July 19th

Hi it’s Christina –

not my kitchen, but close

Good Morning! I woke up at five today so I would time to get a little writing done before I needed to get ready and leave for my book signing, but then I went into the kitchen to make coffee, and realized I forgot to do the dishes last night. Then of course the sink was messy, so I had to scrub that. Oh yeah, I promised Lys I would soak the top to her water bottle in bleach to clean it – hmm, I should do that to the travel mug lids while I’m at it…

I finally drag myself out of my distracting kitchen, and sit down at my computer, but I’m munching on a cinnamon roll, so I can’t exactly write. So I go take a look at Facebook. My first stop, every day, is the birthday reminders. I try very hard to wish everyone a HBD on their birthday, and I feel bad when I miss. (I know, I’m a kook, but you already know that.)

Then I noticed my cousin posted a photo with “Happy Birthday in Heaven” written as the comment. That made me want to share a song I had saved down to my timeline. After half an hour of hunting, one posted plea for “does anyone know an easier way to do this”, and one failed brainstorm of – Ooo, I sent this to Lisa, so the link should be in one of my messages to her (it wasn’t), over an our was wasted.

Then a back and forth chat with Ron Shaw about doing an interview on his

radio show, sucked up the rest of my expendable time, so this will be just a blog post today, without a challenge. I’m not complaining, it was all good. The chat, not the hunting for the link – I’m still a bit steamed over that. It was a youtube video of a girl singing a song about a friend going to Heaven. The song was amazing and comforting. The girl’s voice was phenomenal. I can’t remember the name of the song or the girl, so I can’t go hunting for it on youtube.

There needs to be a better way to find things on your timeline. I don’t understand why Facebook doesn’t do something as simple as have an “only me” folder, so when you share something with an “only me” status, it dumps it in there. I don’t know how many recipes and “home remedies” I have shared via “only me”, but when I go hunting for a new idea for dinner, or can’t remember if it’s vinegar or baking soda what gets out a grape juice stain, I can never find the post. If they automatically went to an “only me” folder, I’d know exactly where to look. Y’all know what a technological ditz I am, but seriously folks, this seems like a no-brainer, don’t you think?

So the reason for the back and forth between Ron and me, is his radio show is LIVE. I’m not sure I can be entertaining for an entire hour. Yup, you read that correctly, an HOUR long interview. I made Ron a deal. I said we chat on the phone FIRST. If, after our conversation, he still feels he wants me to do his show, then I will. If not, no hard feelings.

He agreed, but said he has read my blog, so he knows I’d be fine. Yeah, my blog, written word, where I can backspace and delete where needed. Ya can’t exactly do that on LIVE radio.

Oh yeah, did I mention, each segment is archived and can be accessed at any time via the radio’s website? So when I stick my size nine foot in my mouth, which I’m sure I will, it will be out there for all eternity. My only hope is for a bleep delay – I’ve been known to let a “D*mn” or “H*]]” or “S&*T”, among other things, slip from time to time in conversation.

I’ll keep you updated as to when and if I’ll be doing the interview. Okay, it’s time for me to hop in the shower. Wish me luck at the book signing. It’s cloudy right now, so I am hoping the weather holds out (the signing is outside). I hope you have an exceptional day, and happy writing!

March 21st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Somehow I have managed to anger the Facebook gods again, because my “people who have seen this post” has dropped from the high two-hundred / low three-hundred range to the under one hundred range. I know it’s just a ploy to try to get me to pay to boost my page, and I will not get into how unscrupulous I believe that practice to be because you’ve heard me rant before, but it still fries my cookies! It just seems a little too coincidental they always manage to do this to me when I have something I really want my readers to see – the release of a new book, an event, a sale, a raffle, whatever. Okay, I’m done.

I’m happy to report, yesterday was very productive, even with a mid-day distraction. If the next several days can be as productive, I just might be able to clear my plate by the 30^th as planned. Wouldn’t that be lovely?

Okay, since I want to stay on track, I’m going to get right into things today. I hope y’all have a fantastic Friday, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Cloud watching…

I’ve cloud watched for as long as I can remember, even if I cannot remember who got me started. It’s enjoyable. It’s relaxing. It’s free entertainment. Most importantly though, it is a spark to the imagination.

I have no idea how many bunnies or fish or dogs in the sky I have seen over my lifetime. All were fun, I’m sure, at the time, but they hardly kept a prominent place in my memory. There have, however, been a few cloud images which I think I’ll remember for the rest of my life.

When I was ten years old, I was lying on the grass trying to teach my four year old cousin the art of cloud watching, when a giant shark cloud ate a ship cloud. The coolest part was my cousin saw it happen as well. Then, when I was fifteen or sixteen, one mild fall evening, some friends of mine and I were lying on a hill looking up at the moon and chatting. Slowly the clouds started rolling in, and one of those moisture rings began to form a glowing circle around the moon. Within minutes the clouds started to form shapes. It still makes me shiver remembering the moon completely encircled with skulls.

The best cloud story to date happened just the other night. I brought the dog out one last time before I was headed to bed. The moon was full and the clouds were wispy. Then the most amazing thing happened. One cloud took on the form of a child’s face, and another took on the form of his arms and hands – fingers and all. There was an actual look of wonder on the child’s face, and the arms were outstretched the hands cupped. (Picture hands accepting Communion.) Between the child’s face and his cupped hands was the full moon.

This actually happened the other night. I was so mesmerized; I stood outside until the clouds had completely dissipated. Then I rushed in to tell my husband what I saw. At one point, the details were so crisp, it looked like a painting. As I said, you could see the wonder in the child’s face. His hands, you could see each finger distinctly, and then they cupped and his arms stretched out as if he was trying to capture the moon in his hands. It was so unexpected and so beautiful, it really moved me. I doubt I will ever forget the image.

Your Next Challenge is:

The tunnel stretched on and on…

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.

Reach 1,000

Remember how a few weeks before Christmas I was trying to get my author's page to 500 likes? Well, all you folks rallied and I was able to hit my goal. Since then, I have participated in a phenomenal marketing event and I now I'm just 10 away from hitting a thousand! If you or someone you sent to my site happen to be #1,000, please let me know...I just may have a little something for you...
http://www.facebook.com/christina.paul.author

January 3rd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Snowstorm Hercules dumped a little over 6” of snow on us last night, so it really wasn’t as fearsome as the name. However, the storm also brought bitter cold (it’s colder than a witch’s who-ha) and a wicked wind, so it is rather miserable out there at the moment. They canceled school last night already, and even my husband’s company has a delayed opening, which is pretty much unheard of.

The marketing event, which ends Sunday, has brought me up to the 800 mark on Facebook, which is grand; but the best part is I have now become friends with a number of different authors, many of who are from overseas. It is an eclectic group and I am thoroughly enjoying chatting with them.

Yesterday’s Costco run ended with us unloading our bounty at the church. We had finished getting everything put away and, because Lys is leaving early Sunday morning so we’ll be missing church, we went over to the pastor’s office so she could say goodbye. We were just about to go into the building when we heard a cry. We turn around to watch my mother hit the ground. Her shoe had gotten caught between where the parking lot meets the walkway. THANK GOD she was ok, but I’ll tell you, I think it scared about three years off of my life. She’s bruised and a bit sore, but nothing’s broken. Having a young mom has its benefits. If she took this same tumble when she was in her seventies as opposed to being in her sixties, the results would have been much different.

So how are you doing on your New Year’s resolutions? I’ll admit I was too tired last night to clean the kitchen before I went to bed, and I didn’t start a load of laundry yet this morning, but, in my defense, the clothes I wanted to wash are in my bedroom and I didn’t want to wake my husband. I’ll get everything back on track after he leaves for the day, so I should be good from there.

Time to get this party rolling. I hope you have a sensational day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Since it is the first day of the new year, I thought a good challenge would be – A new beginning…

A new day has dawned and a new year is upon us; a clean slate, a new beginning. The time for reflection has passed, and the time to look toward our future has come. What has the departed year taught you? What changes will you make in this new year? What mountain will you climb? Which golden ring will you grasp?

The possibilities are only limited by you own imagination. Take a chance. Reach for the moon, and who knows, you may just grasp some stars. Vow to live today as if it were your last, and squeeze every ounce of joy out of each second. Smile at strangers as well as friends. Say “I love you” often and really mean it. Spread good will and charity. Forgive even if you can’t forget. Try something new; perfect something old. Share your talent and your passion. Live. For a new day has dawned and a new year is upon us; a clean slate, a new beginning. Make it count.

Your Next Challenge is:

Write a story containing the following three words: Prunes, Grandmother, Missing

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 20th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! So the cookie exchange last night was a total bust. For the few folks who came, we divvied up the cookies, handed out the recipe cards, I sent them home with the grab bag gift they showed up with, and we never even bothered with the game. We just sat around the kitchen table for an hour and chatted.

They did get to sample the cookies, and I made a batch of homemade Irish cream. It was a bit of a heavy pour, so I’ll have to cut it when I make the next batch and combine the two. If anyone is interested in learning how to make your own homemade Irish cream, send me a message and I’ll send you the recipe.

Yesterday was a banner day. I hit my goal of 500 “likes” on my Facebook author’s page. Wooo Hooo! Then I surprised the 500^th person with a copy of A Second Chance. One of the other fans of my page made a real push with her friends to try to get me to my goal, and I sent her a book as well. I had every intention of doing this from the start, but I didn’t want to say anything just in case I couldn’t figure out who was number 500.

December 22^nd through the 24^th I am offering the Kindle version of Taking Chances for FREE. So if you need a last minute stocking stuffer, here’s your chance…you can’t beat the price…. Just go on Amazon.com to download.

 

Now that I have hit my goal on Facebook – THANK YOU ALL VERY MUCH – I need to figure out how to do the same on Tumblr. I currently have 2 followers on Tumblr. So if you have a Tumblr account, please look me up.

Twitter, on the other hand, is a whole different beast. ¾ of the folks who follow me on Twitter do not follow me on Facebook, which is confusing to me. But then again, for some reason Twitter confuses me in general. I still haven’t figured out how to properly use a hash-tag. I wish one of you would give me Twitter 101. #ineedhelp – Was that right??

Today I am locking myself in the basement. I need to find those Monty books I purchased for my great niece and for my cousin’s daughter, and I need to start wrapping. UGH! My LEAST favorite part of this holiday. First I have to drive Dani Rose to school. She has a bunch of gifts for her friends, and there is no way she’d be able to navigate on the bus with them. Why do I have a strange feeling I’ll be getting a text around two asking if I would pick her up from school as well? Hmmmm…

I hope you have a great day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

In the heart of every human is their desire to leave their mark upon this world; a piece of them to be remembered once they are no longer here. What mark have you left or would you like to leave?

This prompt really made me think. Some of you might have thought my answer to this challenge would have been an obvious choice, but after much contemplation, it really wasn’t.

As an author, I could say my legacy is the books I write, but I don’t feel that way. Sure I write stories which give my readers a momentary escape and some enjoyment, but they are not really a measurable “mark” on the world, even though they will still exist long after I am gone.

The true mark I have left are my children and their ability to make the world a better place – by being the COO of a company; by being the one who helps to stop a serial killer; or the one who, with the aid of her canine partner, saves someone. Yes, my real “mark” upon this world was bringing three gifted, talented, amazing children into it.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

You are sent back to earth as one of the seven deadly sins in human form. You can pick whichever sin you would like, but you must describe yourself without actually saying which sin you are – let us try and figure it out.

 

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 23rd

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Good Morning!

Lord it’s cold up here, but then again, I think it’s pretty cold at home right now as well. It’s crazy, yesterday we supposedly had a high of fifty-eight (I wasn’t home so I don’t know if we actually hit it), and tomorrow’s high is only supposed to be eighteen. Seriously, a forty degree swing in two days? UGH. I’m not a fan of the cold, if you haven’t guessed already.

I didn’t have the greatest weather driving up here. The further north I drove, the rained harder, and the temperature kept dropping. I was really worried I would be driving in snow by the time I got to Vermont, but other than a little bit of sleet mixed in with the rain for a few miles, I was okay.  Today they are predicting snow showers, but hopefully we’ll be able to get out ahead of them.

After my daughter’s last class, she came back to her room with one of her friends and they asked me if I could bring her friend Sammi to the bus. Sammi had called the cab company, and they told her the first available cab wasn’t until six and her bus was leaving at four-thirty. So we pile Sammi and her luggage into the car, and off we go on the two mile trip to where the bus was picking her up. Half an hour later…. I don’t know if any of you have ever tried driving around Burlington, but let me tell you, it crazy on a good day. If you try doing it on say, a day when both Champlain and UVM’s students are going home for a holiday, then throw in the just about rush hour time, it’s dang near impossible.

So we got Sammi to the bus in the nick of time, but then I was not going to attempt getting back to the school through the chaos, so I suggest to my daughter an early dinner. We took one detour to poke around in a store we had never heard of, and sorry, I can’t remember the name right now to tell you. It turned out to be a smaller version of a Michael’s or AC Moore (craft store). I picked up a few Christmas ornaments, and my daughter got stuff to make gifts for her sister and two of her cousins.

Then we went to UNO for dinner. We weren’t actual early-birders, but we did get there early, and I’m so glad we did. When we left the restaurant forty-five minutes later, the line to get in was out the door. We came back to the dorm. Rhea, my daughter’s roommate, and her parents also came back early. We had a nice visit. They left, the girls went to hang out in the common room and I went to sleep on the bean bag couch. It was a very quiet and uneventful evening, which was perfectly fine with me.

Now I’m downstairs in the common room waiting for my daughter to wake up so we can leave. If she’s not up in the next half hour, I may very well give her a little nudge. We need to make one pit stop on our way home. One of my daughter’s housemates forgot her wallet at school, and since Route 87, the road we travel on, is literally two miles from their house, they are meeting us along the route to retrieve their wallet.

This means two of my daughter’s housemates – both named Samantha ironically – live along our route home. I have a van. That van has plenty of room to take three girls and their luggage. It makes absolutely no sense for them to either have their parents drive all the way up to the college or pay for bus fare to get their girls home, and I said as much. If they wanted to chip in the $7 for their round trip ferry ticket, then great, but it would be silly for me not to pick up and drop off these girls along the way. There’s a Panera Bread close to both of their homes that can serve as our meeting point. It makes sense no?

This, to me, is logical. What doesn’t make sense to me is how this whole social media Hydra works. Take yesterday’s blog post. It was just my normal, run of the mill, post. I didn’t think there was anything overly special about it, yet the post was retweeted several times and I got eight new followers on Twitter. Mind you, Facebook tells me only thirty-seven people saw my post. Posts I really think would interest you, like the CMA one, don’t seem to reach a lot of people. Yet silly posts, like the little blurb I gave you about dancing in the rain this summer, reached five hundred people. I’m so confused!

Oh beans! I just saw a snowflake. It’s going to take me a few minutes to get this posted on all three sites, so I’d better boogie.

I hope you have a wonderfully warm day, and happy writing!

September 24th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

 

I give up trying to figure out Facebook. I noticed a trend where if my posts contained links, then FB would not circulate the post and the amount of “people who saw this post” would drop by as much as 90%, so I stopped putting in links. On the other hand, posts with photos had a tendency of increasing my “people who saw this post”, so I try to include a picture. Yesterday’s post had a photo and no links, so you would think I’d at least hit my average, right? NOPE, down about 65%. THERE IS NO RHYME OR REASON.

 

I am convinced FB is doing this for two reasons: 1) to drive us completely insane; and 2) to get us to pay to boost the posts. They have succeeded with their number one objective, but I will hold firm on the second one. You offer a service for free with the option of paying for a better service – FINE. I have no problem with that; many companies do the same thing. HOWEVER, don’t sabotage the “free” service in an attempt to get people to purchase the upgraded service. Not only is it unethical, they are shooting themselves in the foot. What are you willing to pay more for, something that works great and you get good results with, or something you are getting spotty results with? Their “free” should be their hook to get folks to want more of their incredible product. Isn’t that Marketing 101? The customers who to choose the upgraded service will pay for the people who only elect to use the free service, and if you think about it, the “free” service requires very little actual manpower. This is a virtual business after all.

 

OK, I’m done ranting over something I have no control over. From now on, I am going to make a conscious effort to ignore the “people who saw this post”, well, at least I will try not to let it bother me.

 

I have my writers’ workshop tonight, which means I won’t be home for dinner. It also means I have to have something ready for my husband and daughter to eat while I’m not home. This is an ongoing Tuesday night challenge, because I don’t want them to have to eat the same thing every Tuesday night. For tonight, I decided to do pulled pork in the crock pot. I usually just throw the pork in with a can of beer, let it bubble away for several hours. Then, about an hour before I want to serve it, I take it out, pull it apart, drain most of the cooking juice, add some BBQ sauce, then toss the meat back in to cook for the last hour. The last time I made it, I added some apple cider vinegar and reduced the amount of BBQ sauce considerably, and it was the best pulled pork ever.

 

So, do you have a pulled pork recipe you think is great? Want to share? If you have any other recipes to help me with my Tuesday dilemma, I am open to suggestions! I hope you have a fabulous day, and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

        It’s moving day…

 

Good God in Heaven, how much stuff can one family have? Twenty-seven boxes, and that was just the kitchen! Can someone explain to me why anyone would need three garlic presses? Well, at least that’s what I think they were. Not that I ever used them. Four boxes were cookbooks alone. The entire culinary academy couldn’t make all those recipes.

Three bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room, a kitchen, a family room, a garage and a basement – at the rate we’re going, we are going to need a second truck. Oh brother, I forgot about the sheds. Yes I said sheds; not one but two. The new plot of land is the size of a sneeze, why do we need to bring the John Deere? Who cares if it was a gift from your beloved dead uncle…SELL IT!

Do we really need to bring the electric fireplace (which hasn’t worked for years) with us? The new house has a real fireplace; not that a fireplace in Florida makes a whole lot of sense, but we have one none the less. Broken small appliances, zillions of computer parts, scraps of wood – we have a dumpster, use it! Dear Lord, can someone please tell me where I packed the wine?

 

This will more than likely be me if we ever move. J

 

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Describe something edible without saying what it is - let us try to guess.

 

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 21st

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Well Saturday has arrived and so has my book signing. I have everything packed up and ready to get loaded into the car. I’m glad I didn’t start to load the rental car yesterday, because the car dealer called around 4:pm to tell me the van was done. You have 24 hours to return a rental car after they call you, so since I was going to be busy all day today, I had to drive back to the dealer last night, during rush hour traffic to return the rental. It wasn’t fun, and I was actually looking forward to driving the Prius around for a few days. My family teases me, but I love the Prius.

I will have two helpers with me today, my daughter and one of her friends. This way if I need to get away for a few minutes, I can, and they will be there to say I’ll be right back. It is going to be a long day. We are leaving here at 9:00 and probably won’t be home until around 6:00. The actual book signing is only two hours, but the rest of the time is a meet and greet. I’m sure if some folks who come early and can’t stay for the official “signing time”, I’ll be allowed to sign their books for them. I am not anticipating any big rush of people, so it shouldn’t be an issue. Now if were Nora Roberts or Stephen King having the signing, it would be a different story; but I’m not quite there…yet.

I would normally say, “From my post yesterday you could tell I was annoyed”, but I seriously doubt you even say yesterday’s Facebook post or my grumbling about no one seeing my Facebook post. The issue is Facebook has stopped circulating posts which contain links. Why is beyond my comprehension, unless of course, money is the culprit. If you post a link, it must be important, therefore they won’t circulate it like they do any other postings, but you can pay $30 to have it boosted. A link free posting is seen by around 125 people on an average day but the views have climbed to over 300. If I include a link the numbers drop to 25 – 30 views.

This being said, my daily blog and the copy of the blog I put on Facebook are going to start looking different. For FB, links will be written out in words with spaces between each word. For my FB readers you will have a few choices. You can either take the written out link, squish all the word together and type them in the bar yourself; or go to my blog and click on the link; or simply just start reading from my blog and ignore FB.

Yesterday’s link was to www (dot) The Fussy Librarian (dot) com. The site and the concept are really cool and I didn’t want you to miss out because Facebook has their panties in a twist. This is really going to stink though when I do my book reviews, because I like having the link to the book right there for you. Whatever, the actual link will be on my blog (now that I’ve figured out how to do it).

OK, I need to get a cup of coffee in me, load up the van, shower, dress, do hair and make-up, so it is time to get this dog and pony show moving. I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

September 20th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 
 

Happy Friday Y’all! I’m getting an early start today because I need to leave soon to take my van into the shop. The second sliding door failed and they need to replace it. I knew it would. After what happened the last time, I begged them to fix both doors at the same time, but they wouldn’t. I even wrote a letter to the CEO of Toyota, but they wouldn’t listen, and sure enough, the door crapped out while I had a van load of kids in it. Thankfully, with a really hard thump from my oversized rump, I was able to get the door closed to get back safely from the shore.

 

Let me tell you, if I couldn’t have gotten it closed, I would have been on the phone with the dealer demanding they come down to Sandy Hook and pick us up. And knowing the dealer, they would have. They are such nice folks at Crystal, and I know they would have fixed the door the last time I was there, but corporate wouldn’t allow them to do it. Big corporations can be so shortsighted sometimes. What if that door failed while I was driving and something happened to one of those kids, especially after I warned them, in writing, that was what I was afraid would happen?

 

I’m not going to get riled up. The kids were fine and the door is being fixed. That’s all that really matters.

 

Technology is confusing me again, but in a good way this time. Every day I open my email and see I have several more followers on Twitter. I’m averaging five new follows every day. This is wonderful, and I am not complaining in the least, but I would love to know what has caused this spike in interest so I can keep doing whatever it is I’m doing. I have asked the question before when I jumped from thirty followers to a hundred followers in two weeks, but no one answered me. However, my Facebook author’s page has been hovering around three-fifty “likes” for months now and I can’t seem to manage to get to the five-hundred level. The tweets are directly linked to my Facebook feed. I have made less than ten direct tweets. Very few of my Twitter followers are also followers on Facebook and visa-versa. Can you see why I’m confused? How can I be doing the EXACT same thing in two different places and be getting dramatically different results?

 

Speaking of Twitter, I came across a site through a Twitter connection, and although I cannot participate as a sponsored author because I do not have enough reviews yet, I thought it was interesting and you might want to check it out and participate as a reader. The concept is really cool. You tell them exactly what kind of books you enjoy, ie: Romance, Thriller, Mystery and they notify you when a good book (3.5 star review rating or better) comes out. BUT WAIT, it gets better. You only like Historical and Paranormal Romances with a little sex, but nothing too graphic; the Thrillers you like have to be FBI ones and the Mysteries need to be the old fashioned London ones, neither of which can have excessive violence, then that is what they are going to tell you about. They tailor your requests into that level of specificity. See, I said it was really a cool idea. Check out the site if you get a chance.

 http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/

 

After I pick up my car, I need to pick up a few last things for my book signing this weekend – like candy for the jar. Remember, both Saturday and Sunday I will be at Canterbury Tales Forever in Peddler’s Village. If you’re in the area, please stop by to say “hi”. I’d love to see/meet you!

 

Tomorrow and Sunday may be a little hectic, so I probably won’t be able to get any challenges out there for you; which means, you very well may have until Monday to think about today’s challenge. I will try to get photos and updates of the event posted. I’ll just have to get up earlier. It’s ok, you’re worth it! I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story containing the following three words: Queen, Computer & Assignment

 

I joined a writing group which meets every other week and the person who is running it is a middle school English teacher, and I guess you can’t take the teacher out of the classroom. He actually gives us homework assignments! Thankfully, for the first time ever, I don’t mind doing homework.

 

Over the weeks the assignments have been quite creative. One week we needed to rewrite or summarize a story (book, movie, heck someone even did a song) without using the character’s names or mentioning the name of the story. It was fun reading what the others in the group wrote and trying to guess what story they were retelling.

 

Anyway, this week’s assignment was to choose a historical figure, and tell a story completely different and unexpected than how the history books have portrayed this figure. As an example we were given General George Patton, renowned military genius, known for his quick thinking in difficult situation, actually needed to consult with is astrologer before making a single move.

 

For the assignment, I chose the Queen of England, the epitome of grace and good manners. I had many ideas swirling in my head, like she was the reigning beer pong champion in disguise and paid off the producers of “Girls Gone Wild” not to air a certain video, but when I got to my computer, opened up the page and had my fingers hovering over the keys, I drew a complete blank. The previous brilliant and hysterical ideas I had tickled the far reaches of my brain and would not come to the forefront. For an hour I sat there and stared at a white screen.

 

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.

Day 3 Challenge - April 20, 2013

Happy Saturday Morning! It’s Christina.

I think I have temporarily figured out a way around the technological problem. Until I can get this blog running the way it should, I am also posting the challenge questions on my Facebook page. It’s not ideal, but it’s a bandage. I can’t wait to get the bugs out though because I’m excited to see what y’all have written.

So how did you do with yesterday’s challenge?

I am from another world and unfortunately I cannot see color. Please describe RED, BLUE and YELLOW to me.

Here’s my reply:

A world without color, how sad

I could not even imagine, but I shall try my hand

Red is a rage you feel

Red is the heat of the sun to help you heal

Red is a warm towel from the dryer

Red is the anguish at a funeral pyre

Blue is the snowflakes on your tongue you catch

Blue is a high soaring bird you cannot reach

Blue is cool water on a hot summer day

Blue is the sorrow you feel when a loved one goes away

Yellow is comfortable, serene and calm

Yellow can be a healing balm

Yellow is meadow flowers dancing in the wind

Yellow is a memory you pull from within

Colors can hold more meaning than just sight, it’s true

Because you cannot experience them, I truly feel sorry for you.

Where the heck did a poem come from? Not usually my area, but there it be. So onto the day 3 challenge.

 

You wake up one morning to find you have turned into a (insert animal here).

 

Same rules - 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.