Ya gotta love the dad bods. And the dads dancing. Just a fun few minutes on this bright Friday morning as a way to rev up for the weekend. Have a great one, all!
Does anyone here play chess? Or checkers? Risk? I’m pretty sure we’ve all said at some point in our lives, “It’s your move.” It’s all about strategy and planning. Sometimes, though, we don’t know what move to make. This happens a lot when writing a novel. Simply put, stuff happens. Emotional stuff. Action stuff. Good stuff. Bad stuff. When an author starts writing a book, the dream is to get it finished and into the hands of readers. Then stuff happens in real life and the writer gets all wrapped around the axel and stuff comes to a complete halt. No forward movement. Or very little, in fits and starts, with promises and excuses. Then the Universe shows up and pretty much boils it down to this:
When you move toward a dream, Silver, it moves toward you.
When you move every day, it moves every day.
Someone pass me a calculator –
The Universe
©www.tut.comP.S. Do the math, Silver, and keep moving… this could be your week!!
Too bad I’m terrible at math. Still, to me, the Universe means that it’s time to lead, follow, or get the hell out of my own way. Your mileage may vary. This message really hit home as I’ve been struggling–as y’all know–when it comes to Ariel’s Dang Book. The thing I need to keep in mind is that I need to move. Every day. If I “move” (ie. write) every day, the book moves ever closer to The End. I need to get out of my own way. I need to stop thinking that I need all these words written every day. Yeah, yeah. I used to write fast. I don’t any more. I used to be focused. Now I’m easily distracted. I get excited if I write 250 words on a Thursday. When I win, place, or show based on a random judge’s judgement, I know that the words are good ones because the writers who take the challenge each week are not novices. To write, you need to be in your head but if you get too deep into your head, you get lost in the weeds. New goal. Words every day. Whether one sentence, 250 words, a few pages, a chapter. It doesn’t matter. If I don’t start, I won’t finish. It’s that simple and that hard.
February is almost over and days are getting longer. At least for another couple of weeks and then we’ll be dragged back into darkness thanks to Daylight Saving Time, which saves nothing and only screws up everyone’s body clock. But, that’s not why we’re here today. Nope. Today is about new words and inspiration. The fun news is, I won last weeks’s Thursday Threads and this is what the judge had to say: Of all the wonderful pieces this week, this one feels the most layered and controlled. The domestic calm contrasts beautifully with the unsettling revelation about dreams. The worldbuilding is subtle but rich. The dialogue carries tension without exposition overload. The closing exchange lands cleanly and ominously. Loved it! His opinion did wonders for my ego! Here’s the prompt: *”You know what I mean?”*
****
Ariel neatly sliced his French toast into exact squares. He had not doused the plate with syrup and three link sausages lined up with military precision next to a perfectly round fried egg, the yolk almost orange in color staring at him like the sun through a white cloud. He ignored Druic, regretting the fact he’d told the kid of his dream.
Druic looked everywhere but at the man sitting across the table from him. He poked at the pile of scrambled eggs on his plate then chased a piece of bacon across it. He sipped his coffee, drank his orange juice. And he fretted. Fae did not dream and the fact that not only had Ariel dreamed vividly, but that he was willing to discuss it put him on alert. In the back of his mind, he knew he should make note of this occurrence and notify Queen Titania but dreams were…bad. They were often the precursor to madness in his people. He didn’t want Ariel to be crazy. He jerked when Ariel spoke.
“I know what you’re thinking, Druic.”
He forced himself to look at the other fae. “I don’t want you to be mad!” He blurted the works without thinking.
Ariel nodded. “What do you know of dreams?”
The boy floundered so Ariel continued. “We don’t dream. But we can enter other’s dreams. Do you know what I mean?”
“No sir.”
“We—or at least some of us—have the ability to walk into another’s dreams. We can manipulate them. Guide them. Whisper to their subconscious and lure them into doing our bidding. It’s just another form of enchantment.”
Shocked, Druic could only ask, “Who?”
“My guess is Titania.”
“But why?”
“Because she can.”
****
Yes, there are dreams involved, only they might not be dreams. And Titania is almost as persistent as Sade when it comes to interferring with Ariel’s Dang Book. Add in a nosy werewolf and a pesky dragon and it’s no wonder I keep chasing my tail on this one. Anyway, new words are welcome. Writers, grab the prompt if it sparks ideas. Readers, this is when I normally ask a question that pertains to the snippet but today? I got nuthin’. Know what I mean? 😉
I first tried grape dumplings years ago at the Chickasaw Tribal Center and Museum. They have a cafe there and grape dumplings are a specialty. Best stuff ever! Needless to say, when I created a Choctaw character for one of my books, it was naturaly to make them his favorite. Plus, given the situation in Mexico right now, a first (or reread) of this book seems a bit appropriate because there’s a Mexican drug cartel involved. This is truly a comfort food, and traditional in several of the Five Tribes. While harvesting and cooking “possum grapes” was the old way, modern tribal cooks have updated the recipe to make it easy and still just as delicious. There comfort in tradttions and this recipe is an old one handed down generation to generation.
GRAPE DUMPLINGS RECIPE
Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1¼ cups water
1 Tablespoon cornstarch
64 ounces grape juice
Sugar to taste
Let’s Make It
Place flour in a bowl. Make a well in center of flour and crack an egg into center. Using your fingers, begin mixing the egg into the flour and add water as you go. Form the dough into a ball and roll out very thin. Cut into 1-inch squares.
In a large pot place grape juice and sugar to taste. Bring to a rolling boil. Drop dumplings into boiling grape juice. Mix 1 Tablespoon cornstarch in 1 cup water. Add to hot grape juice. Cook for a few minutes so it thickens a bit and serve hot.
Kitchen Tip:
There are two different versions I’ve seen. One uses water for the dough. They other uses grape juice. Next time I make them I’ll be trying it with the juice!
Serve warm in a bowl. You can top with whipped cream or ice cream or just eat them plain.
As mentioned in the intor, this is one of Hawkins “Hawk” Greenwood’s favorite treats and his grandmother teaches Dana Peterson how to make them in the book. While Hawk is Choctaw, I’ll admit to finding a video of how to make these on Chickasaw-TV. THIS VERSION uses grape juice to make the recipe. You should check out the video just to hear the wonderful reminiscenses by the tribal elder. She’s all kinds of awesome! And I’ll admit that she rather reminds me Mariam Greenwood, Hawk’s ipokni, which means grandmother in the Choctaw language. If you want to read Hawk and Dana’s updated and revised story–including a kidnapping, rescue, and a road trip full of bikers–grab a copy of RESCUE MOON from your favorite online book seller. If you have a Hoopla subscription or can access through your local libary like I can, you can borrow it to read for free. Check out BOOKS2READ for the link to your fave store or click on either cover photos to get there.
I have to admit, now I’m hungry for these. I may have to add the ingredients to my grocery list for this weeki. What about y’all? What’s your favorite “hand-me-down” dessert?
February is almost over. How did that happen?
The Winter Olympics are over. I’ll admit I wasn’t all that interested. I caught a couple of the figure skating routines. There was some spped skaing on late one night (or early one morning, depending on your point of view). There were some ski events–downhill, specialty, and crosscountry that I peeked at. I saw the Italian wolfdog cross the finish line. That was fine and I’ve heard the rumor that he was awarded an honorary medal. I would have liked to have seen the bobsledding but forgot to check the schedule and it seemed like whenever I tuned it, it was curling. Nothing against curling but…yeah. . I did watch the USA women’s hockey team take gold. Yippee! And then I watched the USA men hockey take gold against Canada on the anniversary of the Miracle on Ice at the 1980 Olympics. I loved the unbridled patriotism the team showed! Since the TV was on, I ended up watching the closing ceremonies. They were…a rather psychedelically hypnotic homage to many things Italian AND sports. Oh, and the life cycle of water. That’s not a dig. It was fascinating. The music was outstanding, the imagery incredible and yeah, I was a bit misty-eyed when it was finished.
In two years, the Summer Olympics will start. The majority of them will be in LA. Some of the watersports (canoe & rafting(?) sorry, can’t remember) and softball (YAY!) will be here in OKC. It’ll be fun.
In other news, I wrote a little, rearranged some chapters, and made some general progress. Sadly, life kept intererring. Nothing bad, just distracting.
We loaded up the boys and headed out on Saturday. Stormy had soccer. There was a high school volleyball tournament at the same the facility as the soccer games. Sooooo many people! And those teams didn’t leave between matches. The noise was crazy. Anyway, Stormy played well and even made a goal but his team lost. We were so glad to get out of there! It was great to see the Kids and the boys were very good and calm though they were totally ready to get out of there too.
Not much else is going on. I did laundry. I even took the lint catcher apart on the dryer and gave it a good cleaning. Why yes, I was avoiding writing, why do you ask? 🙄
As for the coming week, I have no plans and fewer goals. We shall see what we shall see. What are y’all looking at?
I fell down the rabbit hole yesterday looking for a video for today. I caught the video of the Italian wolfdog who decided to run with the Olympic crosscountry skiers and crossed the finish line. I wanted something funny and lighthearted. Nothing really reached the “good video” levels so here. This is a favorite I think I’ve shared before. I keep it in the back of my mind for when I’m thinking about the Hard Target series. Which I”m not. I’m currently “in” Rochester but hey…words! Anyway, I hope you enjoy. Have a great weekend and watch out for the weather if you are facing any of the weird systems out there.
Earlier this week, I discussed character flaws. Apparently, the Universe follows this blog because this popped up in my inbox. Perfect people are boring. Uninteresting. They have no place to go but down, and while delivering a come-uppance to those practically perfect people might be fun and entertaining, it’s short-lived. The true entertainment comes from watching a flawed character stumbling around in the dark while they figure things out. This is what the Big U had to impart:
What if every shortcoming, slip, or bobble you notice in another person, Silver, was choreographed by Divine Intelligence inviting you to wonder, ask, and think about how you might increase your own awesomeness?
Yeah, that’s how I roll –
The Universe
©www.tut.comP.S. Awesomeness, Silver, is a word in our dictionaries here. Your pic is beside it.
Take *me* out of the equation and substitute *your character*. Basically, this is the roadmap of creating character arcs. Looks easy peasy, right? You create a character with baggage. The character juggles and bumbles and in the end, grows. I used Sade earlier as an example. Today, I give you Ariel. He’s cocky. He knows he’s a chick magnet. Heck, that’s his whole reason for being–according to Oberon. He is the King’s Seducer. That was great for while, but along the way, Ari met some humans and lo and behold, it’s just possible that their humanity rubbed off on our favorite Fae. That’s his story and I’m sticking to it. In the end, I hope he is full of awesomeness. Writers, what flaws do you give your characters? And I include secondary characters in that. They need depth too, to keep things interesting. Readers, what are your favorite flaws to find in a character?
Here we are back with another Wednesday, along with some new words. Sadly, I didn’t make the cut last week but that’s okay. I shouldn’t be greedy. Right? Anyway, a scene is a scene is a scene after all. There’s a quote from a movie or a cartoon that is similiar to what I just typed but I can’t remember exactly what it is. Obviously not enough coffee in my system yet. Anyway, (which is my crutch word of the week, thank you very much) last week’s Thursday Threads prompt is: *”That counts for something, right?”* As I haven’t arrived at the point where Ariel and Aisling actually meet (at least in the current timeline of Beginning –> End, this scene takes place at some point in the future of the book.Yeah, yeah. Confusing. I know. Believe me. Anyway…here.
****
Ariel leaned back against the ladder-back chair, his long legs stretched out to the side but not fully blocking the space between their table and the next. He watched Aisling fiddle with her coffee mug, first by adding cream and sugar, then stirring, sipping, stirring again. He waited. She finally shoved the mug away and looked up at him, meeting his direct gaze.
“Okay, fine. What do you want to know?”
He almost smiled. That was what Sade would call a loaded question. He wanted to know everything. Who was she? Why were both Fae courts so interested in her? Perhaps the most important questions would be, what was she?
“Let’s start with the library. How did you discover the secret vault?”
She glanced away then focused once more on her mug and stirred the creamy liquid again.
“I just did.”
“Just did what?”
“Find it. I was in the lowest basement and there was a door. I opened it and…” One shoulder lifted in a half-hearted gesture signifying both nothing and everything. “There was a corridor with one door. I opened it. The room was full of books. Boxes and scrolls and…” She looked up. “You’ve seen it. You know what’s there.”
“I know what was there.”
Aisling dropped her gaze, slumping. “Why is that book more important than the rest?”
“Because it is.”
“That’s no answer.”
“It is. The answer. To everything.”
Her mouth formed an “O.” “I know where it is. That counts for something, right?”
****
There you have it. This scene leads into a several already-written scenes so yay! Forward progress in the timeline. Writers, there’s your nudge to get some words down. Readers, what are you counting these days? Crows? Chickens before they hatch? What?
I have a confession. I ❤️memes. I know. I know. It’s a serious character flaw. I have files and files of memes, mostly divided into themes but I also have a big file simply labled “Made Me Laugh.” I also have a file pertaining to writing and reading because…d’uh. I should also add here that I have one named “I Have a Meme For That.” If you know me, you’re probably wondering about coffee memes. Oh yeah. That’s probably the biggest file of all–or would be if I went through all the other files and moved the coffee memes tucked in weird places into the main “Coffee” file.
Don’t ask me why. I have no clue. I’m too old for this stuff but…they make me laugh. Or they express what I’m thinking a whole lot quicker than I would if I sat here and typed all the words out. And with luck, they make other people laugh too.
Speaking of character flaws, the meme I posted here is likely one every writer can identify with. I’ve lost count of the number of times Ariel’s Dang Book has veered off the rails. I’ve detoured and deployed, prevaricated and placated. Thank the writing gods for Scrivener because I can go to bulletin board mode, look at the whole mish-mashed mess and move stuff around–provided I’m made good notes as the the basics of the scene. Everytime a character throws a twist at me, the story turns a different direction.
And…back to flaws. Have y’all ever heard the terms “Mary Sue” or “Gary Stu”? Those are terms for female (the most prevelant) and male characters who are free of weaknesses or character flaws. They are perfect. They can do anything and do it well. Every other character loves them at first sight. I worried about Sade at first. Since she lives in a magic world but it has no effect on her, she could be on the cusp. But she cusses. She’s sarcastic. She’s self-confident. Or is she? *bwahaha* She has her self-doubts. She messes up. Heck, she fell for a vampire who was her main suspect in a murder case. And even 6 books in, she worries about why he’s with her and when he will leave her. But this book isn’t about her. It’s about Ariel. And Aisling. But then there’s Bran. He’s turning out to be a real troublemaker. Both in the book and in the writing of the book. That author in the top photo of the meme? Yeah, that’s me on a daily basis. And every single major character clamors back with “Shut up! This isn’t about you!” *sigh*
Anyway, I have hopes the dang characters will behave this week and I can get a lot of dang words written on Ariel’s Dang Book. What about y’all? A fan of memes or naw?
Happy President’s Day. If you have work, sorry. If not, enjoy your day off. We’re on the downhill side of February and my birthday is getting closer. Yippee. (Where’s the sarcasm font when I need it?) Actually, even at my age birthdays definitely beat the alternative.
In better news, pitchers and catchers have reported for spring training and the rest of the players start arriving this week. Also, college softball has started with the usual opening tournaments. My Cowgirls are currently 6-4 and the Sooners are 7-1. In other sports news, Stormy’s team won Saturday, 14-2. We missed the game for…reasons.
And the reason? LG and I were on the road. He’d found a replacement truck for the one that caught fire and was totaled out by the insurance company. The truck had a few “dings” that made him want to keep looking. Then the salesman called with a new deal. One of the “problems” was that the truck didn’t have siderails/steps. 4WD trucks sit high and me trying to get my leg that high with enough umph to actually haul my carcass into the seat without that step is pretty much a big ol’ nope. The dealership offered to add siderails and they also dropped the price to get it within LG’s loan payment range. So, yay! He’s now the proud owner of a 2019 4WD F150 Lariat, white with black interior and only 128K miles. There are a couple of body dings and a small rip in the driver’s seat leather but we can live with those. LG’s already bought seat covers to take care of that problem. We’ll deal with the body stuff as needed. Anyway, the dealership is located a bit over an hour’s drive away. And there was weather we were trying to get there and back in between so no game. That said, they seem to win more when we aren’t there. Hrmm….
I did manage to get some writing done. Not much but it’s progress.
And we got rain Friday night and Saturday. We REALLY need rain so I’d take a lot more of that. Sadly, though, not in the forecast.
On the other people’s books front, the next new title on my radar doesn’t drop until the end of March and nothing has cropped up that’s caught my attention so I’m doing a marathon relisten to the Graphic Audio versions of Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniels series. Fun stuff.
Other than laundry, there wasn’t much else going on. Looking forward on this week, there’s nothing on the calendar other than a Wallyworld run at some point and hopefully more writing. Anybody doing something cool?
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
NOW AVAILABLE
Silver James 