Thursday Thoughts: Universal Timing

Posted on October 13, 2022 by Silver James

The Universe has a point today. Most writers tend to take things seriously. This is true even of those who write humor. Comedy is a serious business. Sometimes, we writers get so serious about things we get wrapped around the axle. You know what occurs when that happens, right? Things come to a screeching halt. That, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing either. Sometimes, we need to stop and think things through because the big U is right.

You don’t have to take everything so seriously, Silver.

Life isn’t black and white, answers aren’t always yes or no, and absolutely nothing has to happen today.

Act when you’re ready. Be led by your feelings. And the next time someone wants to fit you into a box, just tell ’em that your jeans are in the wash, your angels are at the mall, and Oprah’s on the other line.

Fuzzy as dice,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

You’re a spiritual being, Silver, on an eternal quest in a love-adventure you get to design. Do it your way.

Yeah, not sure I wouldn’t leave Oprah on hold but whatever. And good thing I have more than one pair of jeans and that my angels like the mall because I don’t. 🙄 But I’ve learned this in both life and my career. The message works for both. Sometimes, the answer is maybe. Sometimes, you look at shade of gray. There’s nothing wrong with sitting still, doing nothing because if nothing happens, it doesn’t happen. As writers, we develop our own process. None of us fit in a box. But we darn sure need to feel so that our words can pass those feelings along to our readers. And now I want a karaoke machine so I can belt out that iconic Frank Sinatra hit…you know the one. C’mon, all together now. Sing it with me… 😉

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Wednesday Words: It Really Is Working

Posted on October 12, 2022 by Silver James

Cold front blew in early this morning. Yay! We got a smidgen of rain yesterday which is better than nothing. Who’s ready for some new words? Once again, I took two prompts and combined them. I’ve expanded the original 250 words because…yeah. Still, this is a first draft and bare bones so bear with me. Our prompts today are…drumroll please… In this corner, from #1line Wed **REALLY IS –  Particularly. Emphatically. Beyond credulity.** And in that corner, our contender from #ThursdayThreads, “How does it work again?” Y’all know how this works by now, so here we go…
***
The time had come. Kin couldn’t run from it any longer. She deserved to know all about him.
“Just spit it out, Kin. Whatever it is.” Meg had no clue where this was going. Well, she thought she knew where it had been going and then the dang man went all cold and business like and stopped kissing her. “This whole ‘we need to talk’ thing puts a girl off. Fast.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “Puts a fella off as well. Still, ’tis the truth, lass. There are things about me y’need t’know.”

“You’ve killed people.”

He slow-blinked at that. “Aye.”

“And you have no remorse.” Another slow blink and a head nod. “You forget who my dad is. You are a soldier, Kin. If you didn’t go around killing innocents, then what’s the big deal?”

“Ah, lass. If t’was only so simple.” She gave him a narrow-eyed look but he forged on before she could interrupt him. “I’m not like other men. Human men,” he hastened to add. “I’m a Wolf.”

“And that is?”

“Just what it is. I’m a wolf shifter.”

“It’s not Halloween, Kin. This isn’t funny.”

“I’m deadly serious, lass. It’s a genetic thing. I was born with wonky DNA that allows me to shift into a wolf.”

Meg rubbed her temples. And here she thought she’d finally met a good guy, who was stable and kind and sexy as all get out. She muttered under her breath. “What’s wrong with this picture?”

“You don’t believe me.” Kin spoke emphatically and managed to keep his voice steady. He knew this wouldn’t be easy.

She folded her arms over her chest, giving him a narrow-eyed glare. “This really is silly.”

All right. So he hadn’t been particularly subtle. And true, his claim might be a bit beyond any sort of credulity, but he had spoken the truth. And now it was time to get serious. He would not woo her or seduce her into his bed until she knew the truth of him. “This is not a joke, lass.”

“That’s good, because I’m not laughing. Are you seriously telling me that you are a werewolf?”

“No, I’m telling you that I am a wolf shifter. Werewolves only exist in the minds of writers and movie makers.”

“Still not buying what you’re selling.”

He reached over his head, grabbed his shirt and stripped it off. Kicking off his books, he went for his belt buckle and fly next.

She backed up a few steps, concerned now. “What are you doing?”

“Show and tell, love.”

Meg let out a startled gasp as he stripped down and then she covered her mouth and backed into a corner as his body twisted, bones crunched, skin sported thick fur, and a wolf emerged. The animal stood in front of her, panting a little, nose raised as it tested the air.

“Holy shit.” Moments later, a naked Kin once more stood before her. “How? Why?” She was too dumbfounded to get any other words out.

“It’s in the DNA. Scientists call the little bugger the lupi versi pellis gene. It’s attached to the Y chromosome and it’s rather rare, even for a recessive gene.”

She closed her eyes against his very calm explanation and shook her head. “I’m hallucinating.” That got her a boisterous laugh so she opened her eyes. “Okay. One more time for the dummy in the class. How does it work again?” she demanded, still not quite believing her eyes.
****
There it is, the big “reveal” which is sort of a spoiler but not really becasue all the Wolves shift for the firts time in front of their mates. It’s just a matter of when and how and there’s way more to this scene so don’t be afraid to read it. By the time I’m done, it’ll be further expanded, stuck in the appropriate spot in the story and you’ll read it then and go, “Oh! Yeah. I sorta remember this scene.” 😉 Okay, writers, you have your prompts should you choose to use them. Share if you want. Readers, what “contraption” have you had to read and reread the instructions to figure out how to make it work. You never know when I might “borrow” the idea and slap it in a scene. Have a good one, y’all!

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Comfort Food and Reads

Posted on October 11, 2022 by Silver James

Well, I was on a roll for a few weeks when it came to hyping a new release and pairing a yummy recipe with one of the characters in the book. I still have one book to get polished and released and it wasn’t in time for today’s post. The weather is finally turning around here. We haven’t turned on the AC in over a week. I swiitched summer linens for the winter set (tradining a chenille bedspread for a microswuide comforter) and I actually feel like cooking. When it’s hot, heating up the kitchen is not really high on my wish list. As I was making my grocery list, LG and I discussed some of the dishes we like that we haven’t had in a long time–since…like…early spring when it was still cool outside. One of the first things he mentioned was Swedish meatballs. Talk about easy but still yummy. What is more comforting than a creamy sauce, meat, and noodles. Okay, grilled cheese sandwiches and hot soup ranks up there too. Anyway, I fixed Swedish meatballs last night. And it was pretty yummy. And yes, I will share the recipe, such as it is. I’m often a “scratch” cook, meaning I add a bit of this, a dab of that, and don’t really measure. I do, but I use the “cup” of my hand for herbs and spices.

Ingredients
1 cup beef stock

1 cup heavy cream

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 t. dried rosemary, crushed, or more to taste

1 T. dried parsely

12  frozen cooked meatballs per serving, thawed and warmed

1/2 package wide egg noodles or dumplings – I use No Yolks Dumplings

Directions
1 – Prepare noodles according to package direction. I use about 1/2 of the package for 2 servings.

2 – Whisk together stock, cream, flour, soy sauce, rosemary, and parsley in a large saucepan over medium heat until smooth. Cook, stirring occasionally, until thickened, about 10 minutes.

3 – heat meatballs in a no-stick frying pan coated with nonstrick cooking spray.

4 – Stir in warmed meatballs, and continue cooking until meatballs are heated through, about 5 more minutes.

5 – Taste and adjust seasonings before serving. You might want to add salt (or pepper–we don’t do pepper).

6 – serve over noodles

That’s the food portion of the post. Now, let’s talk books. I have questions for you. I’d love if you’d answser them but at the very least, think about them. If you were stranding in a mountain cabin in a blizzard, what series of books would you want to find in the bookcaseh? What is your Chicken Soupl Book? (That one book that you pick up to read when it seems like the world is falling apart around you.) What book always makes you laugh? What book always makes yoiu cry? See? Tough questions, but I’m all about comfort today. I mean snuggle fleece blanket, curled up in a cozy chair, favorite warm drink at your elbow, reading enjoyment. To go along with that wonderful comfort food you had for dinner. I could be perfectly happy with several different series on the shelf–Ilona Andrew’s Kate Daniels or JD Robb’s Eve Dallas/In Death. I’d lean tward the latter because there’s over 50 books to keep me occupied. 😉 My go-to book has always been NAKED IN DEATH. I’ve read it like 20 times. No. Seriously. I may not read the next book in the series but when no other book holds my attention, I can always count on NiD. Okay. The newxt questions are tougher because I’m really having to engage my memory. I always laugh when reading any of Shelley Laurenston’s Honey Badger books. As for a book that always makes me cry…That’s a tough one. There have been books that made me cry while reading them. I actually went back and scrolled through the 1700+ books I’ve listed on Goodreads. And came up on WILD COUNTRY by Anne Bishop, part of her The Others series. It occurred to me that I didn’t always relisten to it when doing a marathon because I always cry. I’m sure there are a few others, but that’s the first one I tumbled across that I saw the title and immediately teared up thinking about it. Don’t get me wrong. I love the book and the series but that one yeah. So, what about y’all? Favorite chilly weather comfort food and books?

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Monday Once More

Posted on October 10, 2022 by Silver James

Why does Monday keep comeing around? It’s like…you kow…programmed or something. 🤣 So we’ve reached the second Monday of the month. However, this is one of those cursed months (it IS October, after all) that has FIVE Mondays. Yes. You read that right! I know, I know. I’m a writer. I don’t work Monday thru Friday, nine to five. Or eight to five with an hour for lunch. Still, I worked for a lot of years and there was never a way to get around a Monday morning. Except with coffee. Coffee always helps.

There was a weekend. Let’s start with sports, of which there is good news and sad news. Good news, Stormy’s soccer game went well and while he played defense for the whole game, he played his position well and his team won. My OSU Cowboys also won! Yay. OU, on the other hand? It was ugly. There are reasons for their very bad, terrible, horrible record this year. Still… And the saddest news of all is that my Cards went 2 and done in the play-offs. Their season is over. I’ll wait to see who ends up in the series. We usually watch. There are some underdogs we could root for.

I did a little writing. Not much. And UNDER THE ASSASSIN’S MOON is not ready for release. It happens. Stormy was here for 3 days last week and trust me, playing Monopoly with him seemed far more important. 😉

In reading/listening updates, I’m about to finish my marathon relisten of Jayne Castle’s Ghost Hunter/Harmony/Rain Shadow series. I started the latest book, SWEETWATER & THE WITCH, yesterday. It’s a fun one. Heck, the whole series is fun. She’s tied historical, contemporary, and SciFi into a group of series, all tied together. It’s amaxing worldbuilding with interesting characters and a very different set of paranormal rules. Good stuff. Not sure what’s next for me once I finish this book.

Our weather is finally feeling fallish. I’m exicted because it means I can start cooking again. Tonight is Swedish meatballs. I’m also planning for shepherds pie, and either spaghetti or chili. There’s nothing better than comfort food on a chilly night. There’s a reason Fall is my favorite season. Summer means it’s too hot to really cook. We do lots of things in the microave so the kitchen doesn’t heat up.

That’s it for me. I’m off to Wallyworld and Ace for people foods and bird seed. When I get back, it’ll be time to open up UNDER THE ASSASSIN’S MOON and start reading, proofing, and polishing it. It’ll be up at some point over the several days.

What about y’all? Good weekend? Good books read? Good food eaten? TV shows watched?

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Friday Sinema: Granny Rock

Posted on October 7, 2022 by Silver James

Okay, this one popped up in YouTube shorts and after watching the 1 minute version, I had to find a longer video. This is ALL kinds of awesome! Her grandkids think one of two things–they have the coolest granny ever or they’re too embarrassed to show their faces. Me? I think she rocks! Have a great weekend.

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Happy

Posted on October 6, 2022 by Silver James

Sometimes, I’m reading my message from the Universe and I’m thinking one thing and then BAM! The Universe has something completely different in mind. Problem is, once I get an idea stuck in my head, it stays until I explore it. Upon examination, I often smile and think to myself, “Self, this is a good idea. Let’s be happy about it!”

Every single minute of every single day, they’re there, Silver.

They may be hidden behind circumstances, people, or light poles. Challenges, closed doors, or lost keys. Camouflaged, dovetailed, or whispering. Purring, kissing, or hissing. But more often than not they’re lying about in the open, under a clear blue sky, in plain view. Absolutely. Guaranteed. You’d throttle me otherwise.

10,000 reasons to be happy.

Jumanji, baby –
The Universe
©www.tut.com

Silver, how many do you see now?

So what am I talking about today? Ideas. Ideas make a writer happy. Without them, we’d be mired in writer’s block, which is a sucky place to be. Trust me on this. As writers, we never know where an idean will crop up. It could be in any of the places mentioned above by the big U. And have been, in my experience. I never quite know when an idea is going to tap me on the shoulder and say, “Hey there! We need to talk.” When I’m lucky, the ideas make sense, slot right into my WIP and I write merrily on my way. When luck isn’t exactly on my side, I fall into a rabbit hole but I’ve learned. No idea, no nudge from the Muse is wasted. If you could see all the Post-It Notes tacked to the bulletin boards lining the walls of my writing cave, plus all the scribbled notes on my whiteboards taking up the rest of the space, you’d understand. And to the Universe’s point, all of this makes me happy. What’s making you happy today?

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Wednesday Words: Than and Then

Posted on October 5, 2022 by Silver James

Wednesday once more. Amazing how that keeps happening. LOL Still, it’s a good excuse to whip out some new words. Today’s prompts were a lot of fun to combine and play with. Once again, this is from the CROSSFIRE WIP. From #ThursdayThreads, we have “It’s a long way down” and from #1lineWed, we have this little gem: **THAN: Greater. Less. Not now and…** I had fun writing this snippet. I hope you have fun reading it.
****
Meg stared down the twisting trail. Wet, cold, forlorn. She was so tired. A little hand tugged on her and she automatically curled her fingers around the girl’s. “I’m an idiot,” she muttered. “What goes up, must come down. And it’s a long way down.”

“Aye, lass. It’tis.” Did Kin have to agree with her so readily? He gave her an arm bump. “But the good news is, once we’re off this moutain, we’ll be at the border. There will be help once we cross over.”

“Terrific.” She didn’t hide the sarcasm.

“Terrific!” Galyna agreed.

Unsure whether she was going to laugh or cry at the sweet girl’s conviction, Meg squeezed her hand. Ah, to be a cockeyed optimist.

“Head’ em up and move ’em out,” Dalton called out.

The kids started moving without protest. Like a golden retriever puppy, Dalton bounced down the trail.

“I am less than impressed by his enthusiasm.”

“Dalton!” Galyna released Meg’s hand and charged after the man. He halted and waited for her to catch up. When she did, he took her hand and they set off down the path.

“Not many have greater patience than he does,” Kin mused.

“I think she has a bit of a crush on him.”

“He’s mindful of that and of her.”

“I’m not worried.”

“And you?”

“Me?”

“Do you have a bit of a crush on the lad? You used to watch him, back in the beginning.”

“Nope. Not now and not then.”

“Good t’know.”
****
There you go. I’m not quite sure where this scene fits in the timeline. My initial impression was toward the end but now? I’m thinking the middle. We’ll see once I get started back on full-time writing this one. I have one more Moonstruck Wolf book to polish and get ready for next week. After that, I have every intention of getting back on track with this book. In the meantime, writers, you have your prompts should you decide to play. Readers, off the wall question today. Would you rather walk up a hill or down?

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Posted on October 4, 2022 by Silver James

As I’ve been touting for almost a week, here’s an easy-peasy cinnamon roll recidpe that is also yummy-scrumptions. Please note that I have a couple of signature “dishes,” including my yeast rolls and subsequent cinnamon rolls. It’s a family recipe. They are pretty easy but messy–all the ingredients, the mixing bowl, a second mixing bowl for overnight rising in the fridge, then rolling out, cutting, putting in pan, rising, baking. There’s no immediate “fix” if you get a craving. This recipe? You can have hot cinnamon rolls in under an hour. Heck, in about 45 minutes, depending on how long it takes to preheat your oven. I got this recipe from the local food guru, Sassy Mama, who appears on our local CBS station, KWTV 9.

Easy Cinnamon Rolls

Ingredients
2 cans Grands refrigerated cinnamon rolls, save frosting
1 cup whipped cream
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Chopped nuts to taste (optional) I used pecans but you can use walnuts, almonds, etc.

Directions
1 – Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a 9×13 casserole pan with nonstick cooking spray.

2 – Place the cinnamon rolls in the pan, and pour the whipped cream over the cinnamon rolls. In a small bowl, mix together the melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. (According to the video, you can top with nuts for “sticky buns” or fruit. Just click and watch. 😉 )

3 – Pour the mixture over the cinnamon rolls and place in the oven. Bake for 30 minutes.

4 – Remove from the oven, and use the frosting from the cans to spread over the top. Enjoy!

You can watch Sassy Mommy’a video HERE. The frosting is optional as far as I’m concerned but the nuts are a must! And yeah, for my first batch, I used the icing. Totally YUM! Evidently, Lennox, our heroine from the just-released ASSASSIN’S MOON, say this recipe on TikTok. I think Sassy found it there too. Lennox loves popping these rolls into the oven and her mate, Griffith “Abel” Caine, is very careful to share, though he’s quite capable of inhaling the entire pan. Lennox and I have both discovered that you’ll want to leave leftovers, if there are any, in the pan covered with aluminum foil. I didn’t refrigerate, and nibbled on them for 3-4 days. You can warm them in the microwave. I covered them with a damp papertowel draped over a toothpick stuck in the center to keep the icing from sticking. They’re just as good the next day as they are hot out of the oven. And yeah, Lennox gave me the toothpick/wet towel hack. If you want to get to know her and find out how she and Griff hooked up down in Rio, grab ASSASSIN’S MOON. Click on either pic showing the cover or the title where mentioned. The sales outlets listed on Books2Read are slowly populating as it goes live. Do you have any easy cooking “hacks” to share?

Psst: It’s live on Amazon as of last night. Hopefully, the universal link at Books2Read is starting to populate. I’ll get the ‘zon link added there as soon as it does. In the meantime, here’s the direct LINK.

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Manhandling Monday

Posted on October 3, 2022 by Silver James

I will tame Monday. And I will tame the chaos currently hiding behind my browser.window. More about that later. It’s Monday. The first Monday in October. There’s a movie by that name. About the Supreme Court. There’s your random fact of the day. I switching things around today. I am NOT making a Wallyworld run. There are reasons. I’ll hit the store tomorrow.

So why am I manhandling Monday? Because I need to get it to behave. That’s one reason I’m not following my habitual schedule. The main reason is that I ran into a few speedbumps this weekend and ASSASSIN’S MOON isn’t uploaded yet. Saturady was busy with family, sports, and a crash-landing of a nap. All of which kept me off the computer. Add the eyesight issues–I can only read for so long before everything goes blurry, my eyes burn and water, and I get a headache, it makes it tough to polish as many pages per day as I’d like. Stupid real life. I workd off and on yesteray and got a lot done but I’m not finished yet. And yes, I’ve added/changed some words and fixed some typos. Anyway, the plan is to get it uploaded today and hopefully, it’ll go live various places over the next 24 hours. Tomorrow’s blog will have links. If they are live. 🤞🏼

In other writing news, I did manage some new words on CROSSFIRE. It’s moving along and it’ll go fast–I hope!–once I get the Moonstruck Wolf books back in publication.

In sporting news, Stormy had a good soccer game Saturday but he was disappointed because his team lost. He blamed himself because he let the ball through when he was playing goalie (which he plays only occassionally and doesn’t actually practice at). He was also taken down by the biggest kid on the other team, who happens to be a “flopper.” That means that he “gets tripped” by opposing team players in hopes of drawing a penalty kick. The kid is notorious for doing it and it took the ref about twice to figure it out. Anyway, the kid ran right up to Stormy as he was about to bend and grab the ball. He took an elbow to the face but managed to hold onto the ball. And the kid flopped. 🙄 On a good note, Stormy got a “free” kick (I am NOT a soccer person!) earlier in the game and the ref, who is the head ref for the league, complimented Stormy on his ability.

More sporting news. Did you hear about the Chicago-area youth football league that suspended a team because one of their players is in the 10th grade. Here’s the story. It’s a 14U bracket. The kid is 14. He also happens to be REALLY smart so he’s been accelerated to the 10th grade. The kid is barely 140 pounds, looks 13, and is no way ready to play against high schoolers. The league says that their by-laws state no high school players can play in the league. Two fallicies. The kid is NOT a high school player. He’s a student attending high school classes. And he’s THIRTEEN!!!!! That ranks right up there with the female volleyball players being told they can’t use the girls’ locker room at the gym because there’s a trans player on the team and girls in the girls’ lockerroom might be bullying. So they have to change in the little bathroom. Don’t even get me started on trans males participating in womens’ sports. 🤬

More sporting news of a happier variety. The REAL OSU (Go Cowboys!) beat the Baylor Bears and have moved up two spots to #7 in the polls. Sadly (mixed emotions here for…reasons), OU lost to Texas Christian University. My Cardninals had quite a weekend. Albert Pujols hit homeruns #701 and 702 and he tied Babe Ruth in career RBIs. This was the last regular season home series and they split with the Pirates 2-1. Big ceremony for Albert and Yadi Molina, both who are retiring after this season. They are in the post season and it would be awesome beyond belief if they went all the way!

Okay, no more sports. Reading. Or in my case, listening. I’m still trucking through Jayne Castle’s Ghost Hunters/Harmony series. There’s a new release, SWEETWATER AND THE WITCH, at the end of the road. I’ve also picked up a couple of sale audio books. We’ll see how they go.

Baking. I actually did some. These easy-peasy cinnamon were pretty darn tasty. Not quite as good as my homemade version but yummy enough that I’ll make them again. Luckily, Lennox (our heroine from ASSASSIN’S MOON) makes them so I’m featuring them in tomorrow’s Tuesday Treats & Titles blog. Note that the picture is of the actual batch I made. How ’bout them apples?

It was First Saturday but due to the timing of the soccer game, none of us made the siren test. However, we did trek up to our usual First Satruday restaurant for yummy Mexican food. Jake made a new friend with a little kid that had been terrified of dogs until Jake. Mom and grandmom were surprised but glad. They had no clue why the little boy freaked out around dogs but he sat on the floor and petted Jake for about 5 minutes. The child was probably 2? Maybe 2 1/2? Anyway, it was sweet.

That’s it for me. I need to flex my muscles and get ready to manhandle Monday now. That dang book ain’t gonna polish itself. Off to work I go. Right after one more cup of coffee. What about y’all? Good stuff for you this weeknd? Plans for the week? Yummy foodstuffs? Good book, movie, TV show? Sports story? Go ahead, distract me! 😉

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Friday Sinema: Night Watch

Posted on September 30, 2022 by Silver James

No, this isn’t about one of my Nightrider MC books. Yet. That said, yes, this is a title for one of the books yet to come. Nope, this is a whole different Night Watch. LG and I were watching a show on Monday, “Mysteries of the Unknown with Don Wilder.” One of the segments involved Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. As a result, I remembered this video of a flash mob in Amsterddam that I though was cool–and have posted before. Anyway, it’s still cool. Take a minute and enjoy. Have a great weekend!

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