Tuesday Tidbits: Snow Day

Posted on February 18, 2025 by Silver James

I know exactly how this cat felt! I opened the door for Jake this morning and he scrambled out barking all happy and stuff. I bundled up and trundled to the front door to open up and feed the ferals. Yes, I worry about them in this frigid weather but I can’t bring them in. If they were smart, they’d figure out the cat door in the garage like Pete did. There are blankets and beds out there. It stays consistently in the 40s/50s this time of year and we’ve been know to run a space heater when cats are in residence out there. They do have shelters on the porch where they can get nestled in a small space and use their body heat. They’ve also been fed well consistently so they aren’t struggling. Still I feel bad.

All the schools are virtual today. Smart! We don’t have to worry about our Kids being out and about on bad roads. And it’s waaay too cold to have an actual snow day where they could play in the snow. So…virtual school. Which is fun–not!–for them. Two teachers and a student, all on line. Good thing they have high-speed. LOL

I think I lied yesterday. Reminder to self: Go check and make sure you did ALL the books pages for RETRIBUTION. Also, track down ISBN numbers to doublecheck BETRAYAL.

Now, where was I in my musing? This is a wrap up in a blanket day and drink hot mocha coffee. Has this winter storm hit you yet?

I really don’t have much to say right now. While I’m doing “housekeeping”–of the writing variety, ie. marketing background stuff, website, etc.–I’m also turning over which project to work on next. I’d REALLY like to get four books out this year. Five would be awesomesauce. It’s Ariel’s turn in the Penumbra Papers. The Russians are pushing in the Mafia series. The Moonstruck Wolf standalone historical pops up every time my phone alarm goes off (Bottoms Up is my alarm tone–LOL). Not totally sure who’d get the next Nightrider or Hard Target book but they’re possibilities too. There’s also a “family saga” hanging out there with two books mostly done and one more to write–1st is a mostly historical and there are ghosts. Oh, and a dystopian short trilogy. Two done, one to go. Any thoughts?

On that note, I need more coffee and another blanket. Stay cozy out there, my friends!

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Monday, Monday, Monday

Posted on February 17, 2025 by Silver James

I wish the weekend had been an episode of “The Brady Bunch.” Sadly, it was more like the “Keystone Cops, Technology Version.” I will not bore you with all the details because when it came right down to push or shove, I shoved and shoved hard and got ‘er done! Go me. That said, as I’m typing this (late evening Sunday night), I am bleary/blurry-eyed, fuzzy-brained, lump. But there is news!

First, just to emphasize the whole techno-yuck going on, I KILLED the batteries in my mouse. Seriously. I was doing that much mousing and it wasn’t playin video games. I also forgot to put my cup in the coffee maker when I turned it on. I went to the little writer’s room and returned to hot, precious coffee spreading across the countertop. 😔😱

But stuff got done. LOTS of stuff. MOONSTRUCK: RETRIBUTION is up for preorder, releasing on March 1st. It will also be available in print. Yes, I got that done too! Not sure when the print version will be available. It has to clear some hurdles/quality control. I’d also not gotten GHOSTS & THE ANCIENT STONES available in print. It will be now–once it also clears the mandatory quality check. That “witch” has kept me up late, got me up early, and ready to shave my head in frustration. But I pulled the trigger on it by hitting the SUBMIT button at 8:03 Sunday night. I’ve still got to get MOONSTRUCK: BETRAYAL set up for print. I actually thought I had but it isn’t showing up in the ‘Zon. It will require some detective work, so that’s on my to-do list.

In other productive stuff, I’ve updated the website pages with RETRIBUTION’s links and did a couple of ad graphics, though not for RETRIBUTION. That’s on the list for this week, along with getting a newletter out. And I need to do a “button” on the site for “Coming Soon.” 🤦🏼‍♀️ I forgot until just now. See? Brain fuzz.

While the weekend was mostly work, there was some time for sports. Stormy had a soccer match Saturday. He played great but they ended up losing a fairly high-scoring match 7-6. They were playing a team a year older and a yearl more experience so no shame. In softball news, my OSU Cowgirls were at a tournament in Clearwater, FL. They’re gonna give me a heart attack. They had 2–TWO!–come-from-behind, walk-off homerun wins. In the bottom of the 7th!!! With TWO OUTS!! Gah! I had my eyes shut, fingers in my years, singing La-la-la-la so I wouldn’t jinx them. 🙄 Oh, they beat Texas A&M and Alabama doing it the hard way.

We got snow Saturday evening. Not enough to really stick and the sun coming out on Sunday pretty much melted what dusting was there even though the temperature never got above freezing. It’s supposed to get high-30s/low-40s today before the Arctic stuff hits tonight. I’ll be hitting Wallyworld this morning to stock up on what we need because I’mma not gonna get out when they’re talking a high of freakin’ NINE! 🥶🥶🥶

On that note, I’m toast. Literally. it’s 8:30 Sunday night and I haven’t had dinner, I can barely read what’s on the screen and my back is killing me. Oh, and my feet are freezing despite socks and sheepskin slippers. I hope y’all had a great weekend and are staying warm and cozy. *wanders off to find something to eat and get warm*

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Friday Sinema: All the Romance

Posted on February 14, 2025 by Silver James

❤ ❤ Happy Valentine’s Day! To me, there’s nothing more romantic than a sexy dance so I hope you’ll grab your favorite brew, put your feet up, and enjoy. Let me know if you agree with the picks. Personally, I think #5 should be #2 but I’m all over #1. Also, the question becomes, am I gonna watch “Dirty Dancing” or “The Mask of Zorro” to celebrate ❤ Day? Have a great weekend!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Difference

Posted on February 13, 2025 by Silver James

When today’s message from the Universe arrived in my inbox a bit ago, I thought, “Hrm. I can riff on this for a Thursday Thoughts. I left it “unread” in my inbox so I’d see it whenever I checked email. Sometimes I would open it and read it again. Sometimes I’d stop scrolling there because it meant I’d come to the end of the new emails. The thing is, I kind of weirded myself out with the direction my thoughts turned.

Well, actually, Silver, you were different.

You didn’t want a perfect life, a typical life, or even a normal life.

You wanted a one-of-a-kind life.

How we doing?
The Universe
©www.tut.com 

P.S. And I am most grateful to say, Silver, you still are different. Way.

I was. Different. And weird. I wanted to wear jeans not dresses. I wanted Roy Rogers six guns not Barbies. I immediately took the flowered basket off my Stingray bicycle because I intended to ride it off a ramp to do tricks. I built a skateboard out of an old skate and a 2×4. I did NOT want to be a boy. I liked being a girl. I just didn’t like dresses, dolls, or girlie things. I was the weird kid who’dt rather read a book and play with the invisible characters I imagined. (Okay, I’m STILL that kid but whatever.) And yes, I wanted a one-of-a-kind life. I wanted to dance with Baryshnikov. I wanted to be on the US Equestrian Team in the Olympics. I wanted to be a famous actress. Heck, I was a drama major when I first matriculated at college. That lasted a semester and then I became a government major. Don’t ask. Anyway, I wanted a different life, not a normal one.

Where am I going with this? I’m going here: I think you have to be different to be a writer. We need to march to a different drummer, live in a different world, deal with different people, and bottom line, we need a different mindset. We have to love what we do to keep doing it. Most of us will never be best-selling authors and make fabulous amounts of royalties. Most of us simply hit the trenches each day, making up our stories, telling our tales, sharing our friends and enemies with the wider world.

Fact of life. As of typing this, I’ve sold 3 books for a total of $8.46 in the month of February. I’m never gonna get rich in a hurry. I pinned a post on my X profile. It says “I write the kind of books I love to read. I do it for fun and sometimes profit.” That’s the truth. I get discouraged because deep down, I don’t want to be the weird kid standing on the fringes getting along with everyone but never really fitting in anywhere. I want people to read my books and enjoy them. And dang it, I want to be paid for the blood, sweat and tears that I put into each story.

See? I told you I kept going into weird headspace when I thought about the Universe’s message. In retrospect, I haven’t done anything great or spectacular but I’ve done a bunch of different things–and often they were things that someone like me wouldn’t normally do. And now, I write the kind of books I love to read for fun and sometimes profit. It is what it is.

Anyway, I’m rambling now and I need to get back to work on RETRIBUTION because it ain’t comin’ out tomorrow. There are reasons, including a memorial service for a member of the extended family, and some other things that have cropped up. New ETA? My birthday. It’ll be a present from me to y’all.

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Wednesday Words: Long Way Home

Posted on February 12, 2025 by Silver James

We’ve hit another Wednesday and I have words–winning words as it turns out. I got another Honorable Mention last week. The prompt turned out to be an easy one for me to riff on. Sometimes I get lucky. LOL Can I have a drum roll please? It’s: “I took the long way home.” I don’t often do this but I’ll admit, the judge’s critique of my entry in last weeks Thursday Threads puffed me up big time! This is what she had to say: The final words of James’ entry “Those words never boded well” stuck with me and this entire story. The visuals of the coffee shop, the sounds of the song, the tallness of Lara’s visitor all paint a snapshot of this WIP that draws you in. It begs questions about who Misha is, how he knows Lara, why she was lying to him, and what he wants to talk about. This snippet of a larger work of James’ is perfect. The reader doesn’t need to know what happened before to understand what is going on in just this one scene, but it ensnares the reader to want to keep reading. Well done.

That said, no set-up for this week’s words:

****
Lara sat in the corner of the coffee shop, eyes closed, hands wrapped around the chill of her iced mocha. The music on the sound system cushioned the hum of conversations occurring around her. She sat up as familiar piano chords followed by the plaintiff harmonica tune penetrated her thoughts.

She hummed along until the song came to the part about settling down and the line Who’s to blame if you’re not around? rang true. “Yeah, she muttered. “I took the long way home.”

“But you did come home, solnishko.”

She looked up—and up and up—at the deep voice calling her sunshine in Russian. She always seemed to forget how very tall Misha had gotten in the years she’d been gone. “I’m not here to stay.”

He claimed the chair across from her. “You have never been able to lie to me. Why do you try now?”

Sighing, she leaned back against the padded bench. “Go away, Misha.”
His affable smile did not reach his eyes nor did it fool her. “Fine.” She slipped her purse strap over her shoulder and stood. “Then I’ll leave.”

She didn’t make it even a step before his hand wrapped around her forearm, not hard enough to bruise but with a gentle grip she knew she couldn’t break.

“Please.” Not a question nor an order, just a soft word from between lips that drew her eyes and made her wet her own. “We need to talk, Lara.”

Those words never boded well.
****

There it is. If the snippet gives you an earworm, you’re welcome. I happen to love the song and, yes, it has been popping up in my head periodically since last Thursday. What do y’all think? Is the judge right? I’m really starting to get a feel for Lara and Misha. Doesn’t mean I’m ready to start writing but there are ideas forming. 😉 In the meantime, writers, take the long road and do some writing with the prompt. Readers, when was the last time you took a detour where you discovered something cool?

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Tuesday Tidbits: Ad-ing It Up

Posted on February 11, 2025 by Silver James

Actually, it’s not the novel, it’s Word. I’m still hoping for a Valentine’s Day release–at least on some platforms. Sadly, my hope that I’d get it uploaded in time for pre-orders and for the majority of platforms to be live on “release day” will not come to fruition. I’m not going to beat myself up. It is what it is and I want to put out the best product I can. At the moment, RETRIBUTION is over 120K words. In other news…

Super Bowl Commercials! I watched some. I did NOT write down every one because…there was a bunch! Seriously, I think there was more time spent on commercials than there was on the actual game. Also, I shall refrain from commenting on the half-time show. It gave me an opportunity to visit the little writer’s room and do some dishes. Now, to the ads that rang my bell. In no particular order. Okay, in the order they aired because that’s how I wrote them down. 🤣

Little Cesaer’s Pizza: Eugene Levy’s eyebrows. I laughed. Hard. So did LG.

Ultra-lite Beer: William Dafoe and Katherine O’Hara (Kevin’s mother – “Home Alone”) playing pickleball. All kinds of awesome.

Squarepage: The Irish dude delivering…stuff. It was something of a head-scratcher but hey, Irish landscapes and accents!

Mountain Dew: Seal as a seal. Love the song and it was kinda funny.

Instacart: All The Brands! We had a ball picking out the iconic brand representations.

Coors Light: Sloth Monday. Who doesn’t love sloths?

Uber Eats: Football Team names. And Matthew McConaughey. Da Bears! Hey, for all I know, that’s how the various teams GOT their names. 😉

Weathertech: The old ladies road trip! Yes! There’s a book in that idea. Just sayin’…

Rocket Mortgage: Take me Home Country Roads. Sang along, sniffling all the while!

Hellman’s Mayonaise: When Harry Met Sally reprise. That’s still one of my favorite movie scenes and yes, I laughed.

Budweiser Clydesdales: Yes! Sadly though, it was the short version but still CLYDESDALES! Welcome back, ponies!

Tubi Streaming: The cowboy vs. the wizards. It was a little warped but I still laughed.

Bud Light: Big Man on the Cul de Sac. Leaf blowers launching beers! A smoker that mows grass! Yeah, totally laughed.

The Nike commercial just seemed like virtue signaling. I did like the Dove ad because, yeah, a lot of girls drop out of sports because of what’s said about their bodies. While I’m glad the NFL is pushing varisty flag football for females, their commercial was a little too smug for my tastes. The Pfizer ad made me sniffle but I’m not sure I believe them. And finally, the Harrison Ford Jeep commercial. The punch line was sorta clever but again, him touting all the patriotic stuff? I didn’t buy it given his statements during the presidential election. That said, if someone else had been the spokesman, I would have loved the commecial because the images were all kinds of awesome. But, as someone else noted on social media, I’m still not buying a Jeep.

I’m sure there were others that I either missed or they just didn’t make enough of an impression that I made note or remembered them. It was fun to see that, for the most part, the ads were NOt politically correct. Make for an entertaining change.

Anyway, that’s my take on the world of brand marketing. Lord knows I mostly flounder when it comes to marketing my own so glass houses and all that. Whatever. What about y’all? What commercials stood out for you? Do you have a fave?

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Superbowl Monday

Posted on February 10, 2025 by Silver James

Who thinks the Monday after the Super Bowl should be a national holiday? Raise your hands… 🙋🏼‍♀️ I mean, why not?

Did your team win? (At the time of setting up this blog, the game has not started yet so I can’t say if mine did or not.)

If you didn’t watch the game, did you watch the commercials? I’m doing both.

Did you fix anything special for munching during the game? Dinner will be/came about half time. We had sliced brisket, garlic parmesan new potatoes, and salad. There might be Girl Scout cookies for the 4th quarter.

I will “rank” my favorite Super Bowl commercials for tomorrow’s Tidbits.

On the sad news side, MOONSTRUCK: RETRIBUTION will likely NOT be up for pre-order. I’ve run into a couple of snags–on both the technical and creative sides. On the tech side, Word is messing with me. I have hopes to have the formatting done by tomorrow evening. 🤞🏼 On the creative side, I found some old “notes to self” about RETRIBUTION and at first, I wasn’t going to mess with them. Then Iffy found both the caffeine AND the chocolate stash, grabbed her scissors and it was Katie-bar-the-door. So yeah. Now the book has not one but TWO final epilogues. It happens. And yeah, I think the books is better for it. Hopefully, you readers will feel the same way.

Due to the push to get the book out the door and ready for publication, I haven’t spent much time listening to or reading other people’s books. I am close to the end of Ilona Andrew’s MAGIC SHIFTS (Dramatized Adaptation). I really do enjoy the Graphic Audio versions. Like their advertising says, it’s like a movie in your mind.

Not much else going on around here and as I look at the clock, it’s almost time for kick-off so… Later, taters! I’ll check in tomorrow morning after this posts. Hope your Sunday night was a good one and you have plenty of your brew of choice this morning…

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Friday Sinema: There’s a Reason

Posted on February 7, 2025 by Silver James

There is! A reason! There’s a reason I watch the Super Bowl. And it’s the commercials! Okay, sometimes it’s the game, too. Anyway, last year I was sorely disappointed by the ads. Looking at this year’s crop, breaks in the game should be fun for the most part. And more importantly, Anheuser Bushch is back with the Clydesdales in an all-new commercial. Just in case you don’t plan to watch the game, here’s a sneak peek of what is consistently my favorite brand of commercials! What about y’all? Will you be watching the game? And what’s your fave commercial?

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Small Steps

Posted on February 6, 2025 by Silver James

Yeah. I fell down on the job. Normally, I set up these posts the day before because…

While I’m awake–normally–at 6 a.m., I’m doing things like letting Jake in and out and feeding Pete and Loki and the porch cats. Then I put up the dishes from the previous night’s dinner and a few other housekeeping details before settling in at my desk and…well…I’m normally on autopilot when it comes to wors until at least 8 o’clock. Or so. But I got distracted yesterday. Actually, I got frustrated. Word was being a PITA. Then Iffy decided the book needed a brand new prologue. And then Word continued to be a PITA (and I’m not talking about the really yummy Greek-style bread!) so in all that mayhem, I forgot about the blog. Turns out, yesterday’s message from the Universe kinda sorta reminded me of…stuff.

The thing about making it big and doing it fast, Silver, is that invariably the first steps will be small and slow.

Which oddly, for too many, is reason not to take them.

You know better, huh?
The Universe
©www.tut.com 

P.S. Silver, shoes comfy?

So, the Universe decided I needed to take small steps in this big book. Or something. Because WordPress decided it wanted to not play nice for about 10 minutes. 😔 *sigh* I haven’t had my coffee yet so I’m not sure if I’m making sense or not. That said, I’m my my comfy houseshoes. I’ll get back to work on the book AFTER that coffee. In the meantime, what big things are you doing today?

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Wednesday Words: Remember When

Posted on February 5, 2025 by Silver James

We’ve arrived at midweek once again. That means it’s time for a prompt and new words. I have both to share. FYI, I managed an Honorable Mention last week in Thursday Threads. What was the prompt you ask? It’s this: *Remember that when I’m gone.* I’ll admit, I had to ponder the phrase for a while. Then I recalled one of the characters who pops in and out of the New York Bratva Wolves WIP. She comes back to Brighton Beach, which means she left Brighton Beach. Therefore, she likely grew up in Brighton Beach and would maybe even grown up with some of the Wolves. Therefore, I bring you this snippet:

****
Lara sat primly, ignoring the boys. They ignored her too. She wished Xavier had let her stay home alone. She’d have been fine and she could finish her book. It was due back at the library tomorrow and she’d just gotten to the exciting part. Now she’d have to stay up late, hiding under the covers reading by flashlight.

“What’cha doin’, little girl?”

She glanced up and almost groaned. Misha. Why was he here? Way older, he normally ignored her, much to her discouragement because, yeah, she had a huge crush on him.

“I’m not little and I’ll grow up soon enough.”

“You are little to me.” His cocky grin irritated her. “And you always will be.”

“Remember that when I’m gone.”

“Gone? What does that mean?”

“I won’t be around forever.”

He laughed. “You just gonna take off? Where could you go?”

His arrogance frustrated her but it was his utter dismissal of her as a person that hurt. He never acknowledged anything she did. She gathered up her stuff. When she looked back at him, her face was a blank slate, all emotion wiped clean.

“I’ll go where I want, when I want, do what I want. I’ll be something special.”

He laughed at her. “No, you will stay here with me. Always.

“Tell X I’m going home.”

Outside, she paused on the sidewalk to stare up at the shadowy figure watching from the third-floor window. “Be careful what you wish for.”

Was that caution for Misha or herself?
****

There you have it. Those characters are slowly gelling in my mind but not sure where their book fits in the scheme of things. First, I need to set RETRIBUTION free. I’ll probably “piddle” with several projects currently on the back burner and see which one starts to boil. I still have 10 days before worrying about what’s next. In the meantime, writers, take the prompt and run if any of your characters need a reminder. 😉 Readers, what are you wishing for today?

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