Friday Sinema: Southern Princess

Posted on October 16, 2020 by Silver James

It’s a Southern thing, y’all. Just go with it and enjoy the laughs. Have a great weekend!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Excuses

Posted on October 15, 2020 by Silver James

This is something we all do. You can admit it to yourself. You don’t have to acknowledge it here. I’ll admit it out loud. I make excuses. Especially when I should be doing something–like writing. Or editing. Or marketing. I look for ways to dodge doing it. I’ve been known to iron–a chore I abhor until I’m actually doing it, at which point I discover that it’s a rather soothing exercise. Anyway, I’ve discovered–along with many of the writers I know–that the Universe is dead on with this message: 

Show me someone, Silver,, who keeps getting in your way, and I’ll show you someone who keeps making excuses.

Tricky, tricky, tricky –
The Universe
©www.tut.com

Oh, Silver, you slay me.

I totally get in my own way. And shouldn’t. It’s unproductive. Especially when I make up excuses or find other activities to occupy the time I should be working on writing, editing, and marketing because that’s what successful writers do. And I want to be one that. Successful. I’m gonna get right on that. Just as soon as I get out of my own way and stop making excuses.

What about y’all? Are you guilty of this?

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Wednesday Words: No Face Mask Required

Posted on October 14, 2020 by Silver James

I have no idea how it can suddenly be Wednesday again but it is and therefore it is time for more Wednesday Words. I won’t mask my astonishment that time flies. Or that I’m currently using masking tape to piece together my edits. Okay, they aren’t really that bad. As you might have guessed, today’s #1lineWed theme is **MASK**. This snippet is mostly self-explanatory. Warning, it gets a bit sexy so you might want to be aware of who is reading over your shoulder. Just sayin’…


****
Gen
I have no idea what possessed me to walk away, leaving him in my living room. I should have thrown him out. All right, I should have requested that he leave. There was no way I could physically make him leave. I heard the front door shut and my locks click. I stopped at the entry to my kitchen. I’d been thinking about a glass of wine before I’d heard the motorcycle stop in my driveway. No, I fervently wished I’d ignored the sound and had taken the bottle to the bathroom where I’d planned on a long bubble bath.

Exhaling, I turned—and almost buried my nose in his chest. I jerked backwards, putting space between us, and glanced up. He was looking at me. No. That’s not what he was doing. Looking was too tame a word. His eyes were glued to me, his focus so intense it raised goosebumps on my arms.

“Back off, Wizard.” I meant to say that with a firm tone, like I dealt with minor miscreants who came into my office. Instead, my voice whispered out, making the order more of an invitation.

Something flickered, like a red flame, before his lids lowered to mask what lurked in those unusual green eyes of his. Before I could move, he grabbed my wrist and pulled my hand to his crotch, flattening my palm against him. He was fully erect and my fingers curled around him in self-defense.

One fingertip brushed across my cheek before tracing the outline of my lips. He leaned in and his breath warmed the fragile skin behind my ear. My body all but hummed in anticipation and I forgot to breathe.

“You’re mine, Pink.”
****
I almost feel like I should post the blurb and cover again because I haven’t gotten around to making snazzy graphics to share, entice, and get readers hyped up to buy the book next week. I’ve been working on getting it ready to publish instead of the fun stuff. Anyway, writers, are your characters masking anything you want to share? Readers, what Halloween mask would you wear to go trick-or-treating?

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Tuesday Treats: Apple Streusel Muffins

Posted on October 13, 2020 by Silver James

After summer came blazing back over the weekend, fall decided to peek around the corner and remind us that Halloween and Thanksgiving, along with fall harvest, are arriving soon. Apples, nuts, spices and streusel for the win! These muffins are quick and easy for breakfast, afternoon tea or coffee, or for a late-night snack. You know you want to try them…

Prep time: 10 Minutes
Cook time: 20 Minutes
Total time: 30 min
Servings: 12 muffins

Ingredients
FOR THE MUFFINS
1/2 cup butter softened
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs beaten
1 1/2 Tablespoons sour cream
2 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup walnuts or pecans chopped (optional)
1 cup apple (peeled, cored, and diced)

FOR THE STREUSEL TOPPING
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup flour
1/4 cup butter
1/2 tsp cinnamon

FOR THE VANILLA GLAZE
1 cup confectioners sugar
2 Tablespoons half and half
1/2 tsp vanilla
Instructions

TO MAKE THE MUFFINS

Preheat oven to 375.

1 – Line muffins tins with paper liners.

2 – Cream together butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add eggs and sour cream. Mix until combined.

3 – Add in dry ingredients. Mix until just incorporated. Fold in nuts and apples. Spoon batter into muffin tins. (3/4) full. (Batter will be thick)

4 – Meanwhile, combine ingredients for streusel in a medium mixing bowl. Sprinkle the streusel over the muffins. Bake for 20 minutes or until tops are golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

5 – Allow muffins to cool in the pan for 3-5 minutes before placing on a cooling rack to cool completely.

6 – Whisk together glaze ingredients and drizzle over muffins. Store in an airtight container.

Food Talk Daily has all the details for this recipe. This is one of those fairly easy recipes that is scrumptious and everyone enjoys munching on them. To celebrate Halloween, I will mention that a certain dragon shifter is very fond of them. Of course, the clan’s kitchen makes large quantities of these muffins because…well…we all know that dragons have huge appetites. And before you light your fire, Nikos, you know I’m right. And yes, someday, you ARE going to get your own book. But you’re the one who decided to pursue our favorite FBI agent and frankly, pitting you and Sinjen against each other is too much fun. It’s you’re own fault you know. *makes note to make my office nonflammable* Nikolas “Nikos” Constantine, Drakon of Clan Kholikikos, makes his first appearance in THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC. Truthfully? This book has my favorite opening line ever:  This was only Day One of what was shaping up to be a bloody weird week and the gods had been drinking again. Sade is in New Orleans to solve a series of preternatural murders. It’s available at a variety of on-line book sellers. Just click on the cover or the title for the Books 2 Read link that lists all those etailers in one hand spot.

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Thanking Monday

Posted on October 12, 2020 by Silver James

First, Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends! Enjoy a day filled with food, family, and friends!

Second, lookie-lookie! *points to the cover on the left* That’s my new cover for NIGHT WISH. I’m excited. I have one goal this week–to get it edited, formatted and uploaded to Amazon and Draft-2-Digital so those of you who have been waiting so patiently can finally read Wizard’s and Gen’s story. Want to see the “back of the book” blurb? Of course you do. 😉

A Wolf sees pink…
Wolf shifter Jack “Wizard” Dimond is no hero, but the woman in the ridiculous pink dress makes him want to be one. His wolf only wants to claim her as their mate. Too bad that can’t happen. Circumstances are in play that Wiz has no control over, and he’s riding the sharp edge of moonstruck crazy.

A woman walks out of a wedding…
Geneva Pruitt makes a single fateful mistake—stopping at a convenience store minutes before it’s robbed. Being rescued by a sexy member of the outlaw Nightriders MC sends her life careening out of control. Set up by her brother and betrayed by the man she loves, she struggles to piece her life back together.

Family is thicker than blood…or love.
Wizard must abandon his mate to keep his brothers in the Club safe. Geneva has to make a choice—surrender to her brother’s demands or fight for her heart. Can these two mismatched souls find their forever together, or does Fate have different plans?

In other news, life continues to happen. I know there was a week and a weekend. I just don’t really remember much of what occurred. I was locked into “Desperate Writer on Deadline” mode. I listened to some of the In Death books. I watched some baseball. And The Masked Singer. Sadly, I don’t remember who was unmasked other than he was the Giraffe. I should probably Google or Bing that. Or you can. Whatever. I drank a lot of coffee. I actually bought groceries. Which reminds me. I need to make a Wallyworld run today. Jake will be happy. Car ride, pets, and puppucino. I want his life! 😆

Also, I’m still hating the new WordPress editor. Everyone who dislikes your bloggin/website platform, raise your hands! 🙋🏼‍♀️

There’s baseball this week. The ALCS–Rays and Astros–and NLCS–Dodgers and Braves–games are playing. Once the League champions are determined, we’re on to the World Series, at a neutral site. Which is just weird. This has been such a crazy year for baseball. Well, all sports really, but I don’t care about or watch the NFL or NBA. Anyway, as much as I love Autumn, I get sort of sad because there’s no more baseball after the Series, until spring.

Speaking of my upcoming release, I need to remember to jot down lines that hit me as being…catchy. So I can use them in graphics for marketing. That’s my least favorite thing about being a writer. Marketing. The graphics can be kind of fun, if a total time suck.

And on that note, I’ll stop boring y’all. The big news is NIGHT WISH. COMING SOON TO AN ON-LINE BOOK SELLER NEAR YOU! What about y’all? Anyone got big news to share? Small news? Anything? Bueller? Bueller?

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Friday Sinema: NSFW Latte

Posted on October 9, 2020 by Silver James

Okay. First, this is NOT safe for work or sensitive ears. There is bad language. Lots of it. There are also lines that made me not only laugh out loud but occasionally howl with laughter. Would that be HWL in net speak? Second, I have nothing against Pumpkin Spice Lattes or the people who enjoy them. Just sayin’…

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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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