March 27th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I didn’t get as much done yesterday as I had hoped, because a Notary emergency came up. A friend of mine needed to have some documents Notarized and she was only free yesterday afternoon. She’s a CPA and works a zillion hours a day this time of year. So, I put my stuff on hold so I could go and help her.

On our way back, we stopped at the grocery store, so by the time I got home, Dani was home from school, so any chance of being able to get more editing done was out of the question. I need quiet to edit, and there is no quiet when people are home in my house. I figure the change of plans only put me about an hour or so behind schedule, so I should still be able to make up the time, if not today, then over the next two days.

What are you going to do? Things happen. I’m just glad I was able to help a friend when it was needed.

Yesterday’s detour also made me forget to post the first few chapters of Faerie Tale Queen on Facebook, but I remedied the oversight this morning. The prologue and chapters 1 – 3 are now up, and later today, I’ll post 4 – 6. Then I’ll be back on schedule, and you’ll have all 16 chapters before NaNoWriMo starts on Tuesday.

The raffle on my blog now has four entries. I wish more of you would enter so I could get some feedback from you on how it’s working. In order for folks to qualify for the raffle, they had to “like” my Facebook author’s page – which earns them one entry, and make a comment on my blog – which earns them another entry. These were the only two requirements, but there are other things they could do to earn more entries.

The thing is, I think I did something wrong when I set it up, because even though two people have entered and have been given two entries each, I cannot find the comments they left on my blog. See, this is what happens when you have a technological ditz trying to do something that involves technology. Oh well, live and learn, right?

I should get going considering I have 103 pages to do today instead of 81. I hope y’all have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was (I cheated and used one of the prompts from Tuesday night’s writing group):

Write a story about a Ghost and something Red (it can’t be blood).

Clara strolled leisurely through the garden. This had always been her favorite time of the year, the time which fell between tulips and sunflowers. Those magical four weeks when everything was still green and lush before the merciless August sun scorched the land.

Clara paused and stared in wonder, for even as dusk loomed, the chubby bumble bees were still diligently at work. You would be hard pressed to find a human, with a body was so disproportionate, work so rigorously. Heaven knew her husband never had.

She left the bees to their business and continued her walk. As she rounded the corner, the gazebo came into view, and her breath caught on a sob. The site never ceased to awe her, especially in July. Many a time she would sit on the marble bench in its center, cocooned in the ivy wound stone columns, surrounded by fragrant roses. The gazebo was her solace, her refuge, her escape when times got bad, and near the end, they got really bad.

With trepidation, Clara made her way toward her favorite, Martha Washington, the rose bush her mother had given her as a house warming present when she and Dylan moved in. Of all the roses, this one had been her favorite, velvety red petals, blooms the size of her palm, and the most Heavenly scent.

Although she knew what would happen, she reached out her hand to stroke one of the lush petals, but her fingers never made contact. They never would again.

Your Next Challenge is (words chosen at random from book titles on my bookshelf):

Write a story containing the following three: Quest, Midnight, Promise

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.