October 31st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

First I want to wish everyone a very happy Halloween. Next I want to wish my friend Keith a very happy Birthday! Y’all know my friend Keith, the horror author. I called him last night and left a message teasing him about being cliché – a horror writer whose birthday is on Halloween. (giggle)

So, the cowgirls are off and running. My daughter and her friend slept over another friend’s house last night, and her mother did all the girls’ hair this morning for school. She did a great job. I think they look adorable! (My daughter’s the one on the left.)

I cannot believe NaNoWriMo starts TOMORROW! I still have so much to do before I start writing. I keep thinking about all of the days in November that are going to pull me away from my writing, that I am already starting to panic over getting the 50K words finished. The first day I won’t be able to write is Sunday because I am doing another book signing at Canterbury Tales.

Not a good thing to happen three days into a project, but I cannot exactly put the book signing off until December. It will be too dang cold then to be outside for five hours! Sunday will be bad enough. It is supposed to be cloudy with the high of only 52°. Burrrr!

Okay, already had a late start to the day, so now I really feel like I’m behind. I need to do more work on the never ending insurance papers and then finish the research for my NaNoWriMo project.

I hope you have a spooky day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge:

 

Start your story with: It’s Mischief Night and you’ll never believe what my friends have planned.

It’s Mischief Night and you’ll never believe what my friends and I have planned. There is an older couple who live down the street from me, and as far back as I can remember, every Halloween morning, their house has been a mess. There’s toilet paper hanging from their trees, there are smashed egg guts everywhere, and one time, their mailbox and cars were shrink wrapped.

Although I found the last prank rather clever, I still felt bad for the Emersons. As I said, they were an older couple, both long since retired school teachers. I had heard the stories about them being particularly difficult teachers, but come on, enough is enough. Their last batch of students are all married with their own children in the school system, the time for this abuse to cease is long overdue.

So, here is the plan, and I will tell you the Emersons did not want to go along at first, but after we convinced them none of the mischief makers would be physically harmed, well at least no permanent damage would be inflicted, they relented. My friends and I will be lying in wait in the Emerson’s bushes. When the culprits arrive, they will be doused with foul smelling, dyed water from high powered super-soakers.

 

It is supposed to dip into the thirties tonight, so not only will the delinquents stink to high heaven, be stained a lovely shade of Barney purple, they should also be good and chilled by the time they reach home. Won’t they have a lovely time explaining to their parents their sorry appearance? Gee, I hope purple goes with whatever Halloween costume these kids had planned, because it will be several days before their normal skin tone returns.

 

Hopefully, this will put an end to the annual attacks on the Emersons. If not, I know where I will be spending next Mischief Night.

(Photos added after the ten minutes. FB folks, if you want to see the photos, you’ll need to go to my blog.)

Your Next Challenge is:

I’m going to give you a whole lot of leeway on this one. Tell us about your favorite Halloween memory. It could be a special Halloween, an extra special costume or party, tradition, whatever you want to write about.

 

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.