Wednesday Words: Emotional #1lineWed

Posted on June 17, 2015 by Silver James

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupI’m late today. As you can see by the title, today’s #1lineWed is all about emotions. I have them! That’s why I’m late. I was in formatting hell yesterday getting DOUBLE CROSS set up for preorder. FINALLY got the problem fixed and pulled the trigger for review about 11:00 p.m. last night. Only to discover I’d listed the WRONG FREAKING TITLE! Double CROSS became Double SHIFT. Don’t ask. Just…don’t.

headdeskSo yeah. This was me. After a night of tossing and turning, and remembering I hadn’t set up the blog for today, I finally fell asleep and then didn’t get up early like I’d planned to do this morning to get something written. So, DOUBLE shift/CROSS is sort of alive for preorder. I’ve resubmitted the title change so I’m not linking until I get notice it’s been updated. Then y’all will have the chance to go snag it. In the meantime, I have a headache from forehead meeting desk but here’s a short snippet, from DOUBLE CROSS. 🙄

Terror is an emotion, right? And relief…

CORY STUMBLED BACK to the hut. The man had died, but her captors didn’t seem surprised or, more important to her health and welfare, they didn’t seem to care. Sleep. She was desperate for it but terrified she wouldn’t wake up again. The little boy who had summoned her slept outside her hut, curled up around his rifle. She stepped over his thin body and ducked inside. An arm snaked around her waist as a large hand covered her mouth. She struggled, screaming only in her head.

Words whispered against her ear, as soft as the breeze sighing through savanna grass. “Shhh. We’re here to help. Do you speak English?”

American. The man was an American. Cory shuddered but stopped fighting. Her eyes adjusted to the faint moonlight drifting in through the half-collapsed roof, and she saw a second man, huge and powerfully built, watching out one of the windows. The hand on her mouth loosened its grip, and she nodded her understanding.

Short and sweet today. I have final read-through of DOUBLE CROSS so I can upload the final version and I don’t have to worry about it any longer. Who else has emotional words to share?

Happy Hump Day. We’re battening down the hatches for Tropical Storm Bill. Just what we need–more rain!

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Monday Muppet Flail

Posted on June 15, 2015 by Silver James

IgnoreMondayCatSo…it’s Monday. Why does that keep happening every week? *Muppet Flail* I’m going to be this LOL cat and just ignore that it’s Monday until I get this book done! Especiaqlly since last night, when I sat down to figure out a blog for this morning, I was mostly underwhelmed. I did edit/revise (and there were a couple of places where there was some deep revision goin’ on!) I got through 125 pages and 13 chapters. I’ll be MIA until I get it revised, proofed, formatted, and loaded for pre-order at Amazon.

Reading. I’ve been doing some. I was really excited about the new Charley Davidson book, EIGHTH GRAVE…something. I can never remember the whole title of each book. Anyway, I started it and had trouble getting into it so I’ve been sneaking other books in there. DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE is listed as a YA fantasy but there are some very grown up themes. Still, the writing is lyrical, the story different, and the characters not quite what I expected. It ends with a cliffhanger and is the first in a trilogy. I haven’t hit the library for book 2 yet. Then I saw that Paige Tyler’s HUNGRY LIKE THE WOLF was on sale for 99¢ so I snagged it because it had been on my wish list. Yeah…darn sure glad it was that cheap! HATED the heroine. And the Hero was something of a wuss for taking her back so fast after the way she betrayed meant to betray him–she backed out at the last minute but still… Anyway, I did like the author’s style so maybe I’ll give the next book a try when it comes out later in the summer. Currently, I have Roxanne St. Claire’s BAREFOOT WITH A BODYGUARD queued up. I’m a HUGE fan of her romantic suspense series and a favorite character who never got his book finally will with the 3rd book in this series. Totally glad Rocki is back in that groove.

Baseball. My Cards still have the best record in baseball. They were supposed to have a 3-game series with the Kansas City Royals and were up 2 games when yesterday’s game was rained out. 😦 They’ll make it up at some point.

TV. I haven’t been watching, except for baseball. I’ve either been working or reading. Ah well. I have two full DVRs of shows I really should watch one of these days. 😆

Life. Got to see the kids last night for dinner. The whole gang got together to celebrate my Sis-in-Law’s b-day. We went out for BBQ and Stormegeddon got his new baseball glove and ball. It’s made of foam material with Velcro to snag the ball. We had a blast. He also ate most of my slice of b-day cake. So…yay!

Basically, my world has narrowed down to words–writing them or erasing them or fixing them. If I want to try a pre-order for DOUBLE CROSS, I have a hard upload date of June 20th. I really want to get it done today if at all possible. So…off to work for me. And no, I’m not whistling! 😆

Still, being the nosy sort, I want to know what y’all did this weekend! Comment so I have something to look forward to!

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Friday Follies

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Silver James

Friday!It’s Friday! Time for some fun…and a little randomness. Okay, a lot of randomness. 😆

First up, this new review of NIGHT SHIFT on Amazon.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★ Better than expected
By NAME REDACTED on June 10, 2015
Format: Kindle Edition Verified Purchase
I did not expect to like this book. The hero was a criminal and characters made their living on the wrong side of the law. It is a testament to the author that I enjoyed this book although it is much darker that the previous series that spun this off. I like that Mac from the previous series and his insane wife/mate show up in this book tying the series together. I am interested in where this goes. It contains a lot of violence.

I chuckled at the title, “Better than expected” but I gigglesnorted when I hit the comment about Mac and his “insane wife/mate.” The Wolves lost it. Well, all except Mac. He very wisely left the room but could be heard guffawing outside. Hannah? Yeah…I wouldn’t want to be the Wolves right now. 😉

Crazypants news story of the week: Shark is killed on Florida Highway. Click the link to watch the story if you haven’t heard about it already. But be ready to click it off when done or the link will start playing the next story. 😦 And man, there was some CRAZY news out there I discovered while searching for the best video coverage of this story. There are some sick people out there in the world.

And last but not least, here’s this weeks edition of Harlequin’s #WhateverYoureInto fun and shenanigans. I laughed at this one. A lot. Because…yeah…been there. 😉

What are your plans for the weekend? Me? Same ol’ same ol’. Writing. Have a great one whatever you do!

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Thursday Thoughts: Fear and Love in the Universe

Posted on June 11, 2015 by Silver James

universeI know I’m supposed to take these nudges from the Universe to heart in my own life but quite often, I translate them to have meaning in my writing. You all know I write romance. Romance means people love and are loved in return. Sometimes one or the other of my characters profess to not knowing what love is, or how to love, or are afraid to love for a variety of reasons. And sometimes they are just afraid of life and living it. So the big U has this to say:

Sometimes loving more, Silver, is easier than fearing less and gets the same results.

Get it?
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

Because, of course, Silver, the more love, in all things, the less fear… and the more swag, spiritually and materially.

So yeah, this is pretty much the way it works in fiction. What we all need to do is practice this in our lives because…who doesn’t need or want more love? Right?!?!

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Wednesday Words: Environment #1lineWed

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Silver James

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupHow can it be Wednesday again? *looks at watch* … *looks out window* … *checks calendar* Time is just crazy lately! But it is indeed Wednesday so time for #1lineWed. I may even get to play a bit with it on Twitter today. We’ll see. Today’s theme is ENVIRONMENT. I’m not quite sure how to interpret that but these are my two longer snippets going with the idea that “enivronment” is what surrounds one. And since DOUBLE CROSS is about Navy SEALs (among others), and they get in some crazy environments, AND it’s since still in revisions, it qualifies as a WIP so…

This is just post-rescue of Cory via Duke’s POV:

Clouds were gathering and the moon played tag then hide-n-seek with them. The woman appeared deathly pale under the intermittent light—and younger than he anticipated. Tears, sweat, or both left dirty streaks on her face. Her gasping breath was louder than the entire team’s pounding boots. They’d have to stop soon. With luck, Copper’s explosions would keep Cudjo’s guerrillas out of action until Wilco could call in a chopper for an extraction.
He pushed the team another mile before slowing them to a jog. Another mile and he called for a walk. As the wind shifted, he got a whiff of the woman. Damn but she stank. Her eyes looked glassy and her movements were jerky and robotic. If he didn’t call a halt soon, they’d end up carrying her.

They topped a small rise and dropped down to a river. A copse of trees huddled about twenty feet from the raging water. There’d been heavy rain up-river and the current rushing by could wash a person downstream in a heartbeat.

After a series of hand signals, Dalton and Cop faded back to check for pursuers. Tank checked out the bushes for critters and flashed a thumbs up. With the all-clear, Poison halted next to the trees and helped the woman sink to the ground. She bent her knees to her chest, gulping great breaths of air. Digging in his kit, the corpsman set about tending to her. Water. A solar blanket. Wipes for her face. She stared at the canteen he placed in one of her hands, the wipe placed in the other but did nothing with either item.

And poor Cory just can’t catch a break. This happens shortly after, in a mixed POV between Cory and Duke.

Cory’s sanity went MIA with the first blast. By the second explosion, she had no hope of finding it. She couldn’t explain how she ended up in the river, sputtering and gasping for air after a dunking, and in the arms of the angry man who was the SEAL team leader. His arms banded around her as their heads bobbed just above the surface. Flames added dancing demons to the scene as unseen things churned the air.

Master Chief. Master Chief Reagan. His name came back to her. His face appeared ravaged, blood trickling down both cheeks. She needed her medical kit. She was a doctor and she had the insane need to fix him.

“We gotta go, doc.”

“Cory. Everyone calls me Cory.” Why did her identity matter? Because she was tired of being anonymous. If she was going to die, she wanted someone to know who she was. Cory Prince. Twenty-eight-year-old woman from Bethesda, Maryland. Who happened to be a pediatrician. Working for an international aid organization. Her brain circled back around to the present, which was scary beyond comprehension, except the man with her was injured. “I need my kit. You’re hurt.”

“Still gotta go. We’ll submerge, ride the current underwater. You’re gonna hang onto me. Wrap your legs around my waist.” He waited while she did and damn if his fucking dick didn’t like sitting in the sweet spot. Jerking both of his heads back into the game, he added, “I’ll breathe for you.”

“Breathe for me? How?”

“You just want to trust me on this, princess.”

Something whistled past her cheek like a hot, angry wasp. Bullet. She gasped but didn’t get her mouth closed as Reagan dragged her under. Her fingers clawed at his shirt and a part of her brain recognized his arm tightening around her back. Then his mouth was on hers, his tongue forcing her teeth open. She swallowed more water but it went into her stomach, not her lungs. Air filled her lungs. Warm, miraculous oxygen.

Time turned relative. Sense was no longer common. If this was death, his lips on hers wasn’t a bad way to go. Blackness consumed her, then time stopped. Forever.

Still working toward a July 1st release date, with hopefully a ten or fifteen day pre-order period. We’ll see. Plus, I’m over 20K on RDR#3 so things are good if busy. Who else has some #1lineWed love to share?

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Tuesday Turning Points

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Silver James

survived mondayAshlynn was teasing yesterday when she dis’ed my writing process. I’m proud to be a puzzler so there! 😛 As most of you know, I do a lot of flash fiction based on supplied writing prompts. Quite often, those exercises end up as scenes in my books. Sometimes I write the flash based on a book I’m not even working on. Yet. Because different prompts prompt different characters, situations, and events. If I don’t use a scene in a book at some point, I’ll most likely create a free read out of it.

So, what does this have to do with turning points you ask…

When I’m writing the Red Dirt books, because of Harlequin’s process, I turn in a synopsis. Usually–sometimes–the finished book mostly follows the series of events highlighted in said synopsis. As a result, I have turning points in the story. I won’t lecture on story structure here. Those of you who write should already understand it and those of you who read certainly enjoy it, right? 😉 As you know there are Very Important Things that should happen at the appropriate times in a romance. First meeting. First kiss. First obstacle/fight/breakup. Et cetera until we come to the black moment when the bottom falls out, the characters are devastated and there’s no hope. Then you get the fun of the characters overcoming the black moment, getting together, finding their HEA and riding off into the sunset all happy and stuff.

Well, along the way there are minor turning points–like forks in the road. Go right and you get roses or chocolate or a puppy. Go left and you get a splinter and spilled coffee and a cat spraying your favorite pair of boots. Well, Clay, the hero of RDR#3, has many of these forks, as does his heroine, Georgie. A scene I wrote last week was an eye-opener for Georgie, but Clay needed a big light bulb/turning point to get him to Georgie for her moment.

Sitting over dinner and grousing about politics, stupid people (yes, usually the same topic) and baseball pitchers (don’t ask! 😆 ), I mentioned that country folk tend to be plain spoken to the point of being blunt. They have lives to live and don’t have time for pussy-footing around, which brought up the phrase:

Say what you mean and mean what you say.

And MY light bulb flickered on. So I dashed to the keyboard after cleaning the kitchen, feeding the dogs, and watching one of my favorite baseball players (Matt Holliday of the Cardinals) get hurt, I wrote almost 700 words about one of Clay’s turning points leading up to Georgie’s revelation which starts them on their still rather rocky road to their HEA.

So…that’s my story and I’m sticking to it. Anybody had a turning point lately? :O

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Not Much Monday

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Silver James

Write club rules *points at cute puppy pic* See this? Yeah…that’s pretty much gonna be me for the next umpteen days/weeks/months. Still working on finalizing DOUBLE CROSS. I’ve heard back from one beta reader. She liked it but didn’t love it. I’ll probably address some of her “no-love” moments in revisions, but not all. I’m also doing my best to add new words to RED DIRT ROYALTY #3. I’m up over 16K at moment, though everything past the first 3 chapters is in bits and pieces. My process is such a mess. 😆

Got to see Stormageddon and the Dozer on Saturday. Dozer would go hide in his kennel but Storm/Sprout chased him out, climbed in, and shut the gate behind himself. Only and I were laughing about S/S putting himself in timeout. 😉

It got hot. But this is June in Oklahoma. It’s about time. It could stay cool and make me happy but the flowers are all screwed up. Only has blooming mums in her front flower bed. My day lilies are just sort of sprouting leaves and not much else.

I also worked on budgets–both monetary and time-wise–for RWA Nationals in July. I managed to sneak in and get really lucky on my plane tickets. $425.00 roundtrip, 2 bags fly free. I’d forgotten I’d signed up for the librarian meet-and-greet. I need to figure out a 100 really cheap “goodie bags” with fun stuff that will make them remember me. I’m hoping I have enough flashlight keychains left and I’m considering a CD with first chapters of some of my books available in print. Those are easy to burn. Then postcards and bookmarks. It all has to be stuff I can stick in a suitcase.

One more thing then back to work for me. I’m thinking about entering the International Digital Awards. I have five books eligible”
Night Shift (erotic or paranormal category?) Novel
Blue Moon (paranormal) Short
Moonstruck: Secrets (paranormal) Novel
Moon Shot (paranormal) Short
Faerie Faith (paranormal) Short

See my problem? I’ll be competing against myself. 😆 So, dear readers, opinions? Which books do you think will do the best? And if any of you would like to judge (FREE .pdf copies of books) you can get more info and the link to sign up HERE.

What about y’all? How was your weekend?

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Random Friday and #WhateverYoureInto

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Silver James

No video today. Nothing jumped out at me but these links did. First up, I need to use this island and house for a setting, even if the island is in Connecticut. And if you’re wondering why Billy Rose’s name sounds familiar? Yeah…he wrote “Me and My Shadow.”

BILLY ROSE PARTY ISLAND

And for those of us that wish our barista was this talented, you definitely need to click through to see the latte foam artist. I’m betting you can guess the inspiration for each masterpiece. I ❤ Coffee!

And…

Okay, so I lied about a video. As y’all know, Harlequin sort of owns my “writing soul” for the next few months but that’s good because that means at least two more Red Dirt Royalty books next year. At the moment, HQN is running a “Whatever You’re Into” promotion. There’s been an internet storm between the lovers and the haters. Me? I laughed. Out loud. So love it or hate it, just know that Harlequin has you covered! This week is about…well, you’ll see. 😉

Have a great weekend! I’m going to try to catch up on reading, DVRing, and more writing. What about y’all?

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Pay

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Silver James

universeThis is short and sweet. I’m in edit mode and almost to panic mode, which is not conducive to getting anything done as I give into Muppet Flail Syndrome. You’ve all been there, right? 😆

Anyway, digging back through the drafts folders where I’ve tucked my little nudges from the Universe, I found this one. I’m still thinking about it–sort of like a hamster on a wheel with a cat sitting outside the cage watching. There’s a grain of truth here, if I can just snatch it and gnaw on it awhile.

You get what you pay for, Silver, and you pay for what you think about.

Literally,
The Universe

© http://www.tut.com ®

Something to think about, Silver, both ways.

So…yeah… Your thoughts?

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Wednesday Words: Target Acquired for #1lineWed

Posted on June 3, 2015 by Silver James

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupYes. I virtually typed THE END last evening. Today, I’m editing and doing some formatting and then I’ll get the draft up on Amazon for the pre-order. 🙂

In the meantime, here’s a longer snippet from DOUBLE CROSS, from which I’ll be taking some sentences for Kiss of Death’s #1lineWed Tweet event today from the snippet. Today’s theme is **SOMETHING UNEXPECTED**. There are several unexpected things happening in this passage. 😉

“Wait. Let me look.” Cory’s hand settled on his jaw, gentle but firm. She tilted his head—toward the sun judging by the temperature change on his skin. “Oh…no.”

Fuck. That didn’t sound good. “What?”

“Can you see anything? Anything at all?”

And there it was, the punch to his gut. “No.”

Her hand dropped away amid the rustling of more clothes. He pictured her kneeling at his side. “Tell me what you remember.”

Frustrated, Duke growled again. “Not here. We have to get under cover.”

“Oh. Yes, you’re right. We should. A moment.”

Cory scanned the area around them. They’d have to wade through shallow water to reach the bank of the river. A wadi ran down to the water, forming a cut between the higher ground beyond. It would give them a way to climb out, back to the plains so she could see.

“I found a way out.” She explained her plan to use the wadi. He stood, settled his pack and searched the sand bar with his foot for something else. “What? What are you looking for?”

“Gun case. My sniper rifle.”

“Oh.” She turned a slow circle, saw the case snagged close to shore. She could retrieve it on their way to shore. “Found it. Give me a moment to put my medical kit back together.” She hastily stuffed supplies in and zipped it. Slinging it over her head, strap crossing her body from left to right, she stepped back to the master chief. “Put your hand on my forearm. I’ll lead you.”

“No. Shoulder.” And he followed through by clamping his big hand on her left shoulder.

“Well…all right then. Fine, master chief—”

“Duke.”

“Beg pardon?”

“Duke. My name is Duke.”

“Duke? Is that a nickname?”

“Nope.”

“It’s your real name?

“Yup. I was named for John Wayne.”

“Wait…but…” Cory knitted her brows and pursed her lips, still not following. “If you are named for John Wayne, then why—”

Duke glared—or thought he did. He wondered what her expression showed.

“Oh. I… All right. Duke.” She tasted the name on her tongue and tried to piece together the reason for his nickname. Not that Duke didn’t fit him perfectly. Strong. Arrogant. And she had far more serious things to worry about than his broad shoulders, square jaw, and— She jerked her thoughts back to the situation at hand.

“We have about twenty-five, maybe thirty feet of sand bar and then about eight feet of shallow water to wade before we hit the bank. It’s not smooth like a beach or anything. We’ll have to scramble up a little ways to get into the wadi.”

“Lead on, McDuff.”

“Actually, the quote is ‘Lay on, McDuff.’ The phrase has been misquoted over four hundred years.” Cory babbled on, relating the history of the phrase, quoting from the scene in Shakespeare’s “MacBeth” until Duke squeezed her shoulder.

“Damn, princess, don’t you ever shut up?”

I’ll admit something here. I’m really excited about this book. Some twists and turns presented themselves and I love the interaction between Duke and Cory. I’m looking forward to the editing process and can’t wait to get it into the hands of my readers. And speaking of reading, who has words to share today from a WIP or book you’re enjoying reading?

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