Capturing the Moment |

Pre-order Capturing the Moment Now (including a sneak peek)

Posted on March 15, 2016 by Delilah Night

When I was a little girl I dreamed of being a real author like Ann M. Martin, because The Baby-Sitter’s Club was the pinnacle of literary achievement to me in fourth grade. I dreamed of seeing my name on a book one day, a dream that would persist long after I gave up on being an astronaut or a prima ballerina.

In January, 2015, I started a story that was called “Siem Reap,” because it was set in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Meg and RJ’s story wasn’t as simple as I first thought. I had envisioned them as one-time lovers, but as the story emerged, I realized that they’d once been engaged and Meg had called off their wedding. Why had she done that? Could they have a one-day fling, or get back together without dealing with all of their existing baggage? Thanks to my beta reading team of my husband, Tamsin Flowers, and Lynn Townsend (and a few irl friends) the end result was Capturing the Moment, which is now available for pre-order from Totally Bound.

I am so flooded by emotion right now seeing my book–MINE, not an anthology I’m part of--available for pre-order. My book–MINE–has a goodreads page already. It feels surreal, and thrilling, and I’m so scared I’ll wake up from this dream any moment.

There’s a short excerpt on the website, but I’m going to offer a more extended view of that scene.

Angkor Wat, silhouetted against a pre-dawn sky, was the photograph Megan had waited over a decade to take. She stood at the edge of the pond, in front of the twelfth-century Cambodian temple, making minute adjustments to her tripod. The night sky, once inky black, transformed into a riot of pink and purple. The sky and Angkor Wat were perfectly reflected in the water. The moment Meg had dreamed of had arrived. She stepped up to the tripod and looked through the viewfinder. Her finger tapped the shutter button repeatedly.

To: Meg

From: Mother

I don’t see why you insist on complicating everything. If you’d just come directly to Bali like you should have, you wouldn’t be stuck in the Beijing airport. Two canceled flights are a sign, Megan. Why are you still bothering with Cambodia? You’ll only have one day there. Between Rachel and her destination wedding, and you with your Cambodia caper, the two of you are driving me crazy!

The bright colors gave way to pale dawn light. Although the number of tourists clicking away on their iPads was still growing rapidly, Meg and her fellow early birds were ready to move on. They knew the magic hour—and the best shots—were done. Meg slipped the camera from the platform before folding up her tripod.

“Get any good shots, Meg?”

Meg spun around and nearly dropped her equipment. If life were fair, exes would become repulsive to you the moment you broke up. But no, she itched to run her hands through his black hair. She remembered licking and sucking her way across every inch of his brown skin. Her eyes flicked to his full lips and she almost whimpered as her panties grew damp at the memory of his eager tongue. Nope, life was decidedly not fair.

“Arjun? What are you doing here?”

“I was looking for a date to a wedding.” He grinned. “Want to be my plus one?”

“Bite me.” Suppressing the urge to slap him, she turned to thread her way out of the crowd as fast as she could.

Stop picturing him naked. Stop it!

A line of stalls selling goods ranging from postcards to T-shirts to food was slowly coming to life.

“Can I have a Coke, Uncle?” she asked the owner of a stall. The guidebook had told her to address everyone older than her as Auntie or Uncle. Whether due to the rapid increase in heat since the sun had crept over the horizon, or the shock of seeing RJ, she was dying of thirst.

I can’t believe he’s here. This is almost as bad as if he were at the wedding.

“Oh. My. God. Wedding.” The bottle froze halfway to her lips. “A date to a wedding.”

Maybe it’s some other college friend’s wedding that just happens to be on the other side of the planet the exact same weekend as Rachel and Paige’s, and oh my fucking God he’s going to be at their wedding. Oh God, oh God, oh God—

Wishing it was a beer, Meg took a swig of the soda.

“Want to share that?”

Meg choked on the liquid. RJ’s hand pounded rhythmically on her back.

“Stop that! I’m—” She flapped an ineffective hand at him as she fought her way through another coughing fit. “Fine!” Panting, she took a cautious sip. What was supposed to have been blissfully cool relief was now cloying sweetness.

She glared at RJ. “Why are you here? Don’t feed me any of your charming bullshit.”

“Rachel told me you’d be here.”

Traitor! Exasperated, she threw the soda into the trash and turned to face him. “If you wanted to warn me you’d be at the wedding, you could’ve used email like a normal person. Or my sister could’ve told me you would be there. What made you think crashing my dream vacation would be fun?”

“This wasn’t just your dream vacation, remember?” His tone was mild, but she caught the flash of anger in his eyes. “This was our dream vacation.”

“So you decided to invite yourself along? Clearly, your ego is as massive as ever.” Meg shook her head in disbelief. She picked up her camera bag and tripod.

He stepped in front of her. “Megan, spend the day with me.”

“Why should I?”

“If you don’t, you’ll always wonder what it would have been like. C’mon, Meg, it’ll be fun.” He offered her a winning smile.

You were trying not to think about him even before you knew he was here. Have you ever had much willpower when it came to those dimples? It’s been six years since the break-up and they’re lethal as ever.

“If I agree to hang out with you today, you’ll try to sweet talk your way into my bed. Don’t think you’re going to succeed, RJ.”

“I didn’t say anything about rolling around naked on your bed. You’re the one who brought it up.”

Capturing the Moment is now available for pre-order on Totally Bound’s website. It will be on sale March 29 on Totally Bound’s website exclusively for one month. On April 29th, it will be available on Amazon and with other retailers.

Filed under: Capturing the Moment Book Tour, Published, Writing | Tagged: Capturing the Moment, delilah night, Lynn Townsend, Tamsin Flowers, Totally Bound | 1 Comment »

Capturing the Moment–Cover Reveal

Posted on January 20, 2016 by Delilah Night

capturingthemoment_800

I received a wonderful email from Totally Bound today-my cover for Capturing the Moment!

Meg and RJ were passionately in love. But that was six years and a broken engagement ago.

Meg has only one day in Siem Reap, Cambodia. She fulfills her dream of taking a photograph of the sun rising behind Angkor Wat, one of the oldest temples in the world. But her joy is short -lived when she turns around to see RJ standing behind her.

RJ threw himself into work after Meg ended their relationship. He’s built a successful business, but it’s a hollow victory. He’s come to Siem Reap to win back the woman he’s never stopped loving. But first he has to convince her to spend the day with him.

Meg is as physically attracted to RJ as she ever was. Maybe the secret to getting over him is a one-day-only, no-strings-attached fling?

Can RJ win Meg back, or will she love him and leave him?

Pre-order starts on March 14. I’ll keep you updated as we get closer to the date.—

Filed under: novel, Published, Writing | Tagged: Capturing the Moment, delilah night, Totally Bound | Leave a comment »

Odds and Ends

Posted on December 10, 2015 by Delilah Night

Today’s post is full of random bits, so I’m going to just do a bullet points entry

The very belated winner from the Thanksgiving Blog Hop is The Red Cross. A donation was made, and proof sent to the winning comment.
On a related note, I’ve had a story titled “The Finer Things in Life” accepted for another Coming Together anthology–Coming Together: Keeping Warm, scheduled to release on Dec 25
Before Keeping Warm is released, you’ll get to read “The Finer Things in Life” on Tamsin’s Supererotica Advent Calendar.
Speaking of Tamsin, did you know that she has released the December chapter of Alchemy XII? As a beta reader, I’m obviously a bit biased, but I’m so proud of her and I think it’s an amazing BDSM novel.
Thinking of novels–or Novellas, in my case–Capturing the Moment will be available for pre-order from Totally Bound on March 15, for purchase on Totally Bound on March 29 and for sale widely on April 29, 2016

And finally, greetings from paradise. We saw this beautiful rainbow appear over our hotel yesterday.

Filed under: acceptance, books (non-review posts), novel, Writing | Tagged: Alchemy xii, Capturing the Moment, Coming Together, Coming Together Keeping Warm, contest winner, Keeping Warm, Tamsin Flowers, Thanksgiving Blog Hop, The Finer Things in Life, Totally Bound | 1 Comment »

HUGE ANNOUNCEMENT–Capturing the Moment

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Delilah Night

I’ve been prattling on about Meg and RJ and Siem Reap, Cambodia since January. Well, I have awesome news…

I have signed a contract with Totally Bound, and the story, called Capturing the Moment will be published in 2016!!!!

This is a major milestone for me as a writer–it will be my first solo publication. This is the first time I’ve had input on a cover. The first time I’ll get a credit in my name on Amazon. My first solo credit on Goodreads.

To celebrate, here’s another teeny peek at their story

Once seated in the vehicle, RJ kissed Meg thoroughly. “Tell me more about the strippers and how you got naked in the Champagne Lounge with them. Tell me about how all the businessmen made it rain money while you guys sixty-nined each other.”

She laughed. “No wonder you’re so successful. That’s quite the vivid imagination you’ve got there. But I think you’re forgetting something.”

“You’re right. I totally forgot the whipped cream. Who licked it off who?”

Shaking her head, she said “You’ve forgotten about the dance you owe me. It’s the idea of you stripping that’s got me all hot and bothered. So now you owe me the dance, and you have to make sure it’s good enough to make up for leaving the Aspara performance, too.”

RJ pulled away. “Wait a minute. You deliberately misinterpreted what I said. You owe me a dance, Megan. Not the other way around.”

“So you’re going to chicken out?” she taunted.

Filed under: acceptance, Writing | Tagged: Capturing the Moment, delilah night, Novella, Siem Reap, Totally Bound | 2 Comments »

Siem Reap: Let the Edits Begin

Posted on March 20, 2015 by Delilah Night

When I first started writing erotica, my writing process went like this—

I would sit down and write a story. I would re-read it and do some light editing. I would spell-check it. Then I would submit it for publication on literotica. Within a few days, the story would be published. Email feedback would roll in. I would bask in my awesomeness. Fin

The thing about writing for literotica or any of the fan fiction hubs is that there is an audience for everyone. As a new writer, that sort of positive community support and feedback can be so valuable for building confidence, especially if you have a fragile ego.

My most productive period on literotica was when I was a graduate student in New York City. The program was a terrible fit for me. I came to the realization that I didn’t want the career I’d been focused on for years. I was new to the city, shy, broke, and miserable. There were weeks when getting a positive review email from a literotica reader was the only good thing that happened to me.

Looking back at that work, while there are stories that show promise—a scene, a character, an idea—the reality is that they are largely crap. The first reason for that is that I was a baby erotica author–those first steps were full of falls and bruises. I was new to the genre and rusty as a fiction author and it showed. The second reason–and if I’m honest–the bigger reason that those stories suck is that they lacked editing.

After I finished the first draft of Siem Reap, I went over my story page by page, line by line and I worked on it until my eyes were ready to bleed. I tweaked it until I thought I had the best piece of writing I could come up with. Then I sent it out to beta readers, and steeled myself to have those readers point out all the faults I’d become blind to.

The difference between amateur Delilah and professional Delilah is that (a) I believe in editing and (b) I know that “my best” is a starting point far from the finish line.

My”best work” is full of flaws that I can’t see because I live in my character’s heads. I write with an ear for English instead of an in-depth knowledge of grammar, which means my writing suffers from grammar errors I don’t know I’m making. Something I think of as clever may be clever, or it may miss the mark entirely.

I’ve been very lucky to get feedback from several readers. Some of it has been positive, other bits have been critical. All of it is useful.

I took a break from Siem Reap largely because of health issues. If you follow me on twitter, you probably know that I was hospitalized twice in March due to back and pain management issues. It’s why I’ve been so absent from the blog–it’s hard to write when the painkillers have you seeing double.

Now that I’m no longer in the hospital, and I’ve begun to rehabilitate my back, I’m ready to dive back into Siem Reap. I’m trying to look at the forced absence as a positive. The story is not so fresh in my mind, so I have a bit of emotional distance from my characters. I have valuable feedback to help me revise the story and make it stronger. I’m not so sick of the story that I want to burn it (a real hazard at times). I’m eager to revisit Meg and RJ and begin the next phase of editing.

Literotica Delilah would likely have hit publish back in February after the first draft was done. Today’s Delilah is hoping that I will be ready to submit the story by mid-April. Siem Reap is an okay story today. Thanks to my beta team’s feedback, I think the editing I’m about to do has the potential to make it a great one.

Filed under: In Progress, process, Writing | Tagged: Capturing the Moment, delilah night, editing process, Siem Reap, writing process | Leave a comment »

Troublesome words

Posted on February 4, 2015 by Delilah Night

I’ve begun the edits on the Siem Reap Story.

Every author falls prey to words and phrases that pop up a little too frequently in their work. You may have noticed one of mine in my excerpt posted on Jan 18.

“And you decided to just gate crash my dream vacation as a way to catch up? If you wanted to get in touch with me to warn me you’d be at the wedding, you could’ve just used Facebook like a normal person.”

I utilized the find tool and found 69 uses of the word “just” in my first draft.

Here’s the edited version of the same paragraph. You’ll notice that “just” has been omitted.

Exasperated, she threw the soda into the trash and turned to face him. “If you wanted to warn me you’d be at the wedding, you could’ve used Facebook or email like a normal person. Or Rachel could’ve told me that you would be there. What made you think crashing my dream vacation would be fun?”

“Just” is a word that becomes far to easy to rely upon, and is most often unnecessary filler. Other words that fall into that category are “actually” (5x) , “very” (45x), “really” (21x), trying (12x), “some” (63x) and “almost” (10x). I’ve learned about some of these weaknesses on my own, others were pointed out by beta readers.

The other thing I do a find search on before I begin to edit a piece in earnest is “began” (53x).

RJ took possession of her mouth. The taste of him, the feel of him was overwhelming and another orgasm began to build. His tongue seduced hers as he began to move within her. Her hands fisted in his hair, keeping their mouths fused. She needed him more than oxygen. The kisses grew hungrier as if they could make up for every missed kiss over the past six years. RJ’s hips caught the same frenzied pace as their kisses.

Everything began to spin out of control, and the orgasm hit her like a monsoon

One of the best pieces of advice I’ve gotten was from Lynn Townsend, who told me that characters should only begin to do something if the action is about to be interrupted “He began to walk across the room, but tripped over his cat.”

He took possession of her mouth. The taste of him, the feel of him, was overwhelming. His tongue seduced hers. Her hands fisted in his hair, keeping their mouths fused. The kisses grew hungrier, as if they could make up for every missed opportunity over the past six years. RJ’s hips caught the same frenzied pace as their mating tongues.

The orgasm was a monsoon.

Dropping “began” makes for a stronger story. In the example above, you’ll find I didn’t replace began with a different word. If there is a “began,” (or any of the other go-to words) it’s a hint that the entire sentence should probably get an edit.

Now that I’ve shared some of my most troublesome words–what are yours?

Filed under: In Progress, process, Writing | Tagged: Capturing the Moment, delilah night, editing, overused words, Siem Reap | 6 Comments »

Writing and Monkeys

Posted on February 3, 2015 by Delilah Night

Today I’m over at Lynn Townsend’s blog, talking about writing, Among the Stars, and monkeys. Head over to Paid by the Weird to read my interview.

Photo credit: me

Filed under: In Progress, Interviews, Parenting, process, Writing | Tagged: Among the Stars, Capturing the Moment, Coming Together: Among the Stars, delilah night, irresistible, Lynn Townsend, Siem Reap | Leave a comment »

WIP: RJ and Megan’s Story

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Delilah Night

Here’s what you need to know about my work in progress.

Six years ago Arjun (RJ) and Megan each broke the other’s heart. Even with the passage of time, they’re still not over each other.

RJ crashes Megan’s vacation in Siem Reap, Cambodia with the assistance of her sister. Due to delayed canceled flights, Megan is there for only one day instead of her planned four. He’s got 24 hours to show her that he’s grown up and is worthy of a second chance. Megan decides that what she needs is one last fling with RJ so she can get him out her system once and for all.

Will he win her back, or is she too scared that he’ll just break her heart again?

Photo credit: me

When I saw a call for stories set in different cities throughout the world, I immediately thought of Siem Reap, Cambodia. I fulfilled my dream of seeing Angkor Wat in May of 2014, and fell in love with the city in the process. I drew heavily on my experiences there when writing this novella.

I finished the first draft late last week and will be editing it over the course of the next few at which point I’ll be asking friends to beta read (friends–poke me if you think you might want to) while I send off the pitch and first 5k words to the call.

In the excerpt below, Megan is reeling from the surprise of seeing RJ. She’s just arrived in Siem Reap, and has rushed to Angkor Wat to shoot the temple at dawn (see my photo above). She’s taken refuge in the tent stalls next to the lake. (See below) The wedding mentioned is Rachel’s–her sister, and one of his closest friends from college–the person who introduced them in the first place.

photo credit: me

I can’t believe he’s here. This is almost as bad as if he were at the wedding.

“Oh. My. God. The wedding.” The bottle froze halfway to her lips. “Where is he?”

Meg scanned the crowd of tourists that were now crawling over Angkor Wat. Where had he gone? Was he invited to the wedding? She pulled out her cell phone to ask Rachel the question she’d never thought to ask before now. There was no signal.

Rachel, did you invite Arjun to your wedding? How could you?

Picking the bottle back up, and suddenly wishing it was a beer, Meg took a swig of the soda.

“Want to share that?”

She choked on the liquid, coughing and gasping. RJ’s hand pounded rhythmically on her back.

“Stop that! I’m—” Meg fought her way through another coughing fit. “Fine!” She tried to pull it together. Panting a bit, she took another cautious sip. What had been blissfully cool relief was now cloying sweetness. Disgusted, she put the bottle down.

“Why are you here? Don’t feed me any of your charming bullshit.”

He gave her a lazy smile. “Rachel told me you’d be here.”

Traitor!

“And you decided to just gate crash my dream vacation as a way to catch up? If you wanted to get in touch with me to warn me you’d be at the wedding, you could’ve just used Facebook like a normal person.”

“This wasn’t just your dream vacation, remember?”

RJ and Meg curled on his bed, daydreaming about where they would travel. They had always ended up in Asia—scuba diving in Indonesia, Ho Chi Minh City and the Mekong Delta in Vietnam, the Golden Temple of Amritsar in India, the elephant sanctuary in Chang Mai, Thailand, and more.

Junior year he’d given her a poster of Angkor Wat at dawn as an end of term gift. It had lived on walls in dorm rooms and apartments ever since. Angkor Wat had come to symbolize all their dreams for the future. When they’d talked of getting married, spending their Honeymoon in Cambodia had been a given.

After the break-up she’d burned the poster.

“You’re unreal.” Meg shook her head in disbelief.

“Spend the day with me.”

“Why should I?”

“Because if you don’t, you’ll always wonder what it would have been like. I’m not going to pester you during Rachel’s wedding. Besides you’d be too busy to flirt with me if I’m a welcome surprise. And too much of a lady to curse me out in front of everyone if I’m not.” He flashed her an impudent smile. A dimple winked at her from both cheeks.

He knew her too well.

You know you would’ve been picturing him here with you even before you knew he was here. Now that he is, can you really walk away? Have you ever had much willpower when it came to those dimples?

“Just because I agree to hang out with you today and let you try to sweet talk your way into my panties doesn’t mean you’re going to succeed, RJ.”

He leaned forward and whispered in her ear, “Just remember that I’m not the one who brought up the idea of me getting into your panties. You are.”

I hope you’re curious to know what happens next…

Filed under: In Progress, Writing | Tagged: cambodia, Capturing the Moment, delilah night, Erotic Romance, Novella, Siem Reap | 5 Comments »

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