Wednesday Words:

Posted on April 22, 2026 by Silver James

Once again, I have to admit to not many new words but I do have some to offer for today. No winning in last week’s Thursday Threads but that’s okay. I do it for the inspiration. Winning is just a perk. Today’s prompt comes from my last winning entry, and since I try not to continue a previous scene, here’s a new one. This happens soon after Sade arrives in Rochester. She’s checking into her hotel when a familiar face. Oh, and before I forget, the prompt is: *”Do you know something I don’t?”*

****
Sade sighed mentally, rolling her eyes skyward in a why me expression. “Well, well, well,” she said. “Why am I not surprised?” The dragon in human guise smiled and she immediately thought of the very wise advice: Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup.

“Fancy meeting you here, Agent Marquis.”

Beside her, Marcella sucked in a breath. She couldn’t blame the other agent. The dragon did have a way of tweaking female hormones. “Agent Lloyd, may I present Nikolas

Constantine, Drakon of Klan Kholikikos.

“D-d-dragon?” Marcella finally got the question out.

“Yes. Why are you here, Nikos? Do you know something I don’t?”

“I might ask you the same, Sade.”

“Well, gee. I mean with Rochester being a null space when it comes to magic yet a high-ranking fae and the chief enforcer of a dragon klan are both right in the middle of things. My spidey sense is tingling.”

“Null space?”

“Yeah, no magic.”

“Whatever gave you that idea?”

“Seriously? All you magicks say that. Or imply it because none of you have claimed

Rochester.”

“It’s wild magic.”

“Excuse me?”

“The magic here is wild, uncontrollable so we avoid the place.”

“Then why is Ariel here?”

“That, my dear Sade, is the question of the day.” His eyes flicked beyond her. “Shall we ask him?”

Sade turned, noted the guilty look on Ariel’s face. “Well?”

He held his hands up in surrender. “It’s complicated.”

“So are dead girls.”
****

Writers, grab the prompt and write if it hits your fancy. Readers, do you like secrets in books? Yeah, yeah. Lame question but I’m actually typing this on Monday and well…it’s Monday! Hope y’all enjoy.

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Moonstruck Coffee Cake

Posted on April 21, 2026 by Silver James

Who doesn’t love coffee cake? Especially when there’s chocolate invovled? This recipe creates a soft, moist cake full of flavor and perfect for a morning coffee break, midnight snack, or breakfastt.

Cinnamon Coffee Chocolate Chip Cake

Prep time: 15 Minutes
Cook time: 40 Minutes
Total time: 55 min

Serivings: 6-8 slices

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons instant coffee (dry, not liquid)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup plain yogurt
1 cup chocolate chips

Let’s Make It:
1 – Preheat oven to 350°F and prepare a round cake pan by greasing and flouring.
2 – In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and coffee together.
3 – In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar with the butter until light and fluffy.
4 – Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing in between.
5 – Mix in the vanilla.
6 – Add half the amount of flour mixture to the wet mixture and start to mix together.
7 – Add half the yogurt and mix then add the remaining half of flour mixture and remaining half of yogurt. Continue to mix until everything is combined.
8 – Fold in the chocolate chips.
9 – Bake for about 40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool slightly before turn out of pan. Ice and enjoy.

Icing (if desired)

1¼ cups confectioners’ sugar
4 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
⅛ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons milk or water
1½ teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons corn syrup optional

Make It:
1 – Sift together the sugar, cocoa powder, and salt in a medium mixing bowl.
2 – Add the milk, then mix in the vanilla and corn syrup to make a smooth glaze. If the glaze is thick, add a little extra milk to loosen to a pourable consistency.
3 –  Pour over slightly-cooled cake, alowing it to drip down the sides

Tips + Notes
1 – Don’t skip the sifting – this will save you the headache of a lumpy glaze.
2 – To make a nondairy glaze, use water in place of the milk.
3 – For a deeper color and flavor, use dark cocoa powder. (Toll House makes a “rich deep choclate)

Today’s recipe is brought to you by BLOOD & FIRE. Celina Monaghan will do anything for her father and his pack—well, almost anything. The idea of an arranged marriage to a strange Wolf in this day and age has the feminist side of this Dallas Fire & Rescue EMT reaching for her go-tos: coffee and chocolate. What could be better than a combination of the two, with a dash of cinnamon for spice? Luckily, lone Wolf Rhys Kendric will straighten things out. If she ever gets over being mad at him for pretending to be…well, that might be a spoiler. You’ll just have to read the book. In the meantime, Celine will be enjoying her cake. You can click on either the title or a pic with cover to head over to Books2Read to find your favorite on-line book seller.

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Monday Meh

Posted on April 20, 2026 by Silver James

I’m always sluggish on the 20th of April. Those of you who know me understand. For any new folks, a short explanation. April 19th is a tough day here in my home state. At the time, I worked with the airport fire department as a forensics and technical officer. I was one of two internationally certified fire photograhers in the state. I was at home, after pulling a 24-hour shift. My dogs alerted, heading to the sliding glass door that faced southeast. The the door rattled and the sound hit. I though a plane had crashed. I turned on a local channel and grabbed my go bag. I got back to the TV just in time to see the station’s helicopter circling a building downtown–the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building. Initial reports indicated it was a gas main. I’d also volunteered with OCFD and knew photos would be vital. I sent a message via pager text to Lawyer Guy (in Tulsa for a hearing), loaded up and headed to downtown. We lived about 14 miles from there. I made it in 10 minutes. About half-way there, my pager went off telling me to get there Code 3. I found an out-of the-way place a bout 4 blocks away (where peripheral damage started) to park and hiked in. It was bad and it got worse. It’s been 31 years but the memories are still as vidid as they were the day it happened. Each passing year, it gets a little easier but I always feel hung-over and tired the day after. I don’t seelp well for a couple days before and a couple more after. Weird things trigger the PTSD. Anyway…

Life goes on and I had to people last week. Several times. 😧The public survived.

I wrote very little. People and Real Life need to just…take a hike. I will have to people one day this week that I know of. Not sure of LG’s schedule. He’s why I have extra peopling sometimes. Long story.

Stormy had an out-of-town soccer tournament. They went 2-1 and were tied for a spot in the finals. Score differential put them into the finals. Only says they played hard and it came down to penalty kicks to break the tie and his team won! Wowser and congrats to the team goalie for blocking all the balls! This is their first tournament win. They’ve come in second a couple of times but never first! My OSU Cowgirls won Bedlam by beating #1 OU Sooners on Wednesday. They played Arizona over the weekend and took 2 of 3. OU took 2 of 3 from Arkansas. Rankings will be interesting when the come out. We’re also getting to watch Cardinals games again and they seem to be winning mostly. Yay.

I’m a bit behind on my reading challenge. I’m currently listening to Larissa Ionen’s LETHAL RIDER, which is book 2 in her Four Horseman series/8th in the over-all Demonica world. It’s been years and it’s fun to “reconnect.”

Not much else going on in my world. We had rain and storms Friday and Saturday. Sunday was beautiful. Today’s not too shabby. I like no HVAC usage. It can stay this way until…like…the 4th of July. As for the rest of this week, peopling at least one day with stuff this coming weekend that I’m not sure we’ll do or not. And, once again, I have hopes of new words. We shall see. How’re things in your world?

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Friday Sinema: For the Love of the Game

Posted on April 17, 2026 by Silver James

I coached this age. I also coached at the Gold Level (top level of travel ball). There were times I made my team go watch a T-ball game. This is why… Have a great weekend! Go do/watch something you love. Psst. If you can’t read the captions, just click to stop the video, then click to start it again.

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Doors

Posted on April 16, 2026 by Silver James

Okay, writers. Let’s dog about the big boogieman that sits in the corner just waiting to spring on us. Yes, I am speaking about that dreaded syndrome called Writer’s Block. It is insidious and frustrating. It ranks right up there with it’s deceptive cousin, Imposter’s Syndrome. For those of you who are non-writers, let me briefly explain. A writer’s brain is a very scary place and we get all sorts of ideas, both real and imagined. The thing is, if we were just like…well…normal (whatever that means)…we probably wouldn’t be writers. Today’s message from the Universe is technically for everyone, but it is especially apropos for those of us who are stuck in our WIPs at the moment.

Sometimes when a door is slammed shut, Silver, people forget there are always lots and lots of other doors to knock on.

Curiously,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. Knock, knock, Silver! Who’s there? Gopher. Gopher who? Gopher it.

Sometimes, we paint ourselves into a corner. If we’re lucky, there’s a door there. Or a window. If not, then we need to do some demolition work. Or just blow a hole in the wall. Either way. But to the Big U’s point, there’s no reason for us to be stuck. Life is full of detours, forks in the road, and Plan Bs. We just need to be open to the possibilities and, as the U says, just gopher it. I’m off to knock on some doors. How ’bout y’all?

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Wednesday Words: Obi Wan, You’re My Only Hope

Posted on April 15, 2026 by Silver James

Sorry. I couldn’t resist the reference. I should also mention that I have a meme from that scene (Princess Leia in holograph) and the caption is “Caffeine, you’r my only hope.” *koff* Anyway, It’s Wednesday and I have new–and winning–words to share from last week’s Thursday Threads challenge. Here’s what the judge had to say: On top of using the prompt, Silver’s short read brought me to a place that made me want to consider what’s next almost like a small blurb in he back of a bock. I don’t believe I was prepared to go that direction, but that’s the thing about these challenges. People really do, in fact, think outside of the box. I enjoyed this story. It was extremely fun to read. The prompt is: *“Despite everything, there’s hope.”* This scene comes…somewhere. Just past the middle. Maybe. Definitely not toward the end. Maybe. Oh, hell. What do I know? I’m just the author. The dang characters will tell me where it goes when we get there. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy.

****
Glass shattered against stone, silencing the royal bickering. Two pairs of eyes focused on the very angry human but neither Titania nor Oberon spoke. They simply stared.
“You two are freaking impossible!” Freaking was not the word Sade wanted to use. “Ariel could be dead. The woman he loves could be dead. And what are you two doing? You sit there on your gaw—” She broke off, censoring herself again. “On your royal asses arguing about which of you has the bigger stake in this. What happens in the human realm has no—” She choked off another curse. “I’m done. I can arrange to have you both banned from my realm.”

Titania pouted. Prettily. “No you can’t.”

Sade glared at the Fae king and queen, bottle-green eyes blazing. “You signed the Accords. I have the authority to ban you from humanity. No more Vegas showgirls.” This aimed at Oberon. “No more Cannes. No more New York or Paris fashion weeks.”

Titania gasped as the threat hit its mark.

Someone plucked at the sleeve of Sade’s jacket. She glanced at the young fae who’d crept up beside her. “What?”

Druic gulped, his gaze skittering around the room before coming to rest on the toes of Sade’s boots. He cleared his throat. “Despite everything, there’s hope.”

“Do you know something I don’t?”

The kid nodded. “There is one who can help.”

Sade’s lips stretched into a scary smile as she realized who the kid had in mind. She turned back to the royal couple and understood they’d also figured it out. “Time to make a deal with a devil.”

“You can’t,” Oberon objected.

“Watch me.”
****

Writers, write. Readers, read. Everybody be happy. Why no, I haven’t had my fill of caffeine this morning, why do you ask? I’m on my way for another cup and then back toward the end of the beginning to take up where I left off. If any of this makes sense, bless you. You’ve had your coffee. 😉

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Cheesecake Factory Moonstruck Bread

Posted on April 14, 2026 by Silver James

Okay. To be honest, the real name of this treat is Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread and this is one of those “copy-cat” recipes, because as far as I know Cheesecake Factory doesn’t reveal their recipes. Heck, are they still in businees? We used to eat at our local one all the time and then…we didn’t. Still, the food was good–if a bit pricey–and it was fun for special occasions. And yes, I really liked (still do!) their bread. As far as bread making goes, this one isn’t too hard.

Cheesecake Factory Brown Bread

Ingredients
1 1/4 cups warm water
1/4 cup honey
2 tablespoons molasses
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 (.25-ounce) packet active dry yeast
2 1/4 cups bread flour or to taste
1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour or to taste
1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
3 tablespoons salted butter melted
Semolina flour or cornmeal to taste, for the bottom of the pan
Oil to taste
Old-fashioned oats to taste, for topping

Directions
1 – In a bowl, mix the warm water, the honey, the molasses, and the brown sugar together.
2 – Sprinkle the yeast on top of the sugar mixture and let it sit until it is foamy, about 5 minutes.
3 – In a second, large bowl, mix 2 cups of the bread flour, 1 cup of the whole wheat flour, the cocoa powder, and the salt together.
4 – Add the yeast mixture and the melted butter to the flour mixture and mix until a dough forms, adding more of the bread flour and the whole wheat flour as needed until the dough is elastic, not dry, and only very slightly sticky.
5 – Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes. If using the dough hook attachment of a stand mixer, mix for 6-8 minutes. The dough should be smooth, elastic, and slightly tacky when ready.
6 – Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, sprinkling the paper with the semolina flour.
7 – Lightly oil a clean bowl and add the dough.
8 – Cover the bowl with a clean towel and let the dough rise in a warm place until it doubles in size, about 1-2 hours.
9 – Punch the dough down and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
10 – Use a knife or bench scraper to cut the dough into 4 equal pieces.
11 – Form each dough piece into a 7-8-inch-long loaf.
12 – Spread the loaves out onto the prepared sheet, leaving some space in between.
13 – Top the loaves with the oats.
14 – Cover the loaves loosely with plastic wrap and let them rise until the dough puffs up, about 30-40 minutes.
15 – Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
16 – Uncover the loaves and bake, rotating the pan once, until they are cooked through, about 30-35 minutes.
17 – Let the bread cool before slicing.

If you haven’t read MONTANA MOON, let me tell you a little about it. Lauren Reilly was a historical archivist at the Pentagon. You know that old joke about “If I tell you, I have to kill you”? Yeah, turns out it’s not so funny when it’s real. Running for her life, she’s rescued by Tait “Shooter” McCord, a lone Wolf “friend of a friend” living off-grid in Montana and working as a bounty hunter. Turns out, Cheesecake Factory is one of Lauren’s favorite restaurants. She promises that she’ll learn to bake the bread. Soon. No, really. Tait just rolls his eyes and makes a grocery list. He’ll end up making the bread for her because he’s just “that” guy. If you’re interested in their story, which is a standalone set in the overall Moonstruck world, just click on a pic or the book title to be magicially transported to Books2Read’s landing page where you can find your favorite on-line bookstore.

If you want more info on the recipe, here’s the Hey Recipe link. Who else remembers Cheesecake Factory and loved their bread? 🙋🏼‍♀️

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Monday Mishaps

Posted on April 13, 2026 by Silver James

Gosh. Monday again. We’re almost halfway through April? Where are the days going? I feel like I’m just stumbling around in a daze.

Speaking of stumbling, I pulled a massive uh-oh Friday night. As most of you know, my eyesight isn’t the best. It is especially troublesome when I moving between light and dark and vice versa. Adjusting to the varying light situations takes a few moments. I’m not always patient enough to wait. Poor Jake happened to be lying in the floor between the doorway I exited and the doorway I was headed to. I stumbled over him and came down hard on the cement floor on my left knee, followed by my left hip0, my right hand (don’t ask how that happened as I have no clue) and then my left shoulder. It’s not the first time I’ve fallen on that knee. It’s a wonder it works at all. The pain was bad enough it made me dizzy and nauseous. I had to lay there for about ten minutes before LG and I could figure out how to get me off the floor. Jake and Toby were freaked, not suprisingly. Anyway, I managed to get up with assistance and a footstool (that’s a story and this one is already in tl:dr territory). Ice and ibuprofen helped. Good thing I have mostly strong bones.

Due to the ouchies, Saturday was pretty much a stay-in-bed, prop-up-knee, ice-and-ibuprofen day. Everything hurt.

Sunday, I was sore but it was in the muscles not the nones and joints. Oh, if I bump my knee it’s a big OUCH! Same with the hip. If I reach wrong, the shoulder reminds me I’m an idiot.

The good thing is, I watched quite a bit of softball. Do NOT get me started on baseball. Bless LG for his paitence. He’s the one who’s dealt with AT&T all week. See, a bunch of sh…stuff went down like dominoes. MLB and the teams made a deal to stream games. Fans have to pay subscription fees. You might get to watch your favorite team or not. The thing is, a lot of us with cable pay extra for the sports package. Those channels started as Fox Sports, which sold off the channels to Bally Sports, which sold off to FanDuel. Due to all these grandfathered packages, MLB agreed to continue showing the in-market games on dedicated team channels. Here’s the rub, here in Okieland, we technically have FOUR in-market teams: STL Cardinals, KC Royals, TX Rangers, and HST Astros. The thing is, none of those dedicated channels were showing up in our AT&T U-verse channel line-up. MLB says it’s AT&T and the Cardinals’ fault. AT&T blames MLB and the teams. The teams blame MLB & AT&T. Now, FanDuel’s parent company is shutting down all those channels by the end of April. NOW we understand why each team is assigned a designated channel. It’s a total Charlie Foxtrot. The channels are showing up now but we can only watch the Rangers’ games. We might be able to watch the ‘Stros but I don’t care so haven’t actually checked. There are other teams we like to watch that we used to be able to watch but not anymore. We are also getting a credit on our bill. Allegedly. It hasn’t shown up yet.

Now, to has insult to this whole debackle, the “splitter” box on the TV in the bedroom is fritzing. We even bouth a new TV, thinking that was the problem. Nope. It was the damn box. That took LG an entire day on the phone. AT&T is–again allegedly–sending a new box and universal remote. They told LG 1-2 days. That was…Thursday? Or maybe Friday. Anyway, it aint here and the pixelating/freezing/black screen is getting worse.

Tech hates me.

In other news, no soccer for us due to LG falling Friday morning and me falling Friday night. Friday was NOT a good day for the James Gang. Also, we’ve had rain. That’s a good thing. We need more of it! Also, lots of softball watching. Yay! My Cowgirls went 2-1 at Iowa State. The Sooners almost swept Texas but the Longhorns managed a walk-off homerun in the bottom of the 8th. Ah well. They took 2 of 3, like the Cowgirls so not a back weekend. Next up, Bedlam on Wednesday!

I fininshed the new Ilona Andrews release, THIS KINGDOM WILL NOT KILL ME. It ended on a massive cliffhanger and book 2 is a year away. I’m not happy about the cliffhanger but I had mixxed emtions about the book. I really wanted to love it. I didn’t. I liked it okay. I’m back to Larissa Ione’s Demonica/Four Horseman series. In writing news, I managed to eke out the winning Thursday Threads entry last week so new words on Wednesday. I had serious plans about writing over the weekend but yeah…that didn’t happen.

No major plans for this coming week. Fingers crossed for tech finally working out. Fingers and toes crossed for new words every day. We might have storms tomorrow. I don’t mind storms as long as we get rain. I had one daffodil, no wisteria, no peony this spring. I currently have one iris blooming and I think the honeysuckle bush may finally be getting some buds. It’s been a hard year for plants. Have a great week, all.

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Friday Sinema: Lego Rescue

Posted on April 10, 2026 by Silver James

TGIF! You might have to click through to X to watch this video but it’s worth it. People who can do videos like this absolutely amaze me. Also, this is very topical. Have a great weekend, everyone!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Instructions

Posted on April 9, 2026 by Silver James

Decisions, decisions. The Universe has been really on point of late and trying to pick just one message to pass along has not been an easy choice. And look at me, I managed to use different words to convey the same action: decisions, pick, choice. There was a thread over on X about the struggle to not use the same word over and and over. As one writer said, Theasaurus is their favor dinosaur. In another thread, we were talking about characters and the different aspects of creating and writing them and the need to infuse life into them. Hence, I picked this one:

Honor them.

Love them.

Help them.

Heal them.

But above all else, Silver, free them.

Everyone, of course –
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. They’ll return, Silver, one day, somewhere, over the rainbow or in times without space. And then they’ll show you all the “pictures” they took, play some weird music, and finally… they’ll thank you.

This is a very basic yet very complete blueprint for writing characters and developing their arcs. I’m a bit weird in that I tend to give even my secondary characters their own emotional arcs. That’s partly due to the fact that I think in series so I know eacy of them will likely get their own story eventually. I want my readers to be as invested in their lives as I am. And trust me, I am. I’m not kidding when I say the majority of my friends are imaginary–and yes, I have a meme for that. 😆

So there it is in simple terms. For those of you who are starting to write and writers well into their careers who might need a reminder. And for readers, this is a little peek into the way a writer’s mind works. Of course, this applies to real people too. Honor. Love. Help. Heal. Free. It all sounds so simple in theory but it’s tough to put into practice. On that note, I have a stubborn hero to go tangle with. He’s not happy with me at the moment but someday, I’m pretty sure he’ll thank me. 😉

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