Thursday Thoughts: Universal Gravity

Posted on October 8, 2020 by Silver James

I came very, VERY close to titling this “Universal Size Matters” because…hey! An age-old debate among romance writers. (And others, maybe… probably 😆 ) However, I refrained. Barely. Anyway…you’re welcome. It’s been a busy week and my brain is mostly mush but I’m persevering. Even if my mind went there. Because…if it weren’t for the gutter, my mind would have no place to play. Just sayin’… 😉

Silver, do you think gravity has to work harder to hold an elephant to the ground than an acorn?

Ha.

It’s the same for “thoughts becoming things.”

Size, really and truly, does not matter.

Tallyho, ho, ho –
The Universe
©www.tut.com

The size of your dreams, Silver, has little to do with the likelihood of them coming to pass. Very, very little indeed.

This is always good to know, right? What I take away from this is to dream big. Which is something I tend to do every time I sit down to start writing a new book. Dreaming big brings me characters, plot, settings, and hopefully lots of words. It also gets me through any WIP I’ve got going. Sadly, sometimes, I’m a little slow when it comes to the dreaming but hey…

On a good note, I’ve really been cranking on NIGHT WISH this week. The elephant in the room is eating peanuts at the moment. What’s that even mean? you ask. It means that I’m very close to typing The End. As in, I might actually be done with the first draft by this afternoon. Keep your fingers crossed. If I do and provided I haven’t totally screwed things up, it might even be available by next week. No promises because…gravity, but I am dreaming big about it! What big dream do you have today?

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Wednesday Words: Ghost of a Chance

Posted on October 7, 2020 by Silver James

Today’s prompt from #1lineWed on Twitter is keeping in the SPIRIT of the season and when I went looking for a snippet in NIGHT WISH, I didn’t think I had a GHOST of a chance of finding one that met the criteria. Ha! I got lucky. Sort of. The prompt is **GHOST or SPIRIT** and while I think the Twitterverse might have had a different idea, this is what popped up and it works for me. Once again, we’re in Gen’s POV and man, has her life gone down the…uhm…toilet, shall we say. Anyway, here’s her musing on her current state of affairs.
****
Gen
I’d had a bad day. A whole month of them. I didn’t have bags under my eyes. I had steamer trunks. I giggled, a bit hysterically, at my dramatic thought. Purple prose much? I dragged my three bags of groceries into my condo. I was a stress eater. My food of choice was anything high in carbs. Ice cream. Chips. Cookies. Cheese sandwiches made with bacon and Texas toast and grilled in butter. Lately? I couldn’t stomach the thought of food. I’d bought food, along with some personal necessities like toothpaste and deodorant and tampons. The food was frozen dinners. I could throw them in the freezer and forget about them. Throwing away what had been perfectly good ingredients but they’d spoiled because I couldn’t stomach the idea of cooking and eating just made my depression worse. At least I’d found a job so I could afford groceries. Granted, selling rent-to-own furniture contracts hadn’t been on my résumé, but it was a job.

Why was I even depressed? I’d known from the first time that beautiful—if a jerk—man told me to get on the back of his bike that he’d realize sooner than later that I wasn’t his type. That skank Carla was right. Wizard was so far out of my league.

I put the frozen stuff in the freezer, went upstairs and dumped the bag of personals on the counter in the bathroom, then shuffled into my bedroom. I kicked off my shoes in the closet and stripped down in there with the lights off. No mirrors in the closet, nothing to remind me of the fat. I pulled on a pair of sweat pants and a T-shirt. I needed to eat something but I wasn’t hungry. Instead, I flopped on the bed still without turning on any lights. Forty-five. I stared up at the ceiling in the dim light filtering through the curtains of my bedroom window. It took about 45 days for a person to starve. Heh. At least I’d die skinny. And after I died, I’d come back as a ghost and haunt Wizard.
****
There you have it. And believe it or not, I made HUGE strides yesterday. Seriously! I mean like I moved ahead four chapters, and weeded out scenes that I’ll rewrite and use for another book. Keep your fingers crossed for an upcoming release date and cover reveal. Yes, I have the cover already so that’s a yay! Anyway, writers, any spirited or ghostly words to share? Readers, do you believe in ghosts?

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Tuesday Treats: Applesauce Cinnamon Bread

Posted on October 6, 2020 by Silver James

The weather is warming up just at bit as it does this time of year but it’s still cool enough to crave the flavors of fall, This dense bread is great for breakfast, or for dinner with ham or turkey. I’ve been known to “grill” it with butter on a griddle. Yummy stuffs, I’m tellin’ y’all.

Total Time: 1 Hr. 10 Min.
Prep Time: 15 Min.
Cook Time: 55 Min.
18 servings

Make this easy Applesauce Cinnamon Bread with chunky applesauce, brown sugar, cinnamon and more. Serve this Applesauce Cinnamon Bread with breakfast or as a snack.

What You Need

1-1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp. CALUMET Baking Powder

1-1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp. salt

1 egg

1 cup chunky applesauce

3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

2/3 cup fat-free milk

2 Tbsp. oil

1-1/2 cups wheat bran flake cereal

1/4 cup chopped PLANTERS Walnuts (or pecans)

Let’s Make It

1 – Mix flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt in large bowl. Beat egg in small bowl; stir in applesauce, sugar, milk and oil. Add to flour mixture; stir just until moistened. (Batter will be lumpy.) Stir in cereal and walnuts.

2 – Pour into 9×5-inch loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray.

3 – Bake at 350°F for 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Kitchen Tips

Tip 1 – Note: For easier slicing, wrap bread and store overnight.

Tip 2 – Nutrition Bonus: Delicious! Plus it’s low in fat and cholesterol.

Tip 3 – I’m not big on walnuts but I love pecans like crazy so I substitute pecans.

As always, CLICK THROUGH to get all the nutritional details at My Food and Family. An interested hero stepped forward to also claim a liking for this treat. Hawk Greenwood, the Chickasaw hero and Wolf shifter in RESCUE MOON, says his grandmother makes this every fall. He remembers gathering apples in the fall and taking them to her where she makes her own applesauce. His mate Dana insists that using applesauce in a jar from the store works just as well. This book is part of Susan Stoker’s Special Forces: Operation Alpha world and her Delta force team led by Ghost Bryson are there for backup. Hawk’s mission is to rescue Dana from a drug cartel south of the border. They have quite the adventure and a lot of the Wolves have cameos before all is said and done. Just click on the title or the cover and head over to grab a copy or read it for free with Kindle Unlimited. Are you a fan of fruit breads? I sure am!

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Octomonday

Posted on October 5, 2020 by Silver James

So it’s Monday again. And WordPress has decided to be a pain in my ass. Y’all? If ain’t broke don’t freakin’ fix it!!! I’ve used the plain ol’ WordPress HTML editor for freakin’ years!!!!!!!!!!!! I didn’t have to learn massive amounts of code. I learned what I needed to produce the “finished product” I wanted to show to my readers. And now? Not enough coffee or four letter words in the Universe to express my utter dislike of this so-called special-snowflake new and simplified method. It SUCKS! And doesn’t do what I need or want it to do. Sadly, Blogger doesn’t work for me either. GRRRRRRRRRRRR. Freaking Monday. In-line image my ass. Oh, and previewing? Yeah, that doesn’t happen UNTIL you save the freaking post. Moving on before my blood pressure explodes.

Sadly, my Cards are done for the year. They lost this weekend to the Padres, on the saqme day that Cardinal great Lou Brock lost his battle with pancreatic cancer. Mr. Brock was a hellava man and ballplayer. He is mourned and missed. Baseball isn’t over yet and I’ll tune in to check on the division races and the World Series because that’s tradition.

In the “It’s a Small World” category, Lawyer Guy and I did siren test on Saturday and met Only, Baseball Boy, and Stormageddon for lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurante. Three people were seated at the table next to ours–grandparents and a granddaughter. They recognized Jake. Turns out, they were the third family to return him to the rescue group. THANK ALL THE FURREVER HOME GODS! They were the ones who crated him. The final straw was when he messed up their venetian blinds when they left him. The woman claimed that they’d owned and showed Newfoundlands. Yeah…okay. Maybe. But they knew f*ck-all about dog psychology. What’s sad? Jake recognized them too and spent lunch restless and needing attention from us until they left. I think he thought we might be giving him back to them. Not happening! EVER! Jake is here to stay. He spend a lot of time on the bed wtih me that night looking for reassurance and I cancelled my trip to Wallyworld on Sunday because I worried what he’d think in the car. Anyway, he’s ours.

In TV news, I can’t remember if I’ve mentioned that The Masked Singer is back on with the new season. The costumes are wild this time around. The first to be eliminated was the dragon. He was awesome! And was Busta Rhymes. It fit. Last week, it was a total charlie foxtrot, in a way. The group went through their songs–all of them outstanding, until the last contestant, the Gremlin. Who was totally cute in costume. And he did okay. So then, the judges are making picks and Jenny McCarthy comes up with this crazy pick–Mickey Rourke. At which time, the Gremlin started pulling his head (mask) off. Crazysauce! And it turns it, it was Mickey Rourke. Who either didn’t understand the rules, was a little high, or was just tired of being hot in the costume. Anyway, that was the elimination for the round so everyone else was safe. I’m totally serious about the crazysauce!

Reading/listening remains focused on my marathon of the In Death books by JD Robb. I managed to skip the novella after NEW YORK TO DALLAS so I went back and picked it up and now I’m back on track with #37, THANKLESS IN DEATH. 

I did some writing last week. Once again, I had to look for different headspace on NIGHT WISH. It’s over 60K words and a lot of what I wrote earlier don’t really fit the direction it’s going. Which is okay. Any scenes I cut got back into the “stew pot” and can be rewritten for another book. I’d really hoped to make serious progress over the weeknd but life happened, as it does. However, I did also get the opening to FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE done and I’m liking it. I think JUSTICE will mostly write itself. Crossing fingers on that. I have the big climatic scene in my head. Opening and closing is not a bad place to be.

In social media news, y’all are well aware that I’m not a big fan of FB. And I haven’t been on Instagram in months and months because my phone is not my social media friend and trying to get to Instagram on my desktop has been a hassle. You may or may not be aware that FB bought IG and now has released a “business suite” that, since I have a “professional” page, I can use to post to both FB and IG, with the same post or individually. So, I’m at least posting a bit more on IG. Anyway…

 That’s it for me today. I’ve got to hit Wallyworld. Eggs and munchy bone treats for doggos wait for no woman. Hopefully, that’s were I am as you read this so I can come home, get to work and get NIGHT WISH closer to The End. JUSTICE is a has-to-be-turned-in by November 30 and I don’t want to stall releasing WISH any longer than I have already. So, work day for me. What about y’all? What kind of day are you planning?

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Friday Sinema: Lights Out

Posted on October 2, 2020 by Silver James

Y’all know I’m a big fan of Lindsey Stirling. Here’s her latest video–rather apropos for October. It also makes me wish I wrote “hard” fantasy because I have all sorts of ideas about this one. Tomorrow is Pancake Day, Siren Test, and family lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurante. I might even get some work done. Or a nap. What plans do you have? Have a great weekend and I hope you enjoy the video!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Expectations

Posted on October 1, 2020 by Silver James

Sometimes, getting the right words down in the right order and actually telling a story from the beginning to the end feels like a miracle. Writing is not easy. Oh, we writers like to pretend it’s all roses and chocolate but it’s more nose to the grindstone and butt in chair, hands on keyboard.

Every enlightened master, Silver, knows that it’s not what you do that brings about a miracle, but that you do something, consistently, with an unwavering expectation that thy will shall be done.

Because when you do something, with intention, every day, almost anything, in the direction of your dreams, that’s all I’ll need to reach you, connect a few dots, and drop a few jaws.

We takin’ over,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

Which means, Silver, that usually the best way to extraordinary is through the ordinary (making ordinary quite extraordinary, if you know what I mean).

And isn’t that all the truth? Do something, with intention, every day, working toward the dream of finishing your story. Or for those of you who aren’t writers, the same holds true. Whatever your dream is, working toward it will bring about the miracle of completion. I’m off to connect a few dots and hopefully, when all is said and done, I’ll drop a few jaws when NIGHT WISH goes live. What about y’all? What miracle are you looking to create?

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Wednesday Words: Magnify

Posted on September 30, 2020 by Silver James

Hump Day once again. MLB playoffs are in full swing, new words are getting written and I have a snippet that fits the #1lineWed theme of **MAGNIFY**. Sort of. I’m not going to explain this snippet because it’s fairly self-contained but mainly because I’m all mean and mysterious like that. 🤣
****
Gen
I ignored the three men in the small interrogation room. It wasn’t like TV—no two-way mirror on a wall, no metal chair or table, or handcuffs. Still, unseen eyes watched me. The camera tucked in one corner of the ceiling wasn’t obvious, but I knew it was there. Now I knew how a bug felt under a magnifying glass. The men lounged back in their chairs, watching me. Silence stretched out. I understood that game, had played it myself when doing mediation between coworkers. The ATF agent attempting to be the good cop spoke. “I’m going to read your rights—”

“I understood them the first four times.” My voice sounded as hollow and dead as I felt. The law could do its worst and it wouldn’t be as bad as what Wizard had done.

“Ms. Pruitt…”

I closed my eyes, shutting them all out.

A fist thumped on the Formica table, toppling the bottle of water they’d brought me. I didn’t move.

“Dammit. You need to tell us about the Nightriders. About your relationship with Jack Dimond.” The voice belonged to the DDCC agent who’d raided Chasin’ Tail.

“Who?” I’d never heard the name before.

Jones laughed, the sound both accusatory and sarcastic. “You don’t even know the real name of the man you’re fucking? Jack Dimond, also known as Wizard.”

A strangled laugh exploded from my mouth. I opened my eyes in time to see my interrogators rear back. Pretty sure my crazy emotions were apparent in my brittle smile, I said, “They had a wicked sense of humor.”

They exchanged uneasy looks. I pushed back from the table and stood. “Are you arresting me?” No one spoke. That’s what I thought. They’d bought into the nonsense Brent spewed about me. Well, I wasn’t that woman anymore. Not that I ever had been. I stared at each man. Jones, the DDCC agent, smirked. Jerk. The local Kansas City cop wouldn’t meet my gaze. The ATF agent stared at Jones. “Fine. Then we’re done here.”

No one spoke as I shoved out of the corner they’d put me in—physically and emotionally—and headed for the door.

The ATF guy grabbed my arm as I passed. “Ms. Pruitt, you need to be careful. They’re criminals.”

“Tell me something I don’t know.”
****
Yeah, nobody puts Baby in the corner. 😉 I will add that things are going from bad to worse for Gen but when push comes to shove, there’s always a Happy Ever After. Is that vague enough? And yes, I am a big ol’ terrible tease and y’all can hate me. That’s cool. Just so long as I tease you enough to read the book. I’m getting closer each day. What do you think is going to happen next in the book? 😉

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Tuesday Treats: Cinnamon Coffee Cake

Posted on September 29, 2020 by Silver James

It’s International Coffee Day!!!! Of course, every day is Coffee Day in my house. None of you who know me are surprised by this. To celebrate, here’s a recipe for coffee cake that not only goes down well with coffee, but is real coffee cake.

Total Time: 50 Min.
Prep Time: 20 Min.
Cook Time: 30 Min.
24 servings

Treat your morning coffee to something special with our Cinnamon Coffee Cake. This Cinnamon Coffee Cake is a moist cake topped off with a cinnamon crust.

What You Need
1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
1-1/3 cups brewed MAXWELL HOUSE Decaffeinated Coffee, cooled
1/3 cup oil
3 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup BAKER’S ANGEL FLAKE Coconut
1/2 cup chopped PLANTERS Walnuts

Let’s Make It
1 – Heat oven to 350°F.
2 – Beat cake mix with coffee, oil and eggs in large bowl with mixer until blended; pour into 2 greased and floured 9-inch round pans.
3 – Combine brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl. Stir in coconut and nuts; sprinkle over cake batter.
4 – Bake 30 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Cool 10 min. Remove cakes from pans to wire racks; cool completely.

Kitchen Tips
Tip 1 – Make Ahead: Bake and cool coffee cakes as directed. Enjoy one of the coffee cakes now and freeze the other one for later use. Wrap tightly before freezing.

Tip 2 – Easy Cleanup: For easy cleanup, line the pans with foil and spray with cooking spray before filling with batter and baking as directed.

My Tips: I use REAL coffee–NOT decaffienated because that’s how I roll. Don’t like coconut? leave it out. Want some fruit that’s not coconut, add raisins. Substitute sliced almonds or pecans for walnuts.

CLICK HERE for all the nutritional details from My Food and Family. Just as I love coffee, I have two characters who rae just as enamored–Hannah Jackson McIntire and Sade Marquis. They each star in a series, as most of you know. But for those of you who might not be as familiar, here are the books where you can first make their acquaintances. Both books are available lots of different places and in both digital and paperback. Just click on the covers or titles to find links to all the stores. Hannah’s book, MOONSTRUCK: SECRETS, starts with this conversation with the man destined to be her mate, Ian “Mac” McIntire:

“I need coffee.”
“Damn. Listening to you, I’d think you were actually human.”
“I AM human, furball.”

And then there’s Sade, FBI agent extraordinaire, who is finishing her third cup of coffee before her partner, werewolf Caleb Jones, walks into Déja Vu, the bar-restaurant Sade calls home when she’s in New Orleans. The reason for the meet and the three cups of coffee? Her morning musings start like this:

This was only Day One of what was shaping up to be a bloody weird week and the gods had been drinking again. Too bad Sade Marquis didn’t have that option. She was on duty. Dammit. Not to mention it was only ten in the morning. However, if things got any stranger, she might change her mind.

In THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC, Sade is in New Orleans dealing with preternatural murder.

And now it’s time to celebrate International Coffee Day with another cup of cafe au lait, and yes, I acquired the taste while I was in New Orleans, where it just happens that the idea of Sade first began to take shape, and then new words on the current WIP. Because it’s time y’all had something new to read. Right?

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Mundane Monday

Posted on September 28, 2020 by Silver James

It’s the last Monday of September. I’m ready for a new month and the change of seasons that comes with October. I think I’m afflicted with the last-of-the-summer doldrums.

In other news, I still have a couple of days before I hit my self-imposed deadline. I’ve made good headway with NIGHT WISH but it’s not quite there yet. I lot of the snippets that popped up along the way have been moved to a “maybe” file. I’ll change the names and fit them into other books. A lot of times, as I do flash fiction snippets that seem to fit, when I start putting the puzzle together, they turn out to be extra pieces because the story turned a different direction. S’all good. Still, this is going to be a longer book and I’m not sure why or if it should be. I guess I should just get it finished and edited, deciding during that final process. Anyway, I need to get it done because I have a hard November 30 deadline for FIGHTING FOR JUSTICE.

I played “good mom” Saturday and loaned Drover (my Highlander) to Only. She was doing several photo shoots in a park and needed a vehicle large enough to haul a love seat. Their Jeep was gettting desperately needed mechanical work done and that sofa was NOT going in her Mustang. 🙄 It was fine. Made me stay home and write most of the day so there’s that.

“The Masked Singer” is back. I’m still fascinated by the costumes and amazed that anyone can sing while wearing them. I have no clue who anyone is and that’s part of the fun, because the clues that are given? Yeah, I’m just not that much into pop culture. The only reason I guessed Barry Zito last year is because he plays baseball. 😜

Speaking of baseball, yesterday was the last day of the regular season. My Cards won yesterday, negating a double-header in Detroit. They’re going to the playoffs! YAYAYAYAY! This is a weird baseball season with an even weirder playoff bracket but hey! Baseball isn’t over for me yet. That’s always a plus.

In sad news, Smidgen crossed the rainbow bridge late Saturday night. We heard growling and snarling and ran out. Smudge was up a tree and a stray had Smidgen cornered. We got the dog away and I gathered up Smidge in a towel. He was snarly and bitey and seemed to be able to move his back legs and such and there was no blood, though there was wet fur. I made the decision to put him in the cat carrier and see how he was this morning. I had hopes that he was just still scared and in shock, hence not trying to get away. Sadly, when I got up this morning, he’d passed, likely from internal injuries. Smudge was gone from the tree but I didn’t see him this morning when the “cauldron” came over to eat. Tis the life of ferals, I guess. Still hurts my heart. I’d domesticate and bring them all inside if I could. LG and the dogs, and even Loki, might not be so happy, but hey!

What am I forgetting? Oh, yeah. Reading. Or listening. Still doing the In Death marathon with nothing new breaking the pattern. I’m currently on #34, CELEBRITY IN DEATH. It’s got some crazysauce going on. Let’s see if I can sum it up: Nadine Furst, ace reporter and friend, wrote a book about a double honmicide case that Dallas and Peabody caught, that evolved into human cloning and totally weird stuff. The victims were father and son doctors. The book won a Pulitzer and is picked up by Hollywood. The actress playing Peabody is murdered at a dinner party in the director’s house, said party attended by the actors and their civilian/cop counterparts. Everyone is all freaked out because the actress LOOKS like Peabody. Anyway, it’s not your usual who-done-it.

And I think that’s it for my week and weekend. I’ve got writing to do and since my Wallyword trip was made yesterday morning, I’m good to work all day. I have coffee. I have characters fussing at me. I have a dog under my deak playing havoc with my posture and a cat in the window studiously watching the bird feeder for action. You know, the mundane’s not all that bad. How was your weekend?

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Friday Sinema: Dad Jokes First Responder Style

Posted on September 25, 2020 by Silver James

It’s Friday! Let’s celebrate the end of the week with a laugh…or twenty. I’m a sucker for “dad jokes” and the badder they are, the harder I laugh because I’m all weird like that. And we need a lot of laughter in our lives right now. So take about 7 minutes of your day and watch this competition between the Souix Falls FD and PD. Warning: Don’t drink anything until it’s over. Have a great weekend! And Happy Birthday, Dad. I miss you but I sure hope you’re doing a lot of fishing up there in Heaven.

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