Fifth Monday

Posted on August 29, 2022 by Silver James

Ya know, it really sucks when the calendar saddles us with 5 Mondays. FIVE!!!! It’s not fair, I tell you! Not fair at all. 😮 *exaggerated sigh*

Okay, move along. Nothing to see here. Which, sadly, is true. We didn’t win either of the lotteries. I didn’t suddenly lose a bunch of weight. None of my books hit a best seller list. I stalled out on edits and revisions for a variety of reasons, none of which actually fly but there’s no way to turn back the clock for do-overs.

There was baseball. This is always a highlight of my life, especially when my Cards win.They’re six games ahead in the NL Central. College football started this past weekend. My OSU (the REAL OSU) plays Central Michigan this Thursday night. Luckily, that’s a travel day for my Cards so no conflict. I need to figure out some sort of football-game appropriate dinner. I might just have to break down and go for outside BBQ because ribs sound pretty tasty. Or maybe a brisket because I have one in the freezer but I’m sort of holding it for Labor Day. Or not. Anyway…

I need more coffee but today is Wallyworld day. That means I restrict myself to one cup because…reasons. Still, coffee is my BFF and I will have made a Starbucks stop on the way home.

I’ve finished my marathon relisten to Ilona Andrews’s Hidden Legacy series and have started RUBY FEVER, that should be the final book in Catalina’s thrilogy. I’m really looking forward to what happens. This husband and wife team are amazing worldbuilders, purveyors of action-packed storylines and interesting characters.

Pete came in for a bit last night. No hissing or barking. Jake is all “whatever.” Boone just wanted to get a good sniff. Loki was MIA. Pete retreated under the bed. Eventually, the dogs wandered off and Pete emerged. He jumped on the bed, did a bit of exploratory sniffing then ducked back under the bed. Several minutes later, he checked out the bed, the rope wrapped headboard that Loki uses as a claw sharpener, then back under the bed. Eventually, I called him out and he came. I then gave him the option of returning to the garage, which he happily took. I don’t think he will ever be a true indoor cat but I’d like him to be comfortable enough to come in and stay during the coldest days.

The Ring Doorbell still insists the skunk is a person. The big stray dogs? Not a peep and a late activation on motion. Early this morning, Smudge kitty and the skunk were eating together from opposite ends of the same dish. I have it on video so it happened. Crazysauce, right?

And on that note, that’s pretty much the sum total of last week and this weekend. Oh, there was a long nap in there Saturday afternoon. It was nice. We’ll see what this week brings. What about y’all? Anything happening in your worlds?

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Friday Sinema: Southern Drivers

Posted on August 26, 2022 by Silver James

Sadly, It’s a Southern Thing evidently does not consider Oklahoma to be a southern state. Or, they flunked geography and think that we’re just part of Texas. Also sadly, almost all of these scenarios culd apply to folks ’round here. While we poke fun at ourselves, I shudder to think about all the nothern states I’ve driven in. This would be gospel for them. 😉 Have a great weekend! And be careful out there….

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Ball

Posted on August 25, 2022 by Silver James

This has been a week where my head hasn’t truly been in the ball game. Which sort of makes this missive from the Universe fit. A little background. I was a high school and college athlete. So was Lawyer Guy. There was little doubt that Only (our daughter for those of you who are new around here) would follow. She settled of softball. And she got really, really good at it. She was a catcher and played 18-U gold level tournament ball at 14 and 16. We taught her to be pretty much fearless when it comes to working for what she wants. I also remember spending hours with her on hitting drills and dear lord, yes, I used that horrible old chestnut: See the ball. Be the ball. Hit the ball.

Don’t be afraid to go where you’ve never gone and do what you’ve never done, Silver, because both are necessary to have what you’ve never had and be who you’ve never been.

Be the ball,
The Universe
© www.tut.com ®

“Hut,” “hut,” Silver, go, do.

When the time came for me to decide whether to be a hobby writer or to work to become a published author, I wish I’d had this advice. Because yeah. I was totally afraid. Fear of rejection. Fear of being good enough. Fear of people hating what I wrote. I probably spent way too many years giving into the fear before I finally sucked it up and decided to go for it. For like the tenth time. Rejection letters hurt, y’all, no matter how prepared you think you are. Fifit books later, I can admit that I’m still afraid every time I release a book. And every time, it feels like I going somewhere and doing something I’ve never done. It’s time for me to take my own advice–and that of the Big U. Today, I’m gonna be the ball. I’m going to see it, be it, hit it. What are you gonna be today?

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Wednesday Words: Satisfaction

Posted on August 24, 2022 by Silver James

Wednesday. Words. New words. But only one prompt today. Not #ThursdayThreads last week so I only had the #1lineWed theme of **SATISFY** to play with. As a result, I went back through my notes and found a very short conversation that consisted of three lines and an action. Sometimes, as I’m working on something else–and not necessarily concerning writing–a quick idea will hit me. I always write it down because I darn sure won’t remember it later. This idea is so old, it was noted before I actually figured out any of the backstory. Even under current character circumstances, it makes me giggle a little and I’m glad I found a way to evolve it into a scene yesterday as I was getting this post ready. FYI, this scene happend very early in the story.
****
Her feet hurt. Her back hurt. But Meg would not complain. The kids weren’t. When she’d watched the helicopter depart with the smallest and sickest, she’d figured they’d just wait around there at the barn until it came back. Except it wasn’t coming back. A combination of weather and air strikes precluded any chance of rescue for now. And while these soldiers were extremely reticent, she’d caught portions of their conversation. Then there was Petrov. The man was jumping at shadows. Even after they’d walked for two days.

She glanced over her shoulder. She was slowly making sense of the Americans who’d come to their rescue. Except they weren’t all Americans. And that pointed to some multinational BlackOps group. Maybe she should have paid more attention to her father when he’d expounded on the topic. Given his position with NATO, he would know.

The soldier following her wasn’t classically handsome. He had thick, dark hair and after their time on the trail, his scruff pasted shadows along his jaw line. His pale green eyes were arresting against his tanned skin. There’d been times when she’d caught him looking at her, and his expression made her want to smooth out the creases between his eyebrows. He looked almost…perplexed but there was also an intensity that burned deep in his gaze.

Meg slowed down and Kin was forced to either walk beside her or run her over. “Ya need t’keep up.”

“I know. I wanted to talk.”

He gave her that look again and she realized that he rather reminded her of that English actor who played Lucifer Morningstar on the TV show.

“T’me?”

“Yes to you,” she answered, her tone adding an inferred Silly on the end.

“About what?”

Refraining from rolling her eyes, she decided to see how much she could tweak him. “I like your accent.” Ah yes, that look again. She was getting almost fond of it. He didn’t respond though. “So, are you guys mercenaries or something?” She almost giggled at his current expression, a combination of disgust topped with an implied, Seriously? as the cherry on top.

“No. We’re not mercenaries.” Not exactly. Kin wasn’t sure who paid their salaries and who they actually worked for beyond Mother. He also didn’t care because Mother Goose had never asked him to come down on the wrong side of his ethical line in the sand.

“So Delta Force or SEALs or something?”

“Or something.”

She flashed him a wide-eyed look that held a bit of mischief. What was the girl up to? For the moment, Kin would play along.

“So…are you like James Bond?”

“No, lassie. He was MI6. I was SAS.”

She looked perfeculy serious when she asked, “Is that like British for May Day?”

If he’d been sitting at a desk, he would have banged his head against it. That’s when he caught the twinkle in her eyes and the slight crinkling at their corners. “You know exactly what SAS stands for, considering who your father is.”

This time she did roll her eyes and felt satisfied by this whole interaction. He wasn’t the dour Scotsman he pretended to be. He could play. She liked this side of him.
****
There you have it. Not bad for the grain of an idea and dashing off some words. Writers, feel free to grab today’s theme as a prompt for your own work and should you feel inclined to share, YAY! Readers, what have you found satisfying today?

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Life…and Death

Posted on August 23, 2022 by Silver James

Life. It is what it is. I had every intention of getting RESCUE MOON released today. Or tomorrow. I’m never sure what day I should release a book. More about that in a minute. I’m writing this because RM isn’t ready yet. It’s still baking, so to speak and to keep to today’s usual food-based theme. Stuff happened this weekend. Nothing bad, jsut…stuff. And as a result, I found myself rewriting the same page like ten different times. That means that my head is not in the write space, (Word misues intentional.) And then yesterday happened.

As most of you know, I’ve been involved with the fire service and law enforcement in a variety of ways in previous career incarnations. And when we lose a first responder, it messes with my emotions. In the past few weeks, we’ve lost a local on-duty motorcycle officer in a traffic accident. Drunk/drugged driver. Then we lost a volunteer firefighter in a traffic accident. He was off duty. Then an Osage County dep;uty died in a third traffic accident as he was on his way to report for duty. And then yesterdday, two Oklahoma County deputies were shot as they were serving a lock-out notice. One was standing at the back door of the residence when he was shot. The second deputy was shot as he tried to resuce the first. One died. One has been stablilized as of the writing of this. And yes, I stayed glued to the continuing coverage. Our county sheriff broke down during one of the press conferences. And yeah, my heart hurts.

The shooter jumped in a pickup truck that had a boat hitched to it and took off. There were sporadic shots fired by the suspect during the chase along a busy interstate. And then the idiot got off on an exit that put him into what was basically a dead end–the main gate of Tinker Air Force Base. Uhm, yeah. 

So no work done and I almost didn’t want to post at all but hey, prayers and healing thoughts are appreciated for those involved. Nanes haven’t been released (again, as of this typing) so I don’t know if I know them or not.  Doesn’t matter. They are part of the family.

I’m not going to get into politics beyond this–BLUE LIVES DO EFFING MATTER.

Not to be totally macabre but it’s truly a southern thinig to provide food in times like this. My mother-in-law actually gave me a casserole recipe that the the family funeral stand-by. No. Really. And it was easy and tasty and not just for times of grief. She whipped it up when people were sick too. That’s the way it used to be. People cared. People looked after each other. I don’t know what’s wrong with the world today. I have my theories but this is not the time or the place. 

So, no actually treat today. I will mention that I’m totally happy with the Hamilton Beach elelctric grill I bought on a whim. Homemade hamburgers are considered comfort food in my house and that’s what I fixed for dinner last night. It takes about 10 minutes to preheat, sear the bugers (which seals in the jucy part but not the greasy part), and then grill the meat.

I’ll be back at it today but I’ll carry the worry and the hurt in my heart. And yeah, the emotion that builds up does get released into my writing because that’s what makes the words real. Anyway…

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Thoughts on Monday

Posted on August 22, 2022 by Silver James

Hello, Monday! May I ask you a question? Why are you always back so quickly? Don’t you have something better to do? Yay, Monday!” Said no one… Ever. Monday should be optional. And because I’m a writer–some days–a bit of poety to sum it all up: Roses are red, Mondays are hard. I’m not good at poetry. COFFEE.

So yeah, it’s Monday again. And no, RESCUE MOON will not be available tomorrow. Due to circumstances and on account of because, I failed my mission. I’m close but I found too many oopses and have added more stuff and…and…and… Yes, excuses, excuses but I promise it–at all the others–will be better books for the delays.

There was a weekend. I worked. Stuff happened. I fell asleep before the 9th inning in both Cardinals games. Luckily, they won anyway. I woke up enough to switch over to the repeat of “On Patrol Live” and promptly fell back to sleep. True story. Y’all know I have frequent bouts of insomnia. I’ll wake up for whatever reason and then it’s hours before I go back to sleep. Well, “OP Live” works to get me back to sleep. I have no clue why but I can start the DVR version and by about the second set of commercials, I’m down for the count. Which doesn’t happen when I’m watching it live. Weird, huh? Anyway, I’ve watched a week-ago-Friday’s edition like four times now and I still have no clue about everything that happened. I totally need to like watch it when I’m awake.

Awesome new book that I listened to over the weekend when doing stuff that didn’t require my full attention. Nalini Singh’s new release STORM ECHO, which is the latest in her Psy-Changeling Trinity series. LOVE IT! Love the series but sometime, the books are only 4 or 4.5 stars. This one is 5 all the way. Lots of twists and turns and I sort of suspected the ending, was pleased when it happened, and the whole thing was entirely satisfying. Currently doing a marathon relisten to the Hidden Legacy series by Ilona Andrews. New release in that one tomorrow.

Monday means Wallyworld and Starbucks. Our temps are down a little and we got a smidge of rain but I still plan to hit the place early so I can get on with the rest of my day. Stuff to do, don’cha know… Like get the damn book finished!

Wow. I’ve discussed Monday, sports, weather, reading and writing. What’s left? Nuttin’ honey. Short post today. You’re welcome. 😉 How’s your Monday going? Good weekend?

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Friday Sinema: Forever Love

Posted on August 19, 2022 by Silver James

I’ve long been a Lindsey Stirling fan. And I’m secure enough to admit that my then teen-aged daughter introduced me to Evanescence. And yes, I’ve gained inspiration from both artists. Imagine my delight when I discovered today’s video involved them both. And yes, you’ll likely encounter this video/song again because I’m thinking there’s a spot in Ariel’s book for a scene inspired by this video. Have a great weekend, all. Enjoy!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Time Management

Posted on August 18, 2022 by Silver James

Time flies. Time is money. Time waits for no one. No time like the present. Use your time wisely. Running out of time. Time to kill. Time to move along, nothing to see here. The time of your life. As time goes by. Feels like the first time. Party time. If I could turn back time. It’s Miller time. It’s about time. Well, it is. About time. Today’s whole post. So there ya go. Here’s the nudge from the Universe that prompted all this nonsense.

By the way, Silver, there’s no such thing as wasted time.

Enjoy every minute,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

Nor is there any such thing, Silver, as not enough time.

And then, to sum it all up, I give you this:

How did it get so late so soon? It’s night before it’s afternoon. December is here before it’s June. My goodness how the time has flewn. How did it get so late so soon? ~Dr. Seuss

So, better late than never, right? And so far, I’m on time for getting these four books released. I must admit though, that I probably should have just checked formatting and called it a day. Nope. I’m taking the time to reread each one. Yeah, found a few odd typos. And I’ve added words in places. When I get to the final line of the final page, which is a note about book availablity, I’ll stop. I’ll check links. And I double-check the blurb, keywords, and all that book-selly stuffs. Then off they go to the ‘Zon and D2D. Writers, how do you balance your time between Real Life and Writing? And readers, what’s your favorite thing to do with your down time?

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Wednesday Words: Doing It

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Silver James

Believe it or not, I’m keeping track of the days this week. Go me! Today is Wednesday. That means new writing prompts and words. Also go me! I have a new snippet to match our themes. #1lineWed is a little ridiculas. It’s **AND**. Really? And what? The #ThursdayThreads prompt is sooo much better. It sent me down a fun rabbit hole. Writers, your mission this week, should you decided to accept the challenge: How am I doing so far? See?!? Fun one, right? And today’s snippet helped me fill in a hole toward the beginning of the book. Again, go me! So without further adieu, here it is…
****
Meg was surprised when the Scotsman settled on the log beside her. They ate in silence but she was very aware every time his arm or shoulder brushed against her. She couldn’t pinpoint what it was about this man but he made the hair on the back of her neck stand up at the same time he sent her stomach into fluttering gymnastics. She couldn’t remember one man who’d ever affected her so strongly. And it wasn’t the accent. In fact, that should have put her off. Big time. Scottish brogue. Too ruggedly handsome for his—or her— own good. And a soldier. A soldier for chrissakes. What was she thinking? Oh, wait. She was thinking, it was her body that had lost its mind.

Warm breath stirred a tendril of her hair that had escaped it’s braid. She shivered and it was like phantom lips brushed across her skin. She slowly turned her head to find his face inches away, eyes amused and…hungry? For a split second, she knew exactly how Little Red Riding Hood must have felt. Time to take back control. She arched a brow, an expression she’d spent days practicing in the mirror because her mother did it so artfully.

“Are you trying to seduce me?”

“Maybe.”

“Why?”

Kin stared at her, unblinking. Some weird light flashed in the depths of his eyes and she was reminded of the wolves she’d worked with at the sanctuary. It was unnerving to catch eyeshine in the darksitting next to a man.

“Are ya daft, lass? Why wouldn’t a man want t’seduce you?”

She snorted. Like a horse. And then laughed, startling herself with the sound. “Look at me.” Something flashed in his eyes again and she went all melty inside.

“Oh, I am, lass. I am.”

Face heating, she hoped he couldn’t see the color rising in her cheeks. The cold night air made her skin tingle. At least, that’s what she told herself. “I haven’t seen a mirror in weeks. I haven’t bathed in almost that long. I’m wearing the same clothes I had on when you guys rescued us. And we’re tramping through the wilds of Ukraine. I am not going to be featured on the cover of ‘Vogue’.”

Little lines appeared around his eyes as they crinkled when he grinned. Charming. The man was utterly charming and under normal circumstances, she would have been oh-so-very tempted.

“You underestimate yourself, Megan Muir.”

“I’m not my mother.” Who was beautiful. Just ask anyone in Hollywood. No, she was made of sterner stuff, like her  Scottish father, the very model of a modern Major-general.

“And thank goodness for that, lass.” He winked. “So, tell me, how am I doing so far?”

“Huh?”

“My seduction. Are ya temped?”

Well, d’uh. Who wouldn’t be?
****
I hope you enjoyed this early interaction between Meg and Kin. They are a fun couple and once I’m done with formatting the Moonstruck Wolf books and get them uploaded, I can get back to CROSSFIRE. FYI, Kin and the rest of the Hard Target team shows up in some of the “new/old” MW books, so there ya go. Wouldn’t it be fun if I could get this sucker finished and published in time to release the week after the last MW book does? That’s about a month from now so it’s possible. We’ll see what Real Life throws at me next. In the meantime, writers, you have your assignment. Readers, this question is for you. How am I doing so far? 😉

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Tuesday Treats and Titles: Recipe for Success

Posted on August 16, 2022 by Silver James

Getting a book ready for publicaton is like cooking. There’s a formula, aka a recipe. There are steps, procedures, proceesses. These are different for every author and are different if a writer is traditionally published as opposed to a self-published one. This is where I am currently I’ve pulled out my “recipe” and I’m baking up the books–all four of the “new” Moonstruck Wolf books. If I was formatting a new book, I’d begin by copying and pasting from Scrivener to Word. Yes, I can “send” the entire MS from Scriverer to Word but I’m weird. I like to do it a chapter at a time…for reasons. Now, once I’m in Word, here’s my process.

First draft font is Times New Roman, 12 pt., single space. Published is Century Schoolbook, at least 14 pt. (which makes space for heading sizes, section breaks, and makes it easier to read in digital. I also set 3 spaqces for first lines of a paragraph. This changes with first lines after a chapter heading and after a scene break. I manually set those up because that’s what works fot me. Deselect all text and search for your chapter headings to do whatever special you want to do (Heading 1 preset which is centered, font, size and spacing for me).

Next, go to find and replace (and there ae “cheats” for these). Put what you are looking for in the find box, and how you want to fix it in the replace. Then hit replace all and keep doing that until it comes up 0. Always start with your cursor at the very beginning.

  1. Tabs (^t – shft 6, lowercase t), noting in the replace. You want to remove all the manual tabs. Otherwise, the self-pub aggragators get confused. Set up paragraph indents using the paragrah tab.
  2. Extra space between words and after a period  (delete anything in find box and hit the space bar twice. Replace box cleared, then tap space bar once.)
  3. Extra space at beginning of paragraph (^p space)
  4. Extra space at end of paragraph (space ^p)
  5. Crutch words you know you use.
  6. Name spellings (and in my case where I’ve changed characters around, I check for the old names as well as the new ones)

There’s more, like ellipses, astericks, underline, enddashes, but I have that already set up for auto format in both Scrivener and Word.

Once that’s done, I create my title page, copyright page, table of contents, and back matter. A lot of this is copy/paste though the TOC is a funtion of Word in References. Once all that is done, I embed the font in the document because 1) I use a specialized fonts on the title page and 2) this keeps the aggrators (Amazon, Draft2Digital, Smashwords etc) from automatically defaulting to their font setting. In word, click on the File tab, click Options, click Save, scroll down to Preserve Fideltiy, check the Embed Font box. I always check for thisbefore uploading.

What’s next? Now, I finally sit down and read the darn book from start to finish, looking for typos and any oops in continuity. I’m especially looking for those oops in these books. Since I’ll be uploading them for a spaced-out release, I have time to fix each one.

Next Tuesday’s Treats and Titles will be back to normal–recipe from a character and a book. RESCUE MOON is first up. Yay. And yes, it’s time for our treat now. Munchies while I’m reading to fix–which means I’m not curled up in my confy chair with Kindle/laptop in hand, drink, and snacks on the side table. Nope I’m at my desk on the big computer so I can fix immediately. Yes, there’s a lidded travel mug with coffee at my left hand. Today, as I’m working, I’ll be munching on Mountain Trail Mix, with add ins. (This is a Wallyworld product)–various nuts, peanuts, raisins, M&Ms, and I add dried pineapple, cranberries, and blueberries because I like to pretend that I’m being semi-healthy. It’s the best of both worlds–salty AND sweet, and no crumbs in my keyboard.

Now it’s your turn. What are you reading and what are you munching on?

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