It’s a mad, crazy world out there and my instincts are to hunker down and pull the covers over my head. Except nothing gets done that I need to get done. So I’m going with Plan B. And also this bit of inspiration from the Universe:
Of course, these are crazy times to be alive, Silver, when virtually anything could happen next, fortunes are made and lost overnight, friends come and go, and lovers glimpse eternity between fear and ecstasy.
That’s why zillions upon zillions of souls, more than you will ever know, said, “No wa-y-y-y, José.”
And it’s why a few brazen billion, said, “Whoooo-Hooooooooooooooo!”
Go, Silver, Go! Virtually anything can happen next… it’s only up to you.
See, I’ve been running on empty in the inspiration department lately–when it comes to writing, anyway. As often happens, the Universe has a way of highlighting things. That first paragraph up there? That’s the plot to a romance. Now all I have to do is right it. It’s up to me. So…”Whoooo-Hoooooooooooo!”
Happy Halloween. Today’s GHOSTly #1lineWed theme is rather apropos, don’cha think? 😉 And while the word is only mentioned in passing in this snippet, Sade does find herself in a rather spooky place. She’s getting really tired of flitting between realms, half of which she didn’t know existed and doesn’t really want to find out what sort of critters might inhabit them. She’s bouncing around and now she’s ended up in a…boat. On a lake. That isn’t a lake…loch…yikes! Is that Nessie?
Sade gazed across a dark landscape painted in watercolors by a madman—both beautiful and savage. Instinct took over and her pistol was in her hand, except it wasn’t a pistol. She stared at the lethal-looking sword gripped in her fist.
Muttering, “Somebody pinch me,” she glanced over the prow of the boat, gazing at her reflection as it was captured in a mirror of ebony glass. Her very serviceable jeans and sweater had been replaced by—
“Seriously?” Shouting, she raised the sword and cursed the heavens, adding, “This is not fucking Gor and I’m not some fucking slave girl!”
Fingers teased her hair and she stiffened. Just the wind. Not a ghost. Or worse. The boat skated across the black expanse, no sign of ripples to mark its passage. The sail hung limp, and nobody manned the rudder. She was alone.
“What do you think of me now-ow-ow?” The disembodied voice echoed off the rocky cliffs lining the cursed stretch of water.
“Magic doesn’t work on me,” she snarled. Then it occurred to her. Shit. Not magic, alchemy. Except…alchemy was a myth, right? Wracking her brain, Sade searched for the information she needed. Magic didn’t work on her, hadn’t since Mathias and Oberon had both marked her when she was a toddler. Shit. She was fucked so it was time to see the wizard—figuratively speaking because everyone knew wizards worked magic. Nope, she had a date with some Mad Hatter of a sorcerer. Two could play that game. “Let’s stir the pot and see what surfaces.”
Leaning over, she plunged the sword into the water. Glass shattered with a bright tinkling and a massive silver head reared up from the depths, maw open, teeth dripping black water and…Vikings? Seriously? The head lowered but before the dragon could eat her, she smacked him on the nose with the flat of her blade.
“Gawddammitalltohell, Nikos! We have to stop meeting like this!” If her presence in this realm was somehow his doing, she’d have new dragon-hide boots by morning.
****
Poor Sade. She really has no idea why she’s being played like the ball in an antique pong game. If you have any ghost stories to share–be it WIP words, or a real ghostly encounter, please share! Tis the season, don’cha know. 😀
Halloween is next week so I thought I post some stuff. Click through the links for some awesome pics. Keep scrolling for some musing from me about the stuff that’s on my scary list at the moment. Don’t worry about clicking through. The links will open new pages. 🙂
You won’t look at your critters the same after checking out these SPOOKY ANIMALS!
These artists have taken the art of carving JACK-O-LANTERNS to new heights!
Do your critters sit and stare at nothing? How about these CATS WHO SAW GHOSTS?
In the things that sorta scare me and keep me awake at night column:
Evidently, CNN is getting beat in the ratings by “Ancient Aliens.” One media analyst added, “When ‘Ancient Aliens’ has a bigger hold on reality than CNN, the network has become ‘The Onion’ of television news.”
If the cops arrest a mime, do they tell him/her they have the right to remain silent?
If a vampire bites a zombie, does the zombie become a vampire or does the vampire become a zombie?
WHY was everybody Kung Fu fighting?
What if all those ancient Greek statues are actually victims of Medusa?
And finally, Hypocracy Alert:
So…the HillBilly show is going on the road. Will all those women waving their “victims must be heard” signs mob those appearances? Probably, but they’ll be audience members clapping and yelling support rather than outside protesting. They weren’t and aren’t interested in listening to Juanita, Gennifer, Kathleen, Paula, Monica Lewinsky, and others.
Yo, Maxine, pot – kettle. Just sayin’…
Have an awesome weekend. Feel free to comment on the links, what keeps you up, or anything else on your mind.
I’ve been thinking about failure a lot lately. Forward progress on all of my current projects have been stymied by a variety of things. I’ve been far too much in my head. Not only is that a scary place to be, it is also an unproductive place to be. What writing I’m able to get done comes in fits and starts, ie. 250 flash-fiction words at a time. Sales are down across the board. So are the pages read numbers on Amazon. I struggled with revisions on one project and after struggling with revisions on a second, I’ve simply trashed the entire first three chapters with the idea of starting over. Except every time I stare at that blank page, I discover my imagination is just as blank. Freaking hampster wheel. *grrrr At the moment, I’m pretty much feeling like a failure. Then the Universe, in it’s infinite wisdom, drops this into my inbox…
One’s ability to succeed, Silver, is always proportional to one’s willingness to fail.
Besides, all failures are temporary, all tigers are paper, and life is a many splendored thing.
It also helps to happy dance and “woo-hoo,” lots, Silver, but these are optional.
Put this together with a comment from an aspiring writer who is also a reader of my books dropped a comment on facebook, saying she thinks my books are brilliant. That’s worth a big “woo-hoo.” And maybe a little happy dance. So, time to face the failures, put them behind me and move on so I can set myself up to succeed. That’s how it works. It doesn’t come on a silver platter. It come from hard work. No more moping. Time to jump off that damned hamster wheel, get on a merry-go-round, and grab the brass ring! Who’s with me?
So, I got challenged–sort of–to the #MonsterMash #MM2018 Blog Hop flash fiction challenge to celebrate Halloween. I’m linking this post to the POST at GET WORDY. It’s my understanding you can click the link and go visit there to get links to all the participants when the links go live. It’s all in good fun, plus I wrote a bonus scene for Sade’s book in the deal. #GETWORDY #GUTSANDGLORY I hope you enjoy this bit of insight into the monsters who live under Sade’s bed.
****
Sade, curled in a fetal ball, kept the covers pulled tight over her head. She’d made sure all the edges were tucked in before she shimmied between them. Everyone knew that the monsters under the bed couldn’t get you if you were covered up.
Bang. Clank.
What was that? She tried to regulate her pounding heart, listening hard, shifting all the possibilities in her mind as she scrambled to identify the sound.
Bang. Clank.
She soooo wanted to peek, see what was making the noise. No, she reminded herself. The monsters will get me.
Bang. Clank.
Shuffle.
Pressing her hand against her mouth, she stifled the scream gathering deep all-the-way-to-her-toes down inside her.
Shuffle. Clang.
Her mattress bounced as something heavy pounced.
Bang. Clank.
Claws scrabbled at the pillow where her head rested, pawing and digging. She clutched the sheets tighter in her fists. Her brain conjured all sorts of monsters—trolls with stinky garlic breath and rotting teeth that were still sharp, ghouls with curved claws they used to dig up dead bodies in cemeteries—
Shuffle. Clang.
Hot, fetid breath filtered through the sheet over her face followed by more digging.
“Wake up, wake up, sleepyhead!”
Sing-song voices cut through her fear and she blinked against bright light as the sheet was ripped from her hands. Glowing white eyes stared down at her though the faces remained in shadow. Her instincts were to burrow back beneath the covers, but she wasn’t a coward. Nor was she a child.
Wincing as her legs cramped, she stretched them out. Lips dry, she didn’t have enough saliva to lick them. Eyes adjusted, she took in her surroundings. Not her room—not the one she grew up in nor the one in her Washington apartment. And it wasn’t Sinjen’s. Shadows moved across the room, drawing her attention. Where the fucking hell was she? And what the fucking hell was she doing here?
“That language doesn’t become a lady, Sade,” the shadows sang.
Wait. What? She had not voiced those thoughts aloud.
“You are in our realm, Sade, and magic is more…potent here.”
They could read her fucking mind? Crapcrapcrap. She searched her memory for the most annoying earworm of a song she could remember the words to. She put her mind on a loop—Lady Gaga, Queen, The Monkees, and finished it off with “It’s a Small World.”
The shadows winced and the light pressure in her head disappeared. Even kitten paws had claws. She needed to remember that while she figured out what the fuck was going on.
Now that she was awake and functional, as the last vestiges of her nightmare faded, she took stock of her situation. She was dressed. Sort of. Who the hell wore diaphanous nightgowns? Shit. The bedroom was illuminated by hundreds of candles—all shapes and sizes. Flimsy lace curtains hung at an open window and danced with each breeze entering the room. Yeah, that wasn’t dangerous.
Tucked back into a dark corner, the shadows watched. She knew this because their eyes glowed laser-white continuously now. While singing “Small World” in her mind, she sorted through the monster drawer in her mental file cabinet. Not ghoul, goblin, or troll. Not a zombie. Nachthexens and bansidhes were female and if her jailers were female, Sade was a fae courtesan. Not wendigo. Werewolves? Maybe, if they were rogue. She was under the protection of Romulus Jones, the Texas pack alpha. Not gargoyle. All those rogues had died in the battle of New Orleans, not to mention that Le Vieil, Roman, and Varrick had the Sentinels on watch. Fae didn’t do that woo-woo shit with their eyes. Vampires? Shit. That would totally suck.
Vamps were always on power trips. Mathias De Vries, the baddest of the bad-ass master vampires, was her godfather. And she’d been sleeping with Sinjen St. John for— She nipped that thought in the bud as her heart constricted. Then another thought hit her. Dragon. Oh to the fuck no! Granted, the Drakon of Clan Kholikikos, Nikos Constantine, really wanted in her pants, there were those—like Stavros, whom she’d caused to be exiled for a time—who weren’t too keen on their pairing. Shit.
Darkness crashed as all the candles winked out. The strains of a song filtered in. “Total Eclipse of the Heart.” Her worst nightmare and she was reliving it in her dreams.
Her alarm went off. Thank goodness the only monster under the bed was her radio.
****
And as a bonus earworm, here’s the video. 😉
Wednesday comes once a week, every week. That means it’s once again time for #1lineWed. Today’s theme is **KEY**. Since I’m totally rewriting the first three chapters of the next Red Dirt book, I’m getting down and dirty with today’s blog rather than getting all punny with my intro. Here’s the set-up: This is Wizard’s POV right after seeing–and saving–Jen, which occurs in Chapter 1. I hope you enjoy the snippet. 🙂
****
“Babe, get on the bike.”
“But…but…I can’t.”
I growled and she didn’t even blink. “Not tellin’ you again, babe. Get. On. The. Bike.”
“I can’t leave Rascal.”
Rascal? Who or what the fuck was Rascal? I didn’t notice an animal in her car but then again, I was in kind of a hurry to get inside after I heard the gunfire.
“Who the fuck?”
“Rascal. My car.” Her arm swept out toward the red Beetle. “I can’t leave him.”
“You named your fuckin’ car?” I shook my head. Who the hell names a car? “Dammit, babe. You’re covered in blood.
I’m not sure if some of it isn’t yours. Get on the fuckin’ bike. I’ll get someone to take care of your car.”
“Keys.” She patted her dress, a confused look on her face. I figured shock was about to set in.
“Don’t need ’em.” I didn’t. I’d have Bishop come get it. He didn’t need keys either. Dude was a hellava car thief. “Now get on my fuckin’ bike!”
Yeah, definitely shocky. Her eyes looked a little glazed and her skin had gone pale under all that crazy makeup but she did as ordered. She gathered up the acres of pink swirling around her gorgeous legs and got on the bike. I had my phone out calling in the cavalry as I headed back toward the clubhouse. Didn’t take long for my brothers to respond. Four bikes passed us headed toward the Gas-N-Go. Two more pulled U-eys and formed up on me. Easy was laughin’ his ass off, the sorry sonavabitch. He’d get his. Hollywood was checkin’ out my—the woman. I’d make him eat that leer.
“I’m tellin’ Lainey.” I had to yell it into the wind. His mate was pregnant and hormonal. Siccing her on him was only fair.
Hollywood quit lookin’ but yelled back, “Fuck you, Wizard!”
****
Do any of you have KEY words to share? Or are there any KEY events going on in your life you want to share with the class? Feel free. 🙂
No need to monkey around with this recipe. 😉 And that’s all I need to say about it.
Prep Time: 15 min.
Total Time: 2 hr. 45 min.
Servings: 12 servings
What You Need
1 can (16.3 oz.) refrigerated biscuits
1 pkg. (3.9 oz.) JELL-O Chocolate Flavor Instant Pudding
1 cup chopped PLANTERS Almonds, divided
1/4 cup butter, melted
1-1/2 cups JET-PUFFED Miniature Marshmallows, divided
2 oz. BAKER’S Bittersweet Chocolate
Make It
Place 2 (30-inch-long) strips of parchment in crisscross pattern in 4-qt. round slow cooker, extending ends of strips over side of slow cooker. Cover bottom of slow cooker with additional sheet of parchment. Place 8-oz. wide-mouth ovenproof glass jar in center of cooker; spray with cooking spray.
Separate biscuits; cut each into quarters. Combine dry pudding mix and 1/2 cup nuts.
Dip half of the biscuit pieces, 1 at a time, in butter, then in pudding mixture, turning to evenly coat each biscuit piece with each ingredient; place around jar in prepared slow cooker. Sprinkle with 1/2 cup marshmallows and 1/4 cup of the remaining nuts. Coat remaining biscuit pieces with remaining butter and remaining pudding mixture as directed; add to slow cooker. Cover with lid.
Cook on HIGH 1-1/2 to 2 hours. Carefully lift insert from slow cooker and rotate 180° before returning to slow cooker. Reduce heat to LOW. Top with remaining marshmallows and nuts; cover with lid. Cook bread additional 30 min. or until done. (Internal temperature of bread should be 200°F). Let bread stand (covered) in slow cooker 15 min. Carefully remove glass jar from cooker. Use parchment handles to transfer bread from slow cooker to wire rack; cool slightly.
Melt bittersweet chocolate as directed on package; drizzle over bread. Serve warm.
Y’all know the drill to get all the nutritional details. Just CLICK HERE. I’ll give you three guesses who shared this recipe and the first two don’t count. Y’all won’t believe it, considering her ability to burn water, but a sorority sister showed her how to make this nibbly treat in college and it’s one of the few things our intrepid FBI agent can make. And yes, she teases Caleb, her FBI partner, that werewolves can’t eat chocolate, and he quickly corrects her with the growled reminder that he is not a dog. You can start Sade’s story with THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC. Just click on the cover to go to the page with all the buy links because it’s available at most on-line stores. And for those of you who don’t know Sade? She’s Special Agent Sade Marquis–a human FBI agent with an X-Files mentality. It’s her job to deal with all the monsters–under the bed and in it. Just ask Sinjen. 😉 Go click. You know you want to read this book. 😀
October has five Mondays. Today is only #4. There’s just so much…wrong there. 😆 And I took yesterday off. I lazed in bed, watched a bit of nothing, listened to a book to the end, started the next in the series, and ignored work–including setting up this post like I normally. Now I feel guilty. So a quick rundown, in case anyone is playing our at-home game…
Sports were slightly better. I’ll watch the World Series. OU got their mojo back and beat TCU. OSU had the weekend off. Purdue is my new fav collegiate team. They beat the other OSU. Unranked Purdue beat #2 the Ohio State.
Writing? No comment. Except National Novel Writing Month starts in just under two weeks. I really need to get my shit together.
Reading: Or lately, listening. I’m on book 4 of Kristen Ashley’s Fantasyland series. I’m a bit up and down on the books. Fantasyland is a parallel universe to Earth, where many of the people “here” have twins there. There has magic and is sort of an 18th/19th century version when it comes to living conditions. Lots of royal political intrigue, horses, fancy clothes, and a mash-up of any given Disney movie and Game of Thrones. Upcoming, new releases in Nalini Singh’s Archangel/Guildhunter series and Ilona Andrew’s Hidden Legacy series. There’s something else on my wish list but I don’t remember off the top of my head at the moment.
TV: About the same. Live PD, though I have Nathan Fillion’s new show, “The Rookie,” DVR’d and need to get it watched. Also, I’m behind on “Mayans MC.” I just haven’t been in the mood.
I actually made it to the OKRWA meeting Saturday. It was fun to reconnect with my local romance writing buddies. I’m teaching next month so I’ll definitely be there. LOL What am I teaching? Setting up and using a series/book bible. I learned by trial-and-error.
That’s it for me. How about y’all? Any news to impart? How did your week go? What’s on tap for this week?
I’m a sucker for Cirque du Soliel and other dance/acrobatic groups. I’m not a big fan of the reality talent shows, though I do tune in to Dancing With the Stars from time to time because I am a sucker for dance. Take about 8 minutes, sit back, and enjoy the heck out of this Brazilian (I think? Because I don’t read Portuguese…) troupe as they amaze you with their talent. Here’s hoping you dance through your weekend.
How many times do each of of us say, “I need more hours in a day?” Or, “Where’s the time gone?” I certainly do, far more often than I should because I’m huge on procrastinating, pushing up against deadlines, and taking on way more than I should, given the actual time restraints. But at the same time, the Universe has a point.
There’s so much time in a day, Silver.
You could have breakfast, lunch, and dinner on 3 different continents.
You could outline the book you’re going to write, start the screenplay adaptation, and watch “Gone With The Wind,” before the sun even sets.
Spend a day at work, and still have 16 hours left over.
Or you could just think 60,000 different thoughts as you tool all over your hometown.
Hey, the record for climbing Mt. Everest is under 9 hours, leaving 15 to nap and go Yeti searching. There’s so much time in a day, PJ. So much.
Especially, Silver, when one stops claiming there’s so little of it, huh?
This always puts me in mind of an old song by the Byrds, the lyrics taken from a passage from the Book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testiment. “To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.” I’m not huge on religion, but I’ll take good advice where I find it. I need to work on my time management, and I need to remember that each thing in its own time. What about you? Do you procrastinate? Keep to a tight schedule? Or just roll with the flow like the Universe does?
It’s a mad, crazy world out there and my instincts are to hunker down and pull the covers over my head. Except nothing gets done that I need to get done. So I’m going with Plan B. And also this bit of inspiration from the Universe:
Silver James 