Friday This-n-That

Posted on November 6, 2015 by Silver James

Coffee OstrichesOops. I forgot to set up a post for today. I obviously needed (and still need!) more coffee. In my defense, I was dealing with getting the newsletter out and fussing with cover issues for DOUBLE CROSS. I ended up ordering a print proof–first time ever–to look at before approving DC for sale. It’ll be a few weeks now before it’s available. In the meantime, THE DEVIL’S CUT is currently available in print from the CreateSpace eStore. It’ll be a few days before it’s available on Amazon. What’s weird? I get like 3 times the royalty if people buy it direct from CreateSpace but those sales don’t affect the sales rank on Amazon. 😛

Mr. HQEd is to get back to me next week re: RDR#4. He had some questions/notes on the proposal (first three chapters). Now I’m torn. Do I want to forge ahead and fix everything I’ve written if there are big changes, or just wait? He did mention the end-of-the-month deadline could be flexible. Not sure that bodes well. It’s NaNoWriMo so I don’t feel like I can take time off. Maybe I’ll move to a secondary project, but which to choose? The thriller an agent wants me to write so she can look at it with the idea of maybe offering representation? The next Nightrider book? Or Hard Target? It’s too late to write the Moonstruck Christmas novella this year and I might do it as a free read here on the site for next year instead of publishing it. We’ll see.

Memes. I make them for the books. I’m thinking about taking down the Heroes and Villains page and replacing it with a memes page that people could grab and use. Thoughts?

There’s a weekend coming. I should work. I may not. We’ll see when I get up in the morning. If I get up. 😉 What about y’all? Plans?

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Thursday Thoughts – Universal. Really.

Posted on November 5, 2015 by Silver James

universeYou know, this is technically pretty darn good advice. All things considered. This is especially true if you’re a writer doing that whole self-published thing. I know this because I’ve spent the last two weeks doing things like formatting, uploading, more formatting, and dreading doing the whole marketing thing. But I’m in this. So I really, really need to mean it. And I do. Even if it seems like I don’t. So…back to work.

Approach everything you care about, Silver, as if you really, really mean it.

And I really, really mean it –
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

Because it’s so much easier for me to give you the “whole enchilada,” when you really, really mean it. And because life is far too precious, Silver, for half-ways, maybes, and decaf.

See? Even the Universe doesn’t like decaf! LOLOLOL And here’s some marketing. GO BUY MY FREAKING BOOKS! 😉
Not decaf

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Wednesday Words – Brrrrr

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Silver James

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupHump Day once again, which means #1LineWed on Twitter and snippets here. Today’s theme is cold. 😉 Have I mentioned that THE DEVIL’S CUT is live on Amazon? You know, in case the faithful here haven’t indulged yet. 😛

So anyway, since TDC is relatively new, I’m gonna break the rules and post from it rather than a WIP like the rules say. I’m all roguish like that. Plus, I haven’t really started a new WIP. RDR#4 is awaiting word from Mr. HQEd on the proposal. 😛 Anyway…here’s some chilly snippets from THE DEVIL’S CUT.

the devils cut ebook

Like Romulus, his pack Alpha, Caleb’s physical appearance was wiry and therefore misleading. Even without his werewolf strength, he would have been able to pick up the other man and toss him. And like Romulus, he had developed The Look™—that unblinking stare of a stone-cold alpha predator. He didn’t have to use it often. Even humans had a tendency to recognize he was something more and backed away from picking fights with him. Mostly easy-going, his reputation as a badass amused him.

And a little equal time to Adele’s POV:

JACOBSEN’S ASAP MEANT HIS PARTNER was waiting for her. The drive back to Denver had been uneventful but creepy. Adele couldn’t put her finger on why. Well, she could—feelings of someone watching her, weird cold drafts washing across the back of her neck, the nagging idea that if she whipped her head around she’d find some specter looming in the back seat of her Jeep ready to pounce made for a white-knuckled grip on the steering wheel. The sun was peeking over the eastern plains as she lugged her gear from the parking lot.

[Adele] was a scientist. There was no room in her world for magical mumbo jumbo or weird things that went bump in the night. Those spooky sounds were just old pipes or creaky floors or the building settling on its foundation. And cold breezes meant bad insulation. Of course, since the Big Rip, humans had discovered they weren’t the top of the food chain and unseen things were suddenly seen.

And last, a little mixing it up with Caleb and Adele both. 😉

“McCoy.”
“Jones.”
Speak of the devil. She hated her breathless, “Caleb” before she regained control. “Agent Jones. It’s been awhile.” Yes, there. That was frosty and professional.
“Too long. Get out of the tub, and come unlock the door. I’m too cold to pick the lock.”

So that’s what’s going on in their world. What about y’all? How’s the temperature in your WIPs or the books you’re reading?

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Tuesday Treats – Grapes of Fall

Posted on November 3, 2015 by Silver James

Chickasaw grape dumplingsI have a whole bunch of wild grapevine growing in my yard. Sadly there are no grapes. If there were, I’d make this from them. I’m going to get some grapes and try cooking and mushing them, then adding the dumplings. If that doesn’t work, I’ll go with the recipe. LOL Grape dumplings were traditionally made from the wild “possum grapes” that hung from vines throughout the Chickasaw homelands of Mississippi, Alabama, and Tennessee. I first had this treat at the Chickasaw National Cultural Center down in Davis, Oklahoma. Here’s the easy version of the recipe since possum grapes aren’t readily available at the local grocery store. 😉

GRAPE DUMPLINGS (Panki’ Alhfola’)

In a large pot place:
64 ounces grape juice
Sugar to tast

Bring to a boil.

Dumplings:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 egg
1 1/4 cups water
1 Tablespoon cornstarch

Place flour in a heap on tabletop. Make a well in the center of the flour and crack the egg into the center. Using a fork, begin mixing the egg into the flour and add water as you go. Form the dough into a ball and roll out very thin. Cut into 1-inch squares. Drop the squares into the boiling grape juice. Cook until dumplings are done and not doughy. Mix 1 Tablespoon cornstarch in 1 cup water. Add to hot juice and dumplings. Stir contantly to prevent scorching until it thickens.

Spoon servings into a bowl. Add ice cream or whipped cream or eat plain. And enjoy the heck out of ’em. MmmMmmm good!

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Monday? Let’s Get Serious!

Posted on November 2, 2015 by Silver James

More weekendMonday. There was a weekend. I remember it. Sort of. Weirdly dressed people came to my door demanding candy. We had just enough. Except Lawyer Guy gave a dollar to the teen-age sibling shepherding the last herd because there was just enough candy left for younger ones. She didn’t seem to mind.

In case y’all haven’t heard, THE DEVIL’S CUT is live on Amazon. And just in case you’ve been living under a rock or something, here’s the blurb. Go forth and buy if you haven’t already. I’ve heard people say it’s a pretty good story.

The Devil’s in the details…

What do two werewolf teens missing in the New Mexico desert, a stolen pouch of Native American fetishes, and a drug lord calling himself El Diablo have in common? Undercover FBI Agent Caleb Jones would sure like to find out. The trail leads to Denver where CSI Adele McCoy is investigating the cases of two diabolically murdered men and the pouch of Native American fetishes discovered at one of the crime scenes. She doesn’t believe in magic, but the whole situation gives her a creepy supernatural vibe she can’t deny.

And the Devil always gets his cut…

When their cases collide, Caleb and Adele are soon running for their lives—and fighting an attraction that threatens to combust. Hot on their trail is Caleb’s best friend, Special Agent Sade Marquis. She’s bound and determined to find the wayward werewolf. Death is a dialogue, love hurts, and you don’t know the measure of a man—or a woman—until it’s time to pay the Devil his due. In this Case from the Shadow’s Edge, it might just be a werewolf and the woman he loves who pay the price.

I spent the weekend working on formatting TDC and DOUBLE CROSS for print. DC is going into the National Readers’ Choice Awards and the Daphne Awards in the Romantic Suspense and Paranormal Romantic Suspense categories respectively. Gotta have print copies for that. And speaking of awards, BLUE MOON won the International Digital awards in Short Paranormal Novel and NIGHT SHIFT placed 3rd in the Erotic Novel category. 😀

This is November. That means National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). Since I have a November 30th deadline for RDR#4, this is a Very Good Thing! I have to get back into the Red Dirt mindset. Yippee. That means C&W music on I ❤ Radio.

Haven't been watching much TV because…edits/revisions/formatting/release and it's the World Serious! Seriously!!! As of the hour I'm typing this on Sunday night, Royals and Mets are playing game 5, Royals up 3-1 games in the series. If they win tonight it's over. If not, back to Kansas City for game 6/7 (if necessary). [EDIT: Royals came back in the 9th and tied 2-2, went 12 innings final score 7-2. Royals WIN!!!!] I'm trying to read SIX OF CROWS, of which there's been a lot of hype about. It's a fantasy. It's…slow. The book itself is lush, the prose detailed, the characters interesting, as is the world, but it's….slow. Could be I'm not in the right head space because I keep going back to my comfort reads–books I've already read once, twice, even three times. Yeah, I'm weird like that.

Last night, Lawyer Guy and I both wanted something ooey-gooey and sweet. I made brownies. Only I experimented. Because he has a blood sugar test coming up and he's been good. So I used about 1/2 cup of stevia mixed with 1/2 cup of regular sugar. And I didn't have any Crisco to greased the pan so I used butter. Which then melted over the low end of the brownies where the batter didn't rise so much. They were hot. And chocolaty. And had pecans. It eased the craving. LG wants me to experiment and make "crownies." Just in case you haven't seen the commercial…

So…that's pretty much been my weekend. What's up in your world?

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Friday Sinema: The Fawn’s Hero

Posted on October 30, 2015 by Silver James

Okay, this video is a bit longer (almost 17 minutes) than I normally post. But y’all? Take the time. This guy should be a romance novel hero. And it’s a happy ending. Plus dogs and cats. And did I mention the hero guy? Yeah. Really! And besides being handsome and caring, he has a delicious accent. So…indulge!

Happy Halloween tomorrow. Watch out the tricks and treats, and if I’m lucky, THE DEVIL’S CUT might just end up on readers’ Halloween menu!

And on a more personal note, a very happy birthday to my very own Halloween witch, The Only! 😀

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Thursday Thoughts – Universal Doubt and Wisdom

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Silver James

universeSee? The Universe has done it again.

Always listen to your doubts, Silver.

Not just because they might teach you of your fears, but because, sometimes, they might teach you of your wisdom.

Lovin’ it all,
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

Deeper than most will get, huh, Silver?

How many of us, as writers, wear our doubts on our sleeves like our heroines wear their hearts? My doubts used to cripple me. I never finished a project because I continuously returned to previously written words to “fix” them. I fixed them so much I would eventually quit writing new words. It wasn’t always that way. I remember like #ThrowbackThursday when. I remember the words tumbling through my imagination in a rush to hit the written page. Yes. Written. Long hand. Eventually the words were typed. Then recorded on a word processor. And my first computer. I sort of miss that ol’ Compaq “portable” with it’s nine inch screen. My Kindle Fire’s screen is bigger. LOLOL

At some point, I decided I wanted to write for publication. And thus began my search for writing perfection. Yeah…about that. It doesn’t happen. I don’t care who you are, that first draft is never as good as we think it is, nor is it as bad. That is the dichotomy of the writer’s brain. That was definitely true of THE DEVIL’S CUT. The original? UGH! Yes, it was that bad. So bad I was tempted to throw it out and start completely from scratch. But somewhere, in between the doubts in my ability to fix it and the fears that it sucked too bad to be redeepmed, I learned the wisdom of this story. I learned it’s first breath. And it’s last. I learned how much a woman is willing to give up to the man she loves. I learned the wisdom of letting the story tell itself, of the characters finiding their own place in their own time. And I can sit back now, and consider the wisdom of the Universe and what it decided to teach me this time around.

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Wednesday Words – It’s About Time

Posted on October 28, 2015 by Silver James

wurkn-on-mai-plan-for-word-domination-caleb-pupToday, #1lineWed is all about time. I never have enough it and as I’m on the downhill slide of final edits and formatting, I’m way past any hope of coffee salvation. So…from THE DEVIL’S CUT, two quick snippets about good times, bad times, or sometimes…if you have the time. 😉

****
She stripped out of her lab coat and grabbed her jacket. She dug in her jean pockets for a key ring, found the key she needed and unlocked a desk drawer. A nylon holster hugged a very serviceable 9mm Glock. Adele clipped the pistol to her belt, patted it, and grabbed a second black nylon duffel investigation kit. She slung it over her left shoulder, the same side as the gun on her hip, causing Caleb to shake his head. He thought about Sade. She would never have made such a rookie mistake—not even when she was a rookie.

“You don’t spend much time around criminals, do you?” Caleb asked as he held the office door for her. He didn’t offer to carry the bag.

She made a lemon face at him. “What do you mean?”

“Never mind. Just remind me to hightail it out of range if you draw your weapon.”

“Hey! I qualify on the range every year.”

“Yeah? So does my grandmother, but I still wouldn’t take her to a gunfight.”

Miffed, Adele marched into the elevator as its doors opened and remained stonily silent all the way down to the first floor. She didn’t wait for Caleb. As soon as the doors opened, she hit the exit and stomped off toward her vehicle. Caleb trailed behind enjoying her pique. She might not be much of a real cop, but he’d bet she was an excellent CSI—when she wasn’t dealing with magic. Plus, she was certainly easy on the eyes. He grinned, adding another checkmark to his mental list. Adele McCoy had not said the word “like” once. Mimi’s speech had been peppered with “Like ya know, I mean like yeah.”

****

TIME TICKED AWAY. Adele survived Christmas and the not-so-subtle digs about her chosen career from her father.

“When you gonna take the test to be a real cop, girl?” was the central theme of Christmas Day. She survived. So she felt a little lonely. What else was new? Even if she had the urge to find a picture of a certain FBI agent, pin it to the wall, and throw darts at it. Humph. She didn’t need him. Or want him.

When the New Year arrived, she felt no remorse for kicking the Old Year out the door. Winter finally showed up with a vengeance. Snow. Ice. Howling winds. Road crews worked around the clock to keep the roads clear. Ironically, the weather didn’t keep criminals home where anyone with any sense would be.

****

Looks like this puppy will be ready in time for Halloween. Check back for updates! 😀

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Tuesday Treats: Crockpot Chicken Stroganoff

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Silver James

Now that the days are getting cooler (and I’m getting busier), I’m rediscovering my cooking BFF–my Crockpot! I tried this out not long ago and it was pretty darn tasty! It made more than enough for Lawyer Guy and me so I froze the half we didn’t eat for another time. It wasn’t bad at all thawed then heated in the microwave.

Crockpot stroganoffCrockpot Chicken Stroganoff

Ingredients:

4 or 5 frozen boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 4-ounce can of sliced mushrooms
1 8-ounce package of cream cheese
1 container of sour cream (16 ounces)
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
egg noodles
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:

Spray slow-cooker with non-stick cooking spray. Or use the crockpot liners. Easy cleanup and you can freeze the leftovers in the bag. 🙂
Add frozen chicken breasts to the Crockpot. Mix garlic with cream of mushroom soup and spoon mix on top of chicken.
Cut cream cheese into cubes and add to chicken. Toss in mushrooms.
Add salt and pepper to your liking.
Cook on low for 6-8 hours.
Stir once or twice throughout the day to mix all the ingredients.
About 20 minutes before dinner, prepare the egg noodles.
While the noodles are boiling, add sour cream to the chicken – mix well. Try not to completely break up the chicken while mixing. It’s nice to have some big chunks of chicken in this dish.
Drain noodles and add to chicken, stirring well. Serve and eat.

What’s your favorite cool weather dinner?

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Monday Isn’t for Sissies

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Silver James

Monday again coffee girlIt isn’t. Monday. For sissies. It takes gumption to face a new week. You have to face all the crap you didn’t get done last week plus all the new stuff heaped on your desk for the coming week. It helps if you have coffee. Caffeine is a panacea. It is also the elixir of the gods. I know this because coffee allows me to function. To be nice (or at least civil). To ignore stupidity. Usually. That’s becoming harder and harder.

As most of you probably saw in the news, Oklahoma State Univeristy’s homecoming was marred by tragedy. OSU has suffered it’s share. Part of the men’s basketball team, coaching staff, and a beloved member of the local media were killed in 2001 returning from a game against Colorado. In 2011, the OSU Women’s Basketball head and assistant coaches died in a plane crash. In 1977, three members of a fraternity were killed with scaffolding they’d set up to build a homecoming float collapsed and hit power lines, electrocuting them. Saturday, though, a car plowed through barricades, hitting an unoccupied police motorcycle and slammed into the crowd lining the street to watch the homecoming parade. Three adults died at the scene. A 2 year-old boy died at OU Children’s Hospital later that afternoon. A 7 year-old girl is fighting for her life. Forty-seven were injured. The driver, a 25 year-old was arrested at the scene on probable cause for DUI. Someone on Facebook said it was a sad accident. No it’s not. It wasn’t an accident. Whether the woman was impaired by alcohol, drugs, or a medical condition (unlikely at last update but no definitive info on her condition), she made the DELIBERATE decision to get behind the wheel of the car. If her accelerator got stuck? It was an accident. If she was perfectly fine when she got behind the wheel then suffered a medical episode? It was an accident. Thing is, she’d been sent home from work because she was “acting strangely.” And her pupils, in her mug shut were the size of pinpricks. Hrm…. I’m not a Drug Recognition Expert, but I’ve had a little experience. If it turns out, she did have some sort of medical episode, I’ll call the incident what it would be–a tragic accident. But that evidence isn’t there yet and for someone to excuse the idea that anyone who drives impaired has an “accident” breaks my brain.

Okay, climbing off my soapbox and ending the rant. *takes a deep breath*

Here, have something to bring a chuckle–hopefully. It made me laugh. Lawyer Guy shared this:

Santa: What do you want for Christmas?
Teenage Girl: A dragon.
Santa: No, really.
Girl: A loyal boyfriend.
Santa: What color dragon?

Nikos likes that idea. He’s silver in dragon form, just in case you’re wondering. You’ll get the full description of him come Saturday. Looks like I will get it all done in time for a Halloween release.

What else? Oh…RDR#3 is now titled THE BOSS AND HIS COWGIRL and it releases in June 2016. No word on cover art yet. The Red Dirt series is going even more international (the first two books are already available in England and Australia) with 2016 releases in France, Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Pretty freaking cool.

Autumn finally arrived. Daily temps are in the 60s and 70s with lows in 40s and 50s. It’s about time! But, that means an avalanche of leaves. Luckily, our Christmas present from last year is the gift that keeps on giving–LG’s bro pays for lawn service for us. No mowing or leaf raking/blowing/collecting. Yayayayay!

TV: I’m so far behind I should delete this topic for awhile. I did catch up on CODE BLACK. Still liking it. Gave up on ROSEWOOD. It wasn’t bad, but no way to keep up along with everything else. Need to catch up on BLINDSPOT and THE BASTARD EXECUTIONER.

Books: Still doing that whole “comfort read” thing. Alternating between Nalini Singh’s series and Ilona Andrews.

OH! I knew there was something else. FAERIE FAITH is being released in a three-novella anthology on November 16th–The Brides of Christmas Vol. 3. You can check the Faerie Reign page for details.

And I think that’s it. How was your weekend? Any plans for the week?

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