Wednesday Words: Not Like That

Posted on December 4, 2024 by Silver James

Since last Thursday was a holiday here in the USA, there was no Thursday Threads challenge. Have no fear, though! As I periodically judge the installments, there are prompts that I don’t use–at least not at the time. I keep them, though, and went back to find one. Also, I cheated a little bit because I went over the normal 250 words count. Still, I think it’s a pretty good snippet and we get to touch base with Mac and Hannah. Writers, in case you’re ready to get back in the writing mood, the prompt is: *”It wasn’t like that.”*

****
Mac watched Hannah. He wasn’t glowering. He wasn’t amused. In fact, for the first time in all the years they’d been together, she couldn’t decide the exact state of his mind. Not for the first time, it irked her that, as a Wolf, he could so easily discern her emotions just by her scent. She had to rely on basic human abilities—body language, facial expressions, tone of voice. At the moment, he was pretty much a blank slate.

She knew better but she couldn’t help herself. She opened her mouth to defend her actions. Before she could get a word out, Mac raised one hand, palm in her direction. She could almost feel the sigh he didn’t release.

“Mac—”

He cut her off. “Not now, Hannah.”

Her temper bubbled. “If not now, when?”

“Later.”

“No. We aren’t playing that game again.”

“It’s not a game, Hannah.” He threw out an arm in a sweeping motion. “This is very real.”

“You think I don’t fucking know that?”

“If you know, why are you here? This is a damn war zone, babe, and you dragged all the women and kids right into the middle of it. For what? To keep a promise you shouldn’t have made in the first place? To prove that you’re some kind of bad ass?”

His anger hit her like a wall of flame and her own flared in response. She notched her chin, planted her hands on her hips and opened her mouth to rip him a new one.

“It wasn’t like that, Dad.”

She and Mac both whirled to face their son.

“Don’t blame Mom. This is all my fault.”
****

Ah, Liam. The peacemaker. Also, Liam, who has one of the best lines in this part of the story! “Dad! It’s like a Die Hard movie!” And that brings us to the question of the day: IS “Die Hard” a Christmas movie? 🙋🏼‍♀️

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Christmas Crack(le) Candy

Posted on December 3, 2024 by Silver James

It’s December. Christmas is coming–along with a host of other holidays depending on how you celebrate. Today’s recipe came out of my files, given to me by a former neighbor. Long story, snippet version: Very nice mom and dad and 2 boys moved in. Only was older and nicknamed them The Weasleys. As the boys had red hair, this made sense. I took them Christmas rolls, she brought us Christmas Crack Candy. When she became ill, I asked for the recipe and started making it for both houses. At Dad’s request, I stopped making the candy after she passed, but they still got my rolls. Anyway, they’ve moved on and a new family now live in the Weasley House. Yes, they’ll get my rolls too. Anway, it’s Tuesday and here’s a yummy recipe that’s quick and easy during this busy time of year.

Prep time: 15 minutes>
Cook time: 9 minutes
Chill time: 15-25 minutes
Total time: 40-50 minutes
Yield: 24 – 40 pieces (depending on the size)

Ingredients

  • 40 Saltine crackers (approximately)
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter
  • 1 cup light brown sugar
  • 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels
  • 1 cup white chocolate morsels
  • 1/2 cup mini M&Ms
  • 1 tbsp. Christmas sprinkles
 

Let’s Make It

1 – Preheat oven to 325F.

2 – Line an 11 x 17 cookie sheet* with heavy-duty aluminum foil. Spray generously with nonstick cooking/baking spray.

3 – Line the pan with saltine crackers, the sides touching. (Crackers are about 2″x2″ square so you should get 5 across and 8 down. They won’t quite touch the sides of the pan becaue of the foil).

4 – In a small sauce pan, melt the butter and brown sugar over medium-low heat, stirring constantly. Once the butter is melted, bring to a gentle boil for 3 minutes. No more, no less! Continue stirring constantly.

5 – Once the mixture thickens to “toffee,” spread it over the crackers. Bake in preheated oven for 9 minutes.**

6 – After toffee is baked, remove pan. Sprinkle 2 cups of chocolate chips and gently spread using a rubber or silicone spatula. (See Tip 1). Once the chocolate is evenly spread, sprinkle 1 cup of white chocolate chips on top, followed by M&Ms and the holiday sprinkles.

7 – Put baking sheet in freezer to harden (about 15 minutes). No room in the freezer? Chill in the fridge for about 45 minutes.

8 – Once the candy is hardened, “crack” into bars using a knife or break into pieces using your hands.

*Cookie sheet/pan should have sides

**Turn off the oven and let it cool a little while you are adding the toppings. See Tips…

Tips:

1 – I like my chocolate melted a little so after I sprinkled and s[read the chocolate chips on top and they hadn’t melted enough to suit me, I slipped the pan back into the oven for just a couple of minutes to help melt the chips before adding the rest of the toppings.

2 – You can add peanuts, pecans, crunched pretzels, and/or peanut M&Ms to make the taste combinations you enjoy. You can substitute dark chocolate chips for the semi-sweet, butter scotch for the white, etc. 

Our guest “cook” today is Bridget Nolan, a Southie girl born and bred. She takes no guff from anyone and she’ll tell you that she’s “addicted” to three things: Dropkick Murphy, Christmas Crack Candy and tough guy Sean Sullivan. “Though not necessarily in that order,” Bridget teases. “Me and Ma, we made sheets and sheets of this stuff every Christmas. When I was little, Ma let me use her wooden meat mallet to bang on the candy to break it up. Once I figured out that any small piece was deemed unacceptable for gifting but were fair game for us kids to eat, I went to town with that mallet.” Her eyes twinkle as she adds, “Needless to say, my shift as head cracker didn’t last long.” She shares a look with the other mates. “You should know that these guys? They have wicked sweet tooths.”

Don’t we all? You can read about how Sean rescued Bridget in MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON. Just click on any of the pics with the book cover, the title, or here: Books2Read to head over to the landing page to find your favorite on-line book seller. Is there a tradition of sharing Christmas treats/food dishes with neighbors in your family? What do you share? And

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First Monday Musing

Posted on December 2, 2024 by Silver James

Ya know…I really don’t like the first of a new month. It’s depressing. I check my ‘Zon author’s dashboard every day to see if I’ve had any sales. When faced with a row of zeros? Yeah, downer time. *sigh* Last month was too bad. I made almost a hundred $$. When it hits my account in 2 months, it’s better than the $18.89 that was deposted over the weekend. And folks think us writers are rolling in it. Maybe if you hit the best seller list but most of us? Not so much. We do this because we love telling stories and entertaining people. Anyway, that was depressing way to start the day.

In happier news, I was out of bed for the majority of the day yesterday and managed to space out my meds from every 4 (like I had alarms set!) hours, I was going almost 8 between doses. So, feeling better. YAY! But still low energy. Boo!

Last week was mostly down time due to the sinus infection/chest cold from hell. Still, I managed hot rolls (though not truly up to my standards) and pumpkin pie for the family gathering. Our crew visited with the other half and enjoyed good food and company thought Jake and I spent a lot of time in the corner of the living room cum dining room. Yes, we took Jake with us. He’d gone with us at Easter when it was just the James Gang and he’s so much happier (me too!) when he’s with me. Good dog!

Yeah, college football still sucks in these parts. The Kansas City Chiefs managed to pull out another one by the hair on their chinny-chin-chins and they are in the play-offs. Yay! Stormy had no soccer though there are games coming up this week. Maybe. Only is supposed to send the schedule. If they are outdoor games, it’ll depend on the weather if I go or not. Dang cold.

I got nothing done on RETRIBUTION. My bad. It’s hard to work when I’m propped up on pilliows in bed with a heating pad on my chest and trying not to hack up a lung. It’ll get done. At least I’m finally working on it.

Not much else going on. I’m still marathoning the Rock Chick series. Granted, these books are an acquired taste and I find myself occasionally rolling my eyes at all the descriptions of hair, makeup, and clothes, and yes, the predicaments are wildly improbable but I often laugh out loud and find myself wishing these characters were real because I’d like to meet them. And, yes, I will admit that I’ve used Google streetview to go looking for some of the locales just in case they might…you know…be real. Like the bookstore. (The building is there but it wasn’t a bookstore the last I went “walkabout.” Anyway, lots of book listening this past week while I was in bed.

And finally, it’s after Thanksgiving so it is NOW time to get ready for Christmas. In my case, that means scrolling down to the Hallmark channel and bingeing on Hallmark Christmas movies. Last night, it was “The Christmas Quest” and “Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story.” Now it’s time for y’all to ‘fess up. Are you a sucker for Hallmark movies?

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Friday Sinema: Leftovers

Posted on November 29, 2024 by Silver James

Surely this isn’t just a Southern thing…🤣😆🤣 Hope you had a Happy Turkey Day yesterday–whether you ate turkey, ham, beef…or pizza! Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

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Thursday Thoughts: Thankful

Posted on November 28, 2024 by Silver James

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! THANK YOU for everything! You are my WHY! ❤️

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Wednesday Words

Posted on November 27, 2024 by Silver James

It’s Wednesday. Here in the good ol’ USA, there’s a flurry of preparations and travel and baking and cooking and generally getting ready for tomorrow. Yay for Thanksgiving. This year–as I am every year since embarking on my publishing journey–I’m thankful for readers and writer-friends and that I can still string words together to tell a story. Speaking of strings–or more precisely, threads–it’s time for our Thursday Threads* prompt: **He needed more info.** Yes, that was a line from the previous week’s winner–which was MINE! And as mentioned before, I don’t necessarily want to carry on with a previous scene and I didn’t this time. Here’s a whole new scene. It’s pretty self-explanatory and yes, it fits into the additional scenes in CHRISTMAS MOON, which is part 1 of MOONSTRUCK: RETRIBUTION.

****
Mac stared at his phone. Nothing. No response. Where was she? Hannah was perfectly capable of taking care of herself and Liam, along with the others, but it wasn’t like her to ignore both his calls and his texts. That itchy feeling—the one he couldn’t quite scratch—was back. Something was wrong.

“Mac?”

He glanced at Nate. “What?”

The other man narrowed his eyes. “You tell me. What’s up?”

“Nothing.”

Nate arched an imperious brow, the expression speakig volumes.

Mac tried to stare him down—a war between the former army sergeant major and marine captain, both alpha Wolves. He finally shrugged because he needed more info. “Have you talked to Jacey?”

“No. Why?”

“Anybody else?”

“Why would we talk to Jacey?” Leave it to Sean to be a comedian.

Reaching for patience, Mac said, “Any of you talk to your mates since we left?”

The men exchanged glances mostly humor until they paid attention to Mac’s demeanor. Their faces all went blank.

“Hannah won’t pick up.”

“Are they in trouble?” Danny, the expectant father, jumped to his feet.

Sean grabbed his laptop and tapped keys. “I have GPS units on all the vehicles. Gimme a minute.” The men gathered around him, Mac leaning over Sean’s shoulder. “Intel coming through now, boss.” No one breathed. “They’re moving. Or at least your RV is, Mac.”

“Moving which direction?”

“Toward El Paso.He knew his wife. “She’s bringing Christmas here. I’m going to kill her.”
They all chimed in. “We’ll help.”
****

Ahhh, Hannah. Gotta love her. It is fun to be around these folks again. I can admit that I miss them and I’ve been known to try to include them in newer books. Anyway, I hope you took a little break in your doing of things to read this and that it brought a smile. Writers, if your inspiration is elsewhere this week, tuck the prompt back for another day. Readers, what do you wish you had more info about? And Happy Turkey Day tomorrow!

*There were only 4 entries last week, including one from the judge so no winners declared. As a former judge, I’m declaring ALL of us winners last week. 😉

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Tuesday Tidbits: This-n-That

Posted on November 26, 2024 by Silver James

A little bit of this and that today but no food because Thursday is Thanksgiving and my brain is focused on my to-make list for the family gathering at Uncle Fix-It’s.

First up, my good friend, sistah from another mistah, and writer of detective noir has her book up for FREE on Amazon. Go forth and grab it if mysteries and hard-boiled detectives are your catnip. Personally, I loved DukeNoble and this story and since she’s currently editing Duke’s second book, I am sooo ready to revisit my favorite deducing dude. Here’s the cover so click on it or here on the title: RUMOR HAS IT. I mean…it’s FREE!!! So go grab your copy. Here’s the teaser:

FREE for the first time! Duke Noble, P.I. RUMOR HAS IT – a hard-boiled crime novel with grit and guts, and an ending you won’t see coming!
Who Killed Sara Hughes?
She had plans to take her own life. The coroner said she died in her sleep. Her daughter believes she was murdered. Duke Noble, P.I. has suspicions of his own and he’s hot on the trail of the truth.

Remember me talking about making a tribal ribbon skirt with/for Only? We got it made and then the weather turned funky with possible swirlies right at morning rush hours and school time so her wearing it was postponed until last Friday. She got someone to take her pic in front of the school’s Native American/First American celebration banner. Sorry/not sorry to be non-PC but in my family and our native friends, we call ourselves Indians. Anyway, she decided on school colors and I think it turned out well for a quicky project. We’ll take more time on the next one and it will be more intricate.

That’s my Tuesday. I’m off to Wallyworld and brrrr, it’s cold out there. We had our first hard freezed of the season last night–only about 2 weeks late. Jake and I are bundling up and facing the chill. Of course, being furry, he LIKES the cold. Me? Not so much. Not anymore. Still, better than the heat. I can always get warm. I can’t always cool off.

What tidbits do you have to share today?

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Monday Things

Posted on November 25, 2024 by Silver James

Welcome to the final week of November for 2024. Where has the year gone? I know I’m not the only one who has noticed the time is flying. Sadly, I’m not in any hurry so time could slow down and not upset me. At. all. I keep making plans and think I have all this time to get things done and then I blink and all the sudden it’s not tomorrow, it’s freaking next week!

And I have things to do. All the things! Thanksgiving things. Writing things. Life things. And it’s already next week!

Good thing I’m not one to panic. Actually, the Thanksgiving things are pretty simple. My duties for T-giving feast are yeast rolls and pumpkin pie. Easy peasy. I’ve been making the rolls since I was big enough to kneel up on a kitchen stool next to my grandmother and then my mother and then talle nough to stand there and mix them up, then bake them out after a night in the fridge. The roll dough, not me. As for the pumpkin pie, that recipe on the back of the Libby’s Pumpkin can is simple. So’s the pie crust.

The writing things? That’s a different story. It’s a long story. Okay. Not really. It’s three shorter stories that I am turning into a long story. It’s a slog. Which sounds bad. The books I’m compiling are really good books. Even if I do say so myself. Seriously. Most writers tend to…well, not exactly disparage but…downplay. Yeah. That’s a good word to describe it. Most of us have this mindset that our books aren’t as good as we want them to be. It’s been a few years since I read these books and I’m discovering–because I’m reading with fresh eyes–that they are better than I thought. And I’m entertained. Which means I’m reading instead of editing and plotting and filling in so there’s lots of new material. So that’s the writing things. Still hoping to have this ready to go by year’s end. I did fall down the cover photo rabbit hole on Saturday. I have several possibilities. I’ll get with my cover artist and we’ll decide which is the best one.

I’ve been reading things too. I finished off all the most recent novellas in Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson world and then got a wild hair to relisten (for the umpteenth time but not for a few years) the Rock Chick books by Kristen Ashley. These books are pure crack and they make me laugh. This is a good thing.

Friday, LJ, Jake, and I went to Stormy’s Thangsgiving program at his school and then took him home to wait for his mom to get there. She had car lane duty at her school and then caught traffic so it took awhile. We let Jake and their dog Dozer (a very fuzzy and goofy German Shepherd) play out in the backyard. I kept hearing another dog bark and turned around to find a white pittie up in a tree barking at us. You read that right. Up. In. A. TREE! No clue how the puppers got up there but he had no trouble jumping down and then getting back oup there later. Sadly, while I have an awesome dog and two cats, none of them will ever be social media successes. That pittie? Yeah, that dog could go viral!

That’s pretty much the news. I’m going to slow down this week so tomorrow will be something short and hopefully entertaining rather than the usual Tuesday thing. Wednesday, there will be words because they were alreayd done from last week. Thursday is that whole Thanksgiving and family thing here in the States. Friday? Who knows what things I’ll be up to by then. The one thing I WON’T be doing is shopping out in the world! Here’s hoping your things are all manageable and that Monday is a good thing for you. And feel free to tell me about your things… 😉

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Friday Sinema: This Is How You Do It

Posted on November 22, 2024 by Silver James

First, grab the tissue box before you click play. Second, I want one now! Third, this is how you brand. Fourth, I still want one! Fifth, I’m not crying, you are! And finally, This really needs to be a book. Just sayin’… Okay, I’ll return you now to your regularly schedule Friday. Have a good one! And have a great weekend.

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Plotting

Posted on November 21, 2024 by Silver James

While today’s message from the Universe is meant for what we do in our everyday lives–and this is definitely a message we all need to hear, pay attention to, and respond to it in kind–but if you write fiction, take a moment to the really thing about what the Big U is saying. Think about it and then apply it to your own process.

Whatever it is you want, Silver, think about it.

Think and think and think.

And as surely as day follows night, as you continue showing up in the world, that which you have thought about will be drawn into your life—be it answers, friendships, health, abundance, or love.

It’s the law,
The Universe
©www.tut.com 

P.S. Silver, it’s the least I could do for a shining star.

And I’m not telling you to think about it because that’s what the Universe is telling us to do. Well, I am but consider how much Real Life Lessons and writing can walk hand-in-hand. Oops. There I go being all romantic and stuff. As writers, what do we do the most? Is it actually typing (or handwriting or dictating) words that become sentences, paragraphs, chapters, and finally a full story? Even those of us who are Pantser or Puzzlers put far more time into thinking about our story. We are creating places and the characters who live there and giving them something to do. In other words, we’re looking for answers, friendships, health, abundance, and love because…romance writer. D’uh.

So, there you have it. What are you thinking about today?

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