Monday Funday

Posted on December 2, 2013 by Silver James

DecenberLook over there–> On the side there. Blog hop and Holiday Party! Go partake. You might win cool stuff.

Holy moly! College football was totally cray-cray this weekend. I’m rather glad “my” OSU wasn’t playing. We play OU this coming Saturday in the “Bedlam” game. I am sad that Michigan didn’t beat that other OSU. They almost pulled it off!

I spent the weekend beta reading for a close friend. OMG! Y’all!!! I will be yelling from the rooftops when this book is released. No timetable yet. But trust me, it’s so good that even after reading it, I kept getting lost in it as I was going back to make some minor corrections in the formatting.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving–turkey sandwiches, pumpkin pie and the DVD of REDS 2 with the kids on Thanksgiving Eve. Dim sum with Lawyer Guy’s “heart” brother on TGD. Yum! Laid back reading time on Friday. Football on Saturday. Laid back TV catch-up and reading on Sunday.

And now it’s a new week. A new month. The sooper sekrit project is on-going. NaNoWriMo is over. The great mishmash that is THE DEVIL’S CUT will demand my attention soon. What about the rest of you? Was it a good holiday weekend for you? And anyone who says all their Christmas shopping is done will be…I don’t know. Forced to eat whipped cream from the can or something. 😆 What did y’all do?

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December Fun!

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Silver James

DecenberOoh! Look at the calendar. It’s December 1st. Do you know what that means? It means I’m participating in two very fun “parties” for readers. See the two pretty invites over there on the right? The top one–all blue and sparkly and wintery–is for the Night Owl Reviews Winter Wonderland blog hop. I’m one of many authors participating. Click on the Winter Wonderland picture and go find out how to participate. I’m giving away a gift basket of goodies all relating to the Penumbra Papers series. Trust me…there is some REALLY cool stuff in that basket!

And then there is Carly Phillips and Erica Wilde’s 12 Days of Christmas party over on Facebook. Click and sign up. It’s going to be a lot of fun with another big bunch of authors all giving fun stuff away–books, gift cards, and bigger prizes. Same deal, click and go join the party!

Happy Holidays and go have fun! And to make it easy for the next 12 days…
a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Muchas Gracias, Merci, and Thanks

Posted on November 27, 2013 by Silver James

thanksgivingTomorrow is Thanksgiving Day here in the States. We’re going a little untraditional this year. The Only and Magic Bean accompanied by Baseball Boy are coming to dinner tonight for what has become the James Gang traditional feast–roasted turkey sandwiches. Normally I serve pie too and still might. I haven’t decided yet. The kids are headed to the in-laws on Thanksgiving Day, though they’ll start out with a pan of my cinnamon rolls because “MOM! It’s not Thanksgiving without them!” So I made roll dough last night. Today will be spent making, baking, roasting, and the family sitting around with sandwiches, chips, and maybe a slice of pumpkin pie after. None of us really need pumpkin pie but…tradition!

On Thursday, Lawyer Guy and I are headed to a local Chinese restaurant to meet up with LG’s office partner. We’ll be dining on dim sum. And once we’ve had our fill, we can come home, take naps, and when we wake up hungry, there will be leftover turkey for sandwiches. And pie. So yeah, I am sooo baking a pumpkin pie today.

Anyway, I wanted to share what I’m thankful for before I take the next four days off. I’m thankful for LG, Only, BB, and the Bean who will make his appearance in the spring, and the in-laws, out-laws and heart family we’ve adopted along the way.

I am thankful for my friends and each and every one of you who make the time to stop in, read my BS, and sometimes respond. I am thankful for my readers. I hope I’ll always be able to tell a story you’ll be interested in reading.

I’m thankful I live in a country where I can think and say what I want, where my daughter is free to be everything she can be without fear of reprisal.

I’m thankful I have a roof over my head, food on my table, and a little left over for some extras. And coffee. I am VERY thankful for coffee!

I’m thankful for Boone and Cooper. They make me get up and move. I’m thankful for Adidas because she makes me sit still.

I’m thankful for the faith my dad had in me and for his teaching me about dreams and imagination. I miss him every single day.

I’m thankful for every day I open my eyes and there’s a new world to see, to imagine, to conquer.

That’s a lot to be thankful for. And it humbles me how good my life really is. If you feel so inclined, share what you are thankful for. I’m off to cook!

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I Wish You a Merry Christmas Moon!

Posted on November 26, 2013 by Silver James

LOOK! LOOK! It’s a Wolf! Actually, it’s a pack of Wolves, their mates, their kids, and as Liam says to his dad, “It’s like a Die Hard movie.” In other words, the Wolves do Christmas in their own, inimitable way. You know you want to read it so go get it. Now!

Christmas Moon 680CHRISTMAS MOON – A Moonstruck Novella (#7) AVAILABLE NOW FROM AMAZON
The Wolves have been busy since blowing up half of Louisiana. Thanks to the government, there’s a bounty on their heads so they’re living off the grid. But Christmas is here and the kids want to know if Santa will find them this year. Not a problem until the phone call asking them to find and rescue a pregnant girl. On December 20th. In New Mexico. Piece of fruit cake, right?

Walking into a firefight with a drug cartel is never easy, but with Hannah’s wrath and Liam’s first change on the line, Mac and the Wolves face a harder choice—save the girl or save Christmas.

Secrets, lies, and betrayals are more personal under the Christmas moon, and it might just take the magic of Santa to help the Wolves save the day and make it home to their families in time. Because in the end, it’s all about family.

Warning: Santa’s making his list and when the Wolves go into action, they’ll find out who’s naughty and who’s nice.

♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Don’t forget to mark it WANT TO READ and leave a review at GOODREADS! Please and thank you very much! 😀

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Monday’s Market asks Why?

Posted on November 25, 2013 by Silver James

Did everyone have a great weekend? Oklahoma State (ranked #10 at the time) beat Baylor (ranked #4) so it was a good football weekend around here, despite the cold–including sleet and snow yesterday. Brrrrr!

Okay, remember that Jingle Bell K-Mart commercial I posted Friday? It’s obviously gone viral. But is that necessarily a good thing? I want you to take a moment and watch this commercial from Kohl’s. Trust me.

Both are Christmas commercials for department stores. The K-Mart’s left me with a WTF?!? look on my face. The Kohl’s? I got all sniffly and full of the Christmas spirit. I’ll give you three guesses which store I’ll be shopping in, and the first two don’t count. 😉

But this raises questions… Why does something go viral? And does it lead to sales or just notoriety? I think about these things because I’m trying to figure out marketing and what makes readers flock to some books and ignore others–even those written by the same author. If y’all feel like wading in on the discussion, speak up! I’m interested in your thoughts.

In the meantime, CHRISTMAS MOON will be hitting the Amazon digital shelves soon. Stay tuned for further announcements!

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SATURDAY AWESOMESAUCE SINEMA

Posted on November 23, 2013 by Silver James

To make up for yesterday, here’s something totally fun from the staff at Pindara Private Hospital in Australia, which explains a lot. 😆 Trust me, you’ll want to watch it all the way to the end for the outtakes. No, really!

I want these people for my doctors!

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Friday WTF Sinema – Jingle Whoa!

Posted on November 22, 2013 by Silver James

It’s Friday. We had a blue norther come through last night. Dropped the temperature 40 degrees in about 30 minutes. Seriously. So I’m snuggled in, working but decided I needed to share the bad. If you haven’t seen this ad…well…just watch it.

So? WTF? Great marketing? Here. Have a margarita. It helps. *nods* No, really. Drink.

Happy Friday! Who has fun plans? Me? I’m working. Next week is Thanksgiving. ACK! *muppet flail* Have a great weekend.

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Thursday’s Thoughts – Imagining the Muse

Posted on November 21, 2013 by Silver James

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Today’s post is all about the Muse. And what s/he represents. Imagination. As you all know, my Muse is named Iffy. I picture her as a pouty child with very large scissors. Why is she a child? Because children’s imaginations are the stuff of legend. And sadly, because as we grow up, that’s often the part of us–the BEST part of us–left behind. Writers and other dreamers manage to hold onto our imaginations. We create Muses to personify it. For those of you participating in National Novel Writing Month, today is the 21st day. And today, you have permission to give your Muse the green light. Let them out to play. And to help you along, here are some of my favorite quotes for inspiration or to give you a nudge.

Think left and think right and think low and think high. Oh, the thinks you can think up if only you try! ~Dr. Seuss, American author

I can always count of Dr. Seuss. He is the thread that ties my childhood to The Only’s and who will lasso the Magic Bean into our web, too. His wit and wisdom transcends ages.

Live out of your imagination, not your history. ~Steven Covey, American businessman

This speaks to those who define things based upon the past. Put the past behind you. Look to today and tomorrow. Both are filled with possibilities if you just let your Muse fly.

Imagination will often carry us to worlds that never were. But without it we go nowhere. ~Carl Sagan, American astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, author

This. As writers, we create worlds for our characters with the hopes of drawing our readers into those worlds. Imagination takes us there. Hard work keeps us there. But without Imagination to lead the way, we go nowhere.

Keep writing. Keep reading. Keep imagining!

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MikeMikeMikeMike….

Posted on November 20, 2013 by Silver James

Road less traveledYes, it’s Wednesday. Again. I sure wish I could figure out where time goes. I mean…there’s 24 hours in a day, right? And considering I only sleep 4-6 hours, that leaves somewhere between 18-20 hours in which to be productive and get things done. Yet so often by the time I crawl into bed, my to-do list is longer than I started in the morning and while I know I’ve marked somethings off, it really seems I haven’t.

Which is a really weird segue into thoughts on marketing. Saturday’s program at OKRWA was presented by the really cool gals of Fresh Fiction, Gwen and Sarah Reyes. They were full of advice on how an author can get noticed, suggestions on ways to interact with readers, and stuff like that there. They said an author MUST HAVE a newsletter. Ouch. But they’re right, in a way. There are some review sites that won’t look at a book unless the author can prove up a following. How does one do that? A mailing list. Ugh, right? Yeah. My sentiments exactly. They don’t want the addresses, just the numbers, and proof that you contact that many. Don’t ask. So…in the New Year, I’ll be initiating a newsletter and begging asking folks to sign up.

The other thing they suggested, and I think it’s kind of cool and am much less resistent to the idea, is author swag for fans to buy. Tee shirts. Tote bags. Pens. Mugs. Notebooks. Stuff. I’ll be revisiting this idea too, probably with a poll. But let’s do an informal poll here. What sort of author/book/series items would you be interested in? And who’s ready for the weekend?

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Writing Stuff, Nonsense, and Other Stuff

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Silver James

Writing Stuff:
Thanks for your patience in my not posting yesterday. Because I was so focused on finishing and then editing, CHRISTMAS MOON is now in the hands of a very capable editing team. Final count came to almost 31K words. Even if I do say so myself, I think this is a story y’all will like. Soo…One down, two to go! Well…one to write and one to edit. If I write about 4K words a day, I can meet my personal goal for NaNoWriMo. I really need to get RL stuff taken care of. I owe all of you a package and my goal is to make it to the Post Office today.

Nonsense:
Me as Sade and Siobhan I got my photo CD from Hot Mojave Knights. I promised y’all a pic of me “impersonating” Sade. Whoa. BAD idea on my part! 😆 But…here it is, with my good friend and sister author, Siobhan Muir. If you’re a glutton for punishment, you can click on the photo to make it bigger. Yes, that’s a fake beauty mark, a la Sade, and now you know why I keep my hair cropped. 😆

And now for some sublime stuff. There are the four Hot Mojave Knights in attendance at the event. From left to right, that’s Scott N, Chris, Matt, and Scott R. Those muscles are real. *swoon* But you know what they say, right? What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas! (Unless your daughter tags along and takes pictures! :lol:) You can–and will want to–click on the guys’ photo to enlarge it. Trust me. 😀

Fan club

So what’s going on your lives of late? Staying busy? Getting ready for the holidays?

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