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Showing posts with label Back to School. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Back to School. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 16, 2014

September 16th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! It’s a chilly, rainy, yucky day here in central New Jersey, but I’m not going to complain. It has been forever since we have had rain, so it is desperately needed.

Sorry I didn’t do a blog post yesterday. I knew, the way my day had started, I was not going to do much other than complain. Yesterday started with me waking up early, because Dani was supposed to go back to school, and I come out into the living room to find it completely littered with trash. My hubby forgot to take the garbage out on Sunday night, and Colby helped himself. Not the sight I wanted to see at 5:00 a.m.

I said Dani was “supposed to” go back to school yesterday. It didn’t quite work. She got up, showered, dressed, put her make-up on, and she was done. She came out of her room, shaky and white as a sheet; and I said, “Uht, ah. No way. Back to bed.” I knew she wasn’t up to it because she didn’t fight me on it, not one complaint. She just turned around and went back to bed.

So, at nine, I called the doctor and told him what happened. He advised she slowly work her way back into school, so that’s what we are doing. Today she will be at school through third period, tomorrow through sixth, Thursday through eighth, and then the full day on Friday. It’s a good plan. Now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed it will work out that way.

I brought her to school this morning, and we went directly to the nurse’s office. We got her a pass to get out of gym, a blanket hall pass to the nurse’s office whenever she needs it, a pass to use the elevator because she’s still having issues navigating stairs, and a pass to get to class, because by the time we got all the paperwork filled out, she was late for first period.

Since first period had already started, the nurse asked me if I would walk Dani to class. I get her to the classroom, I signal the teacher I would like to talk to him for a second, Dani walks in, and the first words out of the teacher’s mouth are, “You picked a bad day to come back.” What the heck? Is he out of his mind? Why would he say that??

Then, I’m still standing outside the classroom, and he completely ignores me. You would think, he would excuse himself for the fifteen seconds it would have taken for me to bring him up to speed, but no. After five minutes I gave up and left. Man I really hope this was an isolated situation and this guy isn’t such a jerk all the time, or we are going to have an issue.

I refrained from posting yesterday because I didn’t want to complain, and here I am today, complaining; so enough with that.

I had the radio interview on ArtistFirst Radio Network last night. It was a ton of fun. Ron and I spent most of the hour laughing. I did get to talk a bit about me, my books, and the stories behind them. I also managed to work in shout-outs for three of my author friends, Keith, Linda and Dorothy May. All three of them will be appearing on The Ron Shaw Show sometime in the near future. We also talked about the covers for my books, so I was able to give Linda’s son Matt – the creator of my Corporate Blues cover, and her daughter Krista – the model for my Corporate Blues cover, some airtime as well.

It was so surprising how quickly the hour sped by. Ron warned me it would, but honestly, I didn’t believe him. Let me tell you, I enjoyed the radio interview far more than the TV interview last week. I got to do my radio interview in a sweatshirt, old pair of shorts, no make-up, and my hair was probably a mess, and it didn’t matter. You can’t get away with that on TV, that’s for sure.

We had such fun last night, Ron asked me to come back on his show the second Monday in December, and I accepted. Not exactly sure what we will talk about then, but what the heck, right?

Hey, if you get a minute, go check out ArtistFirst’s website. I glanced at it before, checked to make sure there were no errors in what they put up about me and my books, but I didn’t really look at the whole page. I did last night, and I got a big surprise.

My book’s cover and my bio are right next to a picture of Johnny Depp! Other folks they have interviewed are Dr. Oz, Priscilla Presley, Joan Collins, Jaclyn Smith, Ben Vereen, and MANY more names you’d know – HOLY CROW! Here they are, interviewing all these mega stars, and then little old me. I feel unworthy. I’m so glad I didn’t notice that until AFTER my interview, or I really would have been ill.

In case you were wondering, the last challenge was a quote taken from The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. If you haven’t had a chance to read this book yet, I highly recommend it. As a rule, I pretty much do not read non-fiction. The spare time I have to read, I want to escape, to be taken away to another time, another place, and most of all to a happily ever after; and let’s face it, non-fiction usually cannot deliver my requirements.

This book however, was an assigned reading for Dani last year, and I read all of the books my kids have had assigned to them. I finished the book in a little over two hours, and then I went and watched the video of the actual lecture. The book was amazing, and it is the first book EVER that I did not find a single editing error. That alone impressed me. My only complaint was the insane cover price for the tiny book. $22 for a 4X5, 205 page book, even the Kindle edition was $11. I’m sorry, I don’t care who you are or what you’ve got to say or how amazing what you have to say is, it’s not worth that kind of money. I managed to get a used copy for $5, and I strongly suggest, if you plan on reading it, you should too.

Okay, I’ve rambled on long enough. I have to get this puppy posted everywhere and then go get Dani from school.

I hope you have an amazing day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

I think I can, I think I can…

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.

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

September 3rd Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good morning! It’s HUMP DAY, and the last day of summer break. School starts tomorrow, so after I’m done working today, Dani and I are going to be doing a whole lot of running around. She wants to stop at Verizon to get her phone fixed, at Kohl’s to get a new outfit for tomorrow, and I need to stop at the grocery store because after having the summer off, tomorrow morning, I need to start making sandwiches again. YUCK! The smell of cold cuts in the morning turns my stomach.

This week is insane, and it marks the start of a hectic fall for me. Last night I had my critique group, and surprise, surprise, we had a film crew taping our session. Apparently there was an email I missed warning us it was happening last night. I have to say, I completely forgot the camera was even in the room with us, so I guess that’s an inclination of how good the director was, totally unobtrusive. They are coming back next Thursday for our writing group, and now that I know what it is going to be like, I have no reservations.

I already told you what today is going to entail. Tomorrow I have a reunion committee meeting to go over continued planning for our November class reunion; the first one I’ll actually be able to attend, so I am REALLY looking forward to seeing my old classmates again. On Friday, I have our church women’s group meeting to plan for our November church bazaar. I’ll be doing a lot of the work on the silent auction portion of the bazaar, which is going to be a neat trick since I’m pretty much booked up every weekend between now and Thanksgiving.

The only thing I have planned for this weekend is a celebratory dinner for my in-law’s anniversaries – yes plural, my sister-in-law’s anniversary is Friday. However, Saturday will more than likely be filled with shopping for the list of required school supplies Dani will get on Thursday when she returns to school.

Book wise, things are pretty packed as well. The 9th is the filming for the TV show. On Monday, September 15th, I’ll be appearing on Ron Shaw’s radio show on ArtistFirst Radio Network at 8:00 pm. It should be a blast, so I hope you tune in. Saturday and Sunday, September 20th & 21st I’ll be back at Canterbury Tales Forever; and Saturday, September 27th I’ll be at Milford Alive.

I’m not sure yet which authors will be joining me at Canterbury Tales (I’ll let you know when I find out), but my friend, Kathi Kurz, will be coming with me to Millford. Actually, I’m going with Kathi (even though I’m driving), because I would never have known about the festival if it wasn’t for her.

I am going to be waking up extra early Saturday and Sunday, and probably all week as well; and on Friday and Monday, after everyone is out of the house, I will not be moving from my chair. The publisher is calling for an update next Friday, and FTQ is still not finished. If I keep my blog down to a minimum over the next week, it will give me roughly forty hours to finish up Faerie Tale Queen. Considering this is first draft, that should be enough time.

This whole going with a publisher is a double edged sword. Having to be creative under a deadline is stressful, and can very easily cause writer’s block. However, having to be accountable to someone else’s deadline, forces my butt into a chair and makes me write. It’s easy to brush off deadlines I set for myself – not so much when there’s someone else involved.

On that note, I should start rereading what I have written already so it will be fresh in my mind to start the next chapter as soon as I wake up tomorrow. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

Since I haven’t done one in a long time, today’s challenge is a photo challenge.



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.