We all need to be more dog. Just sayin’… Happy weekend! I’m fence and wall building and maybe trying to fit in a live baseball game or two. What are y’all up to?
Yeah…I’m late with the blog. It’s not that I forgot. I didn’t. I even had a message from the Universe picked out. But…
Life happened. With a crash. And my entire afternoon was lost in a puff of concrete dust and rotten wood. Brief back story. Our house was built in 1968. The previous owners (who built the house) had a concrete block wall separating the back/side yard from the two neighbors to the west. When we moved in, with very large dogs, we put up a wood privacy fence. Skip ahead almost 20 years and add normal wear and tear (plus a replacement wood fence 10 years ago), sandy soil, Norwegian wharf rats, carpenter ants, ancient tree roots, and more than a few earthquakes.
Just before noon yesterday, there was a creaking groan, a loud crash, and yelping dogs. I went dashing out to discover five sections of the wooden fence in my neighbor’s yard, covered with the concrete blocks from the 3-foot high wall. I was terrified one of his little dogs was caught under the mess because when my dogs and his dogs are out at the same time, there is much barking going on at the fence. Luckily, he wasn’t home and his critters were safely inside. It was my two big boys who yelped–startled, scared, but unhurt.
I did’t stop to grab a camera then. I grabbed the landline (it was closest to the back door–my cell was still in my office) to call Lawyer Guy. Then, still sans camera/cell phone, I grabbed work gloves and started shifting as many blocks as I could. I managed all but four–those were too heavy for me to life and too far away to “roll.” My neighbor got home, we moved the rest of the blocks, and sort of put the fence back in place. LG got home and “secured” the sections with bungie cords.
Today, I’m waiting on a contractor my BiL suggested to see how much it’ll cost if he does the labor. None of us are in good enough physical shape to really do it, but we will if the cost is too high.
Anyway, that pretty much killed any writing mojo and Stormageddon was arriving around 5:00 for his weekly visit and dinner with Jammie and Big Daddy while Baseball Boy conducts practice. By the time he was gone, dogs fed, etc., I took arthritis-strength acetaminophen and went to bed.
And that’s why no Universal musing today. Instead, I offer a pan photo of the aftermath. Click on the photo to get the full size pic.
Today’s theme for #1lineWed is one that leaves a lot open to interpretation. When I searched for “UP” in BLOOD BRIDE (which is complete now! Well, first draft anyway 😉 ) the opening scene gave me lots of possibilities. So, consider this a tease, a snippet, an enticement I hope you enjoy…
Chapter 1
Some wise guy once said, “Every life is heroic.” Couldn’t prove that by Rhys Kendric. He’d had a chance to be a hero once, but he’d cut and run like a prissy little girl. Of course, he’d been fifteen, with the Blood Moon hanging full on the eastern horizon and the grisly remains of his father lying at his feet.
Fuck. He hated getting maudlin like this. That’s what happened when he went too long between jobs. Rhys stared at the grimy mirror above the back bar and toasted his reflection. After draining the cheap whiskey in his glass, he slammed it on the bar. His fingers itched to pick up the phone lying at his elbow. Maybe he’d call Frank. It was Wednesday night. He’d be home watching TV. If the old man didn’t have a job, he’d know of someone who did. The face of the phone lit up before he could make the decision. Frank.Speak of the devil.
“Yo. Gotta a job for me?” Rhys hoped he didn’t sound like he was begging. Not that he was. Much.
“I can’t call just to say howdy?”
Rhys pulled the phone away and stared at it like it might bite him. Frank Lucchese never called just to chat. He put the phone back to his ear. “What’s wrong?”
“Nuthin’.”
Something in the old man’s voice put Rhys on guard. “Dammit, Frank. What’s up?”
“I almost didn’t call you, son.”
Fuck. When Frank called him son, things weren’t going to hell, they were firmly in residence. “Why not?”
“There’s a job. It’s tailor made for you.”
Ah. A job with special sauce on the side. That meant another Wolf had jumped bail. Frank always called him in for those hunts. Took one Wolf to track and trap another. Still, something was off. “Waitin’ for the other shoe, old man.”
Rhys heard Frank suck in several deep inhalations, like he was working up his nerve to keep talking. “The job…well, it means going back to your old stompin’ grounds.”
Double fuck. Now it was his turn to suck in oxygen. He hadn’t been back to Fleetwood since that fatal autumn fifteen years ago. Except in his nightmares. He closed his eyes and the scene his memory replayed was just as vivid now as it had been in real life.
****
What’s up in your worlds? Got any words to share?
Do I really need to say anything else about this dessert? I thought not. Go forth and enjoy!
Red Velvet Churro Recipe:
Ingredients:
2 cups water
¼ cup granulated sugar
4 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup red velvet cake mix
2 eggs
canola oil, for frying
½ cup sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 ounce cream cheese, softened
½ cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
I suck at blog titles, especially when I’m caffeine deprived. 😆 Ah well. I need to focus what little talent I have on book titles anyway, right? *nods*
Yesterday was Opening Day for baseball season! Yayayayay! Baseball is back! Sadly, my Cardinals lost. 😦 They’re off today but will play the Pirates again tomorrow. Just like last year, the Cards are plagued by injuries.
Book news. I have now been invited to write in the Kindle Worlds of three NYT/USA Today best-selling romance authors. Here’s what I’m writing over the next few months:
August release: Roxanne St. Claire’s Barefoot Bay world. Book title: DOUBLE TROUBLE, which is a Hard Target crossover. Gabe Rossi calles in a favor from Dominique “Dom” Karras, intrepid black ops pilot and ladies man. Dom is supposed to fly a surrogate mom and her twins from Barefoot Bay to a safe house in the Caribbean. Dom doesn’t do moms or kids. *bwahahahaha* There is the BEST scene of dirty diapers! Just sayin’…
October release: Paige Tyler’s Dallas Fire & Rescue. Book title: NIGHT FIRE, a Nightriders crossover with Smoke Jenner, arsonist extraodinaire, and Leigh Daniels, arson investigator. Go #TeamSmoke! 😀
November release: Susan Stoker’s Delta Force world. Book title (working): RESCUE MOON, a Moonstruck Alphas crossover. Wolf and super-soldier Hawkins “Hawk” Greenwood is recruited to save a kidnapped college professor from Mexican bandits.
January, 2017 release: Back to Paige’s DF&R world. Book title (working): CRASH LANDING, a Moonstruck Alphas crossover. A Wolf FBI (or maybe Homeland Security) agent meets his mate, a female ARFF with DF&R, at the scene of a plane crash.
Other books in the works:
BLOOD BRIDE will hit your Kindle this summer if SMP declines. (A Moonstruck Alphas book)
NIGHT MOVES, Hollywood and Lainey’s story, should be out in May/June. *crosses fingers*
Untitled Penumbra book – Roman’s story, this fall.
No concrete word on the next three Red Dirt books, but fingers crossed for all three releasing in 2017 – spring, sumnmer, and fall. THE BOSS AND HIS COWGIRL releases June 1 and HIS CONVENIENT COWGIRL BRIDE comes out in October.
Reading: I’m still doing the audio book version of a reread of Nalini Singh’s Psi-Changling series. She has a new book coming out this summer in the series. I finished T.M. Causey’s THE SAINTS OF THE LOST AND FOUND. My review was cool enough that Toni included it in her newsletter. That book is one my Best Books of the Year list on Goodreads. As far as I know, I’ve finished up all my contest reads and I have another MS to critique for my CP. I need to stop reading/listening and write. LOL
There’s not much else going on in my life. We get Stormageddon time because it’s baseball season (Baseball Boy coaches a 14U team and he has an evening practice that conflicts with Only’s working hours so we get the Sprout for dinner and play one night. Okay, back to words for me. What about y’all? What do you need to get back to this week?
I’ve never been much on April Fool’s jokes–pulling them, anyway. That doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate a good one. When Smart Bitches and Dear Author websites would conspire, I always enjoyed their goofiness. In searching for a video for today, I came across this one. Many schools do “Graduation” videos (Only did these for both her BA and her MA) where students thank teachers/professors and wax poetic on their educational experiences. Well, the teachers in this high school took that one step further. I laughed. I hope you do too. Happy April Fools!
Guardian Muses? If there’s a market for those, I’m in! I need one! 😆 As much as we’d all like to blame our Muses on those periods of no inspiration, of writer’s block, of author meh, that’s not really fair. As B.E. reminded me yesterday, being a published author is a business. If I want to get paid, I need to put words on paper, edit them, prep them for publication/submission, and move onto the next project. That’s the way it works.
According to the Universe, my angel/muse is sitting here invisibly glaring at me for not paying attention to her. Yeah, I need to give her a call…and get to work!
Actually, it’s not as if your angels can just drop everything they’re doing, Silver, and come running whenever you call for assistance, guidance, and love.
You pretty much are everything they’re doing.
Before you even ask,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®Right now, Silver, they’re holding your hand, sitting beside you, reading as you read, twirling your hair, and wondering who’s going to call who first.
What about y’all? What is your angel/muse up to?
I ❤ Wednesday. #1lineWed makes it easy for me to pick out a snippet. 😆 Today's theme is…*drumroll* EYEBROWS! Everyone has them. Some characters use them a lot, some not. 
While Smoke Jenner from October’s NIGHT FIRE release has brows, he tends to only look arch when dealing with arson investigator Leigh Daniels. This little scene gives some background on Smoke, along with some by-play between the two of them as they hunt a serial arsonist who might–or might not be–Smoke. 😉 This snippet is obviously in Smoke’s POV. 😀
****
“Get out.”
Leigh stared, an argument forming on the lips I wanted to kiss. Fisted hands planted on her hips and her chin jutted, she furrowed her brows into a tight vee. “No way.”
I wanted to kiss the crinkles in her skin just above the bridge of her nose too. “It’s not safe, babe.”
She glanced around then, eyes widening as they adjusted to the gloom in the boat house. “What the hell?”
“Yeah. Exactly.” The place was stacked to the rafters with explosive material, all rigged to blow.
“Oh, crap.”
“You can say that again.”
“Oh, crap.”
“Funny.”
“Wasn’t meant to be. What do we do now?”
“We don’t do anything. You’re leaving.” I put command in my voice, like she’d pay any attention. Still, worthy a shot. She needed to get the hell away from here.
“Not happening. We both need to get out of here. I’ll call the bomb squad. We’ll let them deal with this.”
I pointed to a digital timer happily counting down. “Too late.”
She gulped, cleared her throat before asking, “How’d we set it off?”
“Probably when we walked in. Vibrations on the floor started the countdown.” I hunkered down next to the device. “If the room starts shaking, you need to run like hell.”
“If the room shakes, we’re toast.”
She was right but I was not about to admit defeat. I pulled out a multi-tool from a back pocket and set to work.
“What are you doing?” Leigh didn’t quite screech but the timbre of her voice hurt my ears.
“My job.”
“Your job? You’re an arsonist.” Was she scoffing? He’d just have to show her.
“Wasn’t always. Marine Force Recon, EOD tech.” Explosive Ordinance Disposal. I’d disabled or blown up a shit-ton of IEDs in the sandbox. I never figured I’d be sitting in a covered boat house at a marina on Lake Dallas sweating bullets as I worked to save my ass. And Leigh’s. Especially hers. I had plans for that sweet ass that didn’t include it getting blown to hell and back.
“Wait. You were a marine?”
I cut my eyes her direction. She looked stunned. “Yeah. Proud member of Uncle Sam’s Misguided Children.”
“But…” She waved her hands like she couldn’t figure out the next word. One waved at my head, the other at the rest of me. Shrugging, I pulled out a bandanna and tied back my hair.
“Walk soft, babe, but go stand by the door.” She hovered for a few moments, peering over my shoulder. I grunted and shifted back on my heels. “Now, Leigh. If we have to evacuate, I want you where I can grab you on the way out. Yeah?”
She breathed heavily, air brushing across the side of my neck, then straightened. Finally. She did as I asked, pussy-footing to the door leading to the dock. I studied a nest of wires and the trigger device. Wasn’t my design. Dammit. Nothing could be easy and Luck was being a bitch tonight.
“You’re hot, you know.”
I froze then glanced over my shoulder. I arched my right brow and she waggled hers at me in some sort of flirty semaphore I had no clue how to read. “Not the time, darlin’.”
“It is. Just in case. I…wanted you to know. I’ll be your match.”
“Uh huh.” I bent back to the job at hand, but she kept talking.
“I’ll light up your life.”
I clipped a wire. “That’s a bad love song, ba—”
The timer went dark but sparks shot out. “Fuck!” I was up and running, barreling into Leigh, through her, turning at the last minute so my back hit the door. I curled around her as the explosives erupted, raining fire and thunder on us. We hit the surface of the lake. Went under. Deep.
When we came up for air, Leigh pushed sopping hair out of her eyes, grinning like some evil pumpkin. “Smoke on the water. Talk about bad love songs.”
****
Who’s paying attention to the eyebrows today? Hrmmm???? Share!
What do you do with all those leftover Peeps from the Easter baskets? How about S’More Peeps?!?!
Skillet Peep S’Mores
Ingredients:
chocolate chips
Peeps – any color(s) and shape(s_ you want
graham crackers for “dipping”
Directions: Place chocolate chips in the bottom of a skillet, cover them with Peeps, bake at 450 degrees for 8-10 minutes or until the marshmallows are toasted on top. Then, dip your graham crackers into the mixture. Simple as that — enjoy!
It’s Monday. Yippee! Not. 😆 Would you believe I have nothing to say? Yeah, well…
Something really weird and more than incredible happened to me over on Facebook last week. I posted a meme about writing and darn if the thing didn’t go minorly viral. The last I checked (yesterday afternoon as I was setting up today’s post), it had 534 shares and reached 46,137. Totally gobsmacked. I just wish all those extra people would go buy one of my books!
Speaking of books, I have the final title for Red Dirt #4 and the back cover blurb. I can share the title, though not the blurb yet. Also, there is a rumor that the cover may contain a horse! Yippee. Oh, you want to know the title? It’s HIS CONVENIENT COWGIRL BRIDE. The the blurb is made of total awesomesauce! I’ll share it as soon as I get the go ahead.
I also have a bit of writing news that I can only tease you with for now. Let’s just say that Kindle Worlds and I are getting to be good friends. 😆 I’m doing two for Paige Tyler’s Dallas Fire & Rescue series, one for Susan Stoker’s Delta Force series, and one for a secret KW that hasn’t been announced yet. Books will be coming out in October, October, November, and January. 😀
Remember when I asked your opinions about naming a Moonstruck sub-series. I’ve decided to go with Moonstruck Alphas because that fits the books I’ll be linking from the KW releases. I can do standalone stories under that umbrella. 🙂
I finished off my two bags of birthday coffee. Both were good but I’m just as content to be sipping cafe au lait, chicory coffee style this morning. 🙂
For those of you who love motorcycle romances, you might want to grab the “Cool Rider” April Ever After Box. I’ll have a little something in the box. Don’t know what an Ever After Box is? GO HERE to read all about it! Basically, this is a subscription service for readers. You can grab one box or a series of them. It’s worth looking at. Each month has a different theme and there are amazing goodies inside–books, swag, goodies of all sorts and descriptions! So far, there’s been the Limited Edition Coffee, February Sweet Tooth, and the March Small Town boxes. Each one had different books, different stuffs. Seriously, check it out!
I hope everyone had a great weekend and that if the Easter Bunny visited, he brought yummies of your favorite kind.
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
NOW AVAILABLE
