Thursday Thoughts: Universal Magic

Posted on October 24, 2024 by Silver James

It’s Thursday. I have thoughts!

Okay, not really. The Universe has thoughts and I just cheat and riff on them a bit. First though, this could have been Thursday Tease except Tuesday Tease has more alliteration. Instead, I will have announcements and a reveal tomorrow so be sure to check back then. Yay for Fridays! But it’s still Thursday so here’s what the Universe imparted to me this week.

Don’t just see the magic, Silver, engage it!

Challenge it!

Dare it!

Dream big, with every expectation that your dreams will manifest.

Be the wand,
The Universe
©www.tut.com 

P.S. Demand that your dreams come true, Silver! You’re not beholden to life. Life is beholden to you. You are its reason for being. You came first.

The Big U’s message is applicable to Life most definitely but it also makes sense for us writers. I truly believe that the imagination is pure magic. Which makes authors magical, be we witches, wizards, or sorcerers. We pluck ideas out of thin air, say things like “hocus pocus” or “abbracadabra” or even “supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.” We wave magic wands and *poof*! Characters! Then we stir up a caldron of spells (and spellcheckers!) and voila! Out pops a plot. Then we weave words into a magic cloak to tell the story. See? Magic! *sigh* If it were only that simple. Still, the whole process IS pretty magical. What’s magical in your life today?

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Wednesday Words: Ending or Beginning?

Posted on October 23, 2024 by Silver James

I’m setting this post up yesterday. Presuming that you are reading this today. That would be Wednesday because words! I have some. They are totally random because being hip-boots deep in edits and revisions does not lend a helping hand to starting something new and with no clue what will be the next project, I get weird when it comes to the Thursday Threads flash fiction challenge. I did manage to snag an honorable mention last week using the prompt: *”So that was how he ended his life.* Yeah. That’s quite the prompt, right? So, here’s what “scribble writing” produces sometimes.

****
“So, that was how—”

“He ended his life.”

That statement fell into a well of silence as little ears had been straining to hear what the storyteller would say next. Now, they all stared round-eyed at the tall man with tattoos on his arms.

“Suicide?” The questioner remained out of sight beyond the doorway.

The stranger lifted one shoulder in a negligent shrug. The storyteller cleared her throat with a loud ahem. He very slowly turned his head, his gaze colliding with hers. She gestured to the semicircle of children, every head swiveled to watch him. His eyes narrowed. She gave him big eyes and a look that spoke volumes—What were you thinking?

A face appeared as the second man peeked around the door. “Oh, shit.”

That set the kids to giggling and the man had the good graces to redden. “Sorry, ma’am.”

A little girl tugged the storytellers skirt. “Whath’th thewthide?” Her two front teeth were missing.

The woman looked very solemn as she glared at the two men. “Perhaps you’d care to explain?”

“Not particularly, ma’am,” the tattooed stranger said with a roguish grin. “But I apologize for interrupting your story time.”

He stepped into the room, walked to the group and then hunkered down beside the little girl, which put him precariously close to the storyteller. “Suicide is a mystery, little darlin’. And sometimes a mercy.” His eyes met the storyteller’s. “And to finish the tale, that was how the Jack O’Lantern came to be.”

“You were listening.”

“I always listen when a pretty woman speaks.”
****

Don’t ask me about the characters or the location, other than probably somewhere in Appalachia. The storyteller’s tale is one from the region. This might–or might NOT–end up in the far-down-the-list historical Moonstruck book. NO promises! Sometines, a writer just needs to scribble out some words that have no context. That’s part of the fun of flash fiction. You take the prompt, juggle the words and end up with a story within the prescribed word count. This one is restricted to 250 words. It’s tough but, like I said, it’s a way to clear the imaginations palate when the writer is between courses. And now I’m hungry. What’s for breakfast?

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Tuesday Tidbits: Oops

Posted on October 22, 2024 by Silver James

Uhm….this is late. I’m late. But I have a good excuse! I was brain deep in edits. I got through 350 pages of what I call the “first sweep edits.” That one takes care of typos and minor fixes and/or changes of words or sentence structure. It’s done in a Word document using track changes and trust me, by the time I was through last evening, my eyes were crossed and blurry. And I’d totally forgotten that I didn’t have a blog ready for today. Oops.

Today, I’m going back through the comments made by a beta reader. I need to see what worked or didn’t work. Seeing a comment that says “Ooh! Love this line” or “Yes. Good twist” gives me the oomph I need to get through to the next level. What’s that entail you ask? That’s the hard part where something DIDN’T work for the reader and I have to decide how to fix it. Is it something that can be just deleted because it’s superfluous? Is the scene in the wrong place? Does that twist work or does it give stuff away? Technically, this pass is the nitty gritty. Emotionally, this is the pass that makes me wonder why the heckfire am I doing this. It’s okay. Don’t panic. This is a normal part of the process for almost every writer I know. We truly do have a love/hate relationship with our books.

The only thing I hate more than this part of the editing process is writing the blurb. I did get a first draft done. For something so short, it shouldn’t be so hard. But it is! *whine* Potential readers peruse the blurb and make a decision. The blurb has to be catchy with a hook to lure those folks to buy the book. It has to give enough information without spilling the beans. I mean, who wants a spoiler in a blurb? At the same time, the blurb shouldn’t make promises the book can’t keep. It’s a fine line.

Okay, I’m stalling. Time for more coffee, some eye drops, and then to open the MS and get back at it. On a happy note, I should soon have a cover reveal. Maybe tomorrow. 🤞🏼

How’s your morning/day going?

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Just Another Monday

Posted on October 21, 2024 by Silver James

Why do Mondays keep happening? I mean, like every week. I don’t remember signing up for this. And who is Monday named after anyway? Okay. Yes. I DID go down that rabbit hole. It’s Middle English, from the Old English mōnandæg; akin to Old High German mānatag Monday; akin to Old English mōna moon and to Old English dæg day. Thank you Merriam Webster.

Since it is Monday and I’m trying to get life pretty much back to normalcy aka life BS (Before Surgery), Jake and I are off to Wallyworld this morning for a normal (mostly) grocery run. I get irritated every time I stick my debit card in the cash register, especially since I saw the COLA “raise” I’m getting from SSN for next year. It’s a whopping 2.5%. That puts a whole $28.55 more into my check. Our grocery bills have doubled in the four years. And that “big” raise we got last year? Mine was less that $100 which wouldn’t even cover the increase in groceries for one week. Just sayin’…

Climbing down off my rant box, I got one set of edits/proofs back. Sadly, one of the characters is undergoing a name change operation. He’s not a happy camper but when he faced off against Devlin, he threw up his hands and said I could pick another name. After the grocery run, I’ll be doing a search and find to “erase” Declan and rename him Quinn. Seems there was some minor confusion between Declan and Devlin and nobody (excepte maybe Ronan) wants to argue with Devlin. So, our intrepid legal eagle is now Quinn Donahue. It has a nice ring. Getting this set back means we are one step closer to a release date! I need to nudge my cover artist to see how much longer she needs.

Speaking of covers, well….not exactly. More like graphic “ads.” I did a few of those this weekend. I think I’m happy with how they turned out. I still have one or two in mind, if I can find the right photographs. Also, I have the rough draft of the back-of-the-book blurb done. I hates the blurbs! Luckily, I have a genius blurb guru to help me out. It takes a village to get a book out, I’m tellin’ ya!

In sports news…*sigh* My Cowboys almost pulled it off Friday night against BYU. They were soooo close. As for OU, I have no words. Also, no Stormy soccer this weekend. I was thinking there was a game or two then remembered this was Fall Break with the schools. With two kids teaching now, you’d think I’d know these things. 🙄

I listened to Karen Marie Moning’s newest release, THE HOUSE AT WATCH HILL. It’s the first book in a trilogy and I’ll be waiting for the next two books to release before I listen to it again. I’m not a fan of cliffhangers. Other than that, the book was most interesting with out outstanding prose and intense worldbuilding. I’m currently doing a marathon of Darynda Jones’s Charley Davidson series. I last read them back in 2014–and maybe a few years after due to new releases. I do know that I stopped about NINTH GRAVE. Or TENTH. I don’t remember. Anyway, I enjoy Darynda’s writing and after I did the relisten of her Sunshine Vicram series, I thought to myself, “Self, why not Charley? It’s been awhile.” Yeah, no clue it had been 10 years. Anyway, Reyes is still on my Top Ten Book Boyfriend list.

Not much else going on in my world. After a week mostly off, I’ll be back at it once I’m home from WW and get the groceries put up. What are you putting up with today? 😉

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Friday Sinema: Name Game

Posted on October 18, 2024 by Silver James

Yes, it is still a Southern thing. Y’all have no idea how taxing the whole name game is when it comes to grandparents. My mother decided she was Granny Gooch. Don’t ask. I have no idea. Of course, my own grandmother was Gong Gong. I blame that on my brother as he was the one who named her. (He was 7 years older than me.) LG’s mom chose Mamsy. It fit. His grandmothers were Grandmother James and Meme. (Me-me NOT meem.) Me? I’m Jammie. Easy to say and it fits since I’m often in my PJs aka jammies at any given time on any give day. Still, I sorta wish there was a Grandparent Name Store. Have a great weekend, all!

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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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