by OneRepublic is the featured song for this Music Monday. You know, cause everything that kills me makes me feel alive. 😉
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Author Archives: D.R. Slaten
Happy New Year 2014
Another year. The ending of one and the beginning of the next.
Looking back… it’s been a good year. For my writing. For my personal life. 2013 is the year I decided to stop thinking about being a published writer and instead took steps to make that happen.
After my mom died, I realized that there’s no time like now. Sometimes, there are no tomorrows. Instead, today is the day. So I took a deep breath and took the leap. My second career dream was realized this past year. I’ve been lucky that way. My first career choice was awesome. Fabulous, really. It was just time to do something else. Writing was that something else.
Looking forward, I still have some milestones I want to reach. There are several goals that I hope to meet in the coming year. As spectacular as 2013 had been, I have a feeling that 2014 is going to be even better. At least, it will be for me.
My hope is that it will be a great year for all of you as well. Don’t let anything stop you from being and doing and becoming. You got 12 months in the next year. Start small and end LARGE.
Happy New Year, y’all! 🙂
Manday
By: Enrique Lin
And the devil wears blue jeans. But seriously, is there anything hotter than a guy in no shirt with faded jeans on? Not that I can think of at the moment. lol
Maple Glazed Walnuts
Maple Glazed Nuts
By: psgreen01
6 cups Walnuts
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup brandy
1-1/4 cup maple syrup
1tbsp cinnamon
3 tsp salt- course sea salt is best
1/2 cup maple sugar
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake walnuts on a cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes.
2. In a small bowl, combine cinnamon, salt and maple sugar. Set aside
3. In a deep skillet, combine butter, brandy and maple syrup. Cook until reduced by half. Add in walnuts and cook until almost all the liquid is absorbed.
4. Turn off heat and take skillet off stove. Add cinnamon mixture until evenly coated. Spread out on cookie and let cool.
YUM. Enjoy!
Merry Christmas
I hate Christmas. I didn’t used to. I used to love it. But it’s become something crazy, something not right and something that is a little scary. It’s like the whole country is waiting with bated breath to see if the rest of us are willing to go into debt to ensure loved ones gets shit they don’t need or want or even asked for. Stupid.
Back in the day, my little nuclear family would travel to visit my extended family. And that’s what Christmas was about– getting together with family and friends and visiting with loved ones. Now, not so much. And it sucks.
It sucks so bad, I hate Christmas now. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday currently because it’s still about family and friends and getting together.
If Christmas didn’t suck so much, here’s what I’d wish for. I wish that each and every one of you reading this is healthy and safe. I wish that the world is kind to you. That you are loved as fiercely as you love. I hope that you have family and friends to share the good, the bad and the ugly. I wish each and every one of you peace and happiness.
Eat a piece of pie or cake for me. That’s the best gift I could be given. Sharing food and good times. Being thought of and thought of well. Of loving and being loved.
I wish you JOY!
Music Monday: Wizards in Winter
Trans-Siberian Orchestra did the video to this synchronizing 75,000 lights to this song. Couldn’t think of a better musical tribute for bringing in the week of Christmas with this special music.
Enjoy!
Music Monday: Santa Baby
Not your usual Santa Baby. This one is performed by Run DMC featuring Mase, Diddy, Salt & Peppa, Snoop Dog and many others. A little something different for the holidays. They changed up some of the words. lol I heard this for the first time on one of the Very Special Christmas CDs. Loved it. Wanted to share.
Enjoy!
Saturday Snippet: Well Played
From the forthcoming novel, WELL PLAYED, which continues the saga of Zoe, Deke and Nathan as they settle into their lives in LA. Don’t have a cover yet. And the snippet isn’t edited, so the usual caveats apply. Expect mistakes. 🙂
The questions kept coming. She kept trying to answer, but she was a little freaked out about the whole dead dude situation. It didn’t seem to matter to the cops. Obviously, it was the dead body giving the cops the something they needed to do. Part of that was asking her stupid repeating questions until she wanted to poke her own eye out with a fork.
“Look. I don’t know the dead guy well at all. We argued once last week about a scheduling error. I came in early today to do a stunt as a body double on a riding segment. I don’t really remember what I touched or didn’t touch. I was kinda freaked out. I don’t have any more answers. No, they aren’t going to change. And now I am done giving answers. Thank you.”
She was finished. No more cop questions about things she really had no clue about.
Surely they could see she had nothing to do with it.
She’d called it in for Christ sakes.
She really needed to call Deke and Nathan. She was sure this was one of those things they’d want to know. She was pretty sure this was one of those things that must be disclosed when in a relationship. She wasn’t sure, but if she were guessing she’d guess the whole going with telling would be the correct choice. If she kept quiet much longer, she would be explaining that as well.
As she thought about everything that had transpired so far in her day, she’d say it was going pretty shitty. It’s never a good thing when you find a dead body. It would’ve been bad enough just to have to deal with the cops and the paramedics and the rubber-neckers. But knowing she was going to have to try and explain to Deke and Nathan really capped off the craptastic day with just that little bit of extra. Special, really.
Shit.
Music Monday: Little Drummer Boy
Pentatonix are fabulous. Listen to the video. You’d never know there weren’t any instruments used. It’s ALL them.
Enjoy! And Merry Christmas.
Smutty Sunday
Netgalley Roundup
Picked up a few Cynthia Eden books from NetGalley. So this week’s Smutty Sunday is going to focus on her latest body of work.
1. Fear For Me
After several Eden novellas, I was ready for a longer, meatier book. I got it in Fear for Me.
The suspense in the book is great. I was kept guessing about who dunnit for most of the book. I love that. LOVE. There’s nothing I hate more than knowing who did it WAY before everyone in the book knows, or worse, figuring it out even when I wasn’t supposed to. If that happens, it colors the rest of the book for me.
Now for the love story. I wanted to like Lauren and Anthony. And separately, I did. I wasn’t real happy with the romance. And I don’t know why. There was angst. There was a passionate past. They were smokin’ hot in bed together. So I have no earthly idea why I didn’t dig on these two together. I’ve sat with this book, thinking and thinking about these two and STILL coming up blank about why I wasn’t convinced they needed to be together. Or maybe, it was that I didn’t believe the reasons they’d been apart for so long. SO DAMN LONG. It is becoming harder and harder for me to buy that people stay apart for such flimsy reasons for 5, 10, 15 YEARS. I wouldn’t do it. I don’t know many people who would. So maybe that’s why I have such a problem with this plot device.
Anyway, this is a solid Cynthia Eden read. Although, I love her PNR/UF stuff the best, she really does suspense very well.
2. A Vampire Christmas Carol
This was a totally cute take on Dicken’s Christmas Carol.
Ben is tortured. And turning into a Scrooge. He lost the love of his life, Simone. And he blames himself. Only things aren’t always as they seem. And sometimes, Christmas is the perfect season for redemption.
