August 1st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. Looks like we are in for a cool, rainy, dreary day today. It’s been a while since it was like that for the entire day. Perfect weather for me to buckle down and edit, which I guess is good, because I’m really not in the mood to write. Pushing to get finished by a deadline takes a lot out of you.

People just don’t get it. They think because I don’t have an office job, where I get a weekly paycheck, they think I don’t work. Writing a novel is a lot of work. At times, it’s exhausting work. You have the initial story with all the emotional ups and downs of the characters and plots, and whatever research the book requires; then you have editing, publishing, and finally marketing, which is a multi-faceted, never ending necessity. Plus, because I am home, I have to do all the other stuff to keep the house running with little help. Maybe if my books start selling a little better, everyone around me would realize I’m not home playing Candy Crush Saga all day long. It’s frustrating.

OK, I’m done complaining. I feel much better. Thank you for letting me get that out.  

Did you do yesterday’s challenge? What did you see? Was it comical? Unbelievable? Or was it simply amazing?

Whatever it was, even if you only think about your replies in your head and never get them down on paper, I hope you are having fun with these challenges. Tell you what, obviously you are still not comfortable posting your actual challenge answers, what if you just let me know if you like a particular challenge? Post a sentence or two telling me what the prompt made you think about or that you hated it or loved it because… This way at least, I’ll get a better feel of what you all like and I’ll try to give you more of those types of challenges.

  

Your Last Challenge was:

Did I really just see that?

You look. You blink. You frown and scratch your head. “Did I really just see that?” you think to yourself. The human brain is an amazing tool, however, is it really registering what your eyes are seeing, or is it only processing what it thinks it should be seeing? Magicians and Conmen have learned to exploit these eye-brain miscommunications for centuries. Do you really think that elephant just disappeared into thin air?

Your brain knows what the logical answer is and supplies it, even if it isn’t what you actually just think you saw. Don’t believe me? Read this sign out loud.

 

What did it say? Are you sure? Read it again. Are you 100% sure? Read each line separately and slowly out loud. Did you find what I’m talking about?

So the next time you see something unbelievable or amazing, ask yourself, Did I really just see that?

 

Sorry, really short, but the sign took a big chunk of my 10 minute window. Believe it or not, there was actually a show on TV last night about this very same subject (which is where I got the sign idea from). I really guess I was meant to give you this challenge yesterday.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Write a story containing the following three words: Kitten, Curtains, Cupcake

 

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.

May 21st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. Hope all of you had a wonderful day yesterday even though it was a Monday. Mine was … interesting. I spent some time in the morning with a friend who has been having a rough time, but has now started a new business which she is very excited about. It’s good to see her happy.

In the afternoon, I took another friend to pick up a table she found that she liked, but had no way to get home. My van was perfect for the REALLY big, heavy box. We were a bit of a comedy routine getting the box out of my van and up onto a cart to wheel it into her place, but after some grunting, huffing and puffing, near oopses and a lot of giggle, we did manage.

As like many of you, I am “connected” through many different social media outlets, one of which is LinkedIn. Through LinkedIn, I have connected with many authors, editors, publicists, etc. It is great. You need an answer to something, you put your question out there and someone is bound to know the answer or at least some answer to help you. For once, I was able to help instead of needing the help (even though I didn’t know it). I just reacted to a situation. One of the authors I have connected with posted a question. She asked if anyone knew how to get a review unpublished, not because it was a bad review, which it was, but because it told the whole story, even the twist ending. I told her to contact the site and tell them what happened, but then I went on the site to see how bad the damage really was; that’s when I got angry and replied directly to the person who wrote the review. I told her she had every right not to like the book, every right to post her opinion in the form of a bad review, honest reviews were important, but she had no right to give away a story’s ending and spoil the book for other readers. Just because she did not like it did not mean others wouldn’t love the book. It was irresponsible, uncalled for and just plain cruel.

I received and email from the book’s author late last night. She had contacted the site, but they refused to do anything about the spoiler review. Then she told me the person who wrote the review pulled it herself after the comment I had left. It’s nice to know I was able to help.

As I said, my day was interesting.

Yesterday’s challenge was:

 

If I had only known…

 

If I had only known… How many times have I uttered those words? Too many to count, I can assure you; but then I have to think, if I had known, would it have made a difference in the choices I made. If I had only known XYZ company would have made it so big, would I have invested? Honestly, probably not, because knowing and actually having the funds to invest would have been the same. If I had known my friend was going to die when he was so young, would I have done something different? Perhaps, but could I have really changed the circumstances of his death, or would I have simply been walking around on egg shells until the inevitable happened? No, I couldn’t have changed anything and by not knowing I treated him the same right until the end. I am thankful though my last words to him were, “I love you, but go home.” which were uttered around two in the morning - he had just returned from a trip to Hawaii and was not back on East Coast time yet. If I had known I could really be a writer, would I have started writing sooner? Maybe, but I think the experiences I have gone through in life is what has brought dimension to my characters which would not have been there if things had not unfolded exactly as they had.

If I had only known… It is hard not to say those words, but I think I am better off because I had not known.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Did you see that?

 

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.