Wednesday Words: Turning Feral

When I first saw the #1lineWed THEME for today, I wanted to turn cartwheels. I didn’t because…reasons. LOL But I wanted to. **FERAL** How perfect is that? It’s a word I use often to describe my Wolves. Once again, I’ve come up brain dead on whether I’ve shared this snippet or not but I can saw that it’s been edited and that I added a bit to the scene. Devlin O’Reilly is turning into one of my favorite characters. His still waters do run deep–as do his feelings. This snippet is fairly self-explanatory but I will add that Tommy Gallagher has been…targeted, shall we say, by the Wolves and Devlin is on his trail.
****
Devlin did not have to be in his wolf form to recognize the sound of a hard fist slamming into flesh. The need to protect the woman roared through him in a fierce tide that was feral in its intensity. His palms burned as he retracted his claws. Control. He was quickly loosing it and as much as he’d enjoy letting his other half out to hunt their prey, he couldn’t. It wasn’t time yet.

Still furious, Devlin followed his target, his wolf’s claws now sheathed just enough to keep his anger in check. He’d overheard the argument out there on the street. How did the neighbors not? Why did they do nothing? That was the thought process belonging to the wild side of him. Human logic laid it out in stark black and white—the bastard was a cop. She was his wife. No one wanted to get involved. So they ignored it. The sound of flesh on flesh and the sharp, painful cry that followed echoed in his psyche. He had a job and it hadn’t been breaking into that house to make sure the pretty woman who lived there was okay.

So now he watched the sleazeball harass the girls working the stroll on Kneeland Street from his hidden position. The arse was an infinite tool. It wasn’t a question of who or how. No, it was simply a question of when. Tommy Gallagher was a dead man walking. Because Devlin would kill the corrupt cop and feel not an ounce of guilt. He would someday soon put a bullet between the bastard’s eyes, and do it happily, with a smile on his face. Fitting that would be the last thing the bastard saw.

Gallagher crowded a few working girls against the wall of a building and leered at them. As one of them turned to leave, he grabbed the prostitute’s ass as she tried to squeeze past him and Dev tensed. Not yet. He couldn’t end the asshole yet. Not until Ronan and Brian gave the go-ahead. They had a plan in place and taking matters into his own hands would only screw things up. So he watched. And waited. And bid his time.

His thoughts turned to Gallagher’s wife. She’d be better off without him but did she love him so much that she wouldn’t leave him? They’d been married in the Church and she went to mass every Sunday. Dev knew this because he followed her too. So was it that whole until death do they part thing? Is that what kept her with him? Or was there something else? Something…darker. His wolf clawed at his insides, no longer a patient hunter. “Soon,” he whispered to his inner beast. And to the woman. “That’s a promise.”
****
I am making progress, if slowly. Yes, there were detours while I fixed MONTANA MOON and updated MOON SHOT so I could republish the former and go wide with both. That’s done. Now I have to get back in the mindset to produce new words. I’ll admit that I’m doing something I normall don’t do–going back to previously written scenes and editing them–not typos so much as adding words, making them deeper and more cohesive. I have such a weird writing process to begin with so watching it sort of…evolve is interesting. Anyway. Writers, any feral words to add? Readers, ever been so anger you wanted to go feral?

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Tuesday Treats & Titles: Cinnamon Chocolate Pudding

Want something quick? Have a hankering for a seasonal flavor? This fast treat will just hit the spot. Be sure to stock up on supplies so you can indulge whenever the urge hits. Because this dessert is largely sugar free, it’s a winner in my book!

Total Time: 5 Min.
Prep Time: 5 Min,
4 servings, approximately 2/3 cup each

Healthy Living: Simply add cinnamon to a chocolate classic for a weeknight delight.

What You Need
1 pkg. (1.4 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Flavor Sugar Free Fat Free Instant Pudding
1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 cups fat-free milk
1/2 cup thawed COOL WHIP Zero Sugar Whipped Topping

Let’s Make It
1 – Beat pudding mix, cinnamon and milk with whisk 2 min.
2 – Stir in COOL WHIP.

Kitchen Tips
Tip 1 – Substitute: Prepare using COOL WHIP LITE Whipped Topping.

Tip 2 – Make Ahead: Desserts can be made ahead of time. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Tip 3 – Nutrition Bonus: Trying to eat right? Satisfy your sweet tooth with this easy-to-make low-fat dessert.

This treat comes compliments of MY FOOD AND FAMILY. Click on over for the nutritional details. I happen to be a big fan of both cinnamon and chocolate, and anything I can whip together in five minutes to curb that craving? Oh, heck yeah! I’m totally on board. And I’m not the only one. Self-described nerd girl, Lauren Reilly, the heroine of MONTANA MOON is also a big fan of this dessert, treat, indulgence. She makes sure that her mate, Wolf shifter Tait McCord always has the ingredients on hand because living where they do out in the sticks of Montana? Yeah, dashing to the grocery store is like mounting an expedition. Where his freezer used to filled with meat, he now has to dig through cartons of Cool Whip. Good thing it freezes. 😉 While their story remains basically the same, there have been some changes and about 3000 new words added to their story under a revision of rights. The book is now available wide in most major on-line booksellers with more to follow. Grab it while its “hot off the presses,” mix up some cinnamon chocolate pudding and enjoy! Simply click on either pick or the title to head to Books2Read to get the link to your favorite store. What about y’all? Cinnamon and chocolate together: yay or nay?

Posted in Books, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Inflatable Monday

I feel like I need floaties to keep my ahead above water/all this idiocracy as we begin the week. Our local gas station hiked gas from $2.84 to $3.14. I’m hitting Wallyworld this morning and lord only knows how much stuff has gone up (or will be available) since my trip last week. But hey, those in charge insist everything is under control. Really?

Okay, getting off my soapbox before I devolve into a rant, and no more current affairs. I gave up and had to go back to the news because I was tired of being blindsided, but I try very hard not to drag my readers into the fray. Moving on.

Welpers. College football was crazy this weekend. The real OSU scored big against TCU on the night the amazing Barry Sanders was honored with a statue and his name on the wall of honor, along with retiring his jersey number. They moved up to #9. OU lost to Baylor and ouch. They dropped out of the top ten and their playoff/National Championship hopes are pretty much toast. Ah well. In similar news, Kansas beat Texas. Kansas had only won one game so far. This is apropos to nothing as far as y’all are concerning but us locals and supporters of the Big 12 Conference are biting our lips because OU and Texas announced this year that they are moving to SEC when the current B12 contract runs out. Too bad, so sad.

In other sports news, my Cardinals were named the Best Defensive Team in the National League. Five of them also recieved gold gloves, and one received a platinum glove. It’s how many days to pitcher/catchers reporting?

Still in the midst of my marathon listen to Jayne Castle’s Ghost Hunter/Harmony SciFi/Paranormal/Romance series. The newest book, GUILD BOSS, drops tomorrow. Due to business stuffs, I haven’t been listening as much so it’ll be awhile before I’m ready for the new release.

Speaking of business, MONTANA MOON is completed and is back live on Amazon and is being added to other on-line retailers as I type. All mention of copyrighted characters have been removed and new characters added, along with a bit over 3K new words. Additionally, MOON SHOT is also going wide. It’s basically the same book, with only the back matter updated. As more books come up for KU/Kindle Select renewal, they’ll be going wide too. Next up will be WOLF MOON and DOUBLE CROSS, right around Thanksgiving. That means there’s still a little time to “read for free” with a subscription.

In other writing news, I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned that ALL of the Penumbra Papers are now available to check out from Hoopla, along with MOONSTRUCK: LIES, NIGHT MOVES, and NIGHT FIRE. There is no rhyme or reason to the order that Hoopla accepts them. I’m just glad they are getting there. I use Hoopla as a patron of my local library system. If you have a library card, you might check with your library. The app has digital books, audio books, music, and movies. Pretty handy.

Not much else going on in my neck of the woods. Got some new words in–mostly on the revision of MONTANA MOON though I did manage some on the Boston Wolves. I got my News Page updated on here on the website and got links updated for the two “new” books. I’m still gritiching about whatever time warp we’re currently in and I’m prone to naps lately as a result. Pretty boring stuff. Oh, one last thing. The meme used today is my new favorite. Just sayin’…

How’s your world? Boring? News? What’cha readin’, writing’ or watchin’? Inquiring minds want to know.

Posted in Books, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Friday Sinema: Skye Song

I watched “Outlander” for a few seasons. I never read the book, much less the series, though. While I enjoyed the HBO series (for awhile), I found the best part of it was the soundtrack. One of the songs sprinkled throughout is the Celtic folk song, “The Skye Boat Song.” This video popped up at the end of another video I watched, and besides the “commercial” sponsorship, I found the history and the music very interesting. Grab your beverage of choice and settle in for about 10 minutes to learn and listen. Have a great weekend, all!

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Thursday Thoughts: Universal Conspiracy

The world is all topsy-turvy again. There’s so much going on and the number of people who refuse to listen, to see, to understand boggles my mind. Hence my using this emoji — 🤯 — a lot. Along with these: 🙄😱😡🤬 Sometimes, I get lucky and I get to use these: 🤗🥰🤣😉 And sometimes, the Universe drops a message into my inbox that causes me to stop, look, listen, and feel.

Silver, look between the sights, hear between the words, feel between your thoughts, and there you’ll find me conspiring on your behalf, with magic, miracles, and more.

Living between the moments,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

Silver, you are among the VERY BEST “THINGS” that has ever happened to me.

And that’s just how I feel about all of you, my wonderful readers! Y’all are the VERY BEST “THINGS” that have happened to me. I just want y’all to know you are appreciated and cared about even when the world seems so crazy and unreal. So… 😉🤣🥰🤗 Have an awesome day! Pssst. Pass it on. And lest I forget, today is Veteran’s Day. Let’s not forget those who have and are serving in the military to keep us safe despite desperate tolls on them (and their families) personally and professionally. Thank you for your service and prayers of gratitude to those who made the supreme sacrifice in carrying out their duties.

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Wednesday Words: Chaos

The #1lineWed THEME of **CHAOS** pretty much sums up my current writing life. Between final edits on MONTANA MOON and updating two seperate editions–one for Amazon and the other for everyone else, since I’m publishing it in wide distribution. Additionally, I’m trying to keep up with NaNo words and I meant to do some free writing on the theme but I had a different scene to finish and didn’t get around to it. So, I’m grabbng an existing snippet and I can’t remember if I’ve posted here before or not. It was originally written based on a #ThursdayThreads prompt, which is a flash fiction challenge sponsored by a writer friend, Siobhan Muir. Anyway, this is a visit with Devlin and Kathleen–sort of, as we’re strictly in Dev’s brain. He’s an enforcer for the Boston Wolves and Kathleen…well, just keep reading. FYI, I didn’t post Kathleen’s half of this scene. Her backstory is raw brutal and there’s a lot revealed in the words that follow these. They’ll wait for the book.
****
Devlin took one look at her and his immediate thought was, Fuck me. She was a cop’s widow. A cop he put six feet in the ground. The guy was a wrong cop but still. He’d killed her husband. He recognized her the minute he walked in the place. She’d been all over the news a year ago. The grieving widow. The Boston Police Department let her have the glory, even though they knew the truth about her scumbag husband. Hell, they all knew. Even that bevy of hens cackling around her now. Her friends. Two of ’em had been bangin’ Tommy the whole time. And she’d been the clueless, sweet little wife. A fucking kindergarten teacher before they got married, for Chrissakes.

Their party was a loud one. What did they call it now? Bachelorette party. One of the bitches was getting married. Not Kathleen though. They’d obviously dragged her out. Decided it would be good for her to dip her pretty little painted toes back into life. She’d mourned the asshole for a year, yeah? Time t’find a new man. Dev knew the way they were thinkin’.

He also knew exactly what had gone on behind the closed doors and shuttered windows of the house she’d shared with her husband. He stalked Tommy Gallagher for weeks, as man and wolf both. He heard. He saw. And he waited. Then he followed the boss’s orders and pulled the trigger. With no regrets. Until now. Because her she was.

Once a month, the club gave the girls a night off and brought in the boys. Horny women lined up around the block t’get in. The Borus made a killin’ off high-priced fancy drinks and the mob’s lads got the chance to nail the ladies in the VIP rooms. With the widow’s group, things had gone from rowdy to chaos and the manager had called Mick. Mick called Dev. The bugger always called him to keep a lid on things. And t’kill bad cops.

Her name was Kathleen Gallagher and his fuckin’ cock let him know it was alive and kickin’ every time he saw her picture. Havin’ her sittin’ across the room where he could all but fill his lungs with the scent of her, and the damn thing was doin its damnedest to bust the zipper on his britches. His feckin’ wolf wasn’t behavin’ much better. He had t’focus to keep his animal half buried because the damn thing was scratchin’ at his skin t’come out and play. With her.
****
And there you have it. I can honestly say that Devlin’s emotions are a little chaotic at the moment. Writers and readers both, any chaos to share today?

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Tuesday Treats & Titles: Fish & Chips with a Twist

Don’t you just love it when you’re in the middle of cooking and someone rushes in and shoves a book (in whatever format) in front of your nose and says, “You HAVE to read this!!!.” Technically speaking, I’m not doing that. That said, you might just love both the recipe AND the book`.

Total Time: 25 Min.
Prep Time: 10 Min.
Cook Time: 15 Min.
4 servings

Turn seafood into see-them-love-it food with our Fish and Chips with a Twist. This fish and chips recipe combines the fish and the chips in one dish!

What You Need
1-1/2 cups crushed salt & vinegar kettle-cooked potato chips
1/4 cup MIRACLE WHIP Dressing
4 cod fillet s (1 lb.)

Let’s Make It
1 – Heat oven to 400ºF.
2 – Spray baking sheet with cooking spray. Place crushed chips in shallow dish.
3 – Brush dressing onto both sides of 1 fish fillet, then dip in crushed chips, turning to evenly coat both sides of fillet with chips. Place on prepared baking sheet.
4 – Repeat with remaining fish fillets.
5 – Bake 12 to 15 min. or until fish flakes easily with fork.

Kitchen Tips
Tip 1 – Serving Suggestion: Serve with a mixed green salad tossed with your favorite KRAFT Dressing.

Tip 2 – Substitute: Prepare using your favorite variety of potato chips.

My Food & Family has awesome recipes and you can click over for all the nutritional info on this one. Since Sade spent some time in the British Isles during her last exploits and since this recipe is even easy and quick enough that she could maybe handle it… “I heard that, Silver! I can throw raw fish into crumbled up chips and then put it in the oven so there!” … 🤫 Yeah, don’t anybody hold their breath. … “I HEARD that! Jeez, I get nooo effing respect around here.” … Anyway, this recipe is a tasty and easy twist on “fish and chips” no matter where you eat them. I bet these fillets would be tasty with a little malt vinegar sprinkled on them while eating. Yum! Okay, if you are curious about Sade’s adventures and her Scooby Gang of intrepid Magicks, including the sexy vampire Sinjen, you can grab her latest book, GHOSTS & THE ANCIENT STONES by clicking on the title or either photo depicting the cover. She’s all over the place chasing down the wicked wizard who painted a target on our favorite FBI agent’s back.

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Monday I Hate the Most

Welcome to DST. NOT!!!!! I hate this whole “fall back” thing. I have enough trouble getting my body to cooperate when it comes to sleep and now the infernaleral government insists on perpetuation this myth. I heard one pundit praise it because it gives farmers more daylight. In the winter. When most of their crops are fallow. And guess what! Most famers have farm equipment with lights now. No more mules an or draft horses pulling plows. Oh, and the farm animals? This whole hour back and forth thing doesn’t mean a blessed thing. Sunrise is sunrise and sundown is sundown. They can’t read a clock! SOMEBODY in Washington (and Europe too because they’re debating this whole time debacle) do something that actually makes sense. KTHXBYE.

In other news, the real OSU moved up in the polls after another win this weekend–up 1 spot from 11th to 10th.. My Pokes are on a roll but they have 3 tough games in the weeks ahead, including in-state Bedlam rival OU, which didn’t move because they had a bye week. Baseball’s done except for hirings and firings and winter trades until mid-February when pitchers and catchers report and then the rest of the players report around my birthday. I already miss baseball. Also, since I’m basically politically incorrect (and have a significant degree of Indian blood and am married to an Indian), congratulations to the Atlanta Braves! They took the World Serious in 6. Keep that chant and chop goin’.

After watching the numbers last month and this, though we’re only a week into November, I’ve decided to take my remaining books out of Kindle Unlimited on Amazon. Most days, I can sell one book and make the same (or more) royalty as what I’m getting on KU. With the little authors make per page read ($.004), people would have to read 518 pages to equal the royalty received on one book sold at a $2.99 price point. The ROI (Return On Investmen) no longer makes sense. I’ll be taking each book wide through Draft2Digital as they come off KU, so they won’t go live in any sort of order. Today is not the time for a full lesson on the inner workings of KU. I made some money there–to begin with–but I believe my better course forward is with wide distribution.

Speaking of reading, who has–or knows what HOOPLA is? 🙋🏼‍♀️ Hoopla Digital is a streaming service for ebooks, autdio books, music, and movies. It’s accessed through your local library, if your library subscribes. I’m really lucky that my library system has a great digital library I can tape into but I can often find books on Hoopla that are NOT in my library’s local system. There are also times when there’s a waiting list for a new release at the library when I can grab a copy off Hoopla without having to wait. You might want to check into. I’m slowly getting my independent books accepted there. All of the Penumbra Papers are available, along with MOONSTRUCK: LIES. Hopefully, all my books will make it sooner or later. And yes, I do get paid per checkout there.

On the personal reading/listening front, I finished the re-listens and the new release in Lauren Dane’s Diablo Lake series. Wolf shifters and witches with a touch of southern sweet tea and lavender. They aren’t as sexy as her usual fare and the relationship angst is low. They’re sweet romances with sexy bits, some intrigue and very likeable characters. I’m now embarking on a relisten of Jayne Castle’s Gosthunter/Harmony series. There’s a new book in that series dropping on the 16th so yay!

LG is so good to me. He put new “rubber” on Drover, ie. he replaced front and rear windshield wiper blades on my Highlander, and then he topped off my tank. He is soooo totally a keeper! Which is probably a good thing considering how long I’ve kept him… 😉

I probably should save this for a Friday Free-For-All post but whatever. Does anyone else get down to the bottom of both the dip carton AND the potato chip bag and decide to dump the chips into the carton, grab a spoon, stir it up, and eat away? I totally do that. When no one is around to see, of course.

Not much else is going on my world. I’m working on NaNoWriMo words in MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON as well as finishing up the revisions on MONTANA MOON. I hope to have it live at least in a few places by the end of the week. Saturday was siren test, Mexican restaurant lunch with the Kids and a loooong nap. I guess I was getting ready for the time change. Ugh. That’s it for me today. What about y’all? Anything new, noteworthy, boring or worth ranting about? Any weird “culinary” habits you want to share?

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Friday Free-For-All

Another week closer to the end of 2021. Not sure how I feel about that. I do know that I closely resemble the cat over there. 😉 Since it’s Friday, I thought I’d share some totally random thoughts, links, and stuffs. To get us started, here’s a feel-good story/video for the day. Mozel Tov! It’s about a woman who adopts a very special…dog. I would have brought Mozel Tov home in a heartbeat!

Speaking of animals…
But what about the dog/cat/horse/insert critter type here? … I read a news story sometime back. A person on vacation took her Golden Retriever for a walk. Her husband reported her missing later that day. State police recovered her body sometime later from a nearby river. There was no mention of the dog. What happened to the dog?!? Did s/he return home and that’s how the husband knew there was trouble? Did the dog run away? Did it jump in the river and drown too? There’s an adage that is frequently passed along to new writers: Don’t kill the dog! It just pisses off the reader. I’m sorry for the lady and her family, but…I really want to know what happened to the dog! Okay, part of that is caused by my writer’s brain but mostly, it’s due to my fondness for critters.

Speaking of critters, this CHEEZBURGER post offers up 22 Animal Squads That Look Like They’re About To Drop A Bangin’ Mixtape

Heard a line in a book about coffee that made me laugh: Only two kinds of people drink coffee black–criminals and cops.

Harlequin posted an interesting question on Twitter the other day: Would you rather love a book everyone hates or hate a book everyone loves? I’m not sure either position is a comfortable one. I think it’s probably easier to “defend” loving a book than it is hating a book in the face of all the rabid fans. That said, I often find myself either DNFing or not rating a book that so many people have raved about. *koff50shadeskofftwilightkoff* I’m also the first to admit that I have eclectic tastes in reading material and those preferences, like my humor is all subjective.

Speaking of “Twilight”…this Twitter thread that was reproduced on Cheesburger made me laugh, because Twilight characters as dogs? Yeah…I’m totally there!

And finally, a PSA! You’d think as situationally aware as I am, and with my background, I’d have known about this or figured it out. If you are ever lost while hiking, get stranded with a broken down car, etc and you notice your cell phone is either low on juice or has no signal, here is a tip that very well may save your life. Change the voicemail on your phone to a message that gives your approximate location, the time, the date, your situation (lost, out of gas, car broken down, injured, etc.) and any special instructions such as you are staying with the car, you are walking toward a town, etc…. The best part of this is that even if your cell phone dies or stops working, voicemail still works, so anyone calling your phone looking for you will hear the message and know where to find you or where to send help. In other words, DON’T BE THIS GUY! (the story’s about a lost Colorado hiker who didn’t answer his phone–rescuers were called–because he didn’t recognize the numbers.

On that note, go out and enjoy your weekend. Even if that means staying in, snuggled up on the couch with a good book, movie or sports event on the tube.

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Thursday Thoughts: Universal Time

Guess what happens at 2 a.m. Sunday morning? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. I’ll wait…

Why, yes! It is the arrival of Daylight Savings Time. Or the return to Standard Time. Or whatever!?!?!?! Why is the government still torturing us with this nonsense? Y’all, I don’t care which gets used, just stop the madness of switching back and forth. Seriously! On that note, I had to laugh when this popped up in my inbox. Fitting, no?

If you take your time, Silver, you’ll have more of it.

Wei-i-i-r-d,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

And if you love each day, Silver… actually, it doesn’t matter what the consequences are, huh? They won’t be any sweeter than you in love with each day.

So, we fall back, right? Does this mean I’ll be awake at 4 a.m. now? If so, I’m totally not going to be in love with each day. That noted, there is something to think about what the big U has to say on the topic. What about y’all? Are you a fan of DST?

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments