Wednesday Words: Fun, Travel and Adventure

Posted on January 9, 2019 by Silver James

So…it’s Wednesday again. That mean’s there’s a new #1lineWed theme and a snippet from a WIP. This week, authors are sending their characters out for FUN, TRAVEL AND ADVENTURE. Around here, we just say “FTA.” It has a different meaning but when translating for civilians, we say Fun, Travel, and Adventure. This week, we’re back with Wizard and Jen. This is still early in their relationship. She’s still at the Nightrider compound outside of Kansas City. She’d only packed a weekend bag for the wedding party. Jen has convinced Wiz that she needs to go shopping–which for an outlaw biker is nothing but FTA. 😉
****
Wizard eyed the food court like he was sizing up a rival gang. I managed to hide my eye roll when he glanced my way.

“Babe, you can’t be serious.”

“It’s just the mall, Wizard.”

“Yeah, and?”

“Don’t you go to the mall?”

“Oh, hell no!” He growled. At me! I started to laugh but then I got a good look at his face. He was totally serious.

He was the one who insisted on coming with me. While I wasn’t a huge fan of shopping, there were some things a girl can’t get at the local Gas-n-Go or truck stop. Since this particular mall had a Victoria’s Secret, I planned to shoo Wizard into some guy-type store then duck into Vicky’s to buy something to wear for him as a special surprise. Why? Because this man made me—despite my extra padding—feel beautiful. I wanted to do something special for him. I mean, even bikers would like their women is something frilly and sexy from Vicky’s, right?

That was the plan. Except Wizard was a biker. No auto parts store or Harley shop in sight. I’d totally miscalculated. Plan B was to park him in the food court, head to the ladies room then sneak away.

“C’mon. I need food,” I said.

We got drinks, snagged a table and I made my excuses.

“No.”

“No? I can’t go to the bathroom?”

“Yes, you can go to the bathroom. No, you aren’t going alone. I’m going with you.”

I didn’t screech. Much. “You can’t.” All my plans were collapsing. I inhaled deeply, squared my shoulders and with as much dignity as I could muster, informed him, “I’m quite capable of walking from here to the restroom, strolling inside, doing my business, and returning.

He shook his head, totally adamant. “Nope. Not happening. You aren’t leaving me here alone.” He swept out his arm. “Teenage girls.”

“So?”

“They always travel in packs.”

Who knew? My big, bad biker was afraid of teenagers.

“And they’re staring at me.”

They were staring, like they wanted to eat him for dessert. Maybe I didn’t need sexy lingerie after all.
****
So that was Wizard’s Mall Adventure. Writers, do you have any FTA words to share? Readers, what fun, travel, and adventures have you had lately?

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Tuesday Treats: Italian Steak

Posted on January 8, 2019 by Silver James

Where’s the beef? That’s what every Wolf wants to know. With this recipe, it’s Shiane cooking for Gravedigger. I hope they have a little left over because I want some too!

Prep Time: 5 min.
Total Time: 50 min.
Servings: 4 servings

If you’re going to invest in a good steak, you want to make sure it is cooked to perfection and tastes superb. The marinade in this tasty recipe delivers a tender juicy steak that is sure to please family and friends alike.

What You Need
1/2 cup KRAFT Zesty Italian Dressing
2 boneless beef sirloin steaks (1 lb.)
1/2 cup A.1. Original Sauce

Make It

Pour dressing over steaks in shallow glass dish; turn to evenly coat. Refrigerate 30 min. to marinate.
Heat grill to medium-high heat. Remove steaks from marinade; discard marinade.

Grill steaks 4 to 5 min. on each side or until medium doneness (160°F.) Brush with steak sauce. Remove from grill; let stand 10 min. Cut diagonally across the grain into thin slices.

CLICK HERE for all the details. Shy mentions that this marinade works well on a London broil cut of beet, and Digger likes the flavor so much, she might try it the next time she throws a roast into the slow cooker. “I’m not a cook,” she admits. “Thank goodness my dude doesn’t like all the fancy stuff. Steak, pototoes and a cold beer and he’s good to go.” If you want to find out more about Shy and Digger (if you haven’t read the book already), you can grab their story by clicking on the cover pic. NIGHT FALL is free to read on Kindle Unlimited.

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New Year, New Monday

Posted on January 7, 2019 by Silver James

It’s a new week in a new year and I should be all motivated and shitstuff. There’s paperwork to finish, books to revise, edit, write. There’s books to read (I set a rather optimistic goal for my GR Reading Challenge of 250 books. Of course, I read 265 in 2018 so…) despite my current reading slump. So anyway…

Getting back on track, I hope.

Reading: I have done some. I’m five books into my 2019 challenge. One I was glad was basically free (Audible Romance subscription but if I listen to more than 1 book a month–especially those that aren’t necessarily keeprs, it’s gravy.) I got through the book due to sheer stubborness. I followed that up with a dark-and-dirty contemporary that I would have paid money for. New to me author, highl appreciated. I’m trying to expand my horizons like our own B.E. is doing–trying to read underappreciated (and leaving the highly-sought-after review) books and/or new-to-me authors. SPARROW (L.J. Shen) won’t be for everyone. Really bad-boy hero and some other triggers for some but the writing, story, characters and narration was 5 star. I’m also listening to a non-fiction, THE PERFECT HORSE, by Elizabeth Letts. It’s a historical treatise on Nazi Germany and the Third Reich’s search for “genetic” supremacy, wrapped around the story of the Lippazaner horses of the Spanish Riding School in Vienna. LOTS of history there an a long book but the narrator keeps it from being dry and the history nerd in me likes the background while the horse-crazy girl who fell in love with Disney’s “Miracle of the White Stallions” is fascinated. I also zipped through two SciFi romances by Ilona Andrews, a favorit author.

TV: There was college football. OU lost. OSU won. Tonights the National Championship between Alabama and Clemson. I only care because Imagine Dragons is doing the half-time show though I wonder if that part will even be shown. Also, I’m almost caught up on all the LIVE PD shows I DVR’d. I often miss the opening because dinner clean-up and dog feeding, and way too often, I doze off before the end. Yay for DVRs. Oh! I also watched an episode of “The Masked Singer.” It’s…bizarre but oddly compelling. Celebrities don elaborate (and masked) costumes to perform a song. The studio audience and 4 celebrity judges vote. Loser unmasks at the end of the show. Not sure I’ll watch live but DVRing it too because…crazysauce.

Writing: No comment. There’s always tomorrow.

Life: Also no comment. See the sentiment above.

On that note, time to go do something. Not sure what. I will be clearing out the last vestiges of Christmas today. I’ll miss the outside lights and the mantel will look bare. Also, I suspect the tree will remain in it’s corner of the family room for the next year. Haven’t moved it…since we first put it up *coughcough* years ago. But first, another cup of coffee. Anything of note to report from your world?

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Friday Sinema: The Farmer’s Daughter and Bud

Posted on January 4, 2019 by Silver James

This commercial hit my radar and while it’s totally not PC, as a romance author, it gives me all sorts of ideas. And some smiles and a chuckle or three. Happy Friday! (And remember: Drink responsibly. 😉 )

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Thursday Thoughts: Introductions

Posted on January 3, 2019 by Silver James

No universal wisdom today. Nope. Today, I want to introduce readers to my upcoming release, BILLIONAIRE COUNTRY, with a cover and blurb reveal. It’s book #8 in my Red Dirt Royalty series, and it’s also part of the Billionair and Babies series. Y’all have met Tucker in other books. He’s Chase Barron’s second in command at Barron Entertainment and up until now, he’s spent most of his time hanging out either at the Tate family ranch in Oklahoma or at the Crown Casino in Las Vegas. Then he meets runaway bride, Zoe Parker. She’s country roads and he’s city lights but somehow, I think they might just make it to their HEA.

Rule Number One:
Never mix business and pleasure.

Country music producer Tucker Tate is laser-focused. But finding a pregnant runaway bride forces him to slow down. Zoe Parker has a voice like an angel—and nowhere to go. So when he moves her and her baby into his condo, it’s just business…until it’s not. Will broken rules lead to broken hearts? Or is Tucker writing his very own love song?

BILLIONAIRE COUNTRY releases the first week in March. You can grab the paperback version a month early by ordering it from the Harlequin website. You can also click the HARLEQUIN LINK to get links to all the other sales outlets for pre-order. You have to click on the [Buy From Other Retailers] button. I’ll make it easy for the Amazon peeps. CLICK HERE for the Amazon page.

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Wednesday Words: Beginnings and Endings

Posted on January 2, 2019 by Silver James

I’m a tad late this morning but there was stuff to do first and I was too lazy to set up this post yesterday. I hope all of you rang in the new year with family and friends. Ending the old year and moving into the new is always a bit discombobulating. That makes today’s #1lineWed theme **Best BEGINNING or ENDING line** rather apropos. Since I need to start hawking COWBOY COUNTRY, here’s a snippet from it. FYI, the book releases March 1st. I’ll reveal the blurb and cover tomorrow. In the meantime, while this is the end of chapter one, it’s also the beginning of Tucker and Zoe, so it fits a broader definition of the prompt. 😉
****
Tucker cleared his throat, opened his mouth to speak, and evidently thought better of it because his jaw clamped shut. Zoe decided silence wasn’t so bad. The man lasted all of five minutes.

“So, it was a shotgun wedding?”

“You could say that. Only it was my head they were holdin’ the gun to.”

He slammed on the brakes and her hands flew to the dash to brace her body. “What? What’s wrong?” She swung her head back and forth looking for whatever emergency caused him to stop.

“Sorry! Sorry,” he repeated, swiveling in the driver’s seat to face her. “Please tell me that was…a euphemism. Or a joke. Or something.”

“I wish I was jokin’.” He scowled at her. “Hey, I didn’t plan on my life takin’ this detour.” She shrugged.

“I will admit, however, t’bein’ young and dumb at the time.”

“And now?”

“Older and wiser. Gettin’ ready to have a kid and watchin’ my life turn into a bad soap opera will do that to a body.”

Tucker glanced at her rounded belly. “Yeah? And you figured all this out when? All of…what, eight months ago?”

“About that.” Zoe pressed her lips together, wondering how far she could trust this stranger. “My life is a tad crazy, Tucker. I figure the best I can do is grin and bear it. You know, laughter bein’ the best medicine and all?”

“Don’t you have family to help?”

She curled her lips between her teeth and bit down. Her eyes burned, and she looked away so he wouldn’t see.

The compassion she saw in his expression was about to undo her. “Don’t have any family t’speak of. There’s just me.”

“I…wow.” He looked surprised. “I can’t imagine what that would be like. I have a huge family.”

A big family? There’d only been Zoe and her dad. “Lucky you.”

His smile was warm and fond. “Until they get all up in my business.”

Zoe felt a sharp twinge. Grimacing, she pressed her palm against her side.

“You okay?”

“Yeah, it’s just those Briggs & Stratton things.”

He looked confused, opened his mouth to speak, then pressed his lips together for a moment. He eventually asked, “Don’t you mean Braxton Hicks?”

Eyes twinkling, she tilted her head, pretending to think about it, because of that whole laughter-being-the-best-medicine thing. She went for the cheap laugh. “Braxton Hicks. Doesn’t he sing at the Grand Ole Opry?”
****
I’ll admit that Zoe is one of my favorite Red Dirt heroines. Do you have any beginnings or endings to share? Or first or last lines? Here’s hoping your 2019 if off to a rollicking start!

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2019: A New Chapter

Posted on January 1, 2019 by Silver James

In a writer’s cave far, far away…

So, I’ve been hibernating in said cave the past month or so. It’s time to rip out the page that was 2018 and start a new one. I have hopes for 2019. Not huge ones but I’m going to work each day toward becoming more organized, more focused, just…more. I want to continue to improve as a writer. I want to get better at marketing. I want to get unfinished projects finished.

I want to be a better wife, mom, “Jammie,” MiL, SiL, and friend.

I want to clean out my office, my closet, the library, and shed the physical and emotional detritus that often weighs me down and holds me back.

Will I accomplish all of this? Probably not. But that’s not the point. The point is to try. If I don’t try, I’m already doomed to repeating the past. That’s an exercise in frustration and insanity. I had enough of that in my life last year.

I’m not making any publishing promises. Last year ended in a creativity black hole. New words just didn’t want to form. The next Red Dirt book releases on my birthday in March (and will be available from Harlequin a month before that if you want it early.) I’m three books behind in other series, plus three rewrites of two previously released books and a compendium volumn. They’ll get done when they get done. No promises beyond that because I think part of the problem was the pressure I put on myself. My main goal this year is to rediscover my creativity and love of storytelling. I lost that last year and it makes me sad.

So that’s where I am here in the opening hours of 2019. Thanks for sticking with me and I hope you’ll hang in there for our next ride. Happy New Year.

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Friday Sinema: Somewhere Outback

Posted on December 28, 2018 by Silver James

Grab your drink of choice, kick back, and spend about 8 minutes enjoying this little animated film from Dreamworks. I’m still smiling.

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Thanks

Posted on December 27, 2018 by Silver James

This is my last Thursday Thoughts of 2018. It’s been a year, hasn’t it? Still, in retrospect, I believe there’s been more things to be thankful for than not. I mean, besides the things listed by the Universe, because those things? yeah those are all good things.

So much to be thankful for, huh, Silver?

Yet so little time.

Let me start with you –
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

And then, Silver, rainbows, oceans, sunshine, air, inertia, turquoise, gravity, cotton, otters….

I’ll add all of you who drop by here to read my musings, who leave comments, who have become friends even though we might not have met beyond our spaces on this old WWW. Y’all have made my year worthwhile. So thank you.

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Wednesday Words: Light Bulb Time

Posted on December 26, 2018 by Silver James

So, it’s the day after Christmas. I hope Santa was good to everyone. 😉 We celebrated with family with much good food and laughter. And now it’s Wednesday, which means it’s time for #1lineWed. The Twitter theme today is all about the “Light Bulb Moment” – that instant a character has an epiphany, makes a discovery, decides on a course of action that will change everything. I’ve mentioned that I participate in several flash fiction challenges. I try hard to relate them to a current WIP but soemtimes, the words just come out of the blue. I’ll be sharing our #TooSexyInHisShirt candidate shortly. He’s someone who could be in this scene. Until then, I leave you with this snippet of a book that’s still floating around in Iffy’s convoluted brain. I hope you enjoy.
****
“But I recognized—”

“My handwriting? So what?”

“I’ll tell you what. You lied.”

He arched one infuriating brow, his air of superiority filling the room until I was choking on it. The corner of his mouth—the mouth that had kissed me into submission not a day ago—ticked up just adding to the sardonic expression I was coming to hate. The amusement bled into something…darker, something…hungrier.

“Come here.” His hair fell over his forehead, a dark comma punctuating the sin in his eyes.

I backed up a step. Which was fruitless. I had no place to go and running? The man was a predator and I was his prey. Me running was just a game that whetted his appetite. “Did you kill him?”

His devastating smile could melt panties at twenty paces, then I caught actual humor in his eyes. I’d amused him.

“And if I did?”

He didn’t move but that step I’d backed up? Yeah, I discovered I’d taken it back plus two more. I was within reach now. “What do you want with me?”

Laughing, his long fingers closed around the back of my neck, tugging me into his chest. His other arm anchored my body to his. “Isn’t it obvious?”

Well, yes, it was, considering what thrust against my stomach. It wasn’t much of an epiphany, given my current situation. Still, the part of my brain that struggled to keep me out of this man’s clutches. “Why me?”

“So full of questions. Are you sure you want the answers?” He tilted my head back so he could see my face.

Did I? What would happen if I knew the truth?
****
I suspect this will develop into one of my Moonstruck Mob stories. How about y’all? What epiphany have you had lately? And writers, please share a light-bulb moment your character has. 😉

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