November 4th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Well, I survived. Boy was it cold out there yesterday! I spent part of my day doing my Tigg’r imitations – bouncing up and down to try to keep the blood flowing. It didn’t help. I made the mistake of sitting on a metal chair when I first got there, and that was the end of me. After my butt froze, I couldn’t warm up for the rest of the day. You would think I’d know better.

 

The Peddler's Village Apple Festival was almost as huge as their Scarecrow Festival. The place was packed all day, and all day people were going by with the most heavenly smelling apple dumplings. I was hooked. Come the end of the book signing, I had to have one. So after I packed up my stuff, I went on a dumpling hunt.

 

 

Here's the line I encountered. It stretched from the lower patio, up the stairs and into the main courtyard. There were at least two hundred people in line. I began to feel defeated when I noticed the sign for the bakery across the lower patio. There were only a few folks standing outside, so I went over to investigate. Sure enough, there was a line inside, but there were only about thirty people in it, and they were selling dumplings inside. There was a fifteen minute wait for the next batch of dumplings to come out, but I didn't care. I was inside, out of the wind and I was warm for the first time in six hours. It could have been half an hour wait and I would have stayed.

 

While I was there waiting, I chatted with one of the bakery's employees and she told me they were just short of 6,500 dumplings sold that day and they still had several hours left. The dumplings were selling for $6 with the custard sauce. That is $39K worth of dumplings. They sold almost 9,000 the day before, so it was feasible for them to have sold A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of apple dumplings in two days. Mind boggling! And dumplings weren't the only things they were selling; they had apple pies, strudel, fritters, kuchen, zeppole and more.  

It was a good day. I sold a bunch of books and I got to meet two new authors. Barbara Steingas wrote two books. The Healing Puzzle was about how she battled Crohn’s disease and won, and Germans Are Funny Too!, the story about her crazy German family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hannah K. Jones wrote a historical pictorial about a recently torn down landmark entitled Byberry State Hospital. Both women were really sweet and it was a pleasure chatting with them.

 

Standing out in the cold all day really took it out of me, that and the normally thirty-five minute ride home which took an hour and twenty minutes. I came home, popped two Motrin and went to bed. I was out until four-thirty this morning.

Other than my blog, I did not get any writing done yesterday, so I really have to crank out some words today, but the first thing I am going to do is pull something out for dinner. I forgot to do that yesterday before I left, so my husband and daughter had to fend for themselves last night. (They went to Applebee’s.)

I hope you have a fantastic day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge:

 

 

I wasn’t expecting it when I woke up this morning, but there it was. The undeniable sign winter was on its way and there wasn’t a dang thing I could do to prevent it. Sure it is beautiful and the air is so crisp you can taste it, but it’s just so darned cold.

I’ll admit it, when I first saw the view, the child in me got all giddy, jumped up and down and yelled “SNOW!”, but then the adult side of me got annoyed, flopped down on the couch and groaned, “SNOW!”.  Sure it’s pretty now, but in a few hours it will have turned into a muddy, sluggy, yucky muck.

The snow signals the beginning of long, cold, dark days, of slippery roads and treacherous walkways, of hibernation and isolation. Yes, there are a few holidays interspersed in the long months of winter to keep you from teetering completely onto the side of depression, but they are barely enough. In the warm weather, there are picnics, barbeques and get-togethers aplenty. It is a happy and social existence. For the next few months we will be huddle in our caves for warmth, with only rare occasions which warrant us bearing the cold.

 

Can you tell I am not a fan of the cold weather?

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

I remember it as if it were yesterday…

 

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.

November 3rd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Did you remember to turn your clocks back or did you internal clock wake you at your normal time? I guess if I go by my internal clock, I over slept by twenty minutes. Even though I am going to be exhausted later, I look at it as I have an extra half an hour to write today.

So what did you think of the blog yesterday? Did you see the comment from Heidi? I cracked up when I read she “double-dog-dared” folks to take my challenge.

Here’s a switch. I’m always telling folks who read my blog on Facebook and twitter they need to log onto my blog so they can see multiple photos or click on links. This time I am sending my blog readers to my Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/christina.paul.author - if they would like to read excerpts from my NaNoWriMo Project Faerie Tale Queen.

Yesterday on Facebook I posted the entire prologue. Please keep in mind, what you’re getting is an UNEDITED first draft, so there will be mistakes in COT, there may be a lack of sentence variation, and it will be before I preform my thatectomy. I may even mess up a name, a place or a time, and I know I will have a few “he” where it should be “she” and visa versa.

The story is really different than the others I’ve written, plus I’m under the time constraints of NaNoWriMo so by posting a chapter every couple of days, I get instant feedback and it will keep me on track. I’m really not giving a book away for free here, for two reasons. One, the first draft usually varies dramatically from the final rewritten product; and two, there is no way this story will be finished by the end of NaNoWriMo, so if you want to know how the story ends…

Today I am headed back to Canterbury Tales Forever in Peddler’s Village. Unfortunately Linda Rawlins will not be joining me today. The mother of one of her employees passed away, and Linda needs to be with her. Keith Fritz will be there, and hopefully some of you will be as well. Although it is going to be rather chilly today, you should come out to experience the AppleFestival. It is a fun event for the whole family, and there is no admission fee.

Your biggest challenge will be the parking, which is why I’m getting there really early. So on that note, if I want to get anything done on Faerie Tale Queen, I had better get going.

I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge:

 

There is a knock at your door and you answer it to find a lawyer. He tells you your great uncle has passed away and has left everything to you. One of the things he has left you was and island. Yes, you now own your very own island…

 

Did that really just happen? I didn’t even know I had an uncle Octavio. Octavio. Who the heck names their kid Octavio? What was he the eighth child and they ran out of ideas? Quit staring at the envelope and open it. It’s not going to bite you, you ninny! I can’t do it. This is too bizarre, even for me. I’ll call Kim. She’ll know how to handle this.

  

Kim stared at Donna in total disbelief. “So these attorneys just showed up at your door?”

Donna nodded.

“And you’re sure you have never heard of Uncle Octavio?”

Donna shook her head.

“Then how can you be sure you are really the heir any you are not being punked?”

Donna handed Kim a smaller envelope, “The attorney’s gave me the genealogy. I may not know who Octavio was, but I do know who Katrina, his oldest sister was. She was my great grandmother. Thirty years separated the two. She was already married with children of her own and living in another state when her youngest sibling was born. It’s no wonder we had never heard of him, she died shortly after he was born. She may not even have known he existed.”

Kim studied the family tree, “So you’re telling me, as the youngest of eight, the only living relative he had in the world, was the great granddaughter of a sister he never met? How can that be? He had seven siblings. Didn’t they have children, and their children have children?”

“Here look,” Donna took the papers from Kim and spread them on the table. “Of the eight, only five made it to adulthood, and these two, Dominick and Antonio, just barely. From the dates of their deaths, I’d say they were soldiers during World War I. That left Octavio, who never had any children, Porsche, who had three and my great grandmother who had two.

 

Just like Heidi, I ran out of time with an entire story playing out in my brain. I never even got to the part about the Island, but what else is new.

 

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.