January 4th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Negative eight…seriously? When the heck did I move to Alaska? That’s the actual temperature, not the wind chill. My kitchen window is a sheet of ice – on the inside! The kitchen tends to get hot with all the cooking I do, so we don’t pull down the storm window, but rather leave the screen in place all year round. In all the years I have lived here, it was never an issue.

Today is going to be spent (INSIDE – burrrrr!) getting my daughter ready for her return trip to college. She has all her clothes washed and ready to be packed. We will need to venture out later to pick up the few things she wants from the store, oatmeal and breakfast drinks, and then I’ll be dropping her off at her aunt’s so she can spend her last evening home with her cousins and grandparents.

Dang it, I just remembered my youngest slept over a friend’s house last night. I’m going to have to be out in this lovely weather several times today…ugh!

I posted this request on Facebook yesterday, but I am going to appeal to you here as well. There is an event I would like to participate in; however, I can’t until I have ten reviews on Amazon. So, if you have read A Second Chance (300+ copies sold), and/or Taking Chances (2,500+ copies sold/downloaded), could you please post a review?  It does not need to be long or in depth, just a few sentences. I would really appreciate it, and it would go a long way to boosting my books’ standings on Amazon. You would think the sales and winning the 2013 Indie Next Generation Award would have done the trick, but apparently everything revolves around the reviews – which unfortunately are the hardest things to get. L

Okay, I’m done begging. I hope you have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story containing the following three words: Prunes, Grandmother, Missing

After all the dust from Christmas settled, I realized one thing was missing. I had forgotten to bake one thing my grandmother always used to make on Christmas. There was really no excuse, because I made the nut rolls and the bread, and this is made at the same time. Instead of using nuts for the filling of the roll, she would make a few with lekvar. Lekvar is a prune paste. Now before you go Ewwwww, I will tell you, even though I am not a fan of prunes, I do like them this way.

Lekvar is sweet, but not too sweet, and somehow, it doesn’t taste pruney. However, it is a pain to work with because when I make the roll with it, even though I put in vent holes, infallibly, the roll pops and some of the filling oozes out. I think this may be because the lekvar is a paste and you spread it on the dough as you would spread jam on toast. Then when you roll up the dough, it is very easy to roll it too tight, thereby leaving too little room for expansion while it bakes, resulting in the bread rupturing.

Sorry, I sat there and stared at the random words I chose and really had a difficult time figuring out how to string them together. Hopefully the next challenge will inspire better. J

Your Next Challenge is (what better challenge to warm your thoughts in this bitter cold?):

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.