper when inside he is such a sexy freak.
Lady Charlotte - proud, but not too proud to beg for the things she wants.
Madame de Maitenon -- flirty, WAY over thirty and ready to teach every man she meets that there's always room for them to learn more than they ever wanted.

Five reasons to read your books:

1.)They will make you laugh. A lot.
2.)They will make you realize that the ton was never really all that proper.
3. ) I don't do traditional plots.
4.) Lots of great sex scenes that don't stick to a bed.
5.) Romance, romance, romance.

Delilah Marvelle
http://www.delilahmarvelle.com/

For the contest info, read the post below.

Save The School of Gallantry!

My Dearest Readers,

When I was in high school, I had a dream. I was going to be the next Stephen King. Heh. Yeah.

Stay with me. Please. I knew my ideas were fabulous and I knew all it would take is for an editor to look at it and they would offer me up the moon and the stars and best of all, a contract. I had my girlfriends read everything I wrote. And they kept telling me, “This is fabulous! It's SO funny! Hilarious!” Seeing it really wasn't supposed to BE funny, I immediately changed course realizing I actually had a better handle on being funny than scary. I also figured adding a romance into it would even make it better since that is what I loved to read.

I then entered college as an English major. I was going to be teacher and write during the summers. Even then I was a smart girl who knew I wasn't going to make jack and that I needed a job to support the “creative” one. Throughout all of college I wrote historical romances. One right after another. And kept submitting. And submitting. And submitting. And kept getting rejected and rejected and rejected. In the meantime, I got married. I had two kids. I joined RWA. I got critique partners. I did honed and honed and honed the crap out of my writing. And kept writing and getting rejected. I eventually racked up over 200 rejections and had written over 40 books in those 11 years of trying to get published.

When I finally sold my first historical romance, MISTRESS OF PLEASURE, and my second book, LORD OF PLEASURE, I was beside myself. It didn't feel real. To FINALLY arrive at a destination I had been traveling toward for 11 long years seemed like a mirage. Which fortunately, I quickly snapped out of. Because after all, most of my friends are all published and unpublished writers and the stories they all have told me throughout the years made me realize

I had to fight with fists up for myself every step of the way. I knew publishers did little to no promotion for their authors, so I spearheaded my own promo, ready to be more than just an author. And even though I was budgeting very well and spending countless hours networking and promoting on websites and blogs, doing tons for free, I still ended up spending $7,000 on my first book. Which was way more than my advance. But hey, every business starts in the red. Right?

Then the reviews started coming in about my series set in 1830 London England about a school that educates men on the topic of love and seduction. People loved it! Wow. It got nominated for awards. Wow. Readers are e-mailing me raving. Wow. Readers from France, Austria, Poland, South Africa and from all over the U.S and the world. Wow. It just kept getting better and better. I was beginning to feel as if every penny I spent was all worth it (even though my family and I weren't going on any vacations and were eating out of cans). Because all that mattered was that my publisher loved me and my readers loved my series.

Come contract time, I'm ready for whatever they wanna throw at me. Or so I thought. Mistress of Pleasure, though completely sold out and unavailable anywhere (unless it's a used copy, some going for a ridiculous amount of $40.00), hadn't done as well as my publisher had hoped. So without waiting for the second book to come out to see if the series was even worth saving, I get a rejection from my own editor citing lack of sales.

I have to say this rejection felt more personal than any of the other two hundred and some rejections I'd received. Because it was no longer “Your book isn't good enough” it became “Your sales aren't good enough.” Since when is an author supposed to be a market guru AND a fabulous writer? Eck.

I love this series. The men in it make me laugh and it broke my heart to think that my readers will never get a chance to read about Lord Brayton, my glorious male virgin. The only alpha virgin I ever plan to write about. Then I realized something, why I am letting a publisher decide what is worth holding on to? Shouldn't that be a reader's job?

Ah. Herein lies the purpose of my post. I am challenging everyone, be they readers or writers to help me do something that's never been done before. Save a series from a death sentence given by a publisher. Can it be done? Who knows. But I eat challenges for breakfast and I hope you do to. Please join me in saving my series. Come August 4th, tell everyone you know (yes, even you're 72 year old grandfather) to buy the book, Lord of Pleasure. In doing so, you'll have a chance to win one of three $50 Visa Gift Cards. How? Check out my website for details at http://www.delilahmarvelle.com/

That said, thank you for all the support and love everyone has already shown me. Feel free to post and repost this to everyone under the moon and the stars. To all you readers out there, thank you for supporting us writers. To all you writers out there, don't ever give up on your writing. The moment you do, you give up on yourself. Which is why I'm not giving up on my series.

Cheers and much love,

Delilah Marvelle

The Heartfelt Award

I received a beautiful Blog Award from Cathy at Caffey's Reads blog. Thank you Cathy :)!

The Heartfelt Award:

Do you reach for a cup of cocoa or tea when your relaxing, seeking comfort, sharing a plate of cookies with family and friends? You know the feeling you get when you drink a yummy cup of cocoa, tea, or a hot toddy? That is what the

Heartfelt Award is all about, feeling warm inside.

Rules:

Put the logo on your blog/post.

Nominate up to 9 blogs which make you feel comfy or warm inside.Be sure to link your nominees within your post.Let them know that they have been nominated by commenting on their blog.Remember to link to the person from whom you received your award.

Blogs that make me feel warm inside are:

Linda's:Reading Is So Much Fun

Racheal's:Enchanted by Books

Judi's: Sidhevicious

Jessica's:Book Reviews by Jess

It's Our Anniversary!

We've made it to our 8th year of marriage!

I love my sexy hero!

Thanks to Hero Factory for helping us celebrate.

An ARC Contest

Sarah's Random Musings is giving away an ARC of Shiver

to celebrate her follower count. Stop in and tell her what

you would do if you were a werewolf for a winter.

This Beautiful Book

Could be added to your book shelf if you visit Jessica's blog today.