Best dad (and cameo by a little brother) ever! Ooh-rah! (And if you don’t know, a quinceanera is a cultural thing–the big birthday party when a girl turns 15. And what a great RML (Romantic Male Lead) her dad would make! Have a great weekend!
When I sit down in the morning to write, I never know exactly what my characters are going to do or say. I don’t know if they’re going to create mayhem or make magic. I don’t know if they are going to fight me or get with the program. And sometimes, when I’m really lucky, one or more of them will divulge their deepest secret. I’ve noticed that a lot of my characters wonder if they are capable of love or even sadder, if they are worthy of being loved. Taking them on their adventure is almost as much fun as the adventure they drag me along on.
Silver, I’m hungry. Hungry for adventure.
The adventure of love.
Tell you what: The more you give of it today to the least deserving on your list, the more your life will change.
Cowabunga,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®Kindness, Silver, is King.
While I immediately thought of what I do as an author, this bit of wisdom from the Universe touches on something each of us can relate to. Sometimes, I am the recipient of small kindnesses, and I try my best to pass them along–or if I’m lucky and clever, I can “pay them forward.” As I watch the news, read some of the vitriol passing through my Twitter and FB timelines, I can only shake my head. What happened to kindness? Please, my friends, do your part today. Be kind to someone, and be kind to yourself. Now go have an adventure!
Another week halfway done, another #1lineWed theme to use for inspiration or to find in our WIPs. 😉 Today’s theme is **ALONE, LONELY**. When writing romance, there has to come a time when these feelings hit and hit hard. Smoke, the hero in the upcoming NIGHT FIRE, has hit his limit.
Smoke
I straddled my bike, kicked it into gear. I had to get away. The Nightriders had attorneys with big retainers. They’d see to those bogus arson charges. They always did, even the ones I was guilty of. No, I wasn’t running from that. Fuck. I wasn’t running at all. I was riding. Heading out into the night where I belonged.
On the road. Sayonara, baby. The bitch turned on me. And I was the biggest gawddamned fool on the planet to have believed we could make something together. Ha. The arson investigator and the arsonist. At best it was a bad B movie. At worst?
At worst, it was just exactly what had happened. She didn’t believe me. Didn’t believe in me. I was fire. She was water. Only she wasn’t. She should have quenched my heat, but she was the fire, lighting me up, burning through my blood. She lit up my darkness when she should have just faded into it.
I hit the highway doing eighty. The wind’s fingers twisted in my hair, not like the lover she had always been, but like the whore she could be on a cold night on a lonely stretch of of road. A more philosophical man might wax on about the symbolism of the empty road. Me? I’d always been a lone wolf. By definition, I was alone. And who the hell had time to be lonely? Not me. Fuck no, not me.
My heart burned in my chest—not with heat but with a frigid intensity that left my whole body numb. I didn’t know where I was going. Didn’t care as long as it was away from her. From Leigh. I should never have stopped. Never turned around to go back for her that godforsaken morning.
***
So, how are your characters? Are they currently alone? Lonely? Share your words with us!
I am all about the cheese Danish and I have to admit a particular fondness for blueberries. Finding a blueberry cheese Danish? Yeah…not so easy. Guess what? This recipe is so easy I snatched it up immediately!
Prep Time: 10 min.
Total Time: 23 min.
Servings: 4 servings
Skip the plastic-wrapped cheese Danishes. These creamy, fruit-filled rolls are way better—and they prep in just 10 minutes!
What You Need
1 pkg. (8 oz.) refrigerated crescent dinner rolls
4 oz. (1/2 of 8-oz. pkg.) PHILADELPHIA Neufchatel Cheese, softened
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/2 cup blueberries (*You can use fresh, canned, or frozen!)
Make It
Heat oven to 375ºF.
Unroll dough onto work surface; separate into 4 rectangles. Firmly press perforations and seams together to seal.
Mix Neufchatel and sugar until blended; spread onto dough rectangles to within 1/2 inch of edges. Top with blueberries. Bring opposite corners of rectangles together; press together to seal.
Place on baking sheet.
Bake 11 to 13 min. or until golden brown.
I have the feeling these treats are a staple in the Connor household in Blaidd’s Gap. Jacey can whip up a batch fast and they’re hearty enough for Nate and gooey-sweet enough for Hope and Grace. 😉 You can read about Nate and Jacey in HUNTER’S MOON or more of their story in MOONSTRUCK: LIES.
You can go directly to Kraft Recipes to bookmark the recipe by clicking HERE.
Okay, this pup just makes me laugh, no matter what his message is. May is half over. How did that happen? Here’s a recap of what’s going on in my neck of the woods.
Writing: Real Life™ threw some curveballs at me. As a result, I’m a bit behind on progress on NIGHT FIRE. I’ve hit a groove the past couple of days so I hope I can still get it released this month. I’ll also have some Red Dirt writing to do betwixt and between. I got a sneak peek at my Christmas book (releasing in October)–THE COWBOY’S CHRISTMAS PROPOSITION. Y’all….!!!!! I can’t wait until I get permission to unveil it! I need to find someplace with does like a puzzle picture where I can show a piece at a time. I’ll get right on that. *snort*
Sports: So…my Cardinals are in first place in the NL Central Division. Woot. Baseball has been fun to watch this past week. And the Women’s College World Series starts soon. Regionals and super-regionals and then the top 8. I’m hoping the OSU Cowgirls make it in. The last time I checked, their RPI was #37 so they should. As of typing this (last evening), the selection show on ESPN was still a couple of hours away. Since I was awake at 4 on Saturday and 5 yesterday, I’m getting this sucker preloaded and them I’m headed to bed, so just keep in mind, this was all stated last night. 😆 Are you as confused as I am? 😉
Reading: Contest reads are over. I had several really good reads and I’ll be happy to share them in passing come late summer after winners are announced. I also listened to the audio of Anne McCaffrey’s DRAGONFLIGHT. I loved the series originally and I have most of the books in hardback. But dude, I’m tellin’ you! The narrator was totally old school. I found myself laughing at him at inappropriate times. Still, it was on a daily deal so cheap and I’m leaning more toward audio books until my eyes get fixed and it was fun to listen to. Not sure what I’ll crack next. I’m looking forward to Iona Andrews WHITE HEAT (Hidden Legacy #2) and Christine Feehan’s SHADOW REAPER (Shadow Riders #2), both out the end of the month. Also waiting for SILVER SILENCE, coming mid-June in Nalini Singh’s Psy-Changeling world. Seems to me, there’s another book or two I’ve preordered but can’t think of them off the top of my head and I’m too lazy to go to Amazon to check. 😆
And…that’s about all the news that’s fit to share. OH! I forgot! I talked about this on my author page on FB so I’ll mention it here, just in case anyone is interested. After (and around) my current deadline schedule, I plan on creating at least 3 serial novels, each one about a different set of Wolves. The overall series name is either Moonstruck Mafia or Moonstruck Mob. The first serialization is set in Boston and is about the Irish mob–all of them Wolves. Rather than individual books about each couple, there’s on-going story lines with each serial entry short story/short novella length and selling for $.99. They’ll probably come out a week apart, maybe every few days. Not sure. It means writing the whole thing so each “chapter” can be released in a timely fashion. We’ll see how time and inspiration works. If I do it, it will probably be released wide, and won’t be placed in Kindle Unlimited.
Now that’s it for me. How about y’all? What’s going on in your neck of the internet woods?
Ahhh, baby steps. I remember those first tentative stumbles in life–real and imagined. 😆 Baby steps are how we learn to walk. How we learn to interact with people. How we write books. Or at least that’s how I do it. Baby steps. A “what if?” A character. Another character. A situation. A scene. A chapter. Another chapter. A plot. More characters. And when I type “The End,” I hope I’ve created magic. And it sounds like the Universe, as always, understands.
You don’t take “baby steps” for the distance they cover, Silver, but to put yourself within reach of life’s magic.
Just like you don’t hoist your sails to move the boat, but to put yourself within reach of the wind.
Hoist, baby, hoist, baby, 1, 2, 3, 4 –
The Universe© http://www.tut.com ®
Just like you don’t sing in the car to be heard, Silver… Why do you do that?
And true story… I’m driving home from work one day when I worked a day job and stopped at a busy intersection waiting for the light to change. I’m in the left lane of a four-street, and there are left turn lanes. The song “We Are Family” comes on the radio. Now, who can resist singing that song, alone in the car, rocking out? Not me! So I’m singing (windows rolled up!) and rocking. I look over. Mama in the turn lane is rocking and singing, teenage son is trying to hide in the passenger seat. Our eyes meet, I roll down the window, and we harmonize the chorus. I look in my rearview and the Yuppie mom in her Mercedes SUV with toddler and baby in carseats in the back and a yappy dog in her lap, is singing the next verse. And rocking out. Much to her toddler’s amusement. I glance around. The middle-aged man in the car on my right is singing, as are the teenagers in the car in the opposing turn lane. EVERYBODY IN THAT INTERSECTION WAS SINGING! And that’s why I sing the car, Universe. 😉
Go forth and sing with the world people. Just sayin’…
Once again, Hump Day (aka Wednesday) has arrived and with it a new #1lineWed theme. Today’s is **OPEN**. So…being open to posting something with the word or idea of **OPEN**, I went searching and found this snippet, jotted down as an ideal. The Hero and Heroine are open. The book it belongs in is open. So I’m hitting openness on all cylinders. 😆 I can’t give you much background other than the Wolf is likely either a Nightrider or one of the Mob Wolves. 😉
***
“You can’t be here.”
He glanced around, insolent and nonchalant. “Yeah? Who says?”
“I say. This is the ladies’ room.”
A grin so totally full of the devil I wondered if I needed to hit the church around the corner for confession spread across his face. I braced for his comeback.
“I don’t see no ladies.”
Seriously? Before I could express my opinion, his arm snaked out, snagged my arm, reeled me in. He bent his head and I pushed against his chest, only to discover how far he was leaning down and how hot and hard his body felt beneath my palms. His lips hovered just over mine. “You ain’t no lady, sweetheart. You’re a woman through and through.”
I didn’t know how to take that and he didn’t give me time to consider it as his mouth fastened on mine. His hand cupped my butt, pressed it against his erection and I discovered he was right. I definitely didn’t feel very ladylike at the moment.
The door opened on the sound of giggles. Busted—not that this was my idea and I had no reason to be embarrassed. The giggles turned to serious and delighted sighs as the society girls got a load of the guy hulking over me. Then they caught sight of me.
“Slut,” one of them sniffed, all moral superiority.
“Takes one to know,” I muttered and he laughed.
“I do like you, sweetheart.” He pulled me out into the club. “We’ll finish this in private.”
***
Open up your WIP, open up your imagination, and share openly your open lines. 😉
When the weather gets warm, I’m all about cooking where I don’t heat up the kitchen. I don’t use my slow cooker(s) as often as I should so I’m always on the look-out for yummy recipes. I haven’t tried this one but I will one of these days.
VANILLA APPLE CRISP
Prep Time: 30 min.
Total Time: 3 hr. 30 min.
Servings: 12 servings
This slow-cooker apple crisp with its oaty ginger-nut topping is quite luscious on its own. But it’s even luscious-er with warm custard!
What You Need
3 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
8 Granny Smith apples (2-1/2 lb.), peeled, sliced (I wonder about buying pre-sliced apples and just leaving the skin on… Y’all know me, always looking for the easy way. 😆 )
12 gingersnaps, crushed
3/4 cup old-fashioned or quick-cooking oats
1/2 cup chopped PLANTERS Pecans
1/4 cup butter or margarine, melted
1 pkg. (3.4 oz.) JELL-O Vanilla Flavor Instant Pudding
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
3 cups milk
Make It
Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon in large bowl. Add apples; mix lightly. Place in slow cooker sprayed with cooking spray.
Mix gingersnap crumbs, oats, nuts and butter until blended; sprinkle over apple mixture. Cover with lid. Cook on LOW 3 to 5 hours (or on HIGH 2 to 2-1/2 hours).
Beat pudding mix, nutmeg and milk in microwaveable bowl with whisk 2 min. Microwave on HIGH 2 min., stirring after each minute. Spoon over individual servings of dessert.
If you give it a try, be sure to let me know if you liked it! I know that Jolie Davis Barron from THE COWGIRL’S LITTLE SECRET would make this for CJ and Cord. She’s an ER nurse so this is something she could whip together on a day off and her “men” would have something warm and gooey for dessert! 😉
So…I took a week off. It was nice not to have to come up with stuff. Considering everything else going on, I needed the break. The good news–I think I’ve solved most of my computer problems. *knocks wood* MS Word was being a beast and I think that is repaired–but for the stupid code that’s buried somewhere in the STARTUP folder that creates a dialogue box I have to cancel before I can work in Word. Don’t ever install any “Wizard” thing from Avery Labels. It doesn’t play nice with updated versions of Word and even though I’ve deleted it, there’s still a wonky line of code I can’t find. 😦
I keep wanting to go on rants. I mean seriously, Harvard? The stress of rechecking out library books every 28 days (but let’s not mention those poor students who are on the waiting list for those books…*makes googly eyes* 😯 ) is so hard on these so-called best and brightest that they are doing away with library fines. What the hell is going to happen to those students when they hit the real world and have to pay rent? Car payments? Credit card bills? *says many four-letter words under breath*
So, other things, like…
Reading: Still doing contest books. Most are pretty good. Some have left me scratching my head. I finished up my “re-listen” to the In Death series. *deeply satisfied sigh* I’m currently listening to TINKER (Elfhome #1) by Wen Spencer. It’s pretty entertaining, and it might still be on sale. Check it out if you want alternate history/urban fantasy with a genius girl heroine, sexy Elfen hero, magic, physics, and Pittsburgh. 😆 It’s fun so far.
Sports: My Cards are playing a little better. They’re hanging close in the pennant race. They’re over .500 so that’s a yay. Regionals for the Women’s College World Series will be starting up soon. Yay softball!
TV: “Lucifer” has started new episodes but I haven’t caught up on the old ones yet so DVRing. I really need to clear out the “clutter” on the ol’ DVR. I have several series and a couple of movies to catch up. I’ve been in a blah sort of mindspace when it comes to the tube. Reading/listening to books has held my attention.
Writing: As mentioned at some point, THE COWBOY’S CHRISTMAS PROPOSITION is done. I’m awaiting cover art. I hope I get as lucky as I did with CLAIMING THE COWGIRL’S BABY. July 1st release on the digital version, July 4th on the paper–unless you order directly from Harlequin. 🙂 I should be getting notes on the proposal for Tucker’s story today or tomorrow. I’m doing work on NIGHT FIRE and still hope to have it out by month’s end. So many stories…so little time! 😆
And that’s it for my Monday. What’s going on in your part of the world?
This made me laugh. And wonder why those scenes might ever end up on the cutting room floor… We all need a little lift in our lives right now. I hope you have a great weekend! *bloop*
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
NOW AVAILABLE
Silver James 