Thursday Thoughts: Universal Mastery

Posted on July 24, 2025 by Silver James

Writers are like normal people. Hey, we can act normal. Sometimes. We’re not weird all the time. Okay, maybe we are but we get pretty good at acting normal. Anyway, people have their ups and downs, their good days and bad, their ah-has and nopes. This is especially true of writers. For the past two years, I’ve been doing lots of all of that. Well, the latters of those this and thats. Or is it the former. I always get confused on that one and have to look it up. BRB. I was right the first time. Anyway. Here’s what the Universe divulged today:

If one hangs out in time and space long enough, Silver, they’ll inevitably learn it’s through the twin gateways of persistence and patience that masters become masters.

Of all things,
The Universe
>©www.tut.com 

P.S. I mean, they also become masters of all things, Silver.

Substitute “Imagination” for “time and space” and read the message again. Now, sustitute “Writers” for “masters.” And read it a third time. “If one hangs out in the imagination long enough, they’ll inevitably learn it’s through the twin gateways of persistence and patience writers become writers.” Makes perfect sense, doesn’t it? If we want to master our craft, we have to remain both persistent and patient. And boy, did the the Big U hit that PS nail on the head. As a writer–especially–as a self-published author, we have to become masnter of all things. Creating. Editing. Proofreading. Formatting. Marketing. It’s not easy but it is sooo worth the time and effort.

Posted in Craft, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Wednesday Words: Something More

Posted on July 23, 2025 by Silver James

WooHoo! Guess what?!?! I took the win in last week’s Thursday Threads. I’ll admit, I really liked what I wrote, too. I’m allowed to say that just like I get to say that whatever the gibberish is I typed out is dreck. It’s fun when I like what I write and I get positive feedback. It’s also fun when I write something I think is good because it is incentive to keep writing. What sucks is that the parts I really like are bits and pieces scattered throughout the story. I need to like the “filler” I’m writing in between. Anyway, last week’s prompt was: *”It was something more.” I’ll admit, I sat and stared for a lone time at a blank “page” in Scrivener before the fingers started to move. This is what popped out:

****
Aisling stared at them, her emotions a chaotic whirlwind. Fear waltzed with wonder. Anger chased giggling humor. Hysteria and sorrow held hands whispering to each other while loneliness and despair clung to each other in the center of the storm.

“Can you explain what happened?” Sade asked.

She shook her head.

Ariel studied her before glancing toward Sade. “If he transported her…” He left the rest of that thought hanging when he noticed the slight shudder running through the woman.

“I hate when y’all go all woo-woo and poof.” This time, Sade’s shudder was visible and exaggerated.

“No.”

They fixed their attention on Aisling.

“We didn’t poof. He opened a door.”

“Explain.” Sade’s voice demanded obedience.

“Under the library. He opened a door and pushed me through.”

Ariel shifted from foot to foot, uncomfortable. “He didn’t go with you?”

“No. He closed the door behind me. I couldn’t leave.”

Sade was determined to get facts. “What did you see?”

“Nothing. It was…” Staring down at the clasped hands she pressed into her lap, Aisling paused. Thought. Remembered. “There was nothing there. No light. No dark. No sound. No silence.” She looked up, sure her face showed the haunting emptiness inside her. “It was nothing. It was something more.”

After a string of expletives, Sade admitted, “Ariel’s right. You weren’t in the between.”

Ariel asked gently, “How did you get out?”

“A voice I didn’t hear. A hand I couldn’t feel. They showed me the door and here I am.”
****

There it is, for better or worse. I’ll be interested to see what this week’s prompt is tomorrow. Siobhan, who “runs” the challenge, always picks a phrase from the previsous week’s winning entry. When I win, it’s tough because I try to use the phrase in a different part of the story rather than continuing the scene as written. This is because I’ve often already continued the scene or I know it will be heavily edited. Anyway, progress on the book. So far, Monday and Tuesday were decent writing days. We’ll see what today brings. Writers, you know the drill. Grab the prompt should it fit your plans. Readers, which phrase would you pick for the next prompt?

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Tuesday Treats & Titles: Biscuits and Books

Posted on July 22, 2025 by Silver James

The big sale is still going on. All my self-pubbed books are on Smashwords and you can grab a coupon for 50% off all of them. And yes, if you buy a book from Smashwords you can side load it to your Kindle. Kindle uses epub now.

Today’s rescipe is all about the summer vibe. Who doesn’t love cheddar biscuits? That and and crab legs are the reason I’m sad there’s no more Red Lobster here. 😟 But, these are darn easy to make! And while all my books are on sale, there’s one in particular that fits with today’s recipe. Keep reading to find out which one.

Yield: 8 servings
Prep time: 10 Minutes
Cook time: 15 Minutes
Total time: 25 min

Ingredients
For the Biscuits:
2 ¼ cups all purpose baking mix (like Bisquick)
2/3 cups milk (I used 1%)
1 cup freshly shredded sharp cheddar cheese
¼ tsp garlic powder
1/8 tsp Old Bay seasoning*

For the Butter topping:
½ stick (4 tbsp) unsalted butter
½ tbsp garlic powder
½ tsp dried parsley
¼ tsp Old Bay seasoning*
1/8 tsp salt

Let’s Make It
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. To a mixing bowl, add baking mix, milk, cheese, ¼ tsp garlic powder, and 1/8 tsp Old Bay. Mix until just combined and a dough starts to form. Use clean hands to finish mixing, if necessary.

3. Using a ¼ cup cookie scoop, scoop 8 lightly packed mounds of dough onto prepared baking sheet. Bake for 14-16 mins until golden.

4. Meanwhile, add butter, ½ tbsp garlic powder, parsley, ¼ tsp Old Bay, and salt to a microwave safe bowl. Microwave for 1-1.5 mins until melted. Mix until fully combined.
Brush butter mixture over biscuits, and allow to sit for 5 mins. Enjoy!

Tips
1 – I’m all about easy for for this one, a block of cheese and shred it yourself instead of using the pre-bagged stuff. It melts way better into the biscuits.

2 – If you don’t have a cookie scoop, you can use a measuring cup and gently form the dough into mounds. You can also use an ice cream scoop. I have a set of measuring cups that have round bottoms and the 1/4 one works great.

3 – Store any leftovers in the fridge. These biscuits reheat well in the oven at 400 degrees for a few minutes.

4 – *I don’t normall keep Old Bay Seasoning around because I seldom use it. It’s worth it for these biscuits. However, if you don’t have Old Bay in the pantry, I’ve used Tony Chachares Cajun seasoning because I always have it in the cabinet. 

There you have it. Now, can you guess–without looking at the book cover over there on the right–which book would pair well with this treat? You got it! MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON. And yes, it’s half-price too! On Smashwords. Full price everywhere else. Just click on the cover or the title to go straight to the book listing OR click on the sale notice up there at the top to hit my profile page at Smashwords and find books to fill your cart. Who else is a fan of sunner, cheddar biscuits and books? 🙋🏼‍♀️

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

Mundane Monday

Posted on July 21, 2025 by Silver James

Yup. It’s Monday all over again. That’s about the most exciting news I have.

You remember my semi-excitement over getting a new computer? Well, I got notice from Wallyword that there was a delay in my shipment. Then I didn’t hear anything from them but the finance group was sure johnny-on-the-spot with updates. I was going to give them until mid-week before I started making nose. Welp, I got a text yesterday afternoon. My order has been cancelled. I owe zip-zero-nada and no explanation as to why they cancelled the order. So now I have to start the whole process over. Grrr. Guess what I’m doing today?

I didn’t get much writing done. I really like what I did write so there’s that. While I get brilliant flashes of inspirationa and really like the bits and pieces I type out, it doesn’t really help with the continuity. It’s the mundane stuff that is clogging up the drain at the moment. Stuff has to happen. Stuff that isn’t all that exciting but needs to be included. I took a break for some “research.” I don’t have a title for this book so the working title is PENUMBRA PAPERS #6. Not exactly exciting, right? Because Ariel is the RML,* I looked through THE TEMPEST hoping for inspiration. Nope. I have a few thoughts in my notes but none of them just jump out at me either. I also started looking for Aisling. I know what Ariel looks like. I know what Bran (bad guy) looks like. I know what Orin (really bad guy). I know what Nikos looks like, even though his role is mostly cameo. Aisling? Just like she gave me fits with her name, she’s hiding her face from me as well. I was hoping that if I got a firm idea of her, she’d talk more and I’d get more written. Dang characters. Anway…I have about 1/3 of my projected word count. That’s a little something to celebrate.

LG and I are thinking about getting another dog. Jake has been without Boone for several years and he seems fine with it, but he is getting older. LG thinks we should get another dog to one, keep Jake feeling frisky and two, for me to train as Jake’s eventual replacement as my service dog. We found one at a shelter that’s a Pyrenees/Bernese Mountain Dog mix. His name is Gilligan. He’s at a private rescue and the adoption fee is pretty steep so we’re doing some more thinking about it. As with all our dogs–and cats–I figure the Animal Distribution System will drop the right critter into our laps when the time is right.

That’s pretty much all the stuff on my mind. Y’all got anything to talk about? Have a great week!

*Romantic Male Lead

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Friday Sinema: Summer in the South

Posted on July 18, 2025 by Silver James

Well…crud. I set this up last night but didn’t pay attention to the am/pm. 🤦🏼‍♀️ It’s still apropos. Today, it is currently 83 with 70% humidity, which makes if feel like 95. Ugh. Sorry for the late posting.

It’s summer in the South. Whoopee. And I don’t mean the pie. As I’m typing this, it is currently 87 degress with 90% humidity so it feels like 105 out there. It is also 8 o’clock at night. For those of you who don’t understand, I’ll let the folks at It’s a Southern Thing explaing. TGIF! Have a great weekend.

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

Thursday Thoughts: Universal Script

Posted on July 17, 2025 by Silver James

Talk about hitting the nail on the head. The Universe just dropped into my inbox with a message explaining exactly what it is like to write a book. Or a short story. I have an acquaintance in 𝕏 writing community and he writes short stories. He also complains a lot that people don’t give short stories enough credit. You’re welcome, Ian. Anyway, today’s post pretty much wrote itself because this is pretty much explains what a fiction does day to day.

What if, Silver, EVERYONE in your life was really just an actor or actress secretly there just so that YOU might live, love, and learn?

And the script that they read from… was actually written by you?

Word,
  The Universe
©www.tut.com 

P.S. Every word, Silver.

There it is in a nutshell. Easy peasy. Only it’s not really. Coming up with fresh twists on old stories with interesting characters and string together words in ways that convey the story without being stale is a challenge. Trust me on this! Frankly, I’ve stopped reading some big-name writers because they basically wrote the same stories over and over, simply changing the names and locations. In some cases, they cut-and-pasted scenes both within the same book and between books. Don’t be that writer! It irritates the snot out your readers. Trust me. I’m both a writer and a reader. Anyway, this is my TED talk for the day. I hope you enjoyed it.

Posted in Craft, Writing Life | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Wednesday Words: Idle Time

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Silver James

Wednesday’s child is full of woe, but I’m not! Hello, Hump Day! I have new words. Yay! I’m also pleased to anncounce that I pulled in another honorable mention at theThursday Threads weekly flash fiction challenge. This judge last week is a tough one and normally “grades down” snippets from WIPs because…reasons. Technically, a flash fiction piece should tell a complete story. I try to incorporate that but I also warn readers/the judge that it’s from a larger work. Anyway, he admitted he liked it. 😉 The prompt was a tough one and then once the scene was written, it created some chaos in the structure of the book. Anyway, here’s the prompt: *“But the time wasn’t idle.”* See what I mean? It’s phrased a little awkward but at the same time, it made us work for it so there’s that. Anyway, Here’s a peek at Aisling:

****
Aisling pulled on white cotton gloves. The book smelled of mold and dry leather. She adjusted the goose neck lamp so it’s beam shone directly on the ancient tome. She examined it without touching. The pages were edged in gold. The cover’s leather was cracked and the gilt lettering had flaked. Letters and symbols danced in a language all its own.

Her hand shook slightly as she gently pried the front cover open. Water stains marred the front piece and the top page. Part of the ink was smeared, a few bits were missing and the language remained foreign. It wasn’t Latin or Greek. She could read both. While Egyptian hieroglyphs weren’t her forte, she could recognize them. She was also semi-proficient in reading alchemy symbols.

Nothing about this book made sense. How had it come into the possession of the library? It obviously belonged here in special collections but where had it come from? And why had it drawn her? For it certainly had.

From nowhere, a breeze swept through the room, ruffling the books’ pages and making the hair stand up on her arms. She glanced down at the newly exposed writing. Her eyes watered and she blinked hard. When her eyesight cleared, she could read one line of text.
But the time wasn’t idle.

“What does that even mean?”

“It means we have made good use of it.”

She whirled but no one was there. She was alone in the room. And, very, very scared.
****

If you read Monday’s blog you’ll know that this scene suddenly needed to be part of Chapter One. A Chapter One that did not include the existing Chapter One. 🤦🏼‍♀️ That’s twice now. Chapter Four became Chapter Five because…reasons. Then last week happened. But the good news is, there is now a new Chapter One and all the other chapters just got bumped back one number. S’all good because it’s progress. Still, I may just murder all the characters at the end just to be done with them. Well, except Sade, Caleb, Nikos, and Sinjen. Except Sinjen hasn’t shown up yet. I need to work on that. Okay. Whatever. I have a plan. Maybe. Writers, feel free to tussle with the prompt. Readers, do you think the library or the book might be haunted? *bwahaha* Enjoy your hump day and may your best laid plans not be disrupted!

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

Tuesday Treats & Titles: Japanese Cheesecake & Books

Posted on July 15, 2025 by Silver James

The Smashwords Summer/Winter Sale is still going. We’re half way through the month. And I have a new recipe. For those of you who are cheesecakes afficianados. It’s ready to hit the chill stage in around an hour. Make if first thing in the morning, you can have a slice with your afternoon beverage of choice when you take a break to read a good book. Hopefully, one of mine. 😉

Yield: 1 Cheesecake
Prep time: 10 Minutes
Cook time: 45 Minutes
Total time: 65 mi

Ingredients
6 eggs, room temperature
1 1/2 cups white chocolate
1 (8 oz.) package cream cheese, softened

Lets Make It
1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with lightly oiled parchment paper and set aside.
2 – Separate egg yolks from egg whites. Set aside.
3 – Place white chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Heat on high in 20-second increments, stirring each time until white chocolate is melted. (Pro tip: Be careful to watch your white chocolate as it seizes very easily when overheated!)
4 – Add melted white chocolate and softened cream cheese to a large bowl. Cream together until completely smooth. Beat in egg yolks.
5 – In a separate large mixing bowl, beat egg whites with a hand mixer on high until stiff peaks form.
6 – Fold 1/3 of the whites into the cream cheese mixture until everything is slightly lightened. Gently fold remaining egg whites into cream cheese mixture until no white streaks remain.
7 – Pour batter into prepared pan. Place pan into a 9×13-inch pan that has been filled with 1 inch of boiling water.
8 – Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes, or until top is a golden brown and cheesecake is slightly jiggly. Turn off oven and allow cheesecake to sit for an additional 10 minutes, then transfer 8-inch cake pan to a wire rack. Allow cheesecake to cool completely before removing from pan and transferring to plate. Chill for an additional 4 hours (or overnight) and enjoy!

If you want to see some pretty pictures of the full cheesecake, head on over to Food Talk by CLICKING HERE. While you’re waiting on it to chill, you can click on the sale banner above and go check out my books. There are also 1000s of other books and authors in the sale if you want something completely different. Enjoy!

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

Mid-Month Monday.

Posted on July 14, 2025 by Silver James

No apologies. I love this cat. He makes me laugh every time every time he pops up in my files. It’s Monday. There was a weekend. I hope everyone had a good one. Mine was…a typical weekend. That means not much happened.

First up, writing. Last week, I wrote a snippet for the Thursday Threads flash fiction challenge. It’s a good snippet. Okay. It’s a really good snippet. In my opinion. And as I went to work on the WIP, something kept niggling at me. The dang snippet. It kept pushing and complaining. It didn’t want to be tucked back and pulled out when the right time arrived. Noooo. Not this snippet. It insisted that it needed to start the book. Well, not start the book, that’s the Prologue’s job. But it wanted to be Chapter One. So, guess what I did Sunday? I surrendered and wrote a new Chapter One. Now I have to decided if the old Chapter One is now a good Chapter Two. *sigh* Sheesh.

In reading news, I’m really enjoying this new-to-me author’s books. Her name is McKenzie Hunter and the 4-book series is called Legacy. The first book is DOUBLE-SIDED MAGIC. It’s a new way of looking at magic but with some of the standard characters. There are witches, mages, shapeshifters, and fae. There’s also magic-weilding folks called Legacy. They’re powerful. They’re also mostly extinct. I like the author’s voice and the characters. It’s a slow burn UF so if that’s your catnip…

I think there were sports. I wasn’t paying attention.

The big news is that I’ve got a new computer coming. My old guy doesn’t have the stuff for the forced upgrade MS is perpetrating on us. They will no longer support Win10 after October. T2 isn’t hardware upgradable to accept Win11. Also, T2 is getting to the point where it occasionally overheats, shutting down automatically and abruptly. So, I found a Summer Deal (Wallyworld’s answer to Prime Days) on an HP with a 27″ touchscreen, which is an upgrade from my 23″. I’m also getting a Terabyte of memory and a faster processor. Fun times. I am soooo not looking forward to transferring info from T2 to the new machine. It’ll be here in a week or so.

That’s it for me. What’s up in your world?

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

TGIF

Posted on July 11, 2025 by Silver James

I’m toast. The dang book rebelled this week. Imma gonna put on my sunglasses, blast some music and drink* until the plot behaves. Have a great weekend, all!

*coffee, though likely with a shot of espresso, lots of ice and a spoonful of mocha

Posted in Writing Life | Tagged , , , | 8 Comments