Yes, I’m late. But hey, I’m here! I apologize for the quality of some of these videos but I think you’ll get the idea. WC Fields famously once said never work with kids or animals. Good thing advertisers didn’t get the message. Hope this gives you a laugh. Enjoy your weekend!
Today’s message from the Big U comes at a time when I’m finally getting some insights into one of the main characters. Aisling has turned out to be almost as big a PITA as Toby. Except she doesn’t chew up pillows. At least not yet. First, she fought me over her name. Then she balked about her entrance into the book. She informed me that she was just as important as Ariel and therefore…yada, yada. So then this message recently dropped into my inbox and things started to fall into place.
No one, Silver, can see into your heart.
Which is why you sometimes have to show them how you feel.
Winks & hugs –
The Universe
P.S. No one can see into your mind either, Silver, but then, your thoughts eventually become things.
Writers are said to put our hearts and our souls into our work. Which is true for the most part. In order to engage our readers, we have to give them a glimpse of our hearts. We have to show them how we feel about our characters. If we’re honest, we’ll admit that we even love the villians just a little bit. This is how we breath life into our characters and how we get our readers to care. I know that I, as a writer, want to connect with my readers and want them to connect with my characters–love them or hate them. It’s the PS that explains writing in a nutshell. Our thoughts eventually become things. Those things are words and sentences. Paragraphs. Chapters. And finally, a complete story meant to entertain, lead the reader on an adventure, to fall in love. Gotta show not tell. And then we all get the HEA. And no, I haven’t had much coffee this morning, why do you ask?
Here it is Wednesday again. This keeps happening every week. Kinda like Monday. But yay! Wednesday means words and I have new ones. In fact, I have lots of new ones. This whole “the internet might or might work but you definitely can’t watch TV thing seems to have helped me get up the hump if not over. I mean, it is Hump Day, right? I finished a chapter, figured out a continuity problem and fixed it, shuffled some chapters around, and got a little better handle on the whole book. Hopefully, the progress will continue. In the meantime, there was a Thursday Threads prompt and I used it: *”You’re not lonely?”* Once again, this week’s prompt played well with last week’s so this snippet is a bit of a follow-on to last weeks. There has been some editing and rewriting so the final outcome will be a tad diffferent.
****
“You’re not lonely?”
Aisling considered Carla’s question. She knew the definition of the word: sad because one has no friends or company. But wouldn’t one need to have had friends to know what their absence meant? She didn’t want to think about this and was relieved when the Bees finished their dart game.
Brad and Bruce dropped into their chairs, laughing as they grabbed their fresh ales. Aisling smiled at them. “Did you win?”
The men exchanged a look then burst into guffaws. Worried, she leaned away from them. Bruce, recognizing her discomfort, reached over to gently touch her arm. “Didn’t mean to be rude. You don’t really know us. Brad could be a professional dart player.”
“Except I like eating regularly and paying bills on time,” Brad said. “I’m a CPA. Bruce is an insurance agent.”
They both looked at her expectantly. The light bulb went off. “Oh! I’m…” She fidgeted with her glass. “Well…I’m a librarian.”
Brad grinned. “Like that TV series?”
She leaned away again, this time out of confusion rather than self-defense.
He explained. “It’s about this secret library that contains all sorts of magical items too dangerous to be out in public. The library recruits special humans to take care of things.”
She sat up a little straighter. “Oh! That sounds interesting, actually.” She felt her cheeks heat as she admitted, “I don’t watch much TV.” Her smile was tentative. “To me, all libraries are magical. I’m the special collections curator at the downtown library.”
****
I’m guessing Aisling will probably go binge watch the “The Librarians” now. And to be honest? I didn’t realize the similarity between her area of the Rochester Library with the sentient library in the series until I wrote the above. Ah well. Great minds and all that. Writers, write. Readers, read. Who wouldn’t want a magical library?
First off, we are having intermittant internet and TV disruptions. This started just after 8 a.m. yesterday. We have 3 TVs–the main in the family room, and one each in our bedroom and my office. It started with the picture freezing and then weirdness followed by a message that our U-verse “could not be found.” Poor LG spent 3 hours with a very nice customer service tech. She ran every test possible and finally concluded that our equipment was (like us) old. Sadly, the quickest they can get an actual service tech out to replace all the various boxes, bells, and whistles will be Wednesday morning. What’s really weird is that the big TV in the front room seems to be working fine. Our phones are fine. It’s just the computers and the two TVs. Anyway, I’ll be in and out of contact until sometime Wednesday. Hopefully, the blog will post. We’ll see. Now, to today’s goodies!
Warning: I have not made these but they looked cute and sound tasty for any sort of Autumn party, gathering or for Thanksgiving. You know, in case you’re feeling adventurous and creative. They appear a bit time-consuming but I bet they are pretty tasty and they are definitely cute. I have no character stepping up to make these so I’m featuring the entire Penumbra Papers series because…well…they remind me of Fall.
Start by draining the excess liquid from the pumpkin puree. Place the puree on multiple layers of paper towels, gently pressing down with another set of paper towels. Allow it to sit for a few minutes, then remove the towels. This step is essential! Too much moisture can make the filling soggy.
Preheat your oven to 375°F. While waiting, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set it aside. Getting this ready saves time once you start assembling your crescent pumpkins.
In a mixing bowl, combine the drained pumpkin puree with the egg yolk, light-brown sugar, granulated sugar, corn starch, and spices. Stir the mixture just until combined, then set it aside. The aroma will start to fill your kitchen, and you’ll know it’s going to be good!
In a separate bowl, mix the softened cream cheese with sugar and vanilla extract until just combined. This simple yet creamy filling complements the pumpkin perfectly. Set this aside while you work on the next steps.
Now it’s time to unleash the crescent dough! Unroll the crescent roll dough and separate it into four rectangles. Seal the perforations between the triangles and cut each rectangle in half, yielding eight squares. This is where your crescents start to take shape.
Take a square of dough in your palm, gently stretch it, and drop one heaping tablespoon of cream cheese filling in the center. Follow this with one tablespoon of pumpkin filling. Fold the corners of the dough over the filling, pinch to seal all sides, and roll it gently in your palms to form a ball. This step is quite fun, and you’ll find yourself grinning at each mini pumpkin you create.
Arrange the formed balls on the lined baking sheet with the sealed side down. This helps them keep their shape in the oven.
Take a long piece of kitchen twine and wrap each dough ball, creating eight sections around each ball. They will bake with the string attached, helping to create that adorable pumpkin shape you’re after.
Bake the crescent pumpkins for 18-22 minutes at 375°F, or until they achieve a beautiful golden-brown color. You’ll know they’re done when your kitchen fills with a warm, inviting aroma.
Once baked and cooled, cut the string with small scissors. Gently peel it away from the dough, and insert a pretzel stick into the top of each pumpkin for a whimsical touch. These finishing touches take your celebration to the next level!
Serve these delightful crescent pumpkins warm or at room temperature. They pair beautifully with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a drizzle of caramel sauce for an extra-special treat. You might even want to create a cozy dessert bar with toppings and sauces for everyone to enjoy!
You regulars know to just click on the pic to find your way to Books2Read and the landing page for the series. Once there, you can–hopefully–find your favorite on-line bookseller. If y’all try these, let me know. I want to know if they are as cute and tasty in real life as they look the picture.
Hello, Monday. Hello, November. Hello, Standard Time. Goodbye, DST. Don’t let the door hit you on the way. May this be the final time we change the clocks!
Did everyone enjoy their extra hour of sleep? I certainly did. And I drank (and am drinking) my morning coffee while the sky turns pretty colors as it gets light. Normally, I’m on my 2nd or 3rd cup before I see daylight.
There was soccer over the weekend. We didn’t make the Saturday game–LG had siren test at the same time as the game…match…whatever it’s called. Reports say Stormy played well in the 3-3 tie. We made the game Sunday afternoon. Stormy again played well, averting a couple of goal attempts (he’s a defender) and stealing the ball and passing it upfield to his midfielders and strikers. Or whatever. Anyway, they won 6-1. Yay. The weather was really nice both days–highs in the 60s with a north wind on Saturday and a south wind on Sunday.
In other sports news, how ’bout that World Serious! I mean that was some SERIOUS baseball right there. Every game. All 7 of them. Records set. Amazing defensive plays. Walk-offs. Extra innings. It was everything a baseball lover could ask for. Sadly, I kept falling asleep during those extra innings. My OSU Cowboys lost (this is another lost season for them for…reasons) and OU won.
I wrote a little bit. It feels weird that this is the 3rd of November and I’m not madly dashing off words for NaNoWriMo. This is the first time since like…2006? Or maybe 2007. I don’t remember exactly my first year. It was a loooong time ago. All good things come to an end, I suppose. I have reasons for nort participating and while my current writing lethargy is a problem, it is not a contributing factor to my decision. Maybe today will be the day I get back in the groove. I did write a little last week and over the weekend so there was progress made. I’m really pissing myself off because Ariel and his story deserve my all. And it’s a better story than I’m giving it credit for in my head. Argh.
I need to get out of my book slump. If I can find a book that grabs me while I’m listening to it, that might get me out of my writing doldrums. I’m a little ahead on my yearly challenge but if I don’t get back into that habit too…well. I suck. Whatever.
Well…okay. I’ve been sitting here staring at the screen and other than being perturbed with FB, I really don’t have much else to say. So, I’ll say get along little doggies, get your week started. Me too. Did anyone have any Halloween shenanigans? Or any fun stuff over the weekend? Good books you’re reading? Good books you’re writing? Drop a comment. I’m nosy!
Happy Halloween. I was looking for something Halloweeny. I found this. You’re welcome. *drops mic*
Have a safe Halloween and a great weekend.
Once again, playing around with AI images. It did a decent job on facsimiles of Jake and Toby. If we had grass in the yard, and pretty orange and yellow leave, pumpkins, and ghosts, it might look like this around here. Or not. The Boys do want you to know that they ARE on patrol for ghosties, beasties, witchies, other things that go bump in the night, but especially falling leaves. Those darn leaves keep invading their territory and they must go out and bark at the intruders.
Happy Birthday, Only! Yes, we called her our little Halloween witch, but she wasn’t actually born on Halloween. By the time she was 2, she just figured all the hoopla was about her. Her first real Halloween, she was Snoopy. She’s been a firefighter, the Little Mermaid, a cowgirl, and other things. I used to design and make her costumes. Then she got too cool. 🙄 We bought them after that.
For some weird reason, I’ve let my hair grow out. It’s no longer short and edgy. Now it hangs a couple of inches below my shoulders–when it’s down. Which is never! It’s either in a ponytail or twisted up and held by an alligator clip.
Trick-r-Treat should be fun tomorrow night. Not. Toby will go nuts. Either one of us will have to sit out on the porch or we’ll both have to go to the door, one to candy, one to hold back the dogs. If I was still all cool and stuff, I’d dress up and pretend I was part of the decorations and then scare the kids. I used to do that. We didn’t have many kids last year. A few. The last bunch got to empty the bowl.
Is everybody ready for Halloween?
On this Halloween Week Wednesday, I give you a witch to help conjour up new words. If she does her job and provides lots of words, she’ll be a good witch. If she takes off with Iffy for a girl’s day off, she’s a bad witch. In the meantime, I have words from last week. These words give a bit more insight into Aisling and her life. I have to be honest. I usually know quite a bit about my characters. Aisling was and is a mystery. Once the book is done and in the hands of readers, they will be discovering her just like I am. Anyway, the Thursday Threads prompt from last week is: *“I don’t need to belong.”* Just wait until she figures it all out… *bwahaha*
****
Aisling’s foot tapped to the music completely of its own accord. Once she became aware, she stopped. It was Wednesday night and she still hadn’t figured out how Carla convinced her to come to Cavanaugh’s Irish Pub. Here she sat in the midst of music and laughter. The Bees—Brad and Bruce from Apartment 1A, had come with them. They were currently involved in a spirited game of darts.
“I have to work tomorrow,” she repeated for the umpteenth time.
Carla smirked. “It’s only nine-thirty. I know for a fact that you don’t start until ten tomorrow morning.
A waitress paused briefly at their table, dropping off pint glasses of ale and sweeping up the empties. She flashed a cocky grin over her shoulder as Carla yelled, “Thanks, Kelly!”
The music changed and Aisling’s foot twitched. She surrendered and let it tap it’s little heart out. She couldn’t help herself. She was of Irish ancestry and the jigs just kept coming.
“Look, Aisling, here’s the deal. These are all people from the neighborhood. This bunch is like the one over at the Daily Grind. You should get out and about and mingle. You’re one of us now. You belong in our little community.”
“I don’t need to belong.” The words blurted out before she could think about them. She’d never belonged. Not anywhere. Even her own family made her feel like a stranger.
“Tough. You belong here with us.”
Was it possible? What if she did? Then what? She didn’t need to belong but what if she wanted to? Carla had opened a door and was inviting her in. Dare she take this first step?
****
And there you have it. Writers, I dare you take the prompt and write. If you want to. Hopefully, it will spark a little inspiration. Readers, what will you dare today?
Loki and Pete are my Halloween cats. Black and orange. They’d make good witch familiars. They are also Cowboy cats, as in my OSU Cowboys and Cowgirls. Go Pokes. Except football is a lost cause. Long story, or as they say on the intrawebz: tl:dr.
I finally looked that up after seeing it on the net aqll the time. It stands for “Too long, didn’t read.” Now you know.
I have tubs of Halloween decorations. I keep thinking I should bequeath them to Only. I mea, we acquired them all on account of her. She really did think Halloween was all about ther birthday. We tried very hard to keep her birthday separate, even going so far as to have seperate birthday parties and then Halloween parties. At least until she got to be a teen. I’d pass all this stuff off but they’ve got so much junk stored in their garage, their storage locker, and their house, there’s really not room. And yes, we did call her our little Halloween witch.
Yes, I did create today’s image using MS Copilot. I’m rather pleased with myself.
It’s Taco Tuesday. Are you having tacos today/tonight? We’re either doing Taco Tuesday or Tamale Tuesday. Decisions, decisions.
Book trivia: THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC, the first book in the Penumbra Papers series released in September of 2013. SEASON OF THE WITCH, the second book released right before Halloween the same year. See…witchy titles. For anyone new who happens to stumble in, if you like Urban Fantasy, you really need to give this series a try. Just click HERE to hit the series landing page on Books2Read and you can find your preferred on-line bookseller.
Interesting fact (maybe) about these two books: SEASON OF THE WITCH started life as a National Novel Writing Month project. I got my 50K words but the novel wasn’t finished and it took a couple of years to get the whole thing figured out. And then I shopped it to agents and publishers. By the time I decided to self-publish, I realized that the world needed an introduction so I wrote THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC over the summer of 2013, and pushed it out a month before SOTW’s Halloween debut. Maybe sometime, I’ll reveal where Sade’s character got her start…
In the meantime, anybody else have some tidbits to share?
This is the start of Halloween Week. Halloween is Friday. Time change is Saturday night. Only’s birthday is Thursday. Lots to celebrate.
Though she wasn’t born on Halloween, for years, Only was convinced that the whole season was about her. The whole house was decorated, like Christmas, and our yard decorations rivaled the elaborate displays we used to put up for Christmas. We called her our little Halloween witch. Okay, we still call her that. Anyway, except for Wednesday (because I have new words to share), I’m going to just post fun and spooky stuff. Never hurts to shake thinks up, right?
So…the weekend. It’s pretty easy to sum up. It rained. All plans cancelled, including Stormy’s soccer game on Sunday. Both my college teams lost. The Dodgers split the first two games with the Blue Jays. I should be a Dodgers fan. Their Triple A team is located here. But then there was my dad. He felt about the Dodgers the way I feel about Ohio State and the Red Sox. He’d always been a huge Dodgers fan. Until they up and snuck out one night, moving to Cali. Dad shifted his allegiance to the Mets. I picked the Cubs because…big Mets rivals back in those days. Then LG came along. He was a White Sox fan. We compromised on the Cardinals and have been loyal Cards fans for 40+ years. The past 3 years have been tough. Not with the team–the players are all kinds of talented awesomesauce. It’s the managerial and front office stuff. Anyway…I’ve probably bored you.
What I’m saying is that nothing happened this weekend. It rained–which we desperaately needed so YAYAY! Also cool temps. Another yay! I did a little writing. I played a little with MS Copilot to create some images to use this week. I cleared off a bunch of stuff gathering dust on the DVR. I didn’t listen to much of anything. The book currently loaded is okay but I’m not driven to find out what happens. Reading slumps suck. I’ll probably go back and relisten to an old favorite just for the distraction. Anybody reading/listening to something that is totally blowing up your skirts? So to speak. Suggestions appreciated.
Not much else going on. I may have to turn the heater on this week. They’re talking frost on the pumpkin and highs in the 50s. I may just put on a hoodie and flannel pants and be cheap. How was your weekend?
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Silver James 