Wednesday Words – Old West, etc.

Posted on June 4, 2014 by Silver James

I’ve been on another reading marathon. I do so appreciate my local library system, especially when I want to try out a new-to-me author and then nom any backlist of an author I glom onto.

The following are several snippets/quotes that caught my eye, made me laugh, or gave wonderful character insight during the past week. From the historical westerns of Jo Goodman:

Raine took all the information in. “I don’t know if you can appreciate that none of that really eases my mine as to your presence in my rooms. Tell me, how would your family describe you.”

“Black sheep.”

“Well,” she said after a moment. “That puts it all into perspective, doesn’t it?”

“Some have said so.” ~Lorraine and Kellen from THE LAST RENEGADE, Jo Goodman

The braid never moved except when Priscilla raised her hand to answer a question; then it slid ever so slightly to one side and the tip curled like an apostrophe. Or maybe a comma. Those punctuation marks were suspiciously similar, except one was high and one was low. It was no wonder he got them confused. ~Finn Collins, ruminating on the schoolmate sitting in front of him, (Finn’s nine, FYI) from TRUE TO THE LAW, Jo Goodman

And hopping to a paranormal present, this next quote is from a new series I discovered.

“Maybe I just enjoy dating.”

“No one enjoys, dating,” said Miach.
(Conversation between Helene Whitney, a human, and Miach MacCecht, a Fae sorcerer and Southie crime lord) SILVER SKIN, A Cold Iron novel, by D.L McDermott

And here’s a little teaser from my WIP, COWGIRL’S SWEETHEART, from the hero’s POV as he ruminates on the love of his life:

Jolene Davis. Juliet to his Romeo—the poison that killed their relationship spilling from their families rather than a bottle.

Anybody have words to share? Or a book you’re reading and enjoying? Like I NEED more books on my TBR list because I obviously don’t have enough now. 🙄

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , | 12 Comments

Tuesday Treats – Pretzel Chicken

Posted on June 3, 2014 by Silver James

pretzel chickenThis is a quick, healthy baked chicken recipe for when you want something different.

4 skinless/boneless chicken breasts (halves)
6 Tablespoons egg whites (or whites from two eggs)
2 Tablespoons honey mustard
1 1/2 cup crushed pretzels (put pretzels in a ziplock bag and crush them with a rolling pin)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan/Italian cheese (I use fresh though you can probably use the canned version)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme, crushed
Nonstick olive oil cooking spray

Preheat oven to 425. Using the flat side of meat mallet, gently pound chicken between two sheets of plastic wrap (or in a baggie) until even thickness.

Place egg whites and mustard in a shallow dish; beat with a fork to mix. In a larger shallow dish, combine crushed pretzels, cheese, and thyme.

Dip chicken in egg white mixture. Press into crumb mixture to coat. Place chicken in a single layer on an ungreased, foil-lined baking sheet. Sprinkle chicken with any remaining crumb mixture and press lightly. Coat with cooking spray.

Bake chicken uncovered for 14-18 minutes or until no longer pink (internal temperature of 170 degrees).

Now that I’ve dug this recipe out, I’m going to make it this week. 🙂

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , | 7 Comments

Monday. Uhm-kay…

Posted on June 2, 2014 by Silver James

funny-pictures-my-official-monday-faceHow does this happen? I turn around…or close my eyes…or go to refill my coffee cup and it’s Monday. Again. Stupid bugger. It just keeps showing up like an uninvited wedding guest.

I read last week. A lot. The Goodreads challenge says I’ve only read 78 books. I’ve actually read 81 because…rereads. 😀 GR doesn’t accept rereads for the challenge. Oh well. I enjoyed them! The next few weeks has some great books releasing, so lots more reading, I’m sure.

I did NOT write much last week. My head was…elsewhere. And I think Iffy is having an affair with the Coffee Fae. They’ve both been MIA. I’ll round them up this week because I have way too many characters jabbering at me. I need to get COWGIRL’S SWEETHEART drafted so I can revise and get it off to Mr. HEd. And then get on to other projects. Yay.

New/old shows are starting up. Longmire’s new season starts Monday (today). I’m also catching up two seasons of Vikings. I DVR’d the show but never got around to watching. I guess I’m in a sort of “bloody-minded” mood of late so I’m watching it and thinking…wow! Why did I put it off? This is a History channel series. Check it out.

This week, I’ll be refocusing on writing. Or else. 😉 What’s cookin’ with y’all?

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , | 6 Comments

Friday Sinema – Don’t Ring the Bell

Posted on May 30, 2014 by Silver James

On May 19, 2014, Naval Admiral William H. McRaven, ninth commander of U.S. Special Operations Command, Navy SEAL, and the man in charge of the raid the took out Bin Laden, addressed the graduating class of his alma mater, the University of Texas. Take the twenty minutes to watch and listen, and to really HEAR what the man is saying–from making your bed to changing the world. Ooh-rah, Admiral!

Have a great weekend!

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , | 4 Comments

Universal Gray

Posted on May 29, 2014 by Silver James

universeSomeone asked me if I’d ever “been there.” Oh yeah. I remember curling up under the covers for what seemed like months at a time. Why? Because everything was gray. Because maybe and sometime and shoulda, coulda, woulda were so much easier than doing. Then one day, I realized that safety WAS an illusion. So I got up. I did what I had to do. And I found my way back into the world.

Silver, avoid gray areas.

There, the illusion of safety is guarded by the lies of “maybe,” “sometime,” and “I don’t know.” There is a truth. There is a way. Life is absolute, and its principles exacting. If you put it out “there,” it has to come back. Ask, and it must be revealed.

Think, speak, and move with your desires, and nothing will ever be the same.

Tallyho,
The Universe

© http://www.tut.com ®

Silver, now that’s what I’m talking about.

It wasn’t easy. It isn’t easy. Some days I don’t want to put one foot in front of the other, but the alternative scares the bejesus out of me, so yeah. I hear you, Universe. So I’m thinking, speaking, and moving with my desires, my hopes, and my dreams, all laid out there. And guess what–nothing is the same.

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , | 6 Comments

Wednesday Words – Courtesy of Tessa Dare and a Duke

Posted on May 28, 2014 by Silver James

mobile phone and books Today’s words come from Tessa Dare and her new release, ROMANCING THE DUKE. This book is utterly delicious, each word, sentence, paragraph, and page to be savored like a seven-course formal dinner. Only Ransom, the Duke isn’t formal at all. And his nemesis, the resourceful Izzy Goodnight is full of imagination and romance, just what the injured hero needs.

The heroine’s observation on the weather:

It started to rain. Fat, heavy drops of summer rain–the kind that always struck her as vaguely lewd and debauched. Little potbellied drunkards, those summer raindrops, chortling on their way to earth and crashing open with glee.

And on sunsets:

“The sun is setting just beyond the tower. But ‘setting’ is the wrong word for this. Too peaceful. This sun is struggling. Going down like a bloodied fighter in the jaws of a great, stony beast.”

The heroine was describing the sight to the Duke, who is blind. And here’s Ransom’s take on that whole romance thing…

Bloody hell. Where did women come up with these rules? Did they keep them in a book somewhere? Sometimes he wondered if women were all lawyers, with an extensive code of Romantic Law that they kept stubbornly hidden from men.

Izzy had just demanded a do-over on her first kiss, delivered by the Duke. I’m not saying any more. Go read the book!

Who else has words to share today?

Posted in Books, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , | 7 Comments

Tuesday Tease and Treats – Red Dirt

Posted on May 27, 2014 by Silver James

glasses-keyboardOkay…I’m not sure how much of a treat it’ll be…and there really isn’t a tease, but hey…alliteration, ya know? 😉

So…go look around. See if you can figure out what’s new and different around the site. And let me know what you think. There’s a new welcome. A new page. New banners and…stuff.

And just for you, here’s a little snippet from Red Dirt Royalty’s first book, COWGIRLS DON’T CRY–this is the first meeting between Cassidy Morgan and Chance Barron:

She reconsidered getting another drink. Or ordering a bottle from room service. She knew that wasn’t the answer, not to mention the other drawbacks. Fighting the crowd at the airport and dealing with things at home while nursing a hangover just didn’t appeal. Cass turned and buried her nose in a starched white shirt.

“Easy, darlin’.”

The man’s large hands gripped her biceps and kept her upright despite the fact her knees had turned to jelly. She tilted her head to look up. Quite a ways up. Chiseled jaw shadowed by dark stubble, eyes the color of amber, and dark hair—thick, silky, and worn just a little long so that it caressed his wide forehead and kissed the collar of his crisp shirt. She swallowed. Hard.

“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were standing there.” She didn’t stammer. Two points for her. She cringed inside at how breathless her voice sounded. Surprise. That’s all. She didn’t want or need the complication presented by this sexy man right now.

“S’okay, hon. I didn’t mean to scare you.”

She backed away from him and shook his hands free. “Scare me?” Her brow quirked as she lifted her chin. “I don’t scare, mister.” Now that she had a good look at him, her brows narrowed in speculation. “You look sort of familiar. Have we met before?”

Cass managed not to blush as those wolf-like eyes traveled over her body from head to toe and back again. A smile she could only describe as appreciative spread across his full lips.

“Honey, as beautiful as you are, I’m sure I’d remember.” He held out his hand as if to introduce himself when the electronic theme from the old television show “Rawhide” emanating from his pocket startled them both.
A look of anger flashed across his face and he muttered something that sounded like, “Dammit, I’m busy.”

I hope everyone had a safe weekend. Who had fun? What’s on the agenda for this week? Me? I have another eye appointment and then the rest of the week is slotted for writing. Chance’s brother Cord is getting antsy about whether or not he and Jolie are going to have some really hot make-up sex. 😉

Posted in Books, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Friday Sinema – Maks and Meryl Part Deux

Posted on May 23, 2014 by Silver James

Some of you may not have figured it out, but I’m a huge Maks fangirl. I even “cast” him as one of my characters in a WIP (a Victorian gaslight paranormal) and he might just make a reappearance as a bad-boy motorcycle club prez in a WIP series mostly on the drawing board. When he’s on Dancing With the Stars, I’m right there, watching-rewinding-watching each of his dances. This year, season 18, Maksim Chmerkovskiy and Meryl Davis have been magical. This is a compilation someone did of their journey.

And this is the dance that put them over the top in the finals.

If that isn’t romance, nothing is. ❤

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Thursday Thoughts – Universal Dream

Posted on May 22, 2014 by Silver James

universeHow can it be Thursday? I’m not ready! If I got more sleep this week, maybe I would be. Yo, Universe? I need some words on insomnia and why it’s visiting me. A lot!

In the meantime, I’ll go with this because when I do sleep? The dreams have been doozies. I’d rather talk about “The” dream…or “A” dream because being human, we have more than one. Once upon a time, a lot of people told me my dream to be a “working” writer–one where I got paid to do what I love–was silly. “Get your head out of the clouds!” “Who are you talking to–there’s no one there…” “Quit your day job?!?”

Yeah, about that… Here I am. I never let go of the dream. It took me longer than I anticipated, and I really shouldn’t have quite my day job but I did. And here I am…

Silver, there are a million reasons why any dream might be considered irrational, unreasonable, and a silly waste of time.

On the other hand, I can think of one that blows ’em all out of the water… we’re in this together.

Hup 1, Hup 2 –
The Universe
© http://www.tut.com ®

Silver, there’s no breath you take, or step you make, that we don’t share.

Yes, Universe…I’m breathing and stepping and I’m glad you’re with me. Don’t give up your dreams. Keep dreaming them! And now I’m going back to bed. Because I can do that. Just like I can write in my jammies, after stopping in the kitchen for coffee as I stumble from my bedroom to get to my office. It’s a dream that I work on every day to fulfill!

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments

Wednesday Words – Men

Posted on May 21, 2014 by Silver James

cowboy-abs4I’ve been in the heads of my male characters of late and men surely don’t think like women do. So, because I wanted to use this pic–because this is the pic that’s always been what I see in my mind’s eye when I think of Chance Barron, I thought I’d offer some quotes about the male of the species. 😉

Freaking men. It didn’t matter what the problem was, they saw only three solutions to it: food, sex, war.” ~Charley Davidson, Fifth Grave Past the Light

I have been in the revenge business for so long, now that it’s over I do not know what to do with the rest of my life. ~Inigo Montoya, The Princess Bride

Men. Can’t live with ’em and can’t kill ’em. ~Sade Marquis, The Devil’s Cut

Show me a man with a weapon and something to blow up, and I’ll show you a happy camper. ~Major Hannah McIntire, Moonstruck: Secrets and Lies

Hell, yeah! ~The Wolves, in response to Hannah’s comment

Cold beer, a fast Harley, a hot woman. And maybe a pizza. Definitely the Harley and the beer. ~Elijah “Easy” Cross, sergeant of arms of the Nightriders Motorcycle Club

Yes, some of those are teases from upcoming books and characters. 😉 What are y’all doing this Happy Hump Day?

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , | 4 Comments