May 21st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. Hope all of you had a wonderful day yesterday even though it was a Monday. Mine was … interesting. I spent some time in the morning with a friend who has been having a rough time, but has now started a new business which she is very excited about. It’s good to see her happy.

In the afternoon, I took another friend to pick up a table she found that she liked, but had no way to get home. My van was perfect for the REALLY big, heavy box. We were a bit of a comedy routine getting the box out of my van and up onto a cart to wheel it into her place, but after some grunting, huffing and puffing, near oopses and a lot of giggle, we did manage.

As like many of you, I am “connected” through many different social media outlets, one of which is LinkedIn. Through LinkedIn, I have connected with many authors, editors, publicists, etc. It is great. You need an answer to something, you put your question out there and someone is bound to know the answer or at least some answer to help you. For once, I was able to help instead of needing the help (even though I didn’t know it). I just reacted to a situation. One of the authors I have connected with posted a question. She asked if anyone knew how to get a review unpublished, not because it was a bad review, which it was, but because it told the whole story, even the twist ending. I told her to contact the site and tell them what happened, but then I went on the site to see how bad the damage really was; that’s when I got angry and replied directly to the person who wrote the review. I told her she had every right not to like the book, every right to post her opinion in the form of a bad review, honest reviews were important, but she had no right to give away a story’s ending and spoil the book for other readers. Just because she did not like it did not mean others wouldn’t love the book. It was irresponsible, uncalled for and just plain cruel.

I received and email from the book’s author late last night. She had contacted the site, but they refused to do anything about the spoiler review. Then she told me the person who wrote the review pulled it herself after the comment I had left. It’s nice to know I was able to help.

As I said, my day was interesting.

Yesterday’s challenge was:

 

If I had only known…

 

If I had only known… How many times have I uttered those words? Too many to count, I can assure you; but then I have to think, if I had known, would it have made a difference in the choices I made. If I had only known XYZ company would have made it so big, would I have invested? Honestly, probably not, because knowing and actually having the funds to invest would have been the same. If I had known my friend was going to die when he was so young, would I have done something different? Perhaps, but could I have really changed the circumstances of his death, or would I have simply been walking around on egg shells until the inevitable happened? No, I couldn’t have changed anything and by not knowing I treated him the same right until the end. I am thankful though my last words to him were, “I love you, but go home.” which were uttered around two in the morning - he had just returned from a trip to Hawaii and was not back on East Coast time yet. If I had known I could really be a writer, would I have started writing sooner? Maybe, but I think the experiences I have gone through in life is what has brought dimension to my characters which would not have been there if things had not unfolded exactly as they had.

If I had only known… It is hard not to say those words, but I think I am better off because I had not known.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Did you see that?

 

You have 10 minutes (be honest). There is no right or wrong, just write. Spelling and punctuation don’t count and NO ONE is allowed to criticize what someone else has written. Go.