Okay. I laughed. And cheered. And totally identified with this mastiff. This would totally be me if I were a dog doing an agility course in a dog show. Just sayin’… Have a great weekend, all, and may you find something that makes your happy or laugh. Or both!
Building your life is like building a world. Or maybe that should be the other way around. When a writer builds a world, they also build their life around that world. We craft all sorts of things from history to societal rules. We create people who lived that history and abide–or break–those rules. We sprinkle in love and conflict because that keeps things interesting. I mean…seriously…who wants to write or read a boring book, or live a boring life. The Universe usually has ideas to share–and today, power tools.
****
If you were to be given a few power tools, plus a hammer, chisel, and axe, to craft, carve, and shape the life of your wildest dreams, Silver, I’d bet you’d be really careful with each of your bangs, buzzes, and chops.
So please use the same extraordinary care and precision when using your imagination, choosing your words, and dancing life’s dance.
You’re a light worker –
The Universe
©www.tut.com
P.S. Every minute of every day, Silver, choose from the highest within you.
****
I do have to disagree a little. Sometimes, when you’re writing, you just need to spit it out on the page (or the up on the monitor). Thank goodness for certain power tools–computer, laptops, spellcheck. They are the things that let us writers choose the best words to tell the story that’s in our imagination. And what a dance it can become, after we build the dancefloor with all that banging. Sometimes it’s a waltz, sometimes a tango. Jitterbug and hand jive. Cha-cha and salsa. And don’t forget tap, jazz, and ballet. Who else is ready to trip the light fantastic today?
Time just keeps tripping along and danged if it isn’t picking up speed. Am I right? We’re the first week into November and Thanksgiving (here in the States) and Christmas aren’t far away. Last week’s #ThursdayThreads prompt was **”And there might have been a tail.”** Ooh, lordy. There were a lot of ways to run with that one for sure. Writers, should you decide to be inspire, have fun! Readers, this one is pretty self-explanatory, as they have been of late. The original 250 words have now been expanded to 546. Hope you enjoy! 🤞🏼
**** The chattering women stood near the bar in Clancy’s. Maura was laughing as Ronan and his men entered through the back stairwell door. “That was fun,” Maura said. “Even though my feet are killing me.” “Light weight,” Shannon teased. “Totally. I sit behind a desk most of the day, though I do hoof it to and from the train station.” “I take it the lot of you had fun,” Sean said, reaching for Bridget. He pulled her to him for a claiming kiss.” “We shopped,” Maura said. “And had lunch,” Bridget added. “An’ don’t be forgettin’ the…” Fiona snapped her fingers. “Bellinis. They might be m’new favorite drink ever.” Finn yelled from behind the bar, “I’ll not be makin’ any of them fancy umbrella drinks for your lot.” “Grouch,” Shannon called in return. “You make martinis for those Deluxebury bitches.” “That’s because they pay,” Finn shot back. “Whatever.” Shannon turned around to ignore him. She rolled her eyes. “But they tip like shit.” “And what else didja do?” Ronan’s voice was somber. “We shopped some more,” Maura said. Bridget put in, “And stopped in for a few drinks to rest our feet.” “Ignored the office drones hangin’ ’round the bar wantin’ t’flirt,” Fiona declared. “Then we ordered a car service,” Maura explained with a lift of one shoulder, noting that the men were more intent on getting the pints Finn had drawn for them than in the women’s itinerary. “And there might have been a tail,” Sophie added. The men froze. One by one, they slowly turned to look at the women. “Well,” Sophie said. “That got their attention.” Ronan zeroed in on Maura but Callum beat him to the punch. “What do you mean, Sophie?” She put her hands on her hips and forced the smile hovering on her lips to stay hidden. She’d dealt with her father all her life. These alpha males didn’t scare her—especially since she knew Callum would never hurt her. Unlike dear old dad. “I mean that at various times, we all felt like we were being watched. After discussing it, we came to the conclusion that you overprotective alpha hotels were the likely culprits. We all know how good at hiding this bunch can be.” The men exchanged looks. Callum’s face was set in hard lines when he said, “It wasn’t us.” This time, the women looked at each other. Shannon turned troubled eyes to Mick. “You didn’t have Brendan or Aidan following us?” “No.” He bit off the word. “Aidan’s working at the garage and Brendan is driving Brian.” All the starch leaked out of Sophie. She reached behind her, found a bar stool, and managed to perch on it. Distraught, she studied Callum. When she spoke, it wasn’t a question. “You think it was my father.” He shook his head. “No.” Unable to stop himself, he walked over to her. She widened her knees so he could stand between them and wrap his arms around her. “Maybe. I don’t know but I’ll find out who it was, Sophie. I won’t let that old bastard or anyone else hurt you. Not ever again.” She buried her face in his soft shirt, her voice muffled against his chest as she said, “That sounds like a promise.” “It is.” ****
Callum and Sophie were featured on my FB author’s page this weekend so now y’all know what they look like. While they aren’t actually the main focus of this snippet, they do play a pivotal part and there are hints about Sophie’s past. I have to admit that, given the prompt, I almost went with the obvious “play on words” and “characteristics” considering half my characters turn furry with tails, but I decided to take the high road and go a different direction because…well…normally, there might have been (just ask Maura!) a tail. What about y’all? Are you enjoying seeing the characters and then getting a snippet about them? I want to keep the blog AND the FB page interesting so y’all keep hangin’ around.
Sometimes, a writer or a reader just needs to kick back with a big cup of coffee (or glass of milk) and a plate of warm cookies. This is Only’s favorite cookie. They come out huge and soft, as long as you don’t overbake them.
Giant Snickerdoodles
Dry Ingredients:
4 1/2 cup Flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
In bowl, stir dry ingredients together.
Wet Ingredients:
1 1/4 cup Crisco
2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 teaspoon lemon extract or 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1 cup buttermilk
(1/2 cup sugar & 2 tablespoon for coating)
In large bowl, beat Crisco with mixer on medium-to-high for 30 seconds. Add sugar and beat until mixed, scraping sides. Beat in eggs one at a time, beating well after each. Mix in vanilla and lemon.
Alternate adding buttermilk and dry ingredients, scraping sides of bowl as needed. Cover bowl and chill at least 4 hours. Lightly grease cookie sheets. Use a 1/4 cup measure or a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop. (Lightly coat scoop with non-stick spray to help prevent dough from sticking.) Scoop dough, roll in sugar/cinnamon mix to coat. Place 3″ apart on cookie sheet. Gently press cookie to 1/2″ thickness. Bake in preheated 375° for 12-14 minutes or until bottoms are a light gold. Transfer to rack to cool. Makes about 24.
This sounds like a lot of work, but trust me, the cookies are well worth the effort!
Tip:
You don’t want to overbake, but don’t underbake either. Underbaked cookies crumble. Just sayin’. The way to avoid this is to pretty much “precisely” measure the dough into “balls.” I use a rounded Kitchen Aid brand 1/4 cup measuring cup and don’t overfill it This results in almost perfect 4″ cookies perfectly baked (in my old oven it takes a bit longer). I also use a thin metal spatula to move them from cookie sheet to cooling rack.
True story. Only called last week and asked me to bake these cookies for the dessert table of Stormy’s school auction. I found what was labled as a candy jar in the party supplies at Wallyworld for pretty cheap and grabbed some fall-themed wired ribbon when I went to buy the ingredients. I had great plans to take a picture to use today and then…life happened. I barely got the things out of the oven and cooled enough to pack in time for Baseball Boy to pick up on his way home. In bragging rights news, the dozen cookies I packed in the jar went for $60. So yeah, I’ll be baking them again next year. LOL In character news, I can see Jonah getting ready for bed and remembering that he needs cookies for school the next day. He goes running to his Aunt Sam because she can do anything! Good thing Easy likes these cookies too because he’d stay up late with Sam while she makes a couple of batches. Don’t tell any of the other Nightriders, but he’ll actually handle the dishes and kitchen clean-up. Of course, he has ulterior motives–he gets to be with his mate and when she’s done, there’s always…bedtime. 😉 If you like your paranormal romance on the dark and dirty side and haven’t tried my Nightriders series, you should. For real. Start with Easy and Sam’s story in NIGHT SHIFT. Just click on the pic or the title to get the Books2Read landing page with all the links. Enjoy the book AND the cookies!
What’s wrong with just plain ol’ standard time. Like it is now. It’s natural. It doesn’t discriminate. It’s like when it’s supposed to be light and dark when it’s supposed to be dark. I’m older than dirt. I remember life before DST. And what really sucks, because we’ve been forced to adjust to DST, coming back to Standard Time also entails adjustment–and not just in the clocks. Which reminds me, I need to reset the clock in my SUV when I head to Wallyworld today. And the only over the fridge. I’ve done all the others.
There was a weekend. There were sports. PISTOLS FIREING! My OSU Cowboys beat the OU Sooners. It was the 118th Bedlam match-up and with OU moving out of the Big 12 to the SEC next year, there will be no more Bedlam. All things must come to an end. LIKE DAYLIGHT SAVINGS TIME, GOVERNMENT!!!!
In other sports news, Stormy played in a Charlie Foxtrot of a soccer tournament Saturday and Sunday. The hosting soccer club accepted 300 tearms. The problem is, their “campus” doesn’t have even 300 parking spaces. People were pissed! As I was a bit under the weather Satruday, LG went for fhe first game and had to hike a mile. Literally. He came home after the game and siren test and hit the couch, in bad physical shape. We tried the Sunday afternoon game and it took us 45 minutes to get from the drive into the parking to the area of the parking near the field. Charlie Foxtrot. Also, a parent on the opposing team got red-carded for yelling the F-word and it turned out she was the coach’s wife so he argued with the referee for like 10 minutes, which ate into game time. The game was tied at that point and then they scored a quick goal. Our kids didn’t really get the chance to score again. It’s sucked. The good news is, they played well, as did Stormy. Sadly, it took us almost an hour to get OUT of the parking lot. Yeah, that would be a zero-star review on Yelp.
I didn’t get much writing done but I fully intend to be back on track this week.
The weather is gorgeous. No heat. No AC. Windows open. Cool temps to return later this week. That’s okay. It IS November.
Not much else going on. I’m off to Wallyworld and then words! How was your weekend and what’s on your agenda this week?
I love it when stuff like this happens–whether it’s “live” or “Memorex!” This happened in Knoxville, TN so it must have been a UT Volunteers game. Fun times! Have a great weekend and if you watch college football, may your team win. Unless your team is playing my team, then my team should win! 🤣 Especially since this is the final Bedlam game, ending a 117-year tradition. Go POKES!
Today is the second day of National Novel Writing Month 2023. I first “competed” back in 2006. For those not familiar, the impetus is to write 50K words (mostly equivalent to a novel) during the month of November. Since way back when, it has evolved. Now there’s 30 Covers on 30 Days, there’s the Young Writer’s program, 30 poems, screenwriting, short stories… The whole idea is to give an outlet and the nudge for people to write. Most of you know my first “entry” was SEASON OF THE WITCH. My 2021 project was….*drumroll*…MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON. Then the war broke out in Ukraine and CROSSFIRE wanted to be written. And then Sade and the GHOSTS AND ANCIENT STONES demanded to be written–both of which finally got finished and published despite some down times along the. So now–finally– I’m back to Boston, which has turned out to be a much longer book than appreciated. Rather than get distracted by a new idea, I’m sticking with my Irish Wolves until their stories are told! And yeah, I think it’ll be another 50K words. As for the Univers’s message today, which sort of ties into my headspace. And my answer to the Bit U? Been there. Done that. Still wear the T-shirt.
Inquiring minds want to know, Silver:
Have you ever felt so down you wondered whether or not you’d bounce back?
Were you later surprised by how quickly you did bounce back?
And then were you surprised by how far you went?
Did you promise you’d never forget how amazing you are?
We did.
In awe,
The Universe
©www.tut.comP.S. And did you really once celebrate by dancing on a tabletop, Silver, to Barry Manilow?
Actually, it was Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida” on top of a bar. Am I dating myself? Writers, have you ever tried NaNoWriMo? If so, did it help? Readers, what’s your current challenge?
Happy All Saints Day aka All Hallows Day. From which came All Hallows Ever aka…Halloween. Fun fact of the day. Anyway, did everyone survive the ghosties and ghoulies out trick-r-treating? Since it’s now Wedenesday, it’s time for some words. New ones. And fun ones. Because I can be a big ol’ tease, I mentioned the snippet on my FB page on Saturday. There were pictures of Ronan. Y’all should check him out. Anyway, there was a reason I teased the snippet over there. *bwahaha* The #ThursdayThreads prompt from last week is: **”Try not to look so threatening.”** I don’t think this snippet needs a set up. It’s pretty self-explanatory. Also, it won an Honorable Mention last week so yay!
Maura backed up a step then chided herself mentally. Hot shot prosecutor, remember? Yes, yes she was and she refused to let this man intimidate her. Or scare the bejeezus out of the woman she’d come to question. This expedition would likely fail if he terrified her witness. “Worst idea ever,” she muttered. Louder, she said, “Can you do me a favor?” Ronan stared but didn’t speak, waiting for her to continue. Ignoring the foreboding feeling, she sucked it up. “Try not to look so threatening.” “I don’t look threatening.” Was he amused? She had seen one corner of his mouth twitch. “You look like a serial killer.” “But this is my happy face,” he said, completely deadpan. A gigglesnort erupted and she covered her mouth and nose with her hand. “That’s it, bucko. No more Tommy Lee Jones movies for you.” This time, there was no doubt that the corners of his mouth curled up and she caught the twinkle in his blue eyes. He leaned in close and murmured in her ear. “And how are ya gonna keep me from watchin’ ’em? Ya plannin’ on bein’ shackled t’me twenty-four seven?” And why did that idea send excited shivers through her whole body? She turned her head just enough to whisper in his ear. “I’d prefer to just see you handcuffed to the bed.” She stepped back just in time to catch the flash of feral red followed by gold in his eyes. It wasn’t a trick of light. No like she had convinced herself every previous occurence. “What are you?” she asked, not for the first time. The door jerked open before Ronan answered her. Maura didn’t know whether to be relieved or apprehensive. Ignoring the warring emotions, she turned to face the woman who’d opened the door. She had her ID wallet open but the woman only had eyes for Ronan. “You’re Ronan O’Connor,” she said. “I am.” “Are you here to do something about what happened?” “I am.” “Good.” The woman opened the door wider to let them in. She gave Maura the barest once-over. “Cop?” she asked Ronan. “Better,” he said. “Attorney.”
This scene actually has abou 1,000 more words but 1) that’s a long snippet and 2) it’s gets into spoiler territory. Now, as mentioned in the beginning, y’all who check out my FB page will have seen two pics of Ronan on Saturday, and Maura’s pic on Sunday. And hopefully, you’ll remember that I mentioned keeping his pic in mind when reading this snippet. So, my question is, do you agree with Maura? 😉
Happy Halloween! Today you get treats with no tricks. And no hawking of books. Our recipe is for all you kitchen witches and wizards out there. You can create some monster goodies with this bread dough. You can make buns. You can use it for pizza or calzone dough. You can use it for a variation on a pirogi-type stuffed bun. And the best part is that it’s pretty quick from start to finish. What you do with this dough is more for “intuitive” bakers but beginners can make it and use it, too.
Prep time: 15 minutes
Rest time: 25minutes
Bake time: 20 minutes
Yields: 12 buns (more or less)
Ingredients:
6 cups all purpose flour
1 cups warm water
1 cup warm milk
1 egg optional (more fluffy)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp yeast
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup olive or corn oil
How to make it:
Tips:
There you have it. Mess around with it and have fun. Make some kitchen magic happen. As I mentioned above, not hawking any of my books or characters today though I will note that several who actually…you know…cook are making not of this recipe. LOL Since today is Halloween, I thought I’d ask you this: What’s your favorite Halloween movie and/or book? My movie is PRACTICAL MAGIC. I enjoy the book, too, but the movie just hits all the feels for me. I may have to check to see if some channel is streaming it this afternoon. Tonight is reserved for the World Serious! No tricking or treating for us tonight. It’s too blasted cold out! How about y’all?
Happy Halloween Eve! And Happy Birthday to Only! She almost waited long enough to make her entrance to be our little Halloween Witch. As she won’t be embarrassed, I’ll also say that for years, she thought Halloween was all about her birthday. As a result, I have TUBS of Halloween decorations but now I’m too lazy to put them up.
In other news, good thing there was no soccer this weekend. Brrrr. 🥶 There was rain. Drizzle. And falling temps. Our high on Fridazy was 73, which occurred at about 3 a.m. When the blue norther blew through, our temps dropped steadily over the next hour into the low 50s and then into the 40s. Yesterday, we didn’t get out of the 30s, with windchills in the 20s, and more rain. We need the rain so no gritching there. And the hard freeze last night will help with the bugs though it mean putting out suet for some of the birds.
In sports news, the Texas Rangers and Arizona Diamondbacks split the first two games in Texas. Sunday was a travel day and the third game is tonight. I don’t care who wins and I’m really happy to be watching some outstanding baseball. Fingers crossed the World Series goes the full seven games! 🤞🏼 In closer to home, sports news, my Cowboys from the real OSU won their homecoming game in excellent fashion. OU played a close game up in Kansas. The Jayhawks beat the Sooner by a touchdown. Bedlam is this coming Friday. OU vs. OSU. And since OU moves to the SEC next year, this will be the last Bedlam game. It ought to be a crazy game!
I finished listening to Kate Carlisle’s THE TWELVE BOOKS OF CHRISTMAS. If you enjoy cozy mysteries with romantic elements, I highly recommend her Brooklyn Wainwright Bibliophile series. I’m currently listening to Jayne Ann Krentz’s DREAM EYES, which is a book peripheral to her Arcane Society series. Once I finish it, I’m not sure what I’ll grab. I have holds on two books at the library–THE DEAD TAKE THE A TRAIN and THE STARLING HOUSE–but they looks to be 3-5 weeks away. There are a couple of books from my auto-buy authors out there but haven’t dropped in audio yet. Maybe I’ll just follow on with the Arcane series as it rolls into the Jayne Castle FutureRom books. That’s a term I just coined for paranormal romances that are technically science fiction because they happen in either the future or the very far future on a different planet but they don’t “read” like a true science fiction story. Anyway…
The Boston Wolves continue to take up my time though I do with they’d stop dragging me dow nthe occasional rabbit hole. Procrastinating is easy enough for me without their help! Still, new scenes, moving chapters forward, and the enhanced snippet for this Wednesday Words post got me an honorable mention in the flash fiction challenge I do every week.
That’s pretty much the new and round-up of the weekend. I’ll be bundling up to head to Wallyworld this morning. I did mention the hard freeze overnight, yeah? It’s still below freezing and the forecast is for a high of 43. At least it’s not that cold drizzly rain like yesterday. What’s the new from your neck of the woods?
NEW RELEASE
NEW RELEASE
NOW AVAILABLE
Silver James 