Monday the What?!?!

Posted on December 9, 2024 by Silver James

It’s how many days until Christmas?!?!?! *muppet flail* I am soooo far from being ready. It’s a good thing that Christmas mornings have shifted to the Kids’ house because that’s where Santa comes. All we have to do is load up presents, the pan of home-made cinnamon rolls, our coffee travel mugs (the Kids don’t do coffee), and head up to their place at the given time. That doesn’t mean that I’ve completely stopped decorating. Just…mostly. It sucks to get old, lemme tell ya. Last year, I was sick though I didn’t know that I’d be undergoing two major surgeries within the next two months. This year, I just don’t have the energy to go whole hog. That doesn’t mean the house is devoid of decorations. The dining room and kitchen tables both have Christmas tablecloths and centerpieces. The wreath is on the front door and I’ll be getting the front porch lights up probably tomorrow, depending on the temperature. I don’t do chilly anymore. Reference: it sucks to get old!

Last week went buy pretty much in a blur. As noted above, I’m not ready for Christmas. I did buy one present. The way things are going, we might be handing out cash. LOL On a more somber note, LG had a flare so it was a tough week for him–lack of sleep, lots of pain, and a general lack of appetite so no real cooking on my part. Ah well. Maybe this week as he is feeling a bit better and my stupid chest cold is on its way out.

Stormy had soccer. I didn’t go–cold weather and chest cold. They’ve won several games so yay! It’s fun to watch them come together as a team and get better. They have an awesome coach and the Kids hope Stormy gets to stay on his team. It’s a development league so there’s tryouts in the spring and stuff. He will continue to play with this group through the winter for indoor soccer.

Writing is slow because I’m mostly reading and fixing and adding in very few new words. I’m behind schedule but I’m still determined to get RETRIBUTION out around the first of the year, or shortly thereafter. That said, I do have a book hitting a wide market today! MIDNIGHT CLEAR came off Kindle Unlimited yesterday and is now available at a multitude of on-line booksellers. If you aren’t a ‘Zon fan, now you can grab a copy of this SyFy Christmas story. Find your favorite store at Books2Read.

Still doing the Kristen Ashley listen-athon with her Rock Chick series. Her voice and characters are an acquired taste but I enjoy a marathon every few years. I still have a few books to go. I’m currently on #7. Truthfully, I don’t remember how many there are. I just keep reading until I hit the last one.

All righty then. I think that’s all the news and updates for now. Plans for the week include pushing ahead with the WIP, Christmas lights, a Wallyworld trip at some point, more audio book listening, and whatever else Life decides to toss my way. What about y’all?

FYI, Christmas is SIXTEEN DAYS AWAY!!!!!! Just sayin’… I mean, because there’s still plent of time to panic, right? 😉

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Friday Sinema: Dog People

Posted on December 6, 2024 by Silver James

All I can say is I ❤ this guy and he makes me laugh out loud. I can totally attest to several of these breeds including huskies, rottweillers, Newfoundlands, poodles, GSDs and rescues. I’m pretty sure he’s nailed the other breeds too. Have a laugh to finish out your work week and start the weekend with a smile! Have a good one.

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal “Your Person”

Posted on December 5, 2024 by Silver James

I recently got into a discussion with someone about writing. This is not unusual as I am a writer and a lot of my friends and acquaintances are writers. We all have our own processes, hang ups, thoughts, feelings, and genres. This was not a person I know well and they’ve always had a tendancy to look down their particular nose at romance. The fact that I’ve written over 50 books and just 9 of them have sold over 477K copies (I discovered this the last time I checked out my stuff at Harlequin and includes lots of countries, reprint, duologies, special collections, etc.) took this person by surprise. Yes, that’s a lot of books, but that’s over a decade of publishing. But I digress. In the course of our conversation, I pointed out that romance tends to crop up everywhere. Writing westerns? There’s a woman in there somewhere who has a relationship with the cowboy/rancher/gunslinger/lawman. Writing historical fiction? Henry the 8th had how many wives? Just sayin’. Hard-boiled detective? You can bet there’s a dame in there somewhere. Military? SciFi? Fantasy? Yup, yup, and you betcha!

About now, you’re probably asking yourselves, “What the heck is she going on about?” Here’s the deal. Romance is a big part of life. I don’t care who you are or what flavor is your catnip, every last one of us want to find “my person.” Your “person” is someone who totally gets you, good and bad, and understands. Your “person” supports you unconditionally. How much more romantic can you get than that? Which leads me back to the Universe’s message for today.

Silver, I know what it’s like. I’ve seen it played out a zillion times:

You’re waiting for that magical day when someone makes the connection and recognizes who you really are.

Maybe they’ll first notice that look in your eyes.

Or perhaps they’ll marvel at your insights and the depth of your spirit.

Someone who will help you connect the dots so that you can believe in yourself and make sense of it all. Someone who will understand you, approve of you, and unhesitatingly give you a leg up so that life can pluck your ready, ripened self from the branch of magnificence.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh…

Well, Silver, your wait is over.

That someone is you.

Behold God,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. Just proving that age-old adage, Silver, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.

Just to prove my point, THIS *points up* is a perfect blueprint for writing a romance. Except for that part about you being your person. I mean, yeah. That’s important. We need to be comfortable in our skins and understand what goes on in our heads–as confusing a place as that is sometimes. But this is the day I try to talk about writing–and writing romance, specifically. Because I get it. And I’m not embarrassed. FYI, the next person who suggests I’m not a real writer is likely to get a punch in the nose. I’m proud to write what I write. I’m proud that my genre produces more publishing revenue than any other genre. The last time I saw numbers, romance produced 1.44 BILLION dollars in revenue, compared to the next most popular genre, crime/thrillers which made 728.2 million.

So anyway. Writing romance. And finding your person. At the heart of a fomance novel is the need of two people to find their person. The fun part comes in the meeting, the eyes, the connections, and then connecting the dots that get them from that meet cute (or scary depending on your romantic subgenre) to the fun and foibles of making the connection, and the author connecting all the dots to get them from first sight to HEA. See? Easy peasy. Pardon me while I laugh. If writing was easy, everyone would be an author. Am I right?

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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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