September 30th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Perhaps it’s the change of seasons, I’m not sure, but I am definitely a little off lately. I feel like I’m trying to run on low batteries or something. My intentions are good, but my follow-thru is lacking. I have entirely too much to do, to be functioning at less than optimal capacity.

Only one of you weighed in on my request for advice yesterday – thanks Cindy. I am going to heed her advice and just let the judges’ ruling on Taking Chances stand and not enter it in a new category this year. So, this morning, I filled out and submitted all the paperwork to enter Corporate Blues in the 2015 Indie Next Generation Book Awards.

I’ll admit, I have very low expectations for the results. Corporate Blues is a fun, light, book. It’s a quick read. It was very easy for me to write – minus the anxiety of having to contact the FBI to get some of my facts straight. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good story, but it required nowhere near as much work as my Bradford Series novels do. Perhaps because portions of Corporate Blues were actual events, which happened to me, it came very easy. The story just flowed on to the pages.

Research consisted of verifying some facts with our local police, having to check out the subway route to Fenway Park and the baseball pre-season schedule, and asking a few helicopter flight related questions. That’s it. Plus the fact that Corporate Blues is what I call “sex-lite”, the love scenes were not painful to write. There was no blood, no sweat, and no tears wrung out of me to produce the story, and because of that, it makes me wonder if I should have even entered it into the competition.

I realize I’m trying to compare apples to oranges. Historical Romance and Contemporary Romance are distant cousins, several times removed, at best. The amount of work and research required to produce a Historical is astronomical, where as a Contemporary, set in a location you are familiar with, in a profession you are familiar with… not so much.

I don’t think I will have the same issue with entering Faerie Tale Queen, because, since it is set in Ireland, I have had to do my fair share of research. (Flight times, commute time to a fictitious island which is based on a real island, eggs not being refrigerated like they are here in the states, different words for things depending on if the American character is saying them or the Irish character is saying them, a show that would be playing on tv on a certain night at a certain time, etc.)

Now, if Corporate Blues happens to do well (ie: better than Taking Chances), I will be truly confused. I used to get this same feeling when I was in school and aced a test I had not studied for, or bombed one I had studied hard for. Yeah, I know, I’m a nut.

Double Rainbow -The weird thing is,
it didn't rain, so I have no idea how
we had a rainbow.

As a completely random interjection, last night I ran out to the car to get an iced tea – I went grocery shopping yesterday and the case of iced tea had not made it into the house yet – and I was gifted by a lovely, and completely unexpected surprise. I just wanted to share the photo with you.

One last random piece before I skedaddle, this morning I read some advice to woman writers, and I wanted to share the link to the article with you. I think I will be printing out the article and sticking it on my fridge, so I can use it as a reminder from time to time – and who knows, perhaps others in my house will also take a look. (I’m not holding my breath on that one.)

Okay, I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

You tried your best…

You have ten 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.