Tuesday Treats & Titles: Chocolate-Peanut Butter Swirled Bark

Posted on December 7, 2021 by Silver James

One of my favorite places in the world to go around Christmas time is New Orleans. I always try to stay in the historic Hotel Monteleone in the French Quarter. The lobby is decorated in spectacular fashion and the streets of the Quarter are festooned with all the trimmings of the season. Pralines are the featured candy down there but when I first saw this recipe, I thought it would fit right into the Quarter.

Total Time: 1 Hr. 20 Min.
Prep Time: 20 Min.
Cook Time: 1 Hr.
Servings: 14

If you can melt chocolate, you can make this scrumptious Chocolate-Peanut Butter Swirled Bark studded with cranberries and pistachios.

What You Need
1-1/2 pkg. (4 oz. each) BAKER’S White Chocolate (6 oz.), melted
1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
2 pkg. (4 oz. each) BAKER’S Semi-Sweet Chocolate, melted
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/3 cup pistachios, coarsely chopped

Let’s Make It
1 – Mix white chocolate and peanut butter until blended.
2 – Drop spoonfuls of white chocolate mixture and semi-sweet chocolate alternately onto waxed paper-covered baking sheet; swirl gently with knife. Sprinkle with cranberries and nuts.
3 – Refrigerate 1 hour or until firm. Break into pieces to serve.

Kitchen Tips
Tip 1 – Size Wise: Balance your food choices throughout the day so you can enjoy a serving of this easy-to-make candy.

Tip 2 – Substitute: Prepare using PLANTERS Peanuts or Slivered Almonds. (Me: YES PLEASE!!!)

As always, click on over to My Food & Family for all the nutritional details of this recipe. Those of you who follow my author’s page over on that FB place know that I featured Nikos Constantine in Saturday’s post. Nikos is a dragon shifter and he and Sade Marquis, my favorite preternatural FBI agent, first meet and lock horns in New Orleans, I though I’d feature a favorite treat of his. Also, I’ve created a fictional candy shop down on Jackson Square. Aunt Sugar’s Chocolate Emporium, and it will be featured the next time Sade and the Scoobie Gang hits NOLA. Heck, maybe I’ll even get motivated and write a Christmas story set there. Anyway, if you enjoy Urban Fantasy with a wide variety of characters, you should give my Penumbra Papers series a look-see. Start with THAT OL’ BLACK MAGIC, which is the first book in the series and where Sade and Nikos first meet. It’s available from lots of on-line booksellers and if your library uses Hoopla, you can grab it there and read for free. Just click on either pic featuring the cover or the title and you’ll be whisked away by the magic of the internet to Books2Read where you can find the book’s link at your favorite store. Okay, readers. Tell me. Where’s your favorite Christmas destination and/or your favorite Christmas candy?

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December Monday

Posted on December 6, 2021 by Silver James

Tomorrow is Pearl Harbor Day. For those of us who are history buffs. And we’re on the downhill slide to Christmas. Hanukkah ended last night. December is always such a busy month. That said, there was a week, a weekend, and a new week is beginning.

In family news, Saturday was siren test, which was a bust, but the James Gang still met up for lunch at our favorite Mexican resaurant. Everyone was in place for the test Saturday, but there was a glitch in the matrix. LOL Ah, well, next month, weather permitting. We’ll still get together because we need our Mex-food fix.

In sports news, Championship weekend was full of upsets. OSU lost a heartbreaker in the final seconds to Baylor. 😞 We’ll face Notre Dame in the Fiesta Bowl. We ended up #9 on the season. #16 OU plays Oregon in the Alamo Bowl. Tulsa gets a bowl game, too, playing Old Dominion in the Myrtle Beach Bowl. Also, the MLB is still in lock-out status. This gives me a big ol’ sad because this time of year, I start counting down to pithcer-catcher.

I’ll admit I didn’t do much in the way of new words last week. I did get a couple of scenes edited and added on to and a new scene written but I was still “suffering” with a little burn out from NaNoWriMo. This week also includes back-matter updates on a couple of books coming off KU and going wide. That’w writerly stuff that’s not very exciting except that more of my books are hitting a wide variety of on-line bookstores.

In reading news, I’m finishing up the last “old” book in Jayne Castle’s Harmony/Ghost Hunters/Rainshadow series with ILLUSION TOWN. Once I’m done with it, I’ll be startig her new rlease in the series, GUILD BOSS. After that, I’m not sure what I’ll pick up. I’m at 186 books read/listened to this year. My goal is 200. It’ll be close but I think I’ll make it. Still no clue what I’ll grab next.

Boone has a new bed. It’s big–like it takes up a big portion of the family-room floor but he likes it so…whatever. He’s old. He gets a big soft bed, especially if it keeps him out from under my desk at least part of the time. We’re now in the market for another large bed (if not quite as huge as the one LG found!) to go in my office. Loki got to see Squirrelvision last week. Birdvision is alway entertaining but fuzzy/furry long-tailed critter swining in the birdfeeder? Best. Show. Ever! Until he bonked his head on the window trying to catch it. I didn’t laugh. Much!

Not a lot else going on in my neck of the woods. Today is a busy day–errandy-type stuff with LG that will take us from one side of the metro to the other. Not sure when I’ll be back in the chair to work, or if my brain will be settled enough to concentrate. I do have goals for the week–get BLUE MOON ready for wide release, write new words, Christmas shop, find the Christmas card I bought last year for this year…

What about y’all? What’s up in your world? Got goals for the week?

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Friday Sinema: Hobbit Airlines

Posted on December 3, 2021 by Silver James

Long story short. I was listening to “I Was Shipping Up to Boston” by the Dropkick Murphys as inspiration for a scene in the Boston Wolves. THIS video popped up once it finished. After I quite laughing, I grabbed the link to share with y’all today. Even if you aren’t a fan of Middle Earth, I think you’ll appreciate this one. Have a great weekend, all!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Goals

Posted on December 2, 2021 by Silver James

November is done. I came to the end of National Novel Writing Month with just over 50K words written in MOONSTRUCK MAFIA: BOSTON. My goal is to get finished by the end of the year so it can get edited, proofed, formatted and uploaded right after the first of the year. Not sure that will happen because…damndang. This sucker is turning out to be a complicated–and long–story. I may have to shift some long and short-range goals before all is said and done. Which brings me to today’s message from the Universe.

Enjoying short-term pleasures at the expense of long-term dreams is just about as silly as pursuing long-term dreams at the expense of short-term pleasures.

Silver, pursue both.

I do,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

Kind of like, have your cake, Silver, and eat it too.

I like cake! Having it and eating it. And pie. Cookies. Brownies. Ice cream. Ahem. I digress. Change the word pleasures to the word tasks and dreams with projects and you have my topic for today’s essay on writing. This is especially true in self-publishers but it also applies to traditionally published authors too. See, writing and putting a book out into the world is a process. Writing, editing, revisions, proofs. All of that takes time and there’s often periods of inactivity between each step. Experienced writers put that time to good use. They start the next project. And the next. And so on. It’s like being on a hamster wheel but not quite as boring or as exhausting physically. 😉 My ponit is, writers need to have both short and long term goals and they should learn to mesh those goals so that tasks become pleasures and projects become fulfilled dreams. Right? Let’s get out there and work on those pleasures and dreams!

So, tell me. If you going to have your cake and eat it too, what kind of cake? Me? I’m kinda craving a chocolate cake with rocky road icing.

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Wednesday Words: A Year’s Time

Posted on December 1, 2021 by Silver James

How can it be the first of December already!?!? This year has flown by which makes today’s #1lineWed THEME of **ONE YEAR AGO** very apropos. This scene is very rough, has been rewritten once and will be revised again, especially when I rework the scene from Devlin’s POV that precedes. This happens well into the book. And it happens a year after the scenes I wrote Monday and Tuesday to get me over the 50K count so I could win NaNoWriMo. Dev has been very patient, which surprses me because…wolf…mate…claiming! Anyway, not sure if this one’s been shared or not. At this point, it all runs together because…time passes. Anyway, I hope you enjoy…
****
She had no clue why her so-called friends would drag her along on this fiasco. Even Mary Pat, whom she’d known since first grade at St. Vincent’s Catholic School and whom she considered to be her very best friend, had insisted. One year ago, they’d put Tommy in the ground, closed casket. The looks of pity from everyone, including Mary Pat, hadn’t gone unnoticed. She’d also recognized the arch looks of superiority from the others. They all thought she hadn’t known that Tommy was screwing around on her.

From her seat in the corner, she watched Nora and Rosie play their games. She wondered if they knew Tommy had been bumping uglies with both of them. Oh, they’d looked all pious and concerned at the bastard’s wake, but she’d heard them gloating to others, not to each other. Everyone felt so sorry for her—the young widow of the hero cop. Ha. Some hero. Tommy had been taking payoffs and screwing everything with the right plumbing. She counted herself lucky the six years they’d been married that he’d rather use her as a punching bag. Tommy used that to work out his frustrations. The fucking? That was sheer punishment and he dished out the marital rapes with ruthless intensity. She’d gotten pregnant once, but then he beat the kid right out of her. Oh, he’d gotten a lot of sympathy over that one. Poor Tommy Gallagher who’s clumsy wife had fallen down the stairs and miscarried.

Then on a hot August night, some Southie gangster did her the biggest favor of her life. He walked up and shot Tommy in the head. She figured it happened while some whore was sucking him off. That little tidbit stayed out of the papers because the department made him out to be a hero. The magnificent Tommy Gallagher, dying in the line of duty protecting some helpless woman. The department, or Danny Boy Moore, paid off some working girl, so the story she gave was that a john was beating her up and Tommy intervened. As if. She wasn’t stupid. Or clueless. Tommy had played a dangerous game and paid full price for the ride.

Noise in the strip club ramped up and the strobe lights went into hyper drive. She wanted nothing more than to be home in her own bed, the one that Ishe shared with the new love of her life—Puck, her Newfoundland dog. Then she looked up. And saw him.
****
And there you have it. There’s a fun scene–already written–that occurs very shortly after this one. I’m ready to get past the heavy stuff, which those last two chapters were. REALLY heavy. Writers, any year ago events of note in your WIPs? Readers, what were you doing “one year ago?”

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Tuesday Treats & Titles: Caramel-Bourbon Pecan Pie

Posted on November 30, 2021 by Silver James

There weren’t many slices of my plain ol’ pecan pie leftover from Thanksgiving. Good thing I didn’t make this version. There would have been none left! This treat takes Southern cooking to a whole new level!

Total Time: 3 Hr. 15 Min. incl. refrigerating
Prep Time: 15 Min.
Cook Time: 3 Hr.
8 servings

Enhance this bourbon pecan pie with sweet, toasty melted caramel. Top each serving with a dollop of COOL WHIP for a delicious Caramel-Bourbon Pecan Pie.

What You Need
36 KRAFT Caramels
1/4 cup water
1/4 cup butter
2 Tbsp. bourbon
1 pkg. (6 oz.) pecan halves
1 frozen deep-dish pie crust (9 inch), thawed
3 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
*Please use alcohol responsibly.

Let’s Make It
1 – Heat oven to 375°F.
2 – Cook caramels, water, butter and bourbon in medium saucepan on medium heat 8 min. or until caramels are completely melted and mixture is well blended. Remove from heat.
3 – Spread nuts onto bottom of pie crust. Whisk eggs, sugar and vanilla in medium bowl until blended. Gradually stir in caramel mixture; pour over nuts.
4 – Bake 40 to 45 min. or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.
5 – Refrigerate 2 hours.

My Tip: You read the instructions right. You put the pecans on the pie crust then pour the gooey stuff over it. During the baking process, the pecans “float” to the top.

Get all the details from My Food and Family. Since this is essentially a Southern recipe, you can bet my Texas heroine Annie makes this pie for her Wolf, Sean/Boomer. It’s also a favorite of her son, Cody. You can read their story in WOLF MOON or your can grab a bit more of their story, as well as Jacey and Connor’s tale in MOONSTRUCK: LIES. Both of these books are available from a wide variety of on-line bookstores, and you can read LIES for free with Hoopla. Just click on the titles or the cover pics to head on over to get your copy. I don’t know about y’all, but now I’m hungry for pecan pie. What are you craving?

*Required PSA from the Food & Family site 😉

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Long Weekend Monday

Posted on November 29, 2021 by Silver James

November is coming to an end. For a month with only 30 days, this one has seemed almost interminable, while zipping by at the same time. Also, it’s the Monday after a looong holiday weekend for those people are working. Well, I work, but I don’t have to get up, get dressed, face rush hour traffic and actually have to…you know…PEOPLE out there in public. I sympathize with them. I do actually remember what that’s like. This also means that the rush to Christmas has turned into a mad dash. My Christmas tree is up. (I haven’t taken it down in like…six years?) I need to get some light holder ground spikes before the outdoor lights go up. I won’t bore you with the details but I’m swithing out the rope lights on Nessie and then stringing the old lights along the front walkway between the driveway and the front door. Next up is dealing with gifts. Gift cards anyone? 🤣

In critter news, I kept hearing a thump on my office window and would catch a fleeting shadow. Birds occasionally land on the sill so no biggie. Until I saw a fuzzy tail. Yup. Squirrel! It took him awhile but he finally figured out how to get from the sill to the flat feeder outside the window. Where was Loki when this new catevision show was playing? No clue. He often lays i the window watching the birds but totally missed the furry critter.

Speaking of holidays, Thanksgiving happened. The five of us (LG, Only, Stormy, Baseball Boy, and me) went to Uncle Fix-It and Aunt Hooey’s house, along with her extended family. Yes, we were totally outnumbered. Not many leftovers, though we did have a little pecan pie left to go with our turkey sammiches. However, the only reason we HAD turkey sammiches is because I’d bought a 3 lb. turkey breast roast and I cooked it Friday. We had a nice time but I suspect the James Gang all went home and took naps. I certainly did!

Let’s talk college football. Wow. What a crazy weekend! All the sports folks were touting Rivalry Weekend (or Rivalry Saturday, depending on the outlet). There was certainly a lot of that to go around. There was excitement. Frustration. Outrage. Close calls. And my favorite: UPSETS! OSU and OU certainly lived up to the Bedlam hype. It was a crazy game but my Pokes held on and we beat Big Red 37-33. Michigan finally beat that other OSU (you know, Ohio State, that wants everyone to call them “The…”). I’ll give you three guesses who I was rooting for–and no, the first two don’t count. 😉 Michigan State then beat Penn State. #2 Alabama was almost upended by unranked Auburn. Four–count ’em–FOUR overtimes. They won by 2 points. There were other upsets (*koffLSUoverTexasA&Mkoff*) so the polls should be interesting. And they are. AP and Coaches polls rank my Pokes at #5, and that other OSU at #7. Playoff Selection Committee doesn’t hit until Tuesday but I’m not holding my breath. My Pokes never get the respect they deserve–when they deserve it. Anyway, moving on…

Writing. I did some. I have until tomorrow night at midnight to hit 50K words. As of typing this, I have 2251 words, which puts me at 45,720. Bare minimum of 2140 for the next 2 days puts me right at 50K. This book will not end at 50K. Nope. It’s a complicated story and that’s okay. There are a lot of couples and each one needs attention, but I’m still convinced this LONG book will be better than dividing the story up into short tales that get convoluted due to the concurrent time/plot line. Anyway, I AM writing new words and that’s the good news after a couple of weeks *koffmonthskoff* of drought.

Reading–not sure why I call it reading when I’m listening to audio books but whatever–has also been slow due to the above news abourt writing. I can’t listen to other authors’ words when I’m writing my own. I’m still in the marathon of Jayne Castle’s Harmony/Ghost Hunter/Dreamlight/Rain Shadow series. Yes, master/mistress of plots that Jayne is, she’s able to pull a whole raft of series into one cohesive whole! These are fun books for me and there’s the treat of a new release at the end of the marathon. I just started CANYONS OF NIGHT (Rainshadow, #0; Ghost Hunters, #8; Looking Glass Trilogy, #3; Arcane Society, #12). See what I mean? Anyway, I’m just managing to stay on track to meet my 200-book goal for my 2021 reading challenge.

Not much else going on in my world. Work. Naps (still NOT vibing with the time change!). Family. Life. Work. I truly do need to get focused on writing again. It didn’t used to be this hard and I keep looking for ways to make it easier because I’m happier and y’all are happier when I’m putting out books on a regular schedule. Anyway, cheers to a new and productive week ahead. What’s up in the corner of the world you call home?

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Friday Sinema: Thanksgiving, Southern Style

Posted on November 26, 2021 by Silver James

I hope everyone had a safe, sane, and enjoyable Thanksgiving, no matter how you celebrated. The folks at It’s a Southern Thing are at it again, and I’m pretty sure everyone will find at least once thing to identify with in this video. If you’re headed out for Black Friday shopping, good luck out there. Me? I’m just gonna stay in where it’s warm, do some work, and debate whether I should snatch the last piece of leftover pecan pie or be nice and let LG have it…TGIF and have a happy weekend!

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Thursday Thoughts: Universal Heart

Posted on November 25, 2021 by Silver James

I’m just going to let the Universe speak for itself. There’s not much I can add.

Always follow your heart, Silver, unless it’s been broken, then you must lead it.

Back into love,
The Universe
©www.tut.com

Did you know, Silver, that hearts are never too big to mend, too small to rebound, or too tired to love?

With all the crazy in the world, I’m thankful that there are those of us who can still love and have this day to share with family and friends and be thankful for what we have. Happy Thanksgiving, all! ❤

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Wednesday Words: Sibling Rivalry

Posted on November 24, 2021 by Silver James

NOTE: Crud. I  somehow didn’t get the autopost time right. Sorry I’m late. 🤦🏼‍♀️ The Wednesday before Thanksgiving. Wow. This week has flown by. Since this holiday is centered on family, today’s #1lineWed THEME of **SIBLINGS** is rather fitting. This snippet started live as a flash fiction prompt about being a prince. The two characters involved are Callum, who is the IT guru and 4th in command of the Borus, and Sophie, who’s father leads a rival gang.
****
Sophie became aware of the man as the maitre d’ escorted her to a table. She’d noticed he was with a woman so she reined in her immediate interest. Once seated, she remained aware though she attempted to focus on the menu. Except it was hard when he was staring at her. Like she was the premiere entry on the dessert cart. She was so captivated by him she paid no attention to his companion. Until she heard her sister’s voice.

“What is she doing here?” The shrill tone was worse than nails on a blackboard.

Well, shit. Wasn’t that just her luck? The first man to capture her attention in months and he was out on a date with her witch of a sister. Delilah was already bitching about her presence and she braced for the confrontation she was sure would come. While she could clearly hear her sister’s words, the man spoke so softly she couldn’t catch what he was saying.

Then, Delilah sprang out of her chair and Sophie winced. Those nails hurt when Del raked them across skin. She knew that sensation all too well.

The man’s movements were almost lazy as he blocked her sister’s blow. The approaching waiter halted mid-step, clearly appalled judging by the expression on his face. He balanced a tray of food, looking as stiff as a mannequin and now plainly terrified of interrupting the drama playing out in front of him.
The man gripped Del’s wrist with apparent carelessness. Sophie let out a soft whistle. She had never seen any man look more ruthless and she’d grown up in a viper pit of alpha males. A part of her brain wondered what her father would do if confronted by that look.

For a moment there, after realizing her sister was here, she’d almost left, but the stubborn streak that kept her chin up in the face of the shit storm that was her family forced her to stay. She had as much right to dine here as her estranged sister. And wow, was she glad she had. Del was famous for her dramas and this one was turning out to be a doozy. When she’d caught that glimpse of interest in Delilah’s date’s eyes, which were focused on her, not her sister, she’d decided to stay. Not that there was any sibling rivalry between them when it came to men. Except maybe this time because…damn. By every ounce of femininity she possessed, she was aware of him. In a visceral way that touched all of her. All of her. Her skin crackled like someone was tracing sparklers over it and she would swear there were skyrockets bursting across the ceiling above her head.

She didn’t move, hypnotized by the snake-like reaction of her sister’s date. The man brushed away Delilah’s attack and then the maitre d’ and two burly busboys descended. Sophie slipped out of her seat and all but ran to the ladies room. She could miss this part of the debacle and stay out of Del’s clutches. When she returned, her sister was gone and the man occupied the other chair at her table, looking as cool and controlled as a king cobra.

He rose and held her chair. Hesitating, she felt those sparklers again. She sat before her legs betrayed her. He sat and offered her his hand.

“Callum Fitzpatrick.”

She knew the name. Irish mob. God knew he would never be a prince but she didn’t need one of those. She needed a man who would fight for her.

“Sophie McNamara.”

He smiled. And she was a goner.
****
For those of us dealing with family tomorrow, I hope that if sibling rivalry rears its head, it is due to competing culinary skills, because my rolls are so much better, y’all. Just sayin’. So’re my pecan and pumpkin pies but I’m only taking rolls and the pecan. Writers, any siblings in your WIPS? Readers, are your family gatherings full of friendly competition?

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