Wednesday Words: Green

Posted on September 21, 2016 by Silver James

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupToday’s #1lineWed theme is “GREEN.” Now, to my way of thinking, there’s more to green than just the color. Sure, there’s green grass and green beans and green peas. There are green eyes, a golf green, and green tea. Personally, I like green with envy or that big green monster–and no, I don’t mean the outfield wall at Fenway–jealousy. So…that’s the way I interpreted today’s theme. The following is a snippet from REDEEMED BY THE COWGIRL, Red Dirt Royalty #5, coming next year. Roxanne Rowland’s family is doing something illicit at some of the hotels owned by the Barrons and she’s offered to help find out what. Cash, as head of Barron Security, doesn’t trust her so he’s decided he’s not letting Roxie out of his sight until this deal is done, and that includes installing her in his condo for the duration. As you can imagine, Roxie is not too keen on the idea…

“You’re riding with me. We’ll go by your apartment, you can pack, then we’ll head to my place.”

“What part of no do you not understand? I have responsibilities. I—” She felt her eyes widen. “I have someone waiting at home for me.”

“Who?”

“Um…Harley.”

“Who’s that?”

A trace of some emotion narrowed Cash’s gaze and did he sound suspicious or was it something else? Something…intriguing. Like jealousy? Ha. Roxie was just a means to an end. Jealous was not a word she would ever associate with Cash. “He’s my…roommate.” Well, technically speaking, that was true. Harley lived with her. “And I sort of have to take care of him.”

Cash leaned closer and peered at her, his gaze sharp and assessing. “What’s that mean—you have to take care of him?”

Roxie forced herself to meet his gaze despite the jitters skipping through her. “He’s…um…immature. He can’t really look after himself.”

“Uh huh.”

He totally was not convinced. But there was no way she could leave Harley home alone. “I’m telling the truth, Mr. Barron.”

“Uh huh. C’mon. Let’s go meet this guy and see what he has to say about all this.”
****
You’ll just have to wait and see who and what Harley is to Roxie. REDEEMED BY THE COWGIRL is set for release on my birthday in March. 🙂 So what’s greening up your writing or reading these days?

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Tuesday Treats – Sinful Brownies

Posted on September 20, 2016 by Silver James

peanut-butter-pretzel-browniesIn honor of the return of LUCIFER on Fox last night, I offer up this sinfully delicious recipe for Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies. I’m so happy my favorite devil is back on Monday nights and if I make these each week to nibble on while I watch, I’ll be in deep trouble. 😉

Peanut Butter Pretzel Brownies

Ingredients

PAM® Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
5 cups tiny pretzel twists, crushed fine
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup Parkay® Original Spread-tub, melted
1 pkg (18.4 oz each) chocolate fudge brownie mix, prepared with Pure Wesson® Vegetable Oil, Egg Beaters® Original and stout beer
1/3 cup Peter Pan® Creamy Peanut Butter
2 tablespoons confectioners’ sugar

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray 13×9-inch baking pan with cooking spray; set aside. Combine crushed pretzels and granulated sugar in medium bowl. Add Parkay; mix until blended. Firmly press mixture into baking pan. Bake 8 minutes.
Meanwhile, stir together brownie mix according to package directions, using Pure Wesson® Vegetable Oil, 1/4 cup Egg Beaters® Original for each fresh egg and beer in place of the water. Carefully spread brownie batter over hot pretzel crust.
Combine peanut butter and confectioners’ sugar in small microwave-safe bowl; microwave on HIGH 30 seconds or until melted. Top brownie batter with spoonfuls of peanut butter mixture. Using a knife, swirl peanut butter mixture through brownie batter until it is marbled in appearance.
Bake 23 to 28 minutes or until wooden pick inserted near center comes out clean. Cool completely. Cut into 24 squares.

To get all the details, go to READY, SET, EAT.

What TV show are you looking forward to the most this fall?

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Monday Mid-month

Posted on September 19, 2016 by Silver James

funny-pictures-i-know-those-feels-monday-catThere’s something so mundane about Mondays anymore. 😆 Especially those in the middle of the month. So…what’s up with me?

Sports: The good, the bad, the ugly…OSU won. Twice. Which is the good and the ugly. 😉 The REAL OSU–as in Oklahoma State Cowboys–beat Pittsburgh. It was a close game but way better than the outcome last week when the guys in the striped shirts totally screwed us out of a win. No really. They did. It’s all official that they did. So that’s the bad. Instead of 3-0, the Pokes are 2-1. Now the ugly OSU–as in Ohio State–beat the socks off OU. :/ Yeah. Sadness. In other sporting news, the Cardinals split the 4-game series with the SF Giants are are now one game behind them for the second Wild Card slot.

Writing: Yeah…about that. This dystopian anthology story I’m working on? Well, two actually… Yeah. The characters are really pissin’ me off. Just when I think I know them and their story they get all freaky stubborn and refuse to speak. So I’m behind. I’m working on that today. I was convinced I’d have them both done over the weekend. Yeah…not so much. And now, I have the opening for a story that isn’t even on my horizon niggling at me. I’ll have to break down and write the scene floating in my head just so I can get on with other things. I feel like Harry Potter with that weird wand thingy that pulls out memories and stores them. I have to pull out those random scenes, write them, and store them so I can move on.

Reading: LovedLovedLOVED our own B.E.’s UP WISH CREKK. It’s always so much fun to play in Jo’s world with her crazy band of Scoobie Djinn. 😉 Y’all should read it. I also tumbled into a YA fantasy series–HEX HALL by Rachel Hawkins. It’s a lot of fun (says the reader who has a fairly strong dislike for YA anything!) There’s a trilogy and then a follow-on book about the main characters cousin. By the time y’all read this, I’ll likely be finished with SCHOOL SPIRITS. Then I think I’m going dark. Maybe that will help with the dystopian.

TV: NEW SEASONS STARTING! Just in case y’all weren’t aware. 😆 New season of LUCIFER tonight. NCIS (Tony, we’re gonna miss you) on Tuesday. Other new shows I’m going to check out: DESIGNATED SURVIVOR with Keifer Sutherland (the Sec. of Agriculture is in the bunker when the Capitol is bombed during a State of the Union address); PITCH (first female to make it to the MLB and as a pitcher no less, though I’m watching for the guy who plays the catcher. 😉 ); MACGYVER (well, because MacGyver!); and LETHAL WEAPON (because the teasers looked…interesting.) I think there might be some other shows out there but I don’t have them marked to watch.

So…that’s pretty much my life to date. Exciting right? Sh’up. Y’all can stop laughing now. What about you? What are you looking forward to watching, reading, writing, and did your teams win?

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Friday Sinema Goes to the Dogs

Posted on September 16, 2016 by Silver James

Okay…get your tissues out. This movie trailer is all the FEELS! I…I have to see it when it comes out (or at least hits cable since we don’t do movies at the theatre any longer) but yeah…I can only hope that this is true and my most beloved dogs (okay…ALL of them) will come back to me at some point. So, here’s to THE PURPOSE OF A DOG:

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Reasons X 10

Posted on September 15, 2016 by Silver James

universeSo here it is Thursday again. I’ll be doing #ThursThreads on Siobhan Muir’s site. I love participating in the weekly flash fiction. It’s fun. It’s productive. It’s challenging. It makes me happy. Writing makes me happy. Even when it makes me unhappy. There’s not a whole lot I’d rather be doing. Reading. Reading makes me very happy. I’m getting ready to dive into UP WISH CREEK, B.E. Sanderson’s latest in her Djinn series. Jo makes me happy. (That’s her main character.)

So anyway, I’m just going to be little Merry Sunshine today. Because… Well, just because. The world is a pretty crappy place right now. In the grand scheme of things, there’s not a whole lot I can do to change that, but I can do something. I can write stories people want to read. I read stories written by people I like. I can watch my hummingbirds and check out the morning glories and feed the feral cats. I can smile and laugh, and I can look a little closer because…

Every single minute of every single day, they’re there, Silver.

They may be hidden behind circumstances, people, or light poles. Challenges, closed doors, or lost keys. Camouflaged, dovetailed, or whispering. Purring, kissing, or hissing. But more often than not they’re lying about in the open, under a clear blue sky, in plain view. Absolutely. Guaranteed. You’d throttle me otherwise.

10,000 reasons to be happy.

Jumanji, baby –
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

Silver, how many do you see now?

What makes you happy today?

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Wednesday Words: Socks

Posted on September 14, 2016 by Silver James

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupToday’s #1lineWed themes is *SOCKS*. I had no WIP with socks in it. And I’d been missing my Nightrider Wolves so I thought I’d dash off a snippet to be used in a WIP to be named later. And when it came time to pick a Wolf, Gunner came to mind. You might remember him from NIGHT MOVES. He’s an enforcer for the Oklahoma Chapter but was up in Kansas City helping out the national chapter. So, without further adieu, I present you with…SOCKS!

***
I ran outside wearing just my socks. And a T-shirt. A long T-shirt that reached almost to my knees and mentioned something about using coffee for good. Or evil.

The man who’d parked his big ol’ Harley motorcycle on the sidewalk leading to my apartment stared at me, his gaze traveling to my chest and lower. His lips twitched. Was that a smile threatening to break through his scowl? I knew the moment his gaze reached my knee socks. The socks with the smoochie mouths and arrows pointing north. Yeah, about those… I’d won them a bridal shower given by the maid of honor.

One brow quirked and his gaze meandered back up my body, stopping at my crotch this time. His eyes narrowed in speculation and I wasn’t about to give in to the temptation to squeak. If I did, I’d turn tail and dash right back inside my apartment, slam the door, and I’d never get to meet my neighbor.

Yeah, about him. He was a biker. As in a bad-ass, leather-vest-wearing, real-honest-to-god outlaw biker. I loved his patch, the few times I’d glimpsed it. A leaping wolf. I had a thing about wolves. I’d collected them since childhood. I expected the gang’s name to be the Werewolves. Or maybe the Wild Wolves. But no. They were the Nightriders.

“Gonna catch cold standin’ out here with no clothes on.” He growled at me but the words were drawled. A biker and a southern boy? Be still, my heart.

“I…I…” Well, shoot. This was not the time to stand here stammering like the idiot I was feeling like. Time to be bold. To seize the day. To jump in with both feet.

“Babe.”

I closed my mouth and stared at him. “Y-yes?”

“Thinkin’ too hard. Go put clothes on. I can’t very well take you for a ride wearin’ nothin’ but what you got on.”

Ride? He was taking me for a ride? On his Harley? I stepped closer.

“Clothes, babe. Or do you want some help?”

Help? That could be… I sucked in air and choked, which made me cough. What was I thinking? Oh, wait. I wasn’t. I couldn’t go for a ride with him.

He sighed and swung his leg over the seat of the motorcycle. I blinked and he was standing in front of me, hands on my shoulders and twisting me around to face the door of my apartment. He nudged me forward. At my door, he leaned down and whispered in my ear.

“When we fuck, babe, you’re going to be wearing those socks. Too fuckin’ cute.”

Fuck? We were going to fuck? I didn’t even know his name—

“Gunner. Now get clothes on, woman. I got places to be and you’re gonna be on the bike behind me when I go.”

His name was Gunner? Touchdown! Pistols firing!
***
Yeah, she’s an Oklahoma State cowgirl. No clue what her name is, or what her story will be, but Gunner happens to think she has excellent taste in knee socks.

Who else has socks to share?

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Tuesday Treats: Unfried Chicken

Posted on September 13, 2016 by Silver James

This recipe came from Trisha Yearwood. CHECK HERE for all the deets, pics, and a video.

If you live in the South, Fried Chicken is its own food group. Other areas have their own way to fry chicken and I can count on one hand the folks I know who DON’T like fried chicken. Unfortunately, fried food got a bad rap so here’s a healthy alternative. Check it out.

Ingredients:
2 cups buttermilk
1 tablespoon hot pepper sauce (optional)*
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into bite-size pieces
2 1/2 cups panko bread crumbs
6 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 tablespoon onion powder
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground black pepper (optional)*
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
1 teaspoon paprika
Directions:
Mix buttermilk and hot sauce together, adding chicken and stirring to coat. Marinate for 1 hour.

Grease a baking sheet, then mix panko crumbs, parmesan, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne pepper, and paprika in bowl.

Remove chicken from marinade, discard marinade, then coat chicken in panko mixture. Place on baking sheet.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F then bake 15 to 20 minutes for each side.

*I marked the two starred ingredients at optional. The original recipe marked the cayenne.

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The Monday After Overload

Posted on September 12, 2016 by Silver James

loldog Monday Pup2I had a weekend. A long weekend. And this is Monday’s recap of stuffs.

So, Friday I packed up a weekend worth of clothes, my laptop, a six-pack of Diet Cokes and drove across town to a hotel and checked in just as happy hour started. I caught up with my OKRWA colleagues down in the buffet/bar area and the weekend commenced.

There’s nothing like a writer’s retreat to get the ol’ creative juices flowing…not to mention laughter, booze, and a lot of camaraderie. And no sleep. I feel like a zombie today, despite lots and lots of coffee. I really need to get on the next two short projects. Like right this instant but the words aren’t forming in my brain.

Reading I have been doing some. And now I sound like Yoda, which reminds me that the latest Star Wars movie is on STARZ and I should make time to watch it. But…books. APPRENTICE IN DEATH. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The pacing was slow…quick-quick. Sort of like a waltz. A waltz through the lives of Eve and Roarke and their friends. Eve’s case was a tough one–lots of “Eve buttons” got pushed. Eve and Roarke are facing “upheaval” at home in the form of redecorating. New insights to the Roarke-Summerset-Eve triangle. And baby Bella’s birthday party cracked me up. DOLLS!!!! *bwahahaha* My one regret? NO FREAKING BUTTON! Okay, that might be a spoiler to some people but while I ALWAYS look for the Button Moment™ not everyone does. I think, though, that I understand–maybe–why there was no mention of it in this book, and it pertains to the growth of Roarke and Eve as a couple. That’s all I’ll say on the matter. Definitely a good one in this long-lasting and enduring series!

TV hasn’t really been on my radar of late. I did start my marathon (okay, I stayed awake for 1 episode) watch of the last season of RIZZOLI & ISLES. New and returning shows start popping up this month. LUCIFER–YAYAYAYYAYAY! And NCIS–will be interested to see how it goes without Tony. I know there are other shows…Oh, the reboot of MacGuyver. We’ll see. And…okay…brain dead at the moment. More coffee…

And that’s pretty much my world at the moment. Coffee and fighting Iffy for new words. I feel a trip to Starbucks coming up. Soon. What’s up with y’all?

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Friday Sinema: Crusty Flakery

Posted on September 9, 2016 by Silver James

This could be Lawyer Guy and me. Only we’d get the line right. Of course we would! 😉 I’m off to OKRWA’s weekend writers’ retreat. So much to do but the chance to stay in a hotel with writers and write? Just couldn’t pass it up! 😀 Have a great one, y’all!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Romance

Posted on September 8, 2016 by Silver James

universeThere’s a reason I write romance. Okay, there are a lot of reasons. And those are the same reasons I read romance. In real life, not all of our dreams come true. Not all of us get the happy forever endings to our stories. Bad things happen to good people and good things happen to bad. I’ve always been something of an observer, living too much in my head and doing lots of wondering and asking “What if?” That’s why I write. All those “What ifs?” They circle in my brain like a kite of hawks riding the thermals. And romance…ah, the heady feelings of falling in love, that spark of sexual awareness when the chemistry is magical, the dreamy moments wrapped in the cocoon of romance.

So, yeah, when this little gem from the Universe dropped into my inbox, I added it to my list of why I love writing romance.

I do wonder, Silver, how it is that you don’t ALL just fall crazy in love with each other and get it over with…

Falling in love, I mean.

I have,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

So little time, Silver, so many princes and princesses….

I have so many characters, and they ALL fall crazy in love and do goofy-dumb things, or heroic things, or sweet things, or foolish things. They argue and fuss and fight. They kiss and make up and make love. And they are all princes and princesses, just like we dreamed we were when we read books after lights-out, hiding under the covers with flashlights, then lying there in the dark, staring at the ceiling and dreaming of what will be. Make time to fall in love today.

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