July 3rd Writing Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –
 

A Happy Wacky Wednesday to y’all! I went to my critique group last night, and as usual, I had a great time. We had an interesting mix of things read: a play about a woman serial killer from California (true story, fictional adaptation), the beginning of chapter one of a mystery novel centered around two Irish pubs at the Jersey shore, the first page of a mystery novel set in NYC, a performance piece about a father coming to terms with his trans-gender child, and chapters four and five of my Simply by Chance (they were very short chapters). We ran out of time before we got to a rewritten excerpt from a fantasy novel and the memoir of a civil war seen through the eyes of a child, so they will go first two weeks from now.

Camp is going well. My ending word count yesterday was 5,588. At this rate, I might actually hit the 85K words by July 31^st, but that means I have to average almost 2,750 a day, EVERY day. OK, I can’t think that way or I will psych myself out. I’m just going to let it flow and whatever happens, happens.

So, did you have fun with yesterday’s challenge? Which book did you get sucked into? Did you become one of the existing characters, a completely new one or were you like a ghost and no one could actually see you?

Your Last Challenge was:

You literally get sucked into the book you were reading.

 

The last thing I remember is sitting on my bed, reading The Sorcerer’s Stone to my children for the fourth or was it the fifth time, I cannot remember, and the next thing I knew I was standing in front of an entire classroom of children dressed in black robes. Quickly I glanced at the stone walls, the stone floor, and then up at the impossibly high ceiling. Hogwarts, somehow I was at Hogwarts. But how?

I raised my hand to massage my now throbbing temple and I hear, “Professor, are you alright?”

 

Then another voice, “Professor Culbreath, would you like us to call Professor McGonnagall or Professor Dumbledore?

Oh heavens. Professor. They meant me. They were talking to me. I looked out at the room and two dozen sets of worried eyes looked back at me. I cleared my throat and gave the class a weak smile, “No, no. Don’t bother. I’ll be fine. No worries.” I will have to figure out how I got here and how to get back later, but for now I have to go on as if everything is normal. Professor Culbreath. I don’t recall a Professor Culbreath. What did she teach? How am I ever going to pull this off? I smiled again, this time hopefully more convincingly and asked, “Would one of you be so kind as to remind me where we left off?”

“You were about to show us how to conjure an illusion you said we could use as a distraction.” A helpful voice replied.

Conjuring. I can handle that. “Alright then children. This is just one example, but the basis is the same no matter what you wish to conjure. Your only limit is your own imagination…”

 

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.