November 2nd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Okay folks, I know the look of the blog today is really different, but there is a good reason. I am participating in a blog hop for Heidi Angell and she is giving away prizes. You only have a few days to enter the first one, so you better click now. The other two giveaways will be going on for three weeks, so you have a little more time on them.

 

 

Here's what the items look like: 

Angel's Dance - only 6 days left on this one folks. Enter now.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bookmarks:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Poster:
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is a really cool idea, and I’ve seen other authors do similar events. Both Heather Graham and Stephanie Laurens have done contests with other authors, and the readers needed to go to each of the author’s sites and do something (make a comment, hit the “like” button, count the pumpkins, whatever) to be entered into the contest. It was a fun way to introduce you to authors you may not know and see what was new with your favorite authors. I just wish I had the technological expertise to do something similar for my next book release.

Since I am a technological ditz, I’m going to keep it real simple. For my Facebook and Twitter followers, you need to log onto my blog - http://christinapaulbooks.blogspot.com/ - put “ENTERED” into the comments section, and then you can click on the contest giveaway buttons (yes you can enter all three) on the right hand side. For my blog followers, you still need to put “ENTERED” into the comments section, and then you can click on the contest giveaway buttons on the right hand side.

So, all this hubbub and rearranging is because Heidi Angell is releasing Angel’s Dance, her sequel to Elements of a Broken Mind, which I reviewed (and thoroughly enjoyed) a few months back.

Grant and Clear are back, and they’re better than ever. After several months with no contact, Grant shows up in Clear’s doorstep, in tears, looking like hell and begging for her help. His daughter had been kidnapped and the trail has gone cold. He has nowhere else to turn if he wants to get his get his daughter back. He just prays he’s not too late already.

Seeing Grant again is difficult for Clear, and what he is asking her to do could literally destroy her, but how could she refuse him when a child’s life was at stake?

You are thrown into the seedy underbelly of the dance world, the polar opposite to the grace and beauty seen by the public. And somewhere within that dance world lies a psychopath…

This psychological thriller sucks you in, thrashes you about, and won’t let you go. At the end, you are completely spent, yet somehow left craving for more. Heidi Angell has outdone herself on this one.

Elements of a Broken Mind is available on Amazon if you are interested in reading the first book in the series before Angel's Dance is released later this month.  

I hope you have a great day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge:

 

You work at a restaurant – you witness a blind date that goes horrible wrong

 

“Morey, Morey, you are not going to believe what just happened at table twelve.” Tabatha exclaimed as she rushed into the kitchen through the swinging doors.

“How many time has I got to tell you, you dimwit use the door on the RIGHT, ALWAYS the door on the right!”

Tabatha cracked her gum in response, “Whatever. It ain’t like anyone else would be comin’ out the left doors anyways. You sure as heck ain’t gunna. So anyways, guess what happened.”

“I don’t give a dang what happened. Ain’t yous got tables to wait on? An iffin you don’t, you could always clean up… Yeah, like that’ll ever happen.”

“Quit bein’ a jerk and listen. You know that new English teacher who’s been comin’ in here.”

“The tall doofy guy?”

“Yeah, he’s the one. Anyways, Trixie started feelin’ sorry him. Sittin’ there all by himself, day after day, eatin’ alone. So, she fixed him up with her cousin Cassey.”

“Aw cripes, not Sassy Cassey!”

“The very one.”

“The poor shlub!”

“You said it. So anyways, Mr. Teacher man comes in dressed all professor like. He’s even got a bunch of flowers. Not ones he picked out of a garden neither, they had paper around them and everything. Then in walks Cassey.”

Your Next Challenge is:

 

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…

 

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.

September 15th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

If today isn’t the epitome of a fall morning, I don’t know what is!

 

As promised yesterday, I said I would be giving you a review of a book I just finished and information on a blog hop I was participating in for the book. Well, I went on the author’s site and she is WAY more technologically savvy than I am, so I am going to give you the link to her site. The reason I’m doing this is because she has a raffle going on where you can receive some pretty cool prizes and I don’t want you to miss out because I can’t figure out how to do the same thing on my site. Here it is:

 

http://anangellslife.blogspot.com/2013/09/elements-of-broken-mind-blog-hop.html

 

The book I read was Elements of a Broken Mind and I loved it, but again, it is another book which doesn’t fit neatly into one specific genre. Perhaps if I describe the story a little, you will be able to form your own opinion as to where you would categorize it.

 

There are two main characters Grant and Clear. Yes, the woman’s name is Clear, the unfortunate product of hippy parents (the name, not the character). Grant is a detective who moved to a small town from Chicago after his divorce. He’s lonely, misses his daughter terribly, and is determined not to have a drinking problem. When dead bodies of young women start turning up and Grant is frustrated at the lack of tangible leads, in walks Clear stating she “knows” what happened and she wants to help. But how can she know? The information on the case was being held close to the vest.

 

It takes a little while for Grant to believe that Clear is a true psychic and not just a charlatan and Grant reluctantly agrees to let Clear help him catch what now appeared to be a serial killer. Things get really amped up when the Sherriff’s daughter’s best friend is kidnapped. They fight against time and their growing attraction to each other.

 

That’s all I’m going to tell you. You’ll need to wind your own way through all the twists and turns of this psychic rollercoaster yourself. The story draws you in and tosses you around with the characters, and at the end you are left wanting more.

 

 

I hope you have a wonderful day. Happy writing and maybe happy reading!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

You are driving when something off the side of the road catches your eye and intrigues you enough you feel compelled to stop.

 

What the heck was that? Jenna wondered as she slowed the car and pulled over to the side of the road and exited her car. As she jogged closer to the object which caught her eye, she paused when she thought she saw it move ever so slightly. Cautiously she approached the gaily wrapped package and removed the note tucked inside the bow.

 

            Dear kindhearted stranger –

             Thank you for stopping. It is with a heavy heart I need to abandon my babies. Please take care of them and love them as I did.

                                                Signed,

                                                Heartbroken Mamma

 

Jenna couldn’t breathe, horrified what the note implied. She shoved the note into her pocket and looked for the safest way to open the box without jostling its inhabitants. How could anyone do this to their children? As quickly as she could, she examined the package and found what appeared to be hinges. On the other side she found a clasp, flipped it up and slowly lifted the lid, afraid at what she might find.

What she found were three sets of sparkling blue eyes staring at her. One occupant meowed Jenna a greeting. Inside the box were three identical grey striped kittens.

 

If I had more time, I would have went into how their was food and water in the box and big cut in the back and how the wrapping was actually made out of cloth not paper so the kitties could breathe…

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

The fever was so high…

 

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.

September 14th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

I’ve been up for an hour and I’m already frustrated!

 

My husband yells at me all the time because I rarely shut down my laptop completely so it can do the required updates. So last night, actually early this morning, I was a good girl and shut the computer off. When I booted up this morning, it was still going through the updates. I don’t think it was due to the fact there were so many because the last screen I remember last night was saying the updates were at 35% DO NOT SHUT OFF YOUR COMPUTER; the computer went into sleep mode on its own and so did I. When I booted it up this morning, I got the same message. Well if Toshiba requires the computer to be left on, then they shouldn’t have made a machine where the sleep mode actually turns it off!

 

Anyway, it took less than ten minutes for the updates to finish, so it was no big deal. The next hurdle was putting in the password, but I’m willing to chock that up to lack of caffeine in my system making me forget that when you reboot the computer the number lock key turns off.

 

The last spinny thingy things happen and I’m ready to go. I pull up yesterday’s blog page – I always pull up the prior days and use it as a template, and it’s easier to erase words than go hunting for a picture – I’ll admit it, I’m lazy. Next I pull up my email and my Facebook page, because today’s blog was going to be about a blog hop I am going to participate in and I needed to get the details correct so I could share them with you, a book I finished reading last night (note the early morning comment above) which I wanted to share the link to the book, and finally the details about my book signing next weekend at Canterbury Tales in Lahaska, PA and I wanted to give you the link to the driving directions.

 

Instead I get PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED. UGH!! This always happens after I reboot the computer and I’m not sure why. The little pyramid thingy showed five bars, but I click on it, tell it to disconnect from my network, click it again and tell it to reconnect with my network and try again. PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED. Really? So I go and unplug the modem, count to thirty, plug the modem back in and try again. PAGE CANNOT BE DISPLAYED. SERIOUSLY??

 

Now, while I’m writing this, my modem remains unplugged. It is before eight in the morning, but Lord only knows when I will be able to get this blog posted. It may have to wait until my husband gets up and looks at it, but I’m not sure if there is anything he can do different than what I’ve done already. So, if what I’m doing now doesn’t fix the connection, then you’ll probably be reading this sometime this afternoon. (Hubby likes to sleep in on the weekend, I mean REALLY sleep in. I think the last time I was able to sleep until noon was when I had the flu really bad about eighteen years ago!)

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

 

Beautiful isn’t it? Majestic even. When I see the sun streaming through the clouds like this I can only think of one thing, Heaven. Whether through some adult telling me a tale as a young child, or through my own overactive imagination, to me, the beams of sun were the illuminated paths bringing folks up to Heaven. God’s own version of “Beam me up Scottie”.

 

Over the years, the story evolved in my brain to incorporate the different scenarios for the cloud/light patterns. Beams here and there, normal, people die every day. Only one single beam, someone really kindhearted and loving has passed and they are getting to fly first class as a little reward. A cluster of light like you see above, were the ones that made me sad, because they meant several people died in an area, like a plane crash or a fire.

 

Well what about the people who die at night, you ask? It’s ok, they’re covered too. Moonbeams work just as well. What about a day with cloudless blue skies? Simple, they were taken at dawn or will be taken during sunset, where, even on a clear day, you get rays.

 

I ran out of time, as usual. Wouldn’t it be nice if that was how it really worked? The floating and the light people who have had near death experiences talk about is actually a ray coming down and gently carrying you up to Heaven. For as long as I can remember, this was the way I viewed the cloud/light formations. Where there publicized accountings of near death experiences 45+ years ago?

 

I’ll give you the blog hop and book review information tomorrow since they are related and the book signing information during the week. OK, keep your fingers crossed for me. I’m going to tackle the challenge and then attempt to get on the internet.

 

I hope you have a glorious day, and happy writing!

  

Your Next Challenge is:

 

You are driving when something off the side of the road catches your eye and intrigues you enough you feel compelled to stop.

 

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.