December 8th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Class of '84
(obviously not all of us)

Good Morning! I have been seriously remiss in making blog posts lately, and I have a bunch to share with you now. It also didn’t help that I noticed I never posted the one from the 29^th. I’m not exactly sure what happened, but I posted it Sunday morning on the blog site if you’re interested.

So, the 30 year reunion was a blast. I got to see a bunch of people, but I really couldn’t catch up with many because the music was too loud to chat. The common consensus was, four hour was definitely NOT enough time. We all wanted more.

The Committee
Back Row: Vinnie, Karolyn, Rebecca,
Bob, Mike, Laura, Gary
Front Row: Amy & Me

I think, in 2016, we are going to hold a 50^th birthday party for the class. We had some money left in the kiddy after the reunion was over, and we are throwing around the idea that, for the people who were there, it will be free, and for the folks who couldn’t make the reunion, there would be a nominal fee of $25 to attend. Now the reunion committee has an excuse to get together in under five years. It’s going to be great!

Yup, in PARK on the
highway

At ten in the morning, following the reunion, I began my drive south to bring Lys and her friend Max back to school. We decided taking Route 81 back would be much better than attempting Route 95. The best laid plans… It turns out there was a major accident on 81 in Virginia early Sunday morning, and traffic never quite recovered. We passed a dozen accidents, and if it wasn’t for this app Max had, we would have been sitting in more traffic than we did. All in all, the trip took 13 ½ hours, which I guess isn’t too terrible considering at one point I had the car in park on the highway, and we took several breaks and a 45 minute dinner.

Bumper to bumper on
Route 81

I crashed at Lys’ that night, and before I left, we had one errand to run. You see, for the past month, Lys has been getting cyber bullied, so our errand was to the police station to file a report. We had thought they would be able to subpoena Yik Yak to have them trace the IP address of the person doing the harassing; but even though the anonymous posts are disturbing, they do not cross the line into threatening, so the police’s hands are tied. They can’t do anything. The same holds for the college itself.

Because of this, Lys has elected to part ways with High Point, and return to Champlain. She would rather deal with a cranky Mother Nature than a psycho in the human form, and I can’t say I blame her. This means, next Monday, I will be driving back down to North Carolina to pack her up and bring her home. Then, in January, I’ll be bringing her back to Vermont, and setting up her new room up there. Never a dull moment. To be honest, I’d rather have her safe and only six hours away, so I’m not heartbroken that things did not work out at High Point. It would have been better if my daughter wasn’t traumatized in the process, but, live and learn. She’s a strong woman, with a good head on her shoulders, she’ll be fine.

The drive home was considerably better. It only took 11 hours, and that was with multiple stops, including a 45 minute one when it was pouring. The weather and traffic was terrible, and I was exhausted, so I pulled off at a rest stop, climbed into the back seat, and took a power nap. When I woke up, I felt refreshed, the rain had stopped, and the traffic had dissipated, so it was a beautiful thing.

I did not have my radio interview the Ron Shaw Show on ArtistFirst Radio Network on my drive home. I got the dates mixed up. My interview is actually tonight at 8pm. Ron told me my last interview had over 30K downloads, which completely shocked me, but he has the reports to prove it. Now that’s not the people who listen to it the night it aired, these are actually folks who clicked into the link after the fact, and listened to the hour long show. That’s mind boggling to me.

I have to make sure my phone is all charged and ready to go. I also have to figure out where I can do the interview. Last time I did it sitting in a chair in my driveway, because that’s where I got the best reception. That’s not exactly an option for a December in the Northeast interview, especially with a Nor’easter on its way. (There will be a special announcement on tonight's show, so, if you are available, please tune in.)

At least it’s a rain event, not a snow event. That’s all I would have needed. LATE Tuesday night, I am driving to Philly to pick up Dani’s boyfriend and his family from the airport. They have been down in Florida for the Cheerleading Nationals, and their flight comes in at 11:30. If this Nor’easter was going to be a snow event, I would have had them make other arrangements to get home. Then again, if it was snow, the flight would have more than likely been cancelled and I would have to pick them up on Wednesday.

Of course the lights on the
pre-lit tree wouldn't work, so
Paulie had to string more.

Saturday, we had our annual tree decorating party. It was over a week early this year. We usually do it as close to the first night of Hanukkah as we can, but Hanukkah is on the 17^th this year, and I wasn’t going to be home.

The 17 year old tradition started with one of my dearest friends, Rebecca, who happens to be Jewish. She loves decorating Christmas trees, but for obvious reasons, she did not get many opportunities to do so. I had invited her over to do ours with us. She would spend Christmas with us whenever she was in town, so why not have her help decorate the tree? By accident, not design, it was the first night of Hanukkah, the first year we did it. I had felt bad that on her holiday, she was helping us prepare for our holiday, so I made potato pancakes for dinner that night…and the tradition began.

3 dozen ornaments and
more lights out. The tree still
needs serious work!

Now, every year, I make a vat of potato pancakes (10lbs – roughly 200 - 250 pancakes), and a bunch of people come to my house and decorate my tree. With the exception of Rebecca’s son Noah, who placed more ornaments than everyone else combined, they did a sad job. I was too busy cooking to supervise, but I can just about guarantee, everyone else put exactly one ornament on the tree. I think next year, I am going to withhold the food until the tree is done. LOL.

Well, this had gone on long enough. I told you I had a bunch to tell you. The next blog entry will more than likely be next Sunday. There’s just too much to do this time of year, that I can’t find the time to blog as well. Sorry. I hope you have a fabulous day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas…

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.

December 7th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

First I want to take a moment to remember all those lives lost over seventy years ago today. Most of you are not old enough to remember Pearl Harbor, but you are, I’m pretty sure, old enough to remember 9-11. Remember the horror you felt when our country came under attack? Well, I’m sure, our country was feeling the same way back in 1941. Over 2,400 people lost their lives that infamous day in Hawaii, and they should be remembered.

So, yesterday was kind of exciting. I realized some of you are not on Facebook, so I will share what I posted there yesterday afternoon:

 

“So I just got off the phone with the publisher from NYC, and I am doing my happy dance. 

He told me he was "proud" to have presented Corporate Blues to his team this morning. He thought it was a published book already, because not only did I send him the fully formatted, ebook ready, manuscript, I sent him the artwork for the cover. He immediately wanted to know who did the cover and if those beautiful blues were mine, and I told him no, they were a friend of mine's daughter's and Riverbench Publishing made the cover. (He raved about the cover, so, Linda Rawlins, there very well may be a phone call in Matt's future as well.) 

I reminded him what I sent was an unedited first draft, and he told me to "Stop it! You should see some of the s**t that comes across my desk." He also said he was having his secretary print out a copy so he could take it home this weekend to read it, and his team would have an answer back to him by the end of next week, because he was "pushing hard for this one".

I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, and I know I shouldn't take a chance in jinxing it by telling you, but he was so excited on the phone, it was contagious. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!”

I also posted this on my personal Facebook page as well. I usually try to keep my personal and my professional identities separate, but I was really excited, so I wanted to share the news in both places. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high because of my last experience with a traditional publisher, but I will admit, it was a big ego boost to have a publisher truly excited about my work.

Now, all I have to do is wait a week to see if his team is just as excited as he was about the book. Piece of cake…NOT. I’m nervous about sending them an unedited version, but that’s what he asked for, so that’s what I sent. I’m also wondering if they will approve of how I ended the story or if they will want more. That is, if they even like what I sent to start with, or if Corporate Blues simply ends up in the circular file.

If it does, I’ll simply polish it myself and release it through CreateSpace as I did the others. I don’t need a mainstream publisher to pick me up, but it would sure be nice. If I did, that would mean someone else was dealing with the business end and I could concentrate on writing instead of having to split my time. Which at the moment is roughly 65% marketing and 35% writing, and that does not sit well with me.

I still have to finish Faerie Tale Queen and Simply by Chance, and I have two more stories rattling around in my brain that are getting impatient and want to be told. Plus, I think a publishing contract would validate my career choice in my husband’s eyes and I’d get a little more support on the home front. But again, I’m putting the horse before the cart. There are no guarantees, and until there are, I just have to sit patiently and wait.

I think I will take a break from writing today and start decorating my house for Christmas, because other than the tree being up, I really haven’t done anything yet. I also have to make a batch of potato pancakes (requested by the hostess) to bring to our first holiday party of the season.

So, I am off to start all of that. I hope you have a fabulous day, and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

With Nelson Mandela’s passing yesterday, it made me think, what is it that makes someone great, makes someone stand out over the rest? Write about who you think should be remembered as “great” and why.

 

I honestly cannot think of one person to single out, because of what I consider “great”, can be achieved by anyone who truly wants it. You do not need to be Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa, to be great. You do not need to have won the Nobel Prize or have found a cure for some horrible disease to be great. You do not need to be featured on the cover of Time to be great.

In my eyes, greatness is a gift within each and every one of us, for I believe if you have the ability to change just one person’s life for the better, then you are a great person. Let’s face it, the Nelson Mandela’s of the world are few and far between. Not many of us are called to fight for justice the way he was, and our small acts of kindness will probably never get worldwide acclaim, but notoriety shouldn’t be a driving factor anyway.

If you start by just trying to make the immediate circle around you a better place, then before you know it, the circle will grow. You do not need to be rich or powerful to make someone else’s life better, something as simple as a friendly smile or a kind word could mean the world to someone.

 

The ten minutes are up, but I think you can figure out where I was going with this.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Write a story containing: an animal, a magical being, and snow

 

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.

December 1st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

AHHHH IT’S DECEMBER!! YIKES!!

I had to do some quick repair comments this morning when I opened up my computer. I can’t swear to it, but I have a sneaking suspicion, it was either my girlfriend Fran or her boyfriend Carl who hijacked my computer last night and posted on my Facebook page. They wrote one that just said, “I Love My Dog.” over and over, but the second one said, “Who the heck invited all these people to my house? OMG the food and drinks they went through!! Oy I need a nap!” LOL. Needless to say, I had to set the record straight and say, "I DID NOT POST THIS!!!!"

 

So the final count for potato pancakes made yesterday was 112, which means you get 11 pancakes per pound of potatoes. Good to know. I sent a few home with my son, my in-laws, with Carl (because his son didn’t make it last night and potato pancakes are one thing that the incredibly picky eater eats), and with Brianna, Karolyn’s daughter (because, although she was there, she came right from a basketball game, and she can’t eat after she’s been playing – food after exercise don’t agree with her). That left me twelve pancakes, which I put in the freezer for some future dinner for the three of us.

Out of the thirty individual pot pies I made – which I posted step by step photos of the recipe yesterday – there were five left, which Lys is bringing with her back up to school today. Lys is also taking the remaining red velvet mini cupcakes Karolyn made.

We had a wonderful time last night, until everything went to hell in a hand basket at the end of the night, but I won't get into it; but I will say there is no room in my life for nasty, mean, vindictive people, and we’ll leave it at that.

We had two surprise guests. A friend from NY, Brielle, who just happened to be visiting my friends Becky and Lenny came. Another friend, Bernadette, from Cape May, happened to be visiting her parents who live up our way, and she popped in as well. It was a very nice, and totally unexpected surprise on both counts!! 

The tree is up, and mostly decorated, thanks to my seven year old “nephew” Noah. He must have hung 2:1 what everyone else did combined. I saw he found one of his ornaments and hung it on the tree, but I didn’t see the one with his name on it on the tree. I looked for it after they left last night but couldn’t find it, so I’m wondering if it was one of the ornaments which did not survive the flood. We lost a bunch, and losing ornaments is like losing photos, because we don’t do run of the mill, colored glass balls on our tree, we do memory ornaments (Baby’s 1^st, vacations, milestones).

Oh well, it’s getting late, so I better go get in the shower so I’m not late for church. We’ll be leaving right after church to head back to Vermont. The weather report says snow showers up there all day today, so say a little prayer for us to arrive safely please.

There probably won’t be a blog tomorrow, and if there is, there definitely won’t be a challenge, so you have a couple of days to come up with your response to today’s challenge.

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

Your Last Challenge was:

You hear your mom’s (or your dad’s) words come out of your mouth for the first time.

 

Admit it, you know it has happened to you, and it probably made you cringe the first time it did. You’re there, more than likely reprimanding your children for some misdemeanor, and out of your mouth comes…your mother’s voice. You freeze, close your eyes and scrunch up your face. Did I really just say that? I SWORE I would never say that! Good Lord, I’m turning into my mother.

The realization shocks you. Shakes you. Rocks you. You think, how can this be happening? But there it is, still hanging in the air, the dreaded words you swore you would never use with your children.

“Because I said so!”

You hated those words. They weren’t an explanation. They were irrational, a cop out, a bullying tactic. They made no sense and you were never going to utter them. But you just did, perfectly parroted, tone and cadence dead on; and you clench your back teeth as if someone just scratched their fingernails down the blackboard.

At this point your children are looking at you as if you have lost your mind, because they have no clue the inner turmoil you are attempting to wade through.

 

Ten minutes are up, but somehow, I think each of you can relate to what I wrote. If it hasn’t happened to you quite yet, don’t worry it will, and when it does, it will rock your world. LOL.

 

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.