Thursday Thoughts: Living Life

Posted on March 8, 2018 by Silver James

Sometimes I sit and ponder the Universe. Sometimes I just sit. Sometimes I sit and make up stories in my head. Sometimes I sit at the computer and write those stories down. Sometimes I look back on my life and wonder how the heck-fire I ended up where I am today. And then the Universe drops something like this message into my inbox…

If you would simply think deeply, Silver, on the things you’ve loved most about life; on the things you’ve loved most about yourself; and of the main challenges you’ve faced, whether behind you or in the moment; you will then know in an instant, beyond a shadow of a doubt, exactly why you chose this lifetime.

Besides being a genius.

Most fondly,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®
Now, Silver, to figure out why everyone else showed up….

I’m not a genius, despite what the big U thinks. And yeah, I do wonder why I ended up with the people who are in my life. Did I pick them? Did they pick me? Well, my parents did. Sort of. I became available for adoption and they took me home. Without my dad’s influence, I wouldn’t be the person I am. I wouldn’t love reading and telling stories and making shit up. Or maybe I would. Maybe that was in me all along but he gave me permission to love reading and telling stories and making shit up. I miss my dad. A lot. But he also taught me that life was to be lived. So I wake up each day and wonder what new wonder the world will share with me, whether in reality or imagination.

It’s like knowing that a daffodil will bloom on my birthday because no matter where I’ve lived, there’s been a daffodil blooming in my yard on my birthday. It’s like struggling with a scene and going out to turn my face to the sun, eyes closed, soaking the warmth into my skin and suddenly knowing what that scene is wrong and what I can do to fix it. It’s like lying warm under the covers in the darkness, listening to the world wake up around me and understanding that no matter how old I get, there’s another sunrise to see, another morning bird call to hear, another pot of coffee to tease my nose as it perks. And there’s always another story to right, another battle to fight, another Happily Ever After to bring into the light. So yes, Universe. You are correct. Every step I’ve taken has led me to the life I’m living at this moment. As for everyone else showing up? I don’t have a clue. Another day, maybe. Today, I have a story to right, a battle to fight, and an HEA that needs to see the light of day.

As for the rest of you? Why are you here? 😉

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Wednesday Words: Down to Earth

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Silver James

Another week, another Wednesday, another theme for #1lineWed on Twitter. Today’s theme is **EARTH**. I had a few mentions of the world but two of them dealt with major spoilers so instead, I opted for this little scene I thought y’all might enjoy. Tait (Shooter) and Lauren have gone into town to shop because she basically had a backpack with a couple of pairs of clean panties. Life on the run can be brutal on a girl’s wardrobe! 😉
****
A group of girls stopped almost in front of her and she caught their deep sighs. She glanced up, pushing her glasses higher on her nose. Not girls, women, she noted. Then she realized they were staring at a man. A tall, muscled man in butt-hugging jeans, taut T-shirt, scruffy chin, and green eyes the color of moss. Lauren shoved the ereader into her pack, letting it continue downloading books. Then she wheeled her cart toward Shooter and the women, who were slowly advancing on him. Not that she was jealous. Nuh-uh. Not at all. It wasn’t her fault that her cart bumped the one belonging to the bimbos. She snarled at the flash of amusement lighting Shooter’s eyes.

“I’m sorry. You should watch where you’re going,” she told the woman pushing the other cart. She flashed a huge smile at Shooter. “Oh, honey. You forgot the diapers and baby food.” She batted her lashes guilelessly at the women. “Twins,” she announced.

Shooter covered his laughter with a coughing fit. He’d have to watch out for his city mouse. She might turn out to have teeth and claws after all. He was enjoying the flare of jealousy in her expression and actions probably a little too much. His wolf was all but rolling over and play bowing. The women scowled at him like their interest was all his fault and rushed off.

He managed to get them through check-out with no further incident, though she hung over his basket mentally ticking off every item he’d bought. Her concern had changed to a low level pleasure so he’d figured out at least some of her likes.

Their next stop netted Lauren a pair of western boots and a pair of sturdy hiking boots, a canvas rancher’s coat, and several bags of feed for Tait’s horses, Chewy, and the chickens who scratched around his yard and occasionally left eggs for him—if he was quick and could beat Chewy to them. The sun set behind them as they pulled through the gate to his small ranch. A mixed herd of deer and antelope grazed on one side. His cattle and the buffalo watched them from the other side of the road.

Excited barking announced Chewy’s arrival. Tait stopped the truck and got out to lower the tailgate so the dog could jump in. Lauren peered between the seats to look out the back window, laughing at the wolfdog’s antics. Something settled in Tait’s chest. It wasn’t anything earth-shattering. In fact, if he hadn’t been paying attention, he might not have noticed the gentle push and pull, the expansion and then embrace, like a man opening his arms to welcome his lover into them.
****
Nothing exciting in today’s words, but a nice scene anyway, showing the down-to-earth relationship Tait and Lauren are discovering. What about y’all? Any earthy words to share today?

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Tuesday Treats: French Toast Muffins

Posted on March 6, 2018 by Silver James

All things considered, it might be just as easy to make French Toast but these sounded pretty darn tasty so I thought I’d share this recipe from Kraft. I haven’t made them yet but will one of these days.

Prep Time: 20 min.
Total Time: 48 min.
Servings: 12 servings

Celebrate your weekend with our French Toast Muffins Recipe. Our comforting French Toast Muffins Recipe turns a brunch favorite into delicious muffins.

What You Need
1-1/2 cups flour
1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
2 tsp. CALUMET Baking Powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1-1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon, divided
2 eggs, divided
1-1/4 cups milk, divided
3/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp. packed brown sugar, divided
3 slices white bread, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
2 Tbsp. maple-flavored or pancake syrup

Make It
Heat oven to 350ºF.
Combine flour, dry pudding mix, baking powder, salt and 1 tsp. cinnamon in large bowl.
Beat 1 egg, 1/4 cup milk, 2 Tbsp. sugar and remaining cinnamon in medium bowl with whisk until blended. Add bread; stir until evenly moistened.
Whisk remaining egg in separate medium bowl. Add butter, remaining milk and sugar; mix well. Add to dry ingredients; stir just until moistened. (Batter will be lumpy.)
Spoon batter into 12 muffin pan cups sprayed with cooking spray. Top with bread mixture; press lightly into batter with back of spoon.
Bake 28 min. or until toothpick inserted in centers comes out clean. Brush with syrup. Cool in pan 5 min. Remove to wire rack; cool slightly.

CLICK HERE for more nutritional info. FYI, Sade Marquis, our intrepid FBI agent from The Penumbra Papers has a soft spot for these muffins. Does she make them? *watches Sinjen, Caleb, and Ariel fall over laughing* Oh, heck no. Does Nikos have his chef make them for her whenever she’s stuck in his company? Oh, heck yeah. Does Sinjen appreciate that fact? Yeah…no. You can read the beginning of the story in THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC and SEASON OF THE WITCH.

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A Monday in March

Posted on March 5, 2018 by Silver James

It’s the first Monday in March. This pic is totally a true story. I only worked for a couple of hours this weekend–for a variety of reasons. I was so lazy I didn’t even set up this morning’s blog yesterday like I normally do. So, brief recap of last week, the weekend, and looking forward to this week:

I hit a milestone birthday. It’s the one that adds a lot of paperwork. I should get on that. *nods*

I had a breakthrough on the opening scene in RDR#9. It’s sooo much better, the timeline fits, and I won’t lose the two chapters already written–they’ll slot in later in the book perfectly! So that’s a win. I’m facing the big battle scene in MONTANNA MOON and Iffy just doesn’t want to get our keyboard bloody. I’ll be working on that today.

I didn’t watch that dumb award show last night. I don’t appreciate politics creeping into my entertainment–whether it’s TV, movies, sports, or my reading. That’s all I’ll say on the matter. LIVE PD is live, LUCIFER is staying interesting, and I’m vegging to spring training baseball games. The Cards reassigned 7 players over the weekend to the minor league camp that starts today. Fans will start to see more of the regulars now. I ❤ baseball.

I finally latched onto a series that's keeping my attention. I've already read Kristen Ashley's Mystery Man series (back in 2015) but at least it's keeping my attention. The heroes are totally NOT PC, ie. they are totally ALPHA. While I would probably suffocate any one of them in their sleep in real life, I can't help loving them more than a little in fiction. I have my own alpha male and I wouldn't change him for the world. He's just not as bossy as the four mystery men. I'm on MOTORCYCLE MAN now and I'm not sure if I'll dive into a reread of the Chaos MC series next. There's a new novella out in Chaos so I just might do a reread, culminating with the new installment. We'll see. Anne Bishop's LAKE SILENCE, first book in a spin-off series in her Others world releases tomorrow. I'm #6 on one copy of the audiobook from the library and I can't decide whether to just pull the trigger and use an Audible credit to grab it or not. Decisions, decisions.

Insomnia and some health things (nothing serious just uncomfortable) hit over the weekend, which is part of my excuse for getting not much done, especially yesterday. It was a gray, moisty-damp day that wasn't cold or warm. It felt a lot like early spring. After only two hours sleep, I gave up and mostly stayed in bed dozing during the baseball games and Northwoods Law reruns. And I'm not exactly hitting the floor running this morning. Ah well.

There's a new week. Many words and errands to write and run. What happened in your world last week? Here's hoping we all have a productive week.

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Friday Sinema: More Cats, Olympic Style

Posted on March 2, 2018 by Silver James

Now that the closing ceremonies are done and the medal count totaled up, I think we need more cats to celebrate.

If these events–and commentators–had been part of the Olympics, I might have watched. 😆 Have a great weekend!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Peter Pan

Posted on March 1, 2018 by Silver James

I once described myself as a perpetual Peter Pan. I was the kid who didn’t want to grow up, the kid who lived in books and made up imaginary friends and told stories about them. And now I’m more than grown-up–age-wise anyway. Heck, I’m way beyond being older than dirt. As of today, I’m older than dust! 😉 When the Universe dropped this note into my inbox, it struck a chord, given what today is.

The thing that’s totally different between children and adults, Silver, is that children have the ability to spontaneously use their imagination to forget what’s bothering them and be inspired by every pony, feather, or bug that crosses their path.

Oh, yeah… you’re like that.

Easy peasy,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

I’m so proud of the kid you still are, Silver.

This is one of those milestone birthdays, I suppose. I tend to reflect and consider and wonder on those. I’m lucky that I didn’t have to totally grow up. I still live in my imagination and make up imaginary friends and tell stories about them. Except I get paid for doing it now. I’ve seen and done a lot in my life. The world has changed. A lot. And not necessarily for the better. If I was Czarina of the Universe, I’d do things different. Since I’m not…*shrug*. My main thought now is the chore of filling out government paperwork for Social Security and Medicaid and what the ever-loving freak do I have to do to make the spam sales calls for Medicare Plan B policies stop! I mean, seriously! Go the freak away and stop calling!

Wait? You were expecting deep thoughts from me? Ha. You obviously don’t know me. Peter Pan, remember? 😉 But unlike Peter who wanted AAaaalllLL the birthday presents, I’m giving presents to my readers this year. I’ve put all my self-pub books on sale. Every book in these series are on sale* from .99 to $2.99. The price will go up next week at some point so if there are any books you’ve been wanting to add to your digital shelves, now’s the time! Just click below to get links to each series. I’m gonna go wrangle with forms now.

MOONSTRUCK | HARD TARGET | NIGHTRIDERS | THE PENUMBRA PAPERS

Please note: This sale does not include any of the books written in the Kindle Worlds. I have no control over the pricing of those. However, if you’re interested in all the books I’ve written, CLICK HERE for my complete book list.

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Wednesday Words: He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Wolf

Posted on February 28, 2018 by Silver James

Today’s #1lineWed theme over on Twitter is **HEAVY.** You’d think in 31K words I’d have more than one reference. Nope. Just one. A heavy door banging against the wall. I should mention that this snippet continues words that are probably NSFW. The scene is pretty self-explanatory.
****
Growls. Chewy. Tait bolted out of bed. A scream. Lauren. Chewy. Lauren. His brain went to a dark and bloody place. Shit. He raced through the house, following the sounds. Chewy had been noticeably absent when he and Lauren arrived last night, and he hadn’t appeared when Tait took his midnight run. Damn wolfdog. And what the hell was Lauren doing up and out of bed? He’d left her asleep in the guest room. To be nice. To keep her safe. From him. But now Chewy! Who ate strangers. He should have tied her to the bed. He should have shot the damn wolfdog ages ago.

The heavy door banged against the rough-hewn logs of the house as he charged out onto the wide deck. Lauren was on the ground, Chewy straddling her body, his muzzle buried at her throat. Oh. Fuck. His wolf clawed to get out, desperate to get to Lauren, to their mate, to save her. His wolf wanted to challenge the other male, to taste his blood, no longer recognizing the fur brother who ran with him under the moon.

Tait was a heartbeat away from shifting when he recognized the sounds coming from Lauren weren’t screams of fear. Laughter? What the hell? She was shrieking in laughter.

“Stop it!” she ordered the wolfdog, breathless. “That tickles.”

Chewy licked her throat, her face, her arms. His muzzle nuzzled into her hair as her hands buried in the animal’s ruff. Tait’s wolf wanted Lauren to laugh with him, to pet him. Not the mangy half wolf. Him! And now his wolf wanted to slaughter the wolfdog for an entirely different reason. Jealous much? he chided his other half.

“Cheéte!” He barked Chewy’s Crow name.

Lauren pushed the wolfdog away and sat up. The animal immediately backed away, looking more than a little smug, and settled back on his haunches. Her mouth dropped open the moment she realized he was standing on the porch. Buck naked. Her eyes widened and her tongue took a long, languorous swipe over her top lip. His dick twitched and when those lips formed an almost perfect O, he almost went to his knees, ready to beg her to put that mouth on him.

Averting her eyes, she explained. “Sorry. I couldn’t sleep. I guess he’s…yours?” She blushed even as her eyes roamed over him from the top of his head to his bare feet and back up. Slowly. He didn’t believe it possible but his dick swelled larger and got even harder. He needed to fuck this woman. And fuck her now. His wolf was totally on board with that.

“Uhm,” she hummed softly. “Shouldn’t you…ah…maybe…get dressed? Or…something?”

Clothes. He needed some. Later. Because something sounded like a whole lot more fun than getting dressed. So yeah, he’d do that. Get dressed and stuff. Right after he claimed his mate.
****
Those are my weighty words for the day. I should have this puppy’s first draft done today. *crosses fingers* Then it will be time to edit. And revise. And edit some more. And proofread and send it to my betas and editor and…well, y’all know the routine. The question is, do any of you have heavy words to share?

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Tuesday Treats: Monte Cristo Bake

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Silver James

I have to admit that a Monte Cristo sandwich is probably one of my favorite things to order from a nice restaurant. There’s just something about the ham, Swiss cheese, deep-fried bread coating, and the sprinkling of powdered sugar that hits all my taste buds. When I first saw this recipe, I was a bit hesitant but said to myself, “Self, why the heck not?” So I added the ingredients to my grocery list and made it. And I said to myself after eating it, “Self, you were right! This is delicious.”

Prep Time: 15 min.
Total Time: 55 min.
Servings: 6 servings, 1 cup each

Discover this delectable Monte Cristo Bake. This awesome Monte Cristo Bake tastes like a mash-up of a Monte Cristo sandwich and a grilled cheese casserole.

What You Need
4 eggs
1-1/2 cups milk
6 cups French bread cubes (1/2 inch)
1 pkg. (7.5 oz) OSCAR MAYER CARVING BOARD Slow Cooked Ham, chopped (about 1-1/2 cups)
1-1/2 cups KRAFT Shredded Swiss Cheese, divided

Make It
Heat oven to 350ºF.
Whisk eggs and milk in large bowl until blended. Add bread; stir to evenly coat. Gently stir in ham and half the cheese.
Spoon into 9-inch square baking dish sprayed with cooking spray; top with remaining cheese.
Bake 40 min. or until center is set and top is golden brown.

A couple of things to note here. My grocery store is in the midst of getting rearranged so not all items were available. I substituted block Swiss cheese that I grated and Farmland Smoked Spiral Ham Slices and Pieces. The ham added a hint of sweet that was just right. Even with me having to cut up the bread and grating the cheese, this recipe was easy and oh-so-very tasty! You can CLICK HERE for the full details from Kraft Recipes.

I polled my characters and discovered a somewhat unlikely prospect who had this recipe in her repertoire. Adele McCoy Jones, wife and mate to Caleb Jones, from THE DEVIL’S CUT jumped all over this recipe. Turns out, I’m not the only one who hankers after the occasional Monte Cristo. She went further and got a bone-in ham, used the leftovers for the casserole and gave Caleb the bone on the next full moon. 😉 You can read their story in THE DEVIL’S CUT. Click on the title for the universal link to all book sellers. FYI, TDC and all my self-pubbed books will be on sale (from 99¢ to $2.99) beginning March 1st. My birthday present to all of you.

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Monday Oops…

Posted on February 26, 2018 by Silver James

Yeah…It’s Monday. All day. Normally, I set up my blogs the day before. Yesterday, I got distracted. SQUIRREL!

What can I say?

So, here’s a quick recap because I know y’all are fascinated by my life. (Add a smidge of self-deprecation there. 😆 )

BASEBALL! Thanks to switching to AT&T U-verse and their extra sports package, we get Fox Midwest directly, which means we get the St. Louis Cardinals baseball games, including some of the spring training games. Big yay! Now if someone would televise OSU and OU baseball and softball, I’d be a happy spring sports gal. High school baseball is starting too which reminds me to check with The Only to get Baseball Boy’s schedule for his high school team.

TV is almost non-existent in my world at the moment. I have it on as background noise but there’s very few shows I’m paying attention to–LUCIFER, THE ALIENIST (and boy is it DARK! I liked the Caleb Carr book the mini-series is based on, though), and LIVE PD because…Sean “Sticks” Larkin! I mean seriously. He should be a cover model for silver fox romance novels. No…he should be MY cover model! 😉

Writing. I’m doing some. I hit a crossroads yesterday evening, which is why I got distracted–well, one of the reasons I got distracted. The other reason is because I’m old and not always “smart.” Long story. Suffice it to say that it involved courtesy lights on Lawyer Guy’s truck. And getting them to turn off. Because I couldn’t figure out how I’d turned them on. Hey! I don’t drive his truck except on rare occasions. 😛 Still, I was laughing as he texted me instructions. 🙄 Anyway, I like the way Tait and Lauren’s story is coming together.

Reading. Other than B.E. Sanderson’s BLINK OF AN I, there hasn’t been much that’s caught my attention. I’m currently listening to Sherrilyn Kenyon’s BORN OF NIGHT, the first book in her SciFi series, The League. I’m also reading Lauren Smith’s GRIGORI, the first book in her new dragon series.

And that’s my life in a brief round-up on this sunny Monday morning. How was your weekend? Any big plans for the week?

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Friday Sinema: Cats

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Silver James

Who doesn’t want to watch cats on a Friday? Especially when they are doing that whole defying gravity thing. Have a great weekend!

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