Thursday Thoughts: Universal Inspiration

Posted on October 17, 2024 by Silver James

Inspiration. It comes in many forms and at odd times. Usually when it is most distracting. This is a bad thing because most authors are easily distracted. I know this is very true whenever I look in the mirror. Squirrel! Coffee! I need a photo that matches this character! That last one is a rabbit hole I can tumble down for hours! But hey, it’s all for a good cause, right? That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. The Universe has thoughts on this, as it does, and this popped into my inbox just as I was sending out MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON to my supportive folks. It really hit home.


The odd thing about inspiration, Silver, is that it often comes after, not before, a new journey is started.

Yippee ki-yay! The Universe ©www.tut.com 

P.S. So go on, Silver, break the ice! Put on that tutu, spin a whirly, clutch the sky, and you’ll have them quivering in their boots in no time at all… or am I thinking of someone else?

True story. I was thissss close *holds up thumb and forefinger tips squished togethr* to hitting send on the manuscript (MS). I had to make a litterbox run. While doing that, I was struck by an idea. It wasn’t quite lightning but it zapped me pretty good, as inspiration sometimes does. I needed to switch a thing in the timeline. Something that happened around page 40 needed to happen around page 15. I went on about my business because, *muppet flail*! But Iffy kept nudging. She–and my creative brain–were positive that particular incident (and what immediately followed) should happen before other stuff. *sigh* So I went back and looked and yeah…I could shift a couple of chapters to happen earlier and the transitions weren’t really messed up so…I did. The jury is still out on whether that was the right thing to do but my guy says it is. So yeah, the Universe once again knows what’s up inside my head. 🙄

At the moment, I’m playing the waiting game and doing some writerly housekeeping. I’m also ignoring that other spark of inspiration I had to start the week with. I do NOT need to be writing a standalone historical paranormal romance set in my Moonstruck world. Nope. I sooo don’t need to do that. So here’s the question, which book SHOULD come next? Penumbra Papers? Nightriders (and NO, it will NOT be the Russian’s)? Hard Target? I’m looking for a little inspiration here. 😉

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Wednesday Words: Long Time Coming

Posted on October 16, 2024 by Silver James

My how time flies. Here it is Wednesday again and it’s time for new words. I have some. They are random. Mostly. I mean, they fit into the Russiona Wolves setting of Brighton Beach but the RFL? No real clue who she is. Same with the RML. Don’t know what that means? It’s Romantic Female Lead and Romanctic Male Lead. At least for this snippet. I get tired of typing hero and heroine. LOL Anyway, last week’s Thursday Threads prompt is: *It felt like years.* As this is a random snippet, you know as much about what’s going on as I do. 🤷🏼‍♀️

****
On the boardwalk, I stood back out of the way. The place was crowded on this first warm day of spring. I inhaled deeply, the mixed aromas filling my nose. Salty air, seawater, popcorn and caramel, foods from many cultures. I should keep walking, get to my destination but I didn’t move. I just stood there, soaking it all in. It felt like years since I’d been to Brighton Beach.
As a freshly-minted college grad, I’d packed my bags and skedaddled. I didn’t want to be here now and not just due to the family drama that sucked me back in.

Once upon a time, the beach and boardwalk of Brighton Beach was my favorite place. Splashing in the surf and building sand castles grew into summer tans and boy-watching with my girlfriends. They were all married now. Not me. No, I’d run for the hills, as the saying goes. And I never looked back.

They—whoever they are—say hindsight is twenty-twenty. They also say love is blind. It had been. Blind, though in hindsight, it hadn’t been love. Nope. Just a deep infatuation that faded into the misty corners of memory. Or so I told myself. They also say that you can’t go home again but here I stood, living proof that you could.

Someone bumped me and my purse strap slipped off my shoulder just as the purse itself disappeared. I reacted but too slow. I took about four steps before stumbling to a stop. A mountain blocked my way and I looked up into the eyes of the man I’d never forgotten. He’d collared the now-struggling purse snatcher.

“Well, hell.” I muttered the curse but he heard me anyway.

“I am happy to see you again too, solnishka.”

If only I believed that.
****

We shall see what we shall see. FYI, I did add a little so it’s more than the requisite 250 words for the #flashfiction challenge. I’m thinkig the RML’s name is Luka–which is on my character list for this book. The RFL? I ain’t got no clue. It might turn out to be Mikhail, who might be related to a certain president of an outlaw MC. Shhhh. Anyway, that’s the story for today and I’m sticking to it. Writers, feel free to steal and scribe away. Readers, what’s your favorite “they say” saying?

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Wishing and Hoping

Posted on October 15, 2024 by Silver James

Today’s treat is a free book. For the first time ever, my “sister from a different mister” B.E. Sanderson is featuring the final book in the Once Upon a Djinn series – WISH HITS THE FAN – absolutely FREE. (The whole series is always free with a KU subscription.) It’s only free this week for those who don’t have Kindle Unlimited. If you do have KU, grab the other 3 books in the series too.

I’m going to be honest here. I loved these books like damn and whoah! ❤ ❤ ❤ The worldbuilding is incredible and yet relatable. You can’t help but root for Jo Mayweather, the main character. There are cool critters. There’s also mystery, intrigue, danger, and a touch of romance. I mean, seriously!?!?! What’s not to love here? Also, since the series is complete, no cliffhangers. Go forth and snatch this book. And get the first three as well, yeah? Curious? Here’s the blurb:

🧞🧞You’d think life as a genie would be easy-peasy. But when you’re Jo Mayweather, ain’t nothing so simple. But when you’re Jo Mayweather, ain’t nothing so simple. Sure, she defeated the Efreet at the big warehouse blowup, but those bastards left a surprise for her amongst the cages. Now she’s got to figure out why the hell the Efreet would be messing with creating a deadly species, who they’re afraid of, and why the gods themselves are running. With the deities on a break, it’s up to Jo to gather the genies and save the world. But who’s going to save her?🧞🧞


FYI, B.E. put this last one free because in looking at her records, she discovered there were a bunch of people out there who read books 1-3 but not this one, so now’s your chance to see how the whole story ends. If you are one of those. If you aren’t, go grab the first book. You’ll be hooked! And no, I am not trying to rhyme, it just came out that way. 😉 Just CLICK HERE, on the title, or the cover and head on over to the ‘Zon to get your copy today. Happy reading!

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Monday Moods

Posted on October 14, 2024 by Silver James

Once again, Monday has reared it’s head. That’s okay. While I’m not taking the whole day off, I do plan on spending some time doing other thing. What those things are, I’m not sure. I plan to play it by ear so today will be an adventure. Maybe.

MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON is off to the “staff.” Which is a joke. I don’t have a staff. Lord knows I wish I did, especially when it comes to social media and advertising. Luckily, I have good friends who have volunteered to beta read and proofread for all the littles stuff I missed. While the beta reading is going on, I’ll be working on updating front and back matter. That’s things like the copyright page and book list, any author notes, pleas for reviews and recommendations to friends and family. You know, that kind of stuff. Then I’ll spend some time looking for photos to use for graphics to advertise the book. That can be a fun rabbit hole. The picture searching, the writing and doing not so much.

I have a serious question for y’all. I’m not kidding when I say this book is a behometh. It’s 350 pages in Word and a whopping 157K words. As a result, there’s a clown-car load of characters. What do y’all think about character lists? You know, a playbill of sorts. Good guys, good girls, baddies, hangers-on. That sort of thing. Would that help? Would people even look at it? And should it be in the front or the back? Inquiring writers want to know.

In other news, sports pretty much was a bust this weekend. The Mets are still in the NLCS. They were my dad’s team so OMG! (I really should look on the net to see what that means. It’s something Mets fans are doing.) Stormy had two soccer matches up the turnpike. They lost the first one but won the second. Only said he had good games.

I finished Darynda Jones’s Sunshine Vicram trilogy. They’re fun. I wish there were more. On a whim, I’ve started in on her Charley Davidson Grim Reaper series. It’s been awhile.

Since the alarm on my phone is the Brantley Gilbert song “Bottoms Up.” I have bad news for me. Every time Iffy hears it she starts going starry-eyed and thinking about turning Gilbert’s music video character into a Wolf and building a historical paranormal story around it. 🤦🏼‍♀️ This I do NOT need! I need to write the next Nightrider book, the next Penumbra book, and putting together the compendium volumn that will finish out the Moonstruck: Genesis books. Oh, and a Hard Target book. I need a time machine!

It’s finally starting to feel a bit like Fall around here. It’s about time! Today’s high is supposed to be mid-70s and we might only get up into the 60s mid-week. Gosh, I might even turn off the AC. That will depend on the pollen count. Ragweed is my kryptonite and tis the season.

On that note I will say adieu. Things to do, place to go, rabbit holes to fall down. What’s going on in your neck of the woods?

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Friday Sinema: All Night

Posted on October 11, 2024 by Silver James

Oh, baby! We are goin’ Old Skool today! I got this song stuck in my head on Wednesday while watching the Detroit/Cleveland game. TNT used the song as background for a segment that I paid no attention to but found myself singing along while dancing in my chair and typing the beats. Am I the only one who does that? Anyway, I pulled up the vidoe and had a flashback! OMG–lip syncing that is obvious and the clothes and the colors and the dancing and…and…Ain’t it all grand! Dang, I want to go watch “Dirty Dancing” now! Anyway, no idea what the weekend will bring. Right now, I might actually be editing all night long unless I’ve surprised myself. What will you be doing “All Night Long?”

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No Thoughts for Thursday

Posted on October 10, 2024 by Silver James

This is short and I may or may not be back to check for comments–here on the blog or on FB. Every time I thought I’d settled in this week to get lots of chapters edited, Real Life pulled fire drills. By the time I set this up (yesterday), I felt like the Robinson family robot–arms waving and metallic voice saying, “Danger, Will Robinson. Danger.” No danger, just intruders, so to speak.If it wasn’t this, it was that.

FYI, the AC was fixed Tuesday morning. Turned out to be a “starter capacitor(sic)” which is way cheaper than a fan motor or whole new system! Wednesday, it was playing deliver service from the west side to the north side to the east side and then back to the west side of the metroplex. Considering just OKC (and not the surrounding ‘burbs’ comprises 621 square miles, you get an idea of the time involved. Not begrudging it, just explaining what happened yesterday. I had every intention of finishing off edits and getting this behemoth off to readers. So, I’m “taking today off” so to speak. We’ll see if I can stay off the internet with my nose to the monitor and hands on mouse and keyboard. As of my setting this up yesterday (so it was done and out of the way), I have 8 chapters and an epilogue finished. By the time you read this, I’m hoping to have gotten at least 2 of those done–if not more. I’ll see y’all tomorrow!

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Wedneday Words: Live Long

Posted on October 9, 2024 by Silver James

For the third Wednesday in a row, today’s new words are brought to you by the Russian Wolves of New York because the Thursday Threads prompts just keep the original scene going. Which is fine because I really don’t have much knowledge of the Russians and their stories so yay. I think. LOL Anyway, the prompt from last week is: *”You will live a long life.*” We are once again with Dima and his Gypsy girl.

****
Dima checked his watch. He had time yet and the girl sitting across from him continued to intrigue. “You took a chance,” he said.

She fiddled with her napkin, the silverware, the salt and pepper shakers, looking anywhere but at him. “I had no choice.”

“The least you can do is satisfy my curiosity.” They weren’t there due to his looks but because of his position in the

She glanced up, her pupils widening as she took in his face. He understood. He wasn’t handsome. Women didn’t flock to him though they were happy enough to warm his bed. They weren’t there for his looks but due to his position in the bratva.

“What do you want to know?” Her mumbled words were clear enough to his preternatural hearing.

“Why did you choose to warn me?”

Two spots of bright red flared on her cheekbones. “You don’t believe me so it’s not much of a warning.”

Good. His little Gypsy girl had fire after all. “Convince me.”

“Fine.” A stained leather bag, worn soft and supple, plopped on the table beside her plate.

“This woman came to me, asked for a reading for a man named Dmitri. She wouldn’t tell me the reason.” Her eyes flicked up for a moment. “It’s hard to give a clear reading without knowing the question but I can do cold reads. Every card pointed to disaster and though the Death card doesn’t mean actual death, in conjunction with the Hanged Man, and given the placement in the reading…” She shrugged. I had to warn you.”

He snatched the bag, ignoring her gasp. Taking out the cards he shuffled them and picked one card. “What does this one mean?”

“You will live a long life.”

He smiled. “And so I will.”
****

There you go. I wonder if I should mention that I fell down the rabbit hole of researching Tarot card meanings. I mean, I have the basics because yeah, I’ve read the cards. Sadly, I’m missing my set of standard cards and the book so I was playing with the Celtic set I have–the cards are different and have slightly different meanings. Anyway, in the end, I decided it didn’t matter but you can bet when I get around to this book, and rewriting this scene, The Lovers will be involved in the full reading Gypsy gives to Dima. *bwahaha* So, writers, if this prompt appeals, write long and prosper. Readers, your question for the day is, what immortal character said, “Live long and prosper”?

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Tuesday Tidbits – October Edition

Posted on October 8, 2024 by Silver James

This is a crunchy brown bits kinda day. Our AC went out yesterday. It was a little warm so the ceiling fans were/are on high–and luckily, we have them in every room. Well, except the loos. Anyway, repair guys are coming this morning around 9 and hopefully it’s only like the fan motor or something. 🤞🏼

Also, FB removed my post from yesterday. Gettin’ really sick and tired of that stuff happening, especially since it’s their “technology” doing it and no humans are involved, including any sort of review. Also, they lie when they say they’ll be in touch with a final decision. Yeah. Right. Anway…

Milton needs to pick up his marbles and go home! To all my friends in Florida, be safe!

No food today. No titles with character references to said food. When I get hot, I get really lazy so I’m doing this quick post just to touch base. I do, however, have titles. Are you looking for something quirky with warped humor, good stories, eccentric and wacky characters, then I highly recommend the Sunshine Vicram series by Darynda Jones. It’s a trilogy. It’s complete. Which is good because…cliffhangers! The books are A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE, A GOOD DAY FOR CHARDONNAY, A HARD DAY FOR A HANGOVER. There’s crime. There’s romance. Did I mention the quirky? I laugh–a lot–while listening to these books.

Edits continue. I really need to get with Only on the cover. I’ll share it when I get the final–hopefully before edits are done.

That’s it for me. Anybody got any tidbits to share?

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Remembering Monday

Posted on October 7, 2024 by Silver James

Today is one of those days. You know the ones–the ones we wish we didn’t remember. One year ago, a massive attack against civilians occurred. Since then, this old world has become even more divided with h@te speech and actions ramping up even higher.. I normally do my best to stay above the fray and my opinions to myself. I wish more people in the public eye would do the same. It doesn’t matter which side you’re on, you’re gonna make at least half the country mad. I’ll sum this up by saying that any group that attacks–and then hides behind–civilians are nothing but craven cowards. My heart goes out to the people caught in the middle. Moving on…

Last week was full of Real Life jumping in front of me and throwing detours along the way. That was good though. I had a doctor appointment and the news was good for the most part. Eyesight is such a slow process but the eye I’m legally blind in is actually getting a tiny bit of improved vision. Yay. Then there was a Wallyworld expedition. Given all the changes in the store layout, it truly is an expidition these days. Then there was the morning where Only and I played musical cars before the school day started because she needed Drover for a weekend roadtrip and an emergency chaperone for the church youth group campout. That roadtrip necessitated new boots for Drover, ie. 4 new tires. The old one were okay for my piddling around the neighborhood–like the 3 mile round trip to Starbucks. Anyway we, LG found a deal, Drover is has shiny new boots and Only arrived and returned safely.

In other news, my Cowboys lost again. 😞 This gives me a big sad. In baseball news, the playoffs have started and I actually don’t care who wins so I’m getting to watch some really good baseball. Yesterday was also soccer day. Stormy had two games. We made it to the first one, which his team won. It was too hot for Jake and me to hit the second game, which they lost. Only and I also played musical cars again, her ‘Stang going home (we picked up Stormy to get him to the game while Baseball Boy dealt with a school function). Only got there in time for the game. Anyway, I’m sure y’all find this fascinating. 🙄

Editing continues. Despite the RL interruptions and delays last week and over the weekend, I did manage some good forward progress. I’ll be starting Chapter 42 today. The MS is standing at 119+K words and 223 single-spaced pages. With 12 chapters and a short epilogue to go. See? Progress! Sadly, I keep waffling between “this sucks” and “wow, this is good stuff.” At least my betas will be honest. I can fix suck. I can celebrate good stuff too. Easy peasy. Anyway, if I can do 3-4 chapters a day, I might just be done and this puppy off to betas and proofreaders by the end of the week. 🤞🏼

That’s pretty much my world at the moment. Edits and more edits. It’s too hot and dry to do anything outside. When I do have to go out, I shake my cane and yell, “Go home, Mother Nature! You’re drunk!” It isn’t helping but it makes me feel better. What about y’all? Any cane shaking in your world?

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Friday Sinema: For the Dads

Posted on October 4, 2024 by Silver James

So…public service announcement. Don’t try this at home. Unless you’ve got a really cool dad. Also, I’m warped and laughed at all of these. Just sayin’… Psst Only survived. So has Stormy. And yay for good dads even if they’re a little warped in the humor department too. Have a great weekend! (And still sending healing thougths to all those affected by the hurricane. Hopefully, this will put a little smile on your face, or maybe a laugh or two.)

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