It’s Another Monday

Posted on March 26, 2018 by Silver James

I have no idea why I continue to obsess over Monday. It’s not like I have an 8-5/M-F job these days? In fact, I haven’t had one of those for a long time now. I think people just get hardwired that way. Monday? Ugh! First day of the week after lazing all weekend. Gotta go to work. Drag outta bed, hit the ol’ job and be productive. Except I’m a writer. I pretty much work every day because trying to make money in the noveling business is Hard. Freaking. Work. 95% of writers don’t live glamorous lives. We struggle to make ends meet. We do our best to write stories and books people will pay money for to read because we don’t pay our bills otherwise.

Yeah, my sales suck right now, why do you ask?

So, it’s Monday. I did take Saturday off because Stormageddon, aka 4nado, had his 4th birthday party. Star Wars themed, with hot dogs and cake and lots of screaming kids having a blast. Only and Baseball Boy put together a fun party. Sunday, it was back to work. These stupid books don’t write themselves. Dammit.

Sports and TV hasn’t changed in past week, though we are closer to Opening Day. I could gritch and moan about MLB and the stupidity of their blackout policies but there’s no point. MLB doesn’t listen to me. *shrug*

I am reading…or listening to books. I discovered Jennifer Ashley’s Unbound Shifter’s series. Interesting take on the creation and existence of shifters–made by Fae magic, now “collared” by Fae magic by humans and treated like second-class citizens. I’m on book #3.5, but technically, it’s the 5th book in the series. I’m enjoying it, especially since I can get all the books either through my Audible Romance subscription or from the library. I’ll probably work my way through the whole series while waiting for a couple of new releases I’ve got on my wish list to come out.

And that’s pretty much my life. Boring as all get out. And people wonder why I like living in my head with either the characters other people create that I read about or the ones I create to write about. Not a bad place to be.

How was your week/weekend? What are you reading or writing? Or doing? Life keeping you busy?

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Friday Sinema: #MakeADateWithHarlequin

Posted on March 23, 2018 by Silver James

Another video in the Make a Date With Harlequin series has been unveiled. What would you do if a prince asked you to lunch in the park?

Want to see all the videos so you can pick your favorite?

Highlander:

Cowboy:

Viking:

My favorite parts are the innuendos and the looks on the bystanders’ faces! Have a great weekend.

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Starts

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Silver James

When I finish a book–whether writing or reading–I’m faced with the decision of what to do next. Sometimes I have deadlines already in place and those deadlines dictate which project comes next. Sometimes, the deadlines are my own in that I know I want to write X books this year but as to which book in which series comes next, I don’t have to be hard and fast on deciding whose story to tell next. Reading is a bit easier, though I tend to read like I write–in series.

When the opportunity presents itself, I like to kick back and play with ideas, with scenes and characters in various projects just to see which one catches my attention and fires my imagination. That’s when writing is fun. And it’s always the way to get something finished, just like the Universe says.

Starting something, Silver, is the best way to finish something.

And just doing a teeny, tiny something today, anything, from wherever you are, is the best way to start something.

I’m not just a client,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

Today, Silver. Make a call, ask a question, search the web, buy a book, pound the pavement, measure, cut, paste, poke, and of course, give thanks in advance.

What are you starting today?

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Wednesday Words: Fire

Posted on March 21, 2018 by Silver James

And Hump Day rolls around again, with more words and another #1lineWed theme. I’m all fired up because this puppy is done but for one tweak on the copyright when I get the info about the photos on the cover and I get the cover. And I’m sensing a theme here…Earth, Wind, and Fire. Because, yeah, today’s theme is **FIRE**. Today’s snippet is basically the first time our furry hero meets our not-so-intrepid heroine. I hope it lights a fire in your interest to read the whole book when it releases in April!

****
Tilting his head, Tait listened. Two sets of footsteps faded. The two who’d been covering the rear must have come inside to search while the rest of their hunting party was stalled out in the bar. “Stay still,” Tait whispered against her lips.

“Let me go,” she whispered back.

“In a minute.” Or an hour. He’d backed her into a corner but didn’t feel guilty. For reasons he couldn’t decipher, this woman drove his wolf to distraction and the damn thing might as well be chasing his tail in dizzying circles. Focus. He desperately needed some. Despite the delicious fragrance of blueberry muffins and the sweet taste of her mouth.

“Put me down,” she spat.

He eased the door closed with the toe of his boot before complying. He stepped back to get a better look at her, ignoring her ineffectual shove against his chest.

“Stay away from me.”

Bravado. She had it, despite the terror quaking her insides. He liked that. He didn’t like the stink of ammonia hovering just beneath her natural fragrance. That’s how he knew she was scared. He also picked up a whiff of cinnamon that made him want to grin. She wanted him. Always a good thing since his dick was so hard it wanted to pop the buttons off his fly. Focus. They weren’t out of the fire yet. Once he got her away and undercover, he fully planned to explore the desire flaring between them.

“You are Lauren Reilly, yeah?” He watched her eyes dilate even as she shook her head in the negative. “I’m not going to hurt you. People call me Shooter.” He wasn’t ready to reveal his real identity. Not yet.

Lauren stared, almost afraid to blink. His nickname was Shooter. And that was supposed to make her feel better? He was just as scary as those other men but he hadn’t hurt her. Yet. “Why are you hunting me?”

“Someone is worried about your safety. Someone I owe a favor.” Hell, he owed Mac McIntire his life. “You need a place to hide and someone to look after you until the people chasing you are dealt with.”

She locked her knees to remain standing. He knew? How could he? She needed to get away. “You can’t. You don’t understand who’s—” She swallowed hard. “If you did, you wouldn’t keep me safe.”

“I will if you give me a chance.” He was well aware of who was on her tail and why. This whole deal would be so much simpler if his damn wolf relaxed and let the man work his magic. “Black Root.”

His words fell like a boulder in a quiet pool, the resulting ripples of fear washing all the starch out of her backbone. She slid down, huddling in the corner. He crouched in front of her. Touched her cheek with his warm palm.
“See? I do know. I will keep you safe.” And he would. He’d also keep her close, like in-his-bed close because that kiss? It went straight to his dick and no one was going to be happy until he was buried deep inside her. The wolf brushed against his insides, wanting to come out and play, liking the idea of this woman in their bed. Tait liked women. A lot of women—lot being the operative word. At the moment, though, his other half was adamant. It was this woman or none. Damn wolf. This was all his fault.
****
Does anyone else want to leap from the frying pan into the fire to add so words in the comments?

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Tuesday Treats: Lemon Lasagna

Posted on March 20, 2018 by Silver James

Ah, March 20th, the spring (or vernal) equinox. That means winter is over, spring is here, and all those daffodils blooming in my flowerbeds will be giving away to tulips, roses, and bluebells before too much longer. Since we’re looking forward to warmer weather, I thought I’d share a springtime dessert–one that was shared by my friend, Karrie. I haven’t made this but it looks totally yummy.

LEMON LASAGNA

Lemon Lasagna – 4 layers of goodness including a Lemon Oreo crust, cream cheese layer, lemon pudding layer and topped with cream! It’s DELICIOUS!

Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 12-15

INGREDIENTS
1 package Lemon (or Golden) Oreos
6 TB unsalted butter, melted
1 8 oz. PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese (softened)
½ cup Margarine or butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1 large container cool whip – 16 oz. – or you can make your own cream
2 – 3.9 oz packages of lemon instant pudding
3 cups milk
lemons (for garnish)

INSTRUCTIONS
Begin by crushing your Oreos. For a very fine mixture, place Oreos in your food processor. Place in a ziploc baggie and add your melted butter. Mix until it is well combined.

Press into the bottom of a 9×13 pan spreading out to cover the entire bottom of the pan.

In a medium bowl, blend cream cheese, margarine/butter, powdered sugar and ½ of the cool whip. Blend well and pour over your Lemon Oreo Crust.

In another bowl, make your pudding by adding your milk to your bowl and instant pudding. Whisk together until pudding thickens. Pour over the cream cheese layer. Refrigerate for at least 5 minutes.

Top off with the rest of your Cool Whip.

Refrigerate at least 1 hour before serving. Add lemon slices and ENJOY! Karrie shared THIS WEBSITE where she found the recipe. Please go check it out for more pictures and a video of how to make it.

This is one of those fancy desserts that looks like it was made by a dessert chef. That pretty much leaves all of my heroines out of the mix. But you know who makes it? One Dillon Tate, the youngest of the Tate brothers, musician extraordinaire and a man of surprising talents. Of course, his brothers are really going to rib him about this. Dillon doesn’t have a book yet but you can read about him in Deacon’s book, THE COWBOY’S CHRISTMAS PROPOSITION.

And if anyone is interested, I was interviewed by Fiona McVie on her blog. HERE’S THE LINK if you want to go check it out! 🙂

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March Monday Madness

Posted on March 19, 2018 by Silver James

Well…we survived the Ides of March and St. Paddy’s Day. Can we survive March Madness? Whose bracket is completely blown by the upsets? I’m not a big basketball fan so no bracket for me. I was little miffed that OSU wasn’t invited to the big dance while OU was. OU is out, OSU went to the NIT and is still alive. OU women lost in the NCAA but OSU Cowgirls are still in the tourney. So yay for the Cowboys and Cowgirls. Moving on.

Sort of. As long as I’m talking sports, I’ll mention that the St. Louis Cardinals are shaping up as we get closer to opening day. I’d love to have the funds to take the whole family to St. Louis for opening day. I’ll do that when I win the lottery.

Speaking of the lottery, I wish I could win for reasons writing business related. I did a little gritching yesterday when I updated my reading progress. My eyes are giving me some trouble so I’m trying to “read” via audio books more and more. I realize not every book is available in audio, especially those self-pubbed titles by mid-list or lower authors. It ain’t cheap to produce an audio book. They run $200 and up per finished hour. So…if a book runs ten hours, that’s $2,000.00 minimum, and more likely more because $200 is cheap for voice talent. And that money is paid all upfront. ROI (Return On Investment) is low and takes awhile though most authors do make their money back. What I was gritching about was the particular book is by a best-selling author, the rest of the books in the best-selling series are out in audio and were within a week of their release dates. This book has been out a month and a half and no sign of the audio version. And the deal is? I’ve wanted to read this book since the hero was first introduced. I’m reading the ebook from the library. I would have pre-ordered the audio book had it been available. Which made me wonder how many people might want to “read” my self-pubbed books but can’t because they aren’t in audio. Hence, my wanting to win the lottery. My other avenue would be to do some sort of crowd-sourced fundraising and that soooo isn’t me! Anyway…

Reading, and listening, I’ve been doing some. I jumped ahead in Christine Warren’s Others series to a book with lion shifters, WALK ON THE WILD SIDE. I got it from the library and enjoyed it. I also read Jennifer L. Armentrout’s MOONLIGHT SINS, the first book in her new de Vincent series. Contemporary Gothic Romance FTW. Now I’m listening to Eve Langlais’s WHEN AN ALPHA PURRS. We’ll see. And as my eyes allow, I’m reading THE BASTARD’S BARGAIN, which is likely the last book in Katee Roberts’ O’Malley’s series. I just wish I could read faster! Ah well.

Okay, as to my own writing. First reports are coming in on MONTANA MOON. I probably need to tweak a bit at the end but that’s okay. I had thoughts that I might. While waiting on edits to come back, I played around yesterday afternoon with the Nightriders. I opened the main project file and sort of rifled through the “books” that have either chapters or scenes already written to see which one attracted my attention. At the moment, it looks like Gravedigger is going to get his story next. We’ll see if he and Shy, his heroine, continue jabbering at me. I’m also working to finish up the proposal on Cooper’s story, the next Red Dirt book, plus ideas for the books for the rest of the Tate cousins, ending with Hunter’s story. His is a thread that starts in Tucker’s book and runs all the way through. I have ideas for Boone, Bridger and Dillon but final execution will depend.

So, that’s it for me. I’m still fighting the time change and probably will from now until whenever. I still hadn’t adjusted since the fall change so you’d think I’d go back to normal. Nope. Not hardly. Other than that, Mabel, life is pretty darn okay. How’s life in your corner of the world?

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Friday Sinema: St. Patrick’s Day Edition

Posted on March 16, 2018 by Silver James

Tomorrow’s St. Patrick’s Day and we feel a little bit Irish. Enjoy this “tour” of Ireland with Celtic Thunder’s “Ireland’s Call.”

And to share the Irish goodness, enjoy Celtic Woman’s video of “Tír na nÓg” which features Oonagh. So now you know why my first book ever published was FAERIE FATE, a time travel set in 9th Century Ireland. 😉

Be safe and sane if you celebrate tomorrow.

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Hurry Up

Posted on March 15, 2018 by Silver James

I had a phone “visit” with my editor yesterday and we both commented on how time seemed to be in a weird time warp or slip. That it shouldn’t be mid-March but barely January. At the same time, each day seems to drag until it’s tomorrow and then I wonder where the time went. Today’s message from the Universe is in the same vein. It’s true, when I’m in a big hurry, things happen that slows me down–both external and internal. Internal in the sense that I goof up and have to start over, or I miss things that I find later and it takes longer to fix than it would have if I’d noticed and corrected the situation in the first place.

Have you noticed that the more you hurry, the slower you go?

The more you wait, the longer it takes?

The more you worry, the less you dream?

But the more you live, love, and laugh, Silver, the more you live, love, and laugh.

Weird?
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®
Loving you like bees love honey, Silver. And bears….

That whole more worry, less dream is totally true when it comes to me. Stress has that same affect and to be an effective writer, I need that dream time. I need to make time to live, love, and laugh more because those things make life worthwhile, makes the words flow from my imagination through my fingertips to the keyboard and ultimately to the monitor. And I’ve decided I need more bears in my life. Just because. What are you loving today?

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Wednesday Words: Wind in the…Aspens

Posted on March 14, 2018 by Silver James

Another mid-week milestone, a hump day as we slide toward the weekend, and time for another installment of Wednesday Words. Today’s #1lineWed theme is **WIND**. Because this is March and it’s all about coming in like a lion and stuff. Around here where the wind comes sweeping down the plains, this should be an easy prompt. But MONTANA MOON is set in…Montana. This scene is fairly explanatory. Lauren has been with Tait for a few days now, but she still doesn’t know his real name. I hope you enjoy.
****
Lauren now knew every nook and cranny of the house, the barn, the storage shed, and the garage. Well, except for Shooter’s bedroom. Not that she’d been snooping or anything. She was just bored. Anything interesting had to be hidden behind the thick wooden—and locked—barrier between her and the man’s inner sanctum. She spent a lot of time sitting either on the front porch or the back deck, often with Chewy at her feet. Shooter had taken the time to explain the wofldog’s name. Too bad he hadn’t bothered to fill her in on his real name.

She closed the cover on her ereader and stretched out her booted feet. After three days, she’d gotten used to the restrictive footwear whenever she went outdoors. Inside, she resorted to her flipflops or the fuzzy slippers because at this point, she was all about the comfort.

Shooter had offered to teach her to ride. She hadn’t run shrieking. Then he called her “city mouse” again and she’d spent ten minutes dressing him down. Much to his amusement. Hating to admit it, she’d flounced off. She watched the horses nibbling grass and resolved that she’d make friends with them. She’d show the annoying man that she could adapt. Except for the no internet access thing. She was blowing through the books she’d downloaded like the wind in the aspen trees.

The door behind her opened but she didn’t bother turning around. Shooter cleared his throat. “You up for a road trip?”
She swiveled around to face him. “Where to?”

“I need to make a run into White Sulphur Springs, about thirty miles from here. I’ll take you out to dinner.” Tait had carefully considered the pros and cons of taking her to the small town. He was fairly well known but there were enough tourists starting come in that he and Lauren could probably fly under the radar, especially if he picked a busy restaurant.

“Do I need to change?”

He eyed the tee covered by a flannel shirt—one of his and didn’t that just make his wolf all stupid happy—and jeans she wore. She had on the western boots he’d bought her. “Naw. You’ll fit right in with the locals.”

Lauren crinkled her nose and with a pert tone in her voice, asked, “What? No sly comment about me being a city mouse?”
Damn but she could be cute. He shifted slightly to ease the pressure below his belt. His first priority was to stay out of touching—and kissing—distance of the woman. Good thing his pickup was big. “You comin’, or what?”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “Was that supposed to be a double entendre?” She rocked back when she noticed the flush creeping up Shooter’s face. Now wasn’t that enlightening? That long-ago kiss hadn’t been an aberration but for some reason, he was taking great pains to stay away. She glanced down at his belt buckle and barely managed to keep her eyebrows level. They wanted to climb up her forehead in surprise. He avoided answering her question by pivoting and ducking back inside the house.
****
So who has some windy words to share? And who’s ready for Tait and Lauren’s story to drop into their ereader?

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Tuesday Treats: Key Lime Cloud Squares

Posted on March 13, 2018 by Silver James

Saturday is St. Patrick’s Day. The weather forecast for these parts on Saturday? A balmy 72. So…a green dessert for a warm spring day? What’s better than something Key Lime?!? The fine folks at Kraft agree and provided the following recipe.

Prep Time: 20 min.
Total Time: 6 hr. 20 min.
Servings: 16 servings

Find yourself on Cloud Nine with these ‘Key Lime’ Cloud Squares! The fluffy texture of these ‘Key Lime’ Cloud Squares will send you to dessert heaven.

What You Need

1-1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs, divided
1/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup boiling water
1 pkg. (3 oz.) JELL-O Lime Flavor Gelatin
1 cup ice cubes
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1 can (14 oz.) sweetened condensed milk
3/4 cup lime juice
2 cups thawed COOL WHIP Whipped Topping

Make It

Reserve 1 Tbsp. graham crumbs. Mix remaining crumbs with butter; press onto bottom of plastic wrap-lined 9-inch square pan. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Add boiling water to gelatin mix in small bowl; stir 2 min. until completely dissolved. Add ice; stir 2 min. or until thickened. Remove any unmelted ice. Beat cream cheese in medium bowl until creamy. Gradually beat in milk, then lime juice. Add gelatin; mix well. Whisk in 1 cup COOL WHIP. Pour over crust.

Refrigerate 6 hours or until firm. Cover with remaining COOL WHIP just before serving; sprinkle with reserved graham crumbs. Use plastic wrap handles to remove dessert from pan before cutting into squares.

CLICK HERE to see a video and to get all the nutritional info. Since she lives in Key West now, Dr. Cory Prince Reagan, the heroine of DOUBLE CROSS, has a real fondness for all things Key Lime, including this dessert. The guys on the Hard Target team, including team leader Duke Reagan, tease her about it being all frou-frou but she assures me that she has to make two batches just to get a bite because the men descend like locusts. If you’d like to read more about Cory and Duke, you can read the ebook for free if you have a Kindle Unlimited subscription, or buy it for $2.99 while it’s on sale at Amazon. CLICK HERE to start reading!

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