Wednesday Words: Failure is Not an Option

Posted on June 14, 2023 by Silver James

It’s Wednesday once again. Last week’s Thursday Threads prompt was a tough one–especially since I did two different snippets. The original came from CROSSFIRE but held spoilers so I didn’t want to share it. Instead, I stumbled across a 25 word jotted-down idea that I thought might fit theIrish mob book. Turns out, when I added the prompt, it did. LOL And the inspiration? **Failure will make things more difficult.** All I know about this scene is that the snippet will fit in back in an earlier part of the book. And it’s a fun peek at the beginning of Ronan and Maura’s mating dance.
****
“Wow. I’m impressed.”

“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.” Ronan arched a brow and his statement did nothing but aggravate Maura.

“That’s too bad. I don’t appreciate you bulling your way into my business.”

“But you are.”

“I are what?” She purposely used the wrong verb, copying his tone.

“My business, Maura Brannigan.”

“What insanity led you to that conclusion?”

His smile was a bit too wolfish to suit her and she would almost swear she saw a yellow glint followed by a flash of red in his eyes as he studied her.

She arched her brow to mimic him. “I’m still impressed.”

“By what?”

Was he preening? She almost snorted. He was! He was preening like a male peacock in full mating dance. Arrogant bastard. Well, time to burst that bubble. “By the fact that you’re able to stand upright and walk around.”

Ronan all but jerked back but caught himself. In a very calm voice that held more than a hint of growl, he said, “What the feckin’ shite are you talkin’ about?”

A part of her brain made note of the fact that his Irish was spilling out with his words. She didn’t care. She offered a sweet smile. “That chip on your shoulder. It’s so big most men would be sitting on their asses, unable to stand much less walk across the the room.”

That yellow gleam rolled across his eyes again and she fought the urge to back away. It was just a trick of the sunlight spilling through her office window.

He threw back his head and burst into laughter. Maura was not expecting that reaction. “I do enjoy a woman with fire, Maura Brannigan. And you will be mine.”

“No I won’t. This…” She waved her hand between them. “Whatever this is it’s doomed to fail.”

“Failure will make things more difficult so I have no intention of doing so.”
****
So there it is. I had fun expanding the original note with the addition of the prompt and I’m looking forward to dipping my toes back in this world. Sooner than later I hope. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the snippet. Writers, feel free to accept the challenge if it gives you some inspiration. Readers, since failure is not an option, let’s talk about success! What have you succeeded doing lately?

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Chai Don’t Lie

Posted on June 13, 2023 by Silver James

Some people appreciate a good cup of tea. Me? I’m all about the coffee but I’ll drink the occasionally cup of chai. I enjoy the spices and the flavor but when it comes right down to it, I’m a coffee girl. That said, I also enjoy a good muffin for breakfast or a snack. And when I stumbled across these Chai Snack Muffins, I knew two ladies who would know if it was any good.

Prep time: 20 Minutes
Cook time: 15-20 min.
Total time: 40 min.
6-8 servings

INGREDIENTS

MUFFINS
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 cup unsalted butter, cold
1/4 cup sour cream
3 tablespoons milk
1 large egg

STREUSEL
4 tablespoon all-purpose flour
4 tablespoon brown sugar (light or dark)
1/4 heaping teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cold

GLAZE (optional)
1/2 cup confectioners powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

LET’S MAKE IT

STREUSEL
1 – In a small mixing bowl stir flour, brown sugar, and cinnamon until mixed.

2 – Cut the cold butter into small cubes. “Cut” then cut into the dry mixture with a pastry cutter or fork until you get a good “crumble.” This is for use later.

MUFFINS
1 – Preheat oven to 400F and prepare a muffin pan with liners or grease each well with butter.

2 – In a large mixing bowl add the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, sea salt, ground cinnamon, ground cardamom, ground ginger, ground nutmeg, and ground cloves and stir to combine.

3 – Cube the cold butter and cut into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or a fork. Similar to the crumble, you will have small bits of butter in a crumbly texture.

4 – In a small bowl, add the sour cream, milk, and egg and whisk to combine. Add to the dry mixture and stir with a spatula until mixed. The batter will be lumpy and thick.

5 – Spoon some batter into each muffin cup filling about halfway. Sprinkle the top with some of the streusel topping then top off with another spoonful of batter. Carefullly spread the batter to cover the middle layer of streusel and then sprinkle more streusel on top.

6 – Bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and allow the muffins to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool.

GLAZE
1 – If you use the icing glaze, add ingredients to a small mixing bowl and whisk to combine. Drizzle on top of the muffins before serving.

TIPS
1 – Yummiest when served warm.

2 – Store any leftover muffins in a sealed container in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Only is the big chai latte fan. I like the taste but if I’m paying for it, I prefer a mocha frappucino. Still, I’m betting these muffins would go down well with a hot cup of cafe au lait. I mean–muffins! Sweet and spicy. Anyway, I checked with Dr. Jacey Randolph (HUNTER’S MOON) and Annie Simmons (WOLF MOON) and discovered they both made these muffins. Their kids and mates–along with everyone else– is all about the muffins. They also hinted that they make this small batch just for themselves because they don’t like to share. Something to keep in mind. 😉 Anyway, if you are interested in their stories, you can read them individually by clicking on the referenced title or…you can save money and grab MOONSTRUCK: LIES, which contines both books PLUS extra chapters and deleted scenes, and it’s specially priced. Anyway, go forth and treat yourself to snacks and books! Click on a pic or the title to hit the landing page with all the available stoes.

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Monday Mishmash

Posted on June 12, 2023 by Silver James

Welpers, Summer is here. Luckily, Spring remains slightly tenacious so we occasionally get reprieves. We finally hit the 90s over the weekend, which is at least a week later than normal so that’s a yay. Still, Summer brought her boyfriend Humidity. They need to go on vacation.

Stormy’s soccer game got rained out. BIG storm blew through early Saturday morning dropping over an inch of rain and dropping some pea-sized hail. When I went out to feed the crows in the driveway, I discovered a trash can sitting in the middle of the street. Cars were just driving around it. I moved it over to the curb after checking the immediate neighbors. Between the wind and the rain, it “floated” down the hill evidently. The bins are big and have two wheels and I’ve seen them do that before.

I hit Wallyworld yesterday because we doing Stormy duty this week. He’s doing VBS with his school buddies and then summer enrichment programs offered by a local junior college. Lots of picking up and dropping off.

Softball ended last week. OU won the National Championship. MLB continues but my Cards have hit a rough patch. Ah well. It happens. Hopefully, players will come off the IL, bats will start working, and maybe some trades will happen.–so long as they don’t include some of my fave players. That’s always a possibility.

I’m doing a marathon relistion of the Kate Daniels series. There’s supposed to be an audio release of their two newest KD novellas on July 4th. There’s a new narrator so we’ll see how that goes. Still, the series is a favorite and comforting and I don’t have to think too hard to keep track of characters and plots. LOL

I made slight progress on CROSSFIRE. Every new word counts. And that’s about all I have to say about that.

And on that note, I’ll let y’all get back to your regularly scheduled lives. Thanks for peeking in to see that things haven’t changed much here. Someday, I’ll be interesting again. LOLOL What’s up in your world?

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Friday Sinema: It’s Not the Heat…

Posted on June 9, 2023 by Silver James

…It’s the humidy! Though I shouldn’t complain. We’ve yet to hit above the 80s this month but with humidity floating in the 60-80% range? Yeah. It feels like summer. And I’m pretty sure that not only Southerners will crack up over this video. What season is your most toxic relationship? Have a great weekend! TGIF.

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Vision

Posted on June 8, 2023 by Silver James

Yes, it’s Thursday. And yes, the Universe has a message but this meme is what I’m talking about. While the Big U sends out messages (and I’m pretty sure it’s a mass email but that’s okay), each recipient recieves and digests that message based on their life situation. I tend to focus on writing because that my dream–and my bugaboo. I mean, seriously! It truly should be easy, right? Make stuff up, write it down, tell a story. How hard can it be?

Oh sure, dreaming is the easy part! Thinking the shiny, sexy, happy thoughts. And so are the baby steps; moving with your dream.

The hard part, Silver, is… well, actually, choosing words that imply you’re on your way is pretty easy, too… pretending is easy… gratitude, easy… finding stuff to be happy about, easy.

Help me, Silver. What’s supposed to be the hard part?

Tallyho,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. Got it, Silver! Visualizing! Visualizing must be the hard part. Wicked. Just once a day, in a dark and quiet room. Comfortably seated. No more than 4 minutes…

I wish writing for 4 minutes a day would get me a book quick. But even visualizing that I’m writing during that time could probably help. Like my Cardinals, I’m in a real slump. I do the dreaming. I think up the shiny, sexy, happy stuff. I even manage baby steps–in the form of a scene here and a scene there. And regardless of what the Universe thinks, actually choosing the words really IS the hard part. When the words don’t come as freely and easily as they once did, as you start to doubt, as you see others doing so much better, it gets easier to just…not do it. So, I guess I’ll take the U’s advice. I’ll visualize for four minutes and then I’ll put my butt in the chair, my hands on the keyboard and I’ll freaking produce words. I have stories to tell and characters to give life to. I’m a writer, dammit, and it’s time to act like one.

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Wednesday Words: Take it Outside

Posted on June 7, 2023 by Silver James

Guess what?!? I managed to snag an honorable mention in last week’s #ThursdayThreads. Too bad they weren’t 250 words that applied to anything I’m like…you know…actually working on. Still, this character–whoever she is–will stick around and show up again in the future. I’m not sure who, but she’s destined for one of the Nightriders. And no, it isn’t the Russian, though I admit the thought of him hooking up with…Nope. Shhh. That’s a spoiler. Anyway, the scene is pretty self-explanatory and it has been expanded from it’s original 250 words. For anyone who wants to play along, the prompt was: **”You can’t go outside until you have finished.”**
****
She walked into a wall of sound and stopped dead. Her first instinct was to turn around and run. What craziness had possessed her to accept this invitation? A rowdy group came in and pushed her off to one side. The noise washed over her, a cacophony of rock-and-roll and raised voices underscored with the clack of wooden balls. She almost smiled at the realization that the sound of the very intense pool game could be heard above all the rest. Curious, she moved a little closer as the clack stopped.

One man, fingers wrapped around the cue stick, its base firmly planted on the floor. He needed a haircut and a few days’ worth of stubble darkened the lower half of his face. The other man stalked around the table vainly searching for a shot. Both men wore leather vests covered in patches and she was reminded that Shooters was a biker bar.

Her friends were supposed to be somewhere in this crowd. She turned away from the game after one last appreciative look and searched for the girls. She located them at the end of the long bar and began a journey of bumper cars to get through them, dodging through the packed throng. She’d made it about halfway when two women planted themselves in her path.

“Take it back, you bitch!”

“The hell I will.”

Curses and insults continued and she was elbowed back as sides formed a cluster around the verbal combatants. Then the bystanders began slinging words. Pushing and shoving ensued. A table laden with food and pitchers of beer crashed to the floor. A huge bowl of salsa splashed down the front of her dress, followed by a mug of beer to her face.

“That’s it,” she growled, elbowing her way into the middle of the melee. In a voice that would make her drill sergeant dad proud, she proclaimed, “I’ve had it.” She placed her hand, palm down, just below her nose. “All the way up to here.”

A hush enveloped the room. Even the music cut off. All eyes shifted to her. She didn’t care. She didn’t know these people, would likely never see them again—especially if she had anything to say about it, and definitely had no fucks to give.

“You’re done here.”

“You can’t stop us,” argued one.

The second echoed, “You can’t!

“Go outside until you have finished.” Hands on hips, she stared them both down. “Scat. Go on with you. Out!” She flapped her hands like she was shooing chickens. They stood unmoving, dumbfounded.

“Is she serious right now?” The whispered question from a woman on the periphery carried plainly in the silence.

“Who is she?” another asked. “I mean, does she know who she’s messing with?”

She had no clue who the women were and didn’t care. Both were wearing leather vests similar to the pool players so she grabbed them by the scruffs and marched them toward the nearest exit, which was the front door. The crowd parted, hooting and laughing as the women struggled and cussed. She stopped and jerked them up on their toes by her grip on the vest. “What are you, five year olds?”

Moving on without giving them a chance to reply, she pushed them through the double doors and dropped them in the parking lot. Turning on her heel, she reentered the bar, to loud applause. She managed to stop the grin threatening her no-nonsense demeanor. Sometimes it paid to be a kindergarten teacher.
****
Anyway, those are my words for today. Writers, feel free to jam on the theme. Readers, when was the last time you broke up a fight and how did you do it? 😉

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Secret Cozy Croissants

Posted on June 6, 2023 by Silver James

I don’t remember where or when I first found this recipe but I copied it down and tucked it into my recipe box. I recently rediscovered it when I had to comb through my box looking for a different recipe that had been misfiled. Oh, who am I kidding? I have a metal box and I just stuff recipe in there as I find them and when/if they get used–or used a lot–they migrate to the front of the box. Anyway, I’m adding croussants to my grocery list the next time I need a fancy brunch dish–or just simply a snack because yeah, that’s how we roll. LOLOL

Baked Breakfast Croissants-n-Eggs

Prep time: 15 Minutes
Cook time: 35 Minutes
Total time: 50 min

6-8 servings

Ingredients
6-8 croissants (prebaked and enough to line an 8X8 baking dish)
2/3 cups dark chocolate chips (or flavor of your choice)
6 eggs
1 cup milk
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

Let’s Make It
1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 – Spray the 8×8 baking dish with non-stick spray.

3 – In mixing bowl, beat eggs until they are light yellow

4 – Add milk (I used vanilla soy milk), cinnamon and vanilla extract. Stir the egg mixture well. Stir in 1/2 of the chocolate chips.

5 – Break the croissants into bite-size pieces, adding them into the egg mixture.

6 – Gently stir croissant pieces, coating evenly with egg mixture.

7 – Pour mixture into prepared baking dish. Sprinkle remaining chocolate chips on top.

8 – Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until eggs are completely set and top and sides are turning golden brown.

9 – Let cool about 10 minutes before slicing so eggs are completely set. Serve warm.

Tips
Use your favorite flavor of chocolat chip. I like dark chocolate so there ya go. If you’re into caramel or butterscotch, try using them instead?

2 – Due to the eggs, you want to keep any leftovers in the fridge. You can always pop a piece into the microwave to warm it. (I prefer mine warm.)

3. Toppings: Personally, I liked them fine plain but you’re thinking dessert, top with whipped cream or chocolate sauce. If this is breakfast or brunch, you could add syrup.

Uhm…alrighty then. Hannah, with Liz in tow showed up and informed me in no uncertain terms that I discovered this recipe from the two of them. As some of you know, Hannah doesn’t cook and Liz is the brainy type (a wildlife biologist) more prone to protein bars than fancy breakfasts. They swear they got together and started playing around with stuff in Hannah’s kitchen (yeah, right! Hannah has stuff in her kitchen?) Wait. One moment…. Ah! The truth comes out. They were attempting to make a breakfast casserole with eggs and bread but Hannah didn’t have a loaf of bread and Liz only had croissants so they substituted and then Hannah spilled some chocolate chips in the bowl and…the rest is is history. I’ve also been informed that I need to include this scene in one of the Moonstruck Genesis books that is yet to be written. If I can remember. Anyway, I love the Genesis books because I get to add the stuff I cut out (fixed and expanded) and can get deeper into the story and characters since I have a better idea of how things work now. LOL Anyway, if you have a copy, maybe reread MOONSTRUCK: SECRETS and leave a review if you haven’t already, or share it with a friend, or if you haven’t started my Moonstruck series, grag it. Yes, it has BLOOD MOON and BAD MOON in it but there is soooo much more to enjoy and learn. The books are available lots of places and if you click on a cover pic or title, you’ll land on the Books2Read page where you can find your favorite onl-line bookstore. Hey, one last thing. Let me know what flavor of chip you’d use in this recipe.

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Monday Mandate

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Silver James

I will get off my arse and get something writerly done. Stop laughing. I’m serious! That’s my Monday Mandate!

I’ve already been to Wallyworld for the week. I have no excuse. I went yesterday because Stormy is out of school but his dad has summer school or something this week.

Softball! There’s been a ton of it and more this week as we head toward the WCWS finals starting Wednesday. As of my typing and setting this to post, OSU was still in it. They had to beat Tennessee last night to stay in it. And then they have to beat Florida State twice to move on to the finals. Not sure my heart can take much more. No, I won’t update this because…jinx and stuff.

We’ve had rain. We’re still in a drought but it’s not as extreme as it was two weeks ago. I have absolutely NOTHING agaist rain, except when it delays softball games. Yeah, yeah. I know.

I finished up the Sunshine Vicram trilogy by Darynda Jones. I 💖 the characters, story line, and setting. And the snark. And all the feels. Check out A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE, A GOOD DAY FOR CHARDONNAY, and A HARD DAY FOR A HANGOVER. The various character growth arcs, the individual story arcs, and the overall plot arc are masterfully done. There’s lots of action, humor, and snark. Which I’ve mentioned before. Not sure what I’m picking up next. There’s supposed to be some new audio releases in the Ilona Andrews Kate Daniels series coming soon so maybe I’ll do another relisten there, even though I did one early this year. I’m curious as to how the original audio version compares with the graphic full-cast version so I might do MAGIC BITES (1st book) back-to-back to compare. It’s not like anything else out there is snatching my attention.

Not much else going on in my world. What’s up with y’all?

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Friday Sinama: Speak No Evil

Posted on June 2, 2023 by Silver James

Yes. I laughed. Yes, it’s all pretty much true. Did I mention that I laughed? And I promise, these ARE things you’d NEVER hear a true southerner say. Just sayin’… *guggkesnorfflekoffGoBuckeyesKoffkoffgigglesnort* Have a great weekend! I’ll be watching softball, going to siren test, and enjoying Mexican food with the family!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Thinking

Posted on June 1, 2023 by Silver James

I always find it interesting that when I seem to have a dilemma  when it comes to my writing, the Universe pops up in my inbox with something insightful. Let me back up a bit. I recently read a blog from a best-selling author. Someone had asked about the types of main characters this writer seems to default to. Granted, there are similarities but the main characters–and the world, even when there’s a slight confluence of the worlds–are different. Same type but not interchangeable. The author talked a bit about brainstorming when it comes to characters and world-building. They didn’t mention plot, though I get the impression the individual books, as well as the series arc, is all as meticously plotted as the rest. I suspent they are plotters. Me? For the longest time, I was a pantser because my brain started at the beginning, had a decent idea of the end and decided it was fun to navigate twists, turns, detours, up, downs, and all arounds. It was fun for me to make those discovers, as I hoped it would also be fun for my readers. That said, now I’m a puzzler. But I degress in this story. After reading the blog post, I  headed to the kitchen for a coffee refill and I wondered when I’d last brainstormed with someone else. I used to have a critique partner. We’d meet for coffee and brainstorm through promblems we encountered in our WIPs. It’s been several years and I suddenly realised that I missed it–the brainstorming through problems. And then this popped up in my inbox.

Got any good ideas for this week, Silver?

I’m thinking that anything can happen.

But, then, of course, it’s not about what I think.

You’re up,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

P.S. I so love your continuum, Silver. It’s so responsive, versatile, and dependable. Like your cooking.

Okay, that last bit made me laugh because I also haven’t done much serious cooking in quite awhile. The Big U is correct. Anything can happen when you have ideas. They don’t even have to be good ones. With the right brainstorming, even a “bad” idea can turn into something delightful. True story. When I was writing THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC, what seemed like a bad idea at the time turned into a beloved character. Keep in mind that SEASON OF THE WITCH was actually written first. After a trip to New Orleans, I knew I wanted Sade’s story to start there. I’d pretty much done all the world-building in SOTW. There were vampires. There were werewolves. There were fae. So, I’m brainstorming TOBM and trying to come up with victims and who was the perp. “What’s the stupidest thing you could add?” my CP asked over coffee. I laughed and said the first thing that popped into my head. “Let there be dragons.” We both laughed and moved on to her project. I tried to convince myself that I didn’t want to rework the worldbuilding. I didn’t want to research “real” dragons. I mean, dragons are cool and I was a major Anne McCaffery Dragonriders of Pern fan, but dragon shifters? Really!?!? So I poked around on line a bit and one day, a character walked in, full of arrogance, and introduced himself. “I am the Drakon of Clan Kholikikos. My name is Nikolas Constantine but you may call me Nikos.” He snapped his fingers at me. “There. Now get to work.” So I did. How many of you love Nikos? 🙋🏼‍♀️ Including him was a very bad idea and meant skewing a whole bunch of stuff but at the same time, he created some conflict for Sade, added some cocky fun, and I’m not sorry I took the time to get his part of the story put into the right spots of the continuum. I just need to remember to faith in myself. I can be responsive, versatile, and dependable. Iffy? I’m not so sure about her but what the heck. I have ideas. Now to write about them, fleshing them out as I add them to the story.

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