June 28th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Happy Friday! If you happen to be from this area, I hope you all survived the wicked weather we had last night! Wouldn’t you know, the worst of it hit while my hubby was outside grilling! It was only spitting when he started the burgers. I went out to hold the platter when the burgers were finished because he couldn’t hold the umbrella and get the food off the grill without getting the food soaked, and just in those few minutes, I was completely drenched.

Had a little bit of exciting news last night. Oprah's list for summer reading came out, and in the comments section, a reader suggested my book, A Second Chance, should be added to the list. No, Oprah did not recommend my book, but her staff has allowed the comment about my book to stay on the site, so I'm doing a happy dance!! http://www.oprah.com/book-list/New-Books-Summer-2013-Summer-Reading

As I think I mentioned before, in March I made a visual goal chart which contains various things I want to accomplish in the next 24 months. One of my goals was to complete Simply by Chance as well as two other stories by the end of 2014. Pretty ambitious goal I know; so yesterday I bowed to peer-pressure and joined camp NaNoWriMo. Camp NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, is one of the events which lead up to the main event in November. You have from the 1^st of the month to the last day of the month to write 50,000 words. Since I will be writing one of my “other” stories, not a Bradford Series novel, my word count for a completed book will need to be between 75 – 80K words. OBVIOUSLY, the novel will not be complete, nor will it be edited in the 31 days, but this will still give me a healthy jump start at achieving my goal. I have to keep in mind, A Second Chance was written, edited, and in the hands of an agent in just under 8 weeks, so it is possible.

The first difficulty I ran into while signing up was filling out the form to get started. Name, Christina Paul; Age, 47, and I actually told the truth; Genre, Romance; Title – uuuuhhhh… After much deliberation I came up with Corporate Blues (what do you think?); Cover – yeah right, like I’m going to have a cover BEFORE the book is written; Synopsis - Modern day romance. Single executive mom meets the new CEO for one of her long time clients; Excerpt - Haven't written it yet so there is nothing to excerpt. Think they’ll be annoyed with my response?

If you want to find out more about NaNoWriMo, here’s the link to their website.  (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) Wish me luck!!

Your last challenge was:

 

Reality is flipped. (Her examples were: whites were discriminated against or heterosexuality was the minority or the outcome of a war was reversed.)

 

As we neared the two-hundred and fiftieth year anniversary of the American War of Independence, preparations were in full swing. King William, Queen Catherine as well as their children were planning a month long stay during the celebration, so getting the logistics of their security detail in order was proving to be a challenge. Their appearances as a family would not be an issue, however, when they split up, our resources were going to be spread a little thin. There were two weeks which were proving to be particularly bothersome. King William was speaking at Parliament in Boston, and then flying off to the west coast. Queen Catherine was meeting with various chapters of The Council for Woman’s Rights up and down the eastern seaboard. Prince George was touring Princeton, Harvard, and Yale Universities. Princess Ophelia was attending an equestrian camp in Colorado, while the twins, John and Josephine, were at camp in Florida.

 

Didn’t get very far with the story, but as I’m sure you gathered, the Revolution did not turn out the way we planned it.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

  

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.