And here is our final John Lewis Christmas commercial. I hope you’ve discovered the spirit of the season and that the special magic that abounds this time of year has touched your hearts. This is a No Scrooge Zone and with this little video, I hope you find the love in your heart. Merry Christmas.
This has been a long year full of ups, many downs, good things, bad, moments of happiness, and those filled with profound sadness. When times are tough, I’m thankful my family always “pulls on the same rope.” That’s a phrase my father-in-law taught my husband and his brother. Even when money is tight, when the future looks grim, when frowns are more prevalent than smiles, that thought gets me through. Because, as the Universe reminded me, there is always a way.
Silver, whether or not you can now see it, there is ALWAYS a way.
See it done,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®Silver, let this be the guiding light in all you think, say, and do forevermore.
No matter what you’re doing, no matter what’s going on in your lives, always remember…there IS a way. All we have to do is find it. 🙂
Here it is Wednesday again and time to play #1lineWed. Today’s theme: **FRAME or EDGE** Oh, the possibilities! The twists and turns. The detours and deviations. Today, I’m truly tossing out something from my WIP–unedited, raw, pretty much the way it came out of my brain. I’m just lucky what I wrote yesterday matched today’s theme. So, this is from CRASH & BURN, my January release in Paige Tyler’s Dallas Fire & Rescue Kindle World. The hero isn’t around for this scene. It’s all about Katherine “Kit” Carson, who is newly transferred from the regular FD and Station 58 to Dallas/Ft. Worth International Airport as an ARFF (Airport Rescue Firefighter). The rest is pretty much self-explanatory…
“Drive,” Dan ordered, stabbing at a button on the two-way radio. The dispatcher’s voice crackled with instructions. “You’ll come out on the south end of runway thirty-one left. Take the first taxiway toward the terminal then make a left onto the first LAHSO.
Lasso? What the heck? Then Kit’s memory kicked in. Not lasso but LAHSO—the acronym for Land and Hold Short Operations. This was sort of an extra runway but with no take-offs or landings allowed.
“Be sure to dodge any planes and stay out of the jet wash.”
Yeah, easy for him to say. The emergency lights were flashing and the vehicle’s siren activated but how could anyone hear it over the roar of jet engines? The column of smoke at the north end of the airport squatted like an ominous storm cloud. This was going down as the worst first day on the job ever.
Her brain fragmented—one part concentrating on driving, one part listening to the radio for updates—Stations Six, Two and Three were already on scene setting up command and operations. Chief Landon was en route from Station One. And Dispatch had acknowledged her as Recovery Command. And that’s where the biggest portion of her brain was hurtling on a hamster wheel of panic.
Kit’s job didn’t entail firefighting, nor was it rescue—provided there were any survivors. The first ARFFs to arrive had those challenges. Her whole reason for being on scene was to deal with the evidence—even if that evidence had once been alive. But this was a cargo plane, according to Dispatch. Her mandate was to locate the outer edge of the crash scene, document it, and then work into the interior, identifying and marking any remains and photographing them, along with any debris from the plane. By the time she was done, she would have taken thousands of photographs that would document the crash site and give investigators a frame of reference.
She’d practiced on table-top and computer simulations, and at live-training exercises where a bunch of volunteers got smeared with fake blood and tags listing their injuries. This wasn’t that. As she pulled up at the scene and saw the debris scattered across the field, she understood. No let’s-pretend drill would ever come close to the real thing.
***
So…are you standing on the edge or framing anything in your current WIP? Share! And if you’re just a reader, I need to know…is this scene like totally boring?
I am very pleased to reveal the cover and teaser for the next Red Dirt Royalty book. This is the book a lot of fans have been waiting for. Readers hate Cash almost as much as they despise Cyrus Barron. This is a pivotal book in the series…y’all will find out who Cash really is deep inside, and why he does what he does. The ebook releases on my birthday, March 1, and the paperback version comes out a week later on March 7th.
Everything he does is for family—including moving in with a woman he can’t trust…
Cash Barron has always been the good son, protecting his father’s billion-dollar empire. So when grifters target Barron Enterprises, Cash focuses on the femme fatale of the bunch. To keep tabs on Roxanne Rowland, he’ll move her into his luxury condo. And one step closer to his bed…
But Roxie is innocent—just a pawn in her family’s criminal game. Worse still, she’s long had a crush on ruthless Cash. So can Roxie find the chink in his armor and redeem this hard-hearted, hard-muscled man?
***
I can promise you will laugh–hey, Roxie owns a Newfoundland named Harley, what can I say?–and I’ll bet dollars to donuts you sniffle a time or two when you read this book. It’s up for preorder now at almost all on-line retailers. Go snag your copy! You know you want to! 😀
Harlequin | Amazon | Apple iBooks | Barnes & Noble | BAM | IndieBound | Kobo | Target | Walmart
It’s two weeks until Christmas. I’m not panicked. MUCH! I haven’t bought a present, nor stocking stuffers. No making, baking, or taking. Yikes! I really need to get in gear, huh? Would help if I had some Christmas wish lists…
So…in other news and updates. 😆 I have a new shiny. I’ve spent hours and hours rebuilding files, databases, apps, trying a new browser (still need to import my bookmarks from previous browers–I’m giving MS’s Edge a try. I can always go back to Chrome, though I’ve heard the rumor that MS/Win 10 doesn’t play nice with googly stuffs.) We’ll see. Anyway, NIKOS is up and running for all intents and purposes. I have photo files. I have Scrivener and Dropbox. I can write, which is a good thing since I need to have CRASH & BURN to the editor before New Year’s. YIKES! And Monday is a good day to get started on projects, right? Right!
Here’s a quick wrap-up of my week and weekend:
I hate technology. MAJOR headache but as mentioned, NIKOS is all good now. Mostly. 🙂 It is kinda fun to reach out and touch him and stuff happens. 😉
Army sang second. Why is this important? At the annual Army/Navy game, the loser sings their “school song” first, followed by the winner. Army sang second. For the first time in FOURTEEN YEARS! #GoArmy! Way back in the day, I dated a Westies. I had my choice of going to the Point for homecoming or going to Philadelphia (where the game was played back then) for the Army/Navy game. I picked homecoming. I still got to watch a football game but without the crazy crowds. 🙂
I’m still searching for a new book that will grab my imagination. Yes, still basically in a reading slump so leaning on old favorites while listening to a new-to-me author, Patrick Weekes, and his THE PALACE JOB. It’s a quest-style fantasy with a group of misfits. Interesting for when I’m shopping, cleaning, cooking dinner, dog dealing… What fantastic read would any of you recommend?
As noted above, I’ve got to get CRASH & BURN written. As of typing this yesterday, I’m about 1K words into it. I hope to have at least twice that many words by the time you read this. Oh! And stand by for tomorrow for a Tuesday Titles and cover reveal. 🙂
TV has been hit or miss–stuff to do, shows in reruns, Christmas specials in lieu of regular series. I’ve probably watched far more Hallmark Christmas movies than is good for me. However, since my next Harlequin deadline is a Christmas book, this is a perfect time of year to be writing it. Right after I finish C&B. 😆 Oh! Who’s seen the Apple Christmas commercial? The one with Brad Garret playing an iconic figure in horror fiction? Yeah, go Google and watch it. It’s worth it to see the long version.
So, that’s my life in a nutshell. What’s going on with y’all? I need book recommendations. I need gift ideas. I need…crud. I really need to get my Christmas cards done. *adds that to to-do list* First, though, another cup of coffee. What’s on your to-do list this week?
Continuing with our series of John Lewis Christmas commercials, here’s one that is very sweet and about a boy and his best friend. Enjoy and Merry Christmas.
It’s Wednesday again which means it is time to play #1lineWed if you are on Twitter, or in my case, to post a snippet from my current WIP using today’s theme: **WINDOW**
I’m happy to announce that RDR#6, which is Kade’s book, is back in the hands of my wonderful editor and the title is now official: CLAIMING THE COWGIRL’S BABY. No cover yet but hey…progress!
So, following today’s theme, this is a short snippet from a scene where Kade goes to his mother’s house for some explanations.
****
His mother walked into the living room and went to the mantel above the native stone fireplace. He followed. That fireplace held a lot of memories—his Christmas stocking, curled up in a sleeping bag “camping out” in the winter time. Roasting marshmallows for s’mores. The heavy wooden mantel held a variety of knick knacks. Photos. A couple of trophies from high school sports. A belt buckle he won at the College Finals Rodeo. His mom took down a picture, one taken of him when he was about twelve.
“Were you ever going to tell me?” He tucked his chin and rubbed at the tense muscles on the back of his neck. “If he hadn’t named me in the will, would you have ever told me?”
That question seemed to stump her, or maybe she just chose to ignore him. She walked back into the kitchen, with Kade trailing along, and she placed the photo face down on the counter. Digging in a drawer, she came up with a screwdriver and started taking the back of the picture frame off.
“Mom?”
She was staring through the window over the sink again. He moved up beside her and checked what was out there, saw what she was looking at this time—a doe and her half-grown fawn nibbling grass near the tree line and a picture much closer—his reflection standing next to hers in the window glass.
Families. As Pippa had said, they were complicated.
****
So, what windows are your characters looking out of, into, opening, closing, or otherwise engaging with? What windows are doing the same in your life, if you aren’t a writer?
I snagged this recipe from Kraft Foods. I haven’t made this yet but it sounds like a great party dish for kids and adults as an appetizer or dessert. Yum! Easy to double or triple and I’d probably cheat and just by a bag of sliced apples to make it even easier.
APPLE PIE DIP
What You Need
1 tub (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA 1/3 Less Fat than Cream Cheese
2 Tbsp. brown sugar
1/2 tsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 apple, chopped, divided
1/4 cup KRAFT 2% Milk Shredded Cheddar Cheese
1 Tbsp. finely chopped PLANTERS Pecans
Make It
Heat oven to 375°F.
Mix reduced-fat cream cheese, sugar and spice in medium bowl until blended. Stir in half the apples.
Spread onto bottom of shallow baking dish; top with remaining apples, cheddar and nuts.
Bake 10 to 12 min. or until heated through.
Serve with graham crackers, pita chips, cinnamon/sugar pita chips, Triskets, Wheat Thins, rice chips.
It’s even pretty healthy…
So…technology. And interwebz things. These things are sooo not my friends! The bad news is my old faithful desk top is chugging like the little engine that almost could. The good news is, my Christmas present is coming early. Like Tuesday evening, or whenever the carrier gets here. I’ll be around! I’m getting a pretty-shiny-almost-new thing. It’s factory refurbished so I paid half-price for a powerhouse. That’s the hardware side of things. The software side means I have to take both Ol’ Faith and New Thing to a geek type person to suck and blow. I’m not even going to attempt it! And speaking of the soft side of things, I spent FOUR FREAKING HOURS fighting Gmail yesterday. Gmail is supposed to be the easy email client, right? 
WRONGWRONGWRONG!!!!!!!!!!!!! I still have a headache from doing this for hours yesterday. It shouldn’t be this hard. All I wanted to do was “fetch” emails from one secondary Gmail account into my primary account so I don’t have to remember to check to see if there are emails there. Except I kept getting error messages. And the help section for that error listed AN OPTION I DON’T HAVE IN MY SETTINGS!!! Seriously, Google?!?! What’s up with that?!?!?! *headdesk* Ahem. Moving on.
Writing: I got no editing done yesterday. None. Zip. Zero. Zilch. I can’t switch computers until I get this submission submitted because I can’t lose a day or two for the transition. Period. I shouldn’t have even been here typing this but I’m so frustrated I had to take it out on something so my poor blog is the scapegoat. And to top it off, I’m convinced I left out a whole huge scene needed for the plot and I’m already maxed out (give or take about 400 words) on the word count. Fun times. NOT!
TV? I’ve had Hallmark and Lifetime Christmas movies playing in the background and falling asleep by 11:00, which is good since I’am awake at 5-freaking-o’clock in the a.m. Not. Enough. Coffee. In. The. World. Just sayin’…
Sports: OU beat OSU. 😥 Cowboys are still going to the Alamo Bowl to take on Colorado. OU has to play Auburn in the Sugar Bowl. Now it’s basketball (not a fan) until around Valentine’s Day when pitchers and catchers report and spring training starts around my birthday!
Reading: Still basically in a slump. I’m listening to NAKED IN DEATH for the 100th time (that’s only a slight exaggeration!). I did start a book titled THE DARK HUNTSMAN. I’m working through it. Not a bad story. Like the characters, just in the wrong head space to get really excited. Which makes me a sad camper. 😦
Cold weather is coming. The outside decorations are up. I’m meal planning for dark, chilly nights. And I’m putting virtual ice on the pretend bruise on my forehead. What’s up with y’all? Share something to cheer me up. PLEASE!?!??!? 😉
As mentioned last week, John Lewis is an English store known for their holiday commercials. Here’s a second commercial to remember the reason for the season. Merry Christmas. (And yes, I am aware I have a Christmas novella with the same name. However, once you watch the video, you’ll know why I chose this title. 🙂 )
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
NOW AVAILABLE
Silver James 