February 18th, 2015 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning… barely. I’ve been thanking, tweeting and retweeting since five this morning, and I’m done for the day (except for the tweet about the blog). If I don’t watch, this could turn into a full time job.

I will be spending today (and probably tomorrow) rereading Faerie Tale Queen, so I can get myself back into the story so I can finish the last few chapters. It is so close to being done, and it’s driving my absolutely nuts that I keep getting pulled away from it. This story should have been finished MONTHS ago at this point.

I am not going to say anything more about the completion date until it’s ready to be released. I can’t do that to myself or to you again. Originally it was supposed to be out last summer, then before Christmas. Now it’s February and it’s still not done. I feel like such a slacker – but I’ve been busy, honest.

On that note, I am going to cut this short and get right to it while the house is quiet. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

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.

January 3rd, 2015 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Two days in a row, I know, but don’t get used to it. I will try to post a little something often, but it won’t be like before. I need to become greedy with my time if I plan on finishing the two books I have started, and one more contemporary, plus at least another short for Annie Acorn Publishing, before the end of the year.

I have to submit my short story for the 2016 edition of Spirited Tales (as soon as the 2015 edition of Spirited Tales is available, I’ll let you know), plus a possible submission for either the 2016 Valentine’s anthology or a 2016 Romance anthology – we’re still tossing around possibilities. I have a story idea, but I don’t know if it will end up being a short story, a novelette, a novella, or an actual novel. Annie said to just write it, and we’ll worry about how to package it later. Love her! She took that stressor and blew it out of the picture. Now I’ll just be able to write the story until it’s finished, hand it over to her, and let her work her brand of magic. I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop as things become more concrete.

Although it’s three months away, I’m fairly certain I will be participating in April’s Camp NaNoWriMo, so that, and possibly July’s Camp, will produce the next contemporary – which I think will be Taming Tate, unless some other characters start yelling louder between now and then. I need to finish and publish FTQ before April or I will not be eligible for the Princeton Author’s Day this year, and since I had originally planned for it to be out before Christmas, but life got in the way; it is now my top priority.

I will need to take at least day away from writing in order to get all my financials together for taxes. I do this all the time. I start the year off well, recording all my income, expenses, mileage, etc., then I get busy and the “office work” gets shoved to the back burner, and come January, I end up having to reconstruct ¾ of a year’s worth of financials. Then I curse myself for not keeping up with it because I can’t find all my receipts or the slip of paper where I wrote down my miles for my trip out to Bumblesquatch; and then I swear next year will be better, but I only seem to get better by a week or two. At the rate I’m going, I’ll be in my nineties before I have a system down. Pathetic? Lazy? Procrastination? Old timers setting in? Disorganization? Take your pick, any explanation would fit.

Okay, as I said, Faerie Tale Queen is my top priority, and since it is still ridiculously early on a Saturday morning, my house should be quiet for a minimum of two more hours, so I should get to work. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

It’s time to pack away the holiday decorations…

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.

November 9th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! It is going to be another gorgeous day again today, and a few degrees warmer than yesterday. It isn’t much, but I’ll take ever degree I can get. Come 4:00 yesterday, when the sun set behind the buildings, it got dang cold. You would think with two pairs of wool socks and boots on, I would have been fine, but nope. Standing on that slate walkway all day, the cold just seeped in through all the layers. The long johns and my jacket kept the rest of me fairly warm, and sitting on a blanket definitely helped, but I need to figure out something better feet-wise. The cold actually made my feet ache, and it took almost an hour, rubbing my feet on my heated mattress pad, to get the pain to stop. I’m old, I admit it.

It was another great day at Canterbury Tales Forever Book Shoppe in Peddler’s Village. I met a ton of wonderful people, and sold quite a few books. One woman, Murielle (I hope I spelled that correctly), was originally from Belgium, then lived in Canada for several years, and now resides in Pennsylvania. The two of us chatted for quite a while. She too is an author, but her books are only on e-book at the moment, so we discussed her getting her books out in hard copy.

Another woman, Diane, was there with her granddaughter Ella. We actually took a photo together, and if she sends the email with the picture to me before I post this blog, I will include it. I met Sheri, a musician, and Donna who is visiting Peddler’s Village with a bunch of her girlfriends. Donna and friends will be there again today, so I hope they will stop by to say “hi” again before they have to leave.

Actually, I hope a lot of people stop by to say “hi”, because I think I may be the only author there today. I’ve done signings alone before, but they are much more fun when I have other author’s with me. It makes the day go quicker when you have someone to chat with during the slow times.

I also met some lovely ladies from Mary Kay, and a gentleman, Anthony, who is a web designer. I got to love on a gorgeous Husky, a Lab, and a standard Poodle who was a major mush. It’s so funny, I come home from these book signings and Colby is none too pleased with me when he smells all the other dogs who have garnered my attention while I was away from him. He’s so jealous. LOL.

He also didn’t take too kindly to me refilling my doggie treat bucket this morning from his stash of Milk Bones. I bought this huge case of Milk Bones, and honestly, Colby doesn’t love them. So instead of letting them go to waste, I bring them to the book signings for all my four legged visitors. My stash was running low, so I refilled the container this morning. Mr. Jealous had his nose in the box while I was filling the container, so I gave him one. He took it, brought it into the living room and then came back for seconds, the piggy. I didn’t give him a second one because I didn’t think he would even eat the first one, but when he saw me put the filled container out in the garage, he rushed into the living room and started chomping on the Milk Bone I gave him. Crazy dog!

So many people asked about Faerie Tale Queen. One woman even told me to “get my butt in gear, and finish it”. LOL. I’ve said it before, the cover for Faerie Tale Queen is my favorite, and I guess others like it too, because everyone asks about it. Corporate Blues, the one where my friend Linda Rawlin’s daughter was the model, runs a close second.

I did get a few surprises yesterday, and at this point I should be getting used to it, but I’m not, and not sure I ever will. It still surprises me when people tell me they recognize my books, have them already downloaded on their Kindle (one woman showed me because SHE wanted to prove it), say they saw them in an e-mail from Amazon or as a suggested read.

While one woman was reading the “Note to my readers” in Corporate Blues, I was greeting other passersby, when one said, “I am very familiar with your work. When are the next books due out?” I assured her soon, and joke I can’t write them as quickly as y’all read them. Then the woman who was reading Corporate Blues hands the book back to me and asks if that happened often. I admitted it’s been happening more and more, and that it surprises me every time. The passerby didn’t know it, but I think her comment made a sale. The woman went in and purchased a copy of Corporate Blues for her daughter.

I had one uncomfortable surprise as well. A middle school teacher recognized one of my books as well. It seems a bunch of books were purchased for the advanced readers at her school, and A Second Chance – with the old cover – was one of the books purchased. I was mortified. A Second Chance is NOT appropriate for twelve and thirteen year olds. With the new cover, I doubt there is any chance in this happening again, but O-M-G! I PRAY someone screened the book before they allowed the kids to read it. Good grief! I’d be quite content to never have that type of surprise again.

The signing doesn’t start until eleven today, so I still have a bit of time. I am going to use that time to throw something together for dinner, because I know, after day two in the cold, I am not going to want to make anything when I get home.

So, on that note, I hope you have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

You find a bracelet, obviously made by a child, on the sidewalk. What is the story behind the bracelet, or what happens after you find it?

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.

October 14th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Sorry there was no post yesterday, I wasn’t feeling well. I don’t know about you, but allergies this year seem a whole lot stronger than usual. My sinuses are working overtime, and the headache from them is making my eyes cross.

A friend of mine has offered me a unique opportunity. A publisher friend of his is putting together a compilation of short stories and such for Halloween, and he asked me to be one of the ten authors. The submission needs to be between 4,500 – 7,000 words.

I have said time and again, I cannot write a short story. I’m all about the building of the characters and the details, so this is going to be a real challenge for me. I have no idea what I’m going to write. I could go ghost, or witch, or séance, or Jersey Devil for that matter. I could even do a cute love story where the characters meet at a Halloween party. I just don’t know.

What I really should be doing is finishing Faerie Tale Queen, but I guess with being so busy lately, compounded with not feeling well, I just can’t get back into the story. This happened to me before with my other stories. Then, as if someone flipped a switch, it all came back, and I finished the novel in a flurry of writing.

I think I have decided to forego NaNoWriMo this time around, but I’m not sure. I may just submit another combination of my daily blog posts with what I write on my novel. I am going to concentrate on finishing Simply by Chance, but because it is a historical, it’s not really NaNo material. Since there is such extensive research which needs to be done while I’m writing, the writing goes at a much slower pace, making 50K words unobtainable.

I have come to the realization that nothing of significance occurred in the region in early 1806, so instead of wasting more time hunting, what I might do is plant a seed for an event which occurs a few years down the road, and then just wing it. I abhor doing that, but what are my options?

The next scene I have to write is where one of my characters dies, and I have not decided if it is going to be the actual death or just his co-workers finding his body. I’m sure, after I go back and read everything I have written up to this point, the scene will become clear.

Okay, I am off to try my hand at writing something scary. Wish me luck…I’m going to need it.

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

Your Next Challenge:

Another Fairy Tale Twist: When Prince Eric’s ship sank, instead of saving Eric, Ariel turned Eric into a merman ...

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.

September 30th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Perhaps it’s the change of seasons, I’m not sure, but I am definitely a little off lately. I feel like I’m trying to run on low batteries or something. My intentions are good, but my follow-thru is lacking. I have entirely too much to do, to be functioning at less than optimal capacity.

Only one of you weighed in on my request for advice yesterday – thanks Cindy. I am going to heed her advice and just let the judges’ ruling on Taking Chances stand and not enter it in a new category this year. So, this morning, I filled out and submitted all the paperwork to enter Corporate Blues in the 2015 Indie Next Generation Book Awards.

I’ll admit, I have very low expectations for the results. Corporate Blues is a fun, light, book. It’s a quick read. It was very easy for me to write – minus the anxiety of having to contact the FBI to get some of my facts straight. Don’t get me wrong, it’s a good story, but it required nowhere near as much work as my Bradford Series novels do. Perhaps because portions of Corporate Blues were actual events, which happened to me, it came very easy. The story just flowed on to the pages.

Research consisted of verifying some facts with our local police, having to check out the subway route to Fenway Park and the baseball pre-season schedule, and asking a few helicopter flight related questions. That’s it. Plus the fact that Corporate Blues is what I call “sex-lite”, the love scenes were not painful to write. There was no blood, no sweat, and no tears wrung out of me to produce the story, and because of that, it makes me wonder if I should have even entered it into the competition.

I realize I’m trying to compare apples to oranges. Historical Romance and Contemporary Romance are distant cousins, several times removed, at best. The amount of work and research required to produce a Historical is astronomical, where as a Contemporary, set in a location you are familiar with, in a profession you are familiar with… not so much.

I don’t think I will have the same issue with entering Faerie Tale Queen, because, since it is set in Ireland, I have had to do my fair share of research. (Flight times, commute time to a fictitious island which is based on a real island, eggs not being refrigerated like they are here in the states, different words for things depending on if the American character is saying them or the Irish character is saying them, a show that would be playing on tv on a certain night at a certain time, etc.)

Now, if Corporate Blues happens to do well (ie: better than Taking Chances), I will be truly confused. I used to get this same feeling when I was in school and aced a test I had not studied for, or bombed one I had studied hard for. Yeah, I know, I’m a nut.

Double Rainbow -The weird thing is,
it didn't rain, so I have no idea how
we had a rainbow.

As a completely random interjection, last night I ran out to the car to get an iced tea – I went grocery shopping yesterday and the case of iced tea had not made it into the house yet – and I was gifted by a lovely, and completely unexpected surprise. I just wanted to share the photo with you.

One last random piece before I skedaddle, this morning I read some advice to woman writers, and I wanted to share the link to the article with you. I think I will be printing out the article and sticking it on my fridge, so I can use it as a reminder from time to time – and who knows, perhaps others in my house will also take a look. (I’m not holding my breath on that one.)

Okay, I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

You tried your best…

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.

September 29th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Yup, as suspected, yesterday was completely unproductive, and as you can probably gather by the lateness of this post, I’m not faring much better today either. I think my frantic pace over the past several weeks has caught up to me.

Today, amongst laundry, dishes, and hopefully some vacuuming, will be spent reading FTQ. I need to get back into the story, bring it to culmination, and put the final touches on it. I need to make sure there are no holes, and, if needed, insert clues so the pinnacle leaves you with an “Oh!” not an “Oh?”.

One saving grace is this is the fifth week in the month, which translates to, I only have one meeting this week. I can spend the entire week decompressing (except for work on T, W & Th). Come Saturday, when I have my next book signing, I should be right as rain again.

I would like your advice. I have dithered to the last possible second, and now the early bird deadline for the Indie Next Generation Book Awards is tomorrow. This past year, Taking Chances was a finalist in the “2^nd Book” category. It is still eligible for entry in the 2015 competition. My question is, should I resubmit Taking Chances, or should I just be happy with the 2014 results and submit Corporate Blues instead?

If I decide to go with Taking Chances, I will be entering it again in the “Romance” category, but this time I will also be entering it in the “Historical Fiction” category. If I enter Corporate Blues, it will go into the “Romance” & “Chick Lit” categories. I’m truly torn, and I seek your counsel. Please weigh in on this. I only have until tomorrow evening to decide. In all honesty, Corporate Blues is a fun, light piece, but I feel Taking Chances holds more literary merit. UGH! HELP! (I don’t want to pay $150 to enter both of them.)

Okay, I have procrastinated long enough today. I really should get something, anything, accomplished. Lord I loathe housework!

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

Your Next Challenge:

An Ode to Your Eyes…

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.

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 9^th is the filming for the TV show. On Monday, September 15^th, 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 20^th & 21^st I’ll be back at Canterbury Tales Forever; and Saturday, September 27^th 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.

July 27th

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! I have the perfect day to write. My hubby is asleep, my girls spent the night at friends’ houses, all is quiet, and I feel blah. It figures, right?

I figure I have between 20 – 25K words to go in order to finish FTQ. It ain’t gunna happen before the end of the month. I realize the past three NaNos have been dedicated to FTQ, but the numbers are a combination of my blog and the novel. Unfortunately for me it has been a 2:1 blog:novel ratio. Seems I’ve had more to chat about than my characters.

This simply won’t do. I need to buckle down and get this finished. As much as I hate to do it, I think for the next several days, my blog posts are going to be short and sweet with no writing challenges. I am also going to have to restrain myself from getting lost on line. I need to firmly secure my blinders.

There’s really no excuse. The story is progressing nicely. I haven’t really hit any walls, other than the little trip-up in chapter 42 which I told you about the other day, but it was easily resolved.

This book has been really strange. I get engrossed in a scene. Type it until completion. Then I go back and look, thinking I wrote all these words, only to find I was able to relay the entire series of events in less than a thousand words. 

I guess, now with this being my fourth book, I am subconsciously streamlining, something which does not usually occur until the editing/rewriting phase. (That’s where you pull out all the unnecessary fluff and fillers – silly stuff like changing ‘he went down the stairs’ to ‘he went downstairs’; or using a one word action verb to show instead of several words to tell.)

This is a good thing, I guess. I’m just used to writing more than needed and then witling it down. Which, if you think about it, is a really stupid, and time consuming, way to do it. I equate it to the way I cook – I’d rather make too much and have left overs than make what I think will be just enough, and someone goes away hungry.

Perhaps I have grown enough in my writing that the 80K goal I have in my head will only get trimmed to 75K instead of 70K, which is still an acceptable word count for a contemporary romance. I can always hope, right?

Okay, I still haven’t had any responses of suggested prompts, and my request for assistance has gone unanswered as well. I can muddle through the prompts, but I REALLY could use your help with finding someone from Northern Ireland to read Faerie Tale Queen.

I will not feel comfortable releasing FTQ without the dialogue being authenticated. There’s slang you would hear in Cork or Limerick which you would never hear in Dublin, and there are expressions a street thug would say which would never come out of a respected businessman’s mouth. Please, ask around. Thanks!!

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

July 16th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! I’m not overly thrilled with our recent weather pattern. It seems Tuesday is monsoon day around here. For the second Tuesday in a row, I’ve had to drive through blinding rain in order to participate in my writing group. At least this time I was only dealing with flooded streets as opposed to last Tuesday when I was dodging falling branches. It figures, doesn’t it? I really don’t venture far from home, if at all, the other six days a week, but on the one day I do…

It was a very small group yesterday. At first we thought it was only going to be four of us, but by 7:30 we were up to eleven. Of the eleven, only five of us read. The timing was perfect for a small group. We have roughly an 1,100 word max on what we read, so there will be enough time for everyone who wants to read. Since my stories are comprised of short chapters, staying under the 1,100 words has never been an issue.

However, last night’s chapter went over the max, but because the group was small, it wasn’t a problem. Still, in the back of my mind, I knew the piece was longer than allowed, so I picked up the pace while I was reading, and I got yelled at to slow down, twice. Chapter seven of Faerie Tale Queen was well received, (I’ve been reading a chapter every time we meet). I got chuckles in the appropriate places, and they seemed to enjoy the main character’s quirky relationship with her GPS. I got some good feedback which I will be able to use when I sit down to work on my initial edits (the ones I do BEFORE I send the manuscript off to be edited).

Two gentlemen, ironically both named Alex, read last night. One Alex is a regular to the group, and a majority of the time he writes plays or performance monologues. Last night he read an excerpt from a performance piece which was hysterical. I’m talking, I couldn’t catch my breath, had tears in my eyes, and snorted because I was laughing so hard. I’m still chuckling right now, just trying to tell you about it.

The flip side of the coin was the other Alex. He is brand new to the group, last night was his first night, and he brought us into a dark place. He also accomplished an extremely difficult task, keeping us engaged in a fiction piece told in first person. The story was, I don’t want to say creepy, and I don’t want to repeat myself by saying dark again, but I don’t know a better way to describe it. What I can say is I am looking forward to hearing more of the story in the weeks to come.

With a little luck, I will hit the 25K mark today. I’m close, but it will still take a fairly good push to get me there. Considering today is the halfway point of the month, I’m only a few hours behind.

On that note, I should get writing because I only have two hours and 2,300 words to go. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

The morning light looked strange

Out of desperation to come up with a challenge to give you yesterday, I looked up, in hope to think of something, and that’s when I noticed the strange light coming through my living room window. It reminded me of another time, many years ago, when I saw a similar light.

I’m not sure exactly how old I was, but I do remember I was a teenager, and I was home on summer break. My mom had left for work already, but it was still early when I padded downstairs to forage for something to eat. I looked through the kitchen window and was greeted by a weird orangey yellow haze. Figuring my sleep filled eyes and summertime hazed brain were playing tricks on my, I ceased my breakfast preparations and went out on our front porch to investigate.

From my new vantage point I was able to see a sight I hope to never experience again. The sky to the south was blanketed in varying shades of amber and brown, and there was an acrid stench in the air. I quickly reentered my house, then ran from room to room and closed all the windows and doors. I than began to furiously flip through the radio dial to find a news station, or any station which would be able to enlighten me as to what was going on.

***

I ran out of time, but I figured if I had left the story there, I’d get hate mail. I found WCTC, which is a central New Jersey new station. Since sunrise, their radio station had been inundated with calls. It turned out the haze and the smell were due to a wildfire, raging out of control, in the Pinelands, over seventy-five miles away from my home. It was days before the sun could penetrate and the smell dissipated, and until it did, most of the state was shroud in an unnatural light.

Your Next Challenge is:

I am…

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.

July 15th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! I didn’t jump right into the blog this morning. While I was checking emails, I received one from a friend saying he had his first article published in Huntington Post, so, obviously, I had to read it.

Wow. I am always impressed with Todd’s story telling ability, and even though I had pretty much heard the story before, it still moved me. A few years ago, Todd and his family embarked on a journey when his daughter confessed she was a man trapped in a woman’s body. His story takes you through the initial shock of the revelation, the acceptance, and the transition of saying goodbye to his daughter and embracing his son.

The article is brief, but it packs a punch. It shows the true meaning of being a parent, loving your children unconditionally. I read through the article as well as the comments, many of which heralded Todd as being courageous for telling his story. Although well-meaning I’m sure, it made me sad.

Having a gay or transgender child, and talking about it should not be considered brave, but because of the narrow minded society we live in, it is. Until people realize someone has as much control over being born gay or transgender as they do being born with blue eyes or curly hair, things will never change.

So, my hat is off to Todd, not for his bravery in bringing light to a subject society wants to ignore, my hat is off to him for being a role model for what it means to be a father. Because of his love and acceptance, his son now has a chance at a happy and healthy life, as opposed to becoming one of the statistics. It truly is a wonderful article, and it’s not very long; so if you would like to read it, here’s the link.

I did not get quite as much writing done yesterday as I had hoped. RV called and needed my help. Although I was able to push her off for a couple of hours, it was still in the back of my mind that I had to leave, so I couldn’t allow myself to become lost in the story. I didn’t want to look up from writing and see several hours had passed, which has been known to happen from time to time.

Because of the incomplete focus, I know I have to go back over what I wrote and “beef” it up. I was able to get the general thoughts down, but the details are seriously lacking. I also jumped from point A to point C in a conversation, and I need to fill that in as well, otherwise it will come off as too abrupt and the character will come across as a jerk, and I don’t want that.

Okay, since I only have three hours and I know there are going to be at least two more interruptions in that time, I should go. I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Genre: Mystery; Location: Somewhere down the shore; Situation: Someone is stealing something unusual

“You’re crazy!”

“I’m telling you Mike, they’re not here.”

“Who the heck would steal starfish? What possible use would they have for them?”

Jamie pointed to the shelf, “Then where the hell are they?”

“I don’t know. Maybe you put them somewhere else and forgot?”

“I signed for the box right when we were having that big rush of camp kids, a little after three. I put the box on my desk. As you know, we were busy pretty much the rest of the night. While I was closing up, I saw the box on my desk. I didn’t have the energy to restock the display, so I put the box here in the stock room.” Jamie pointed to the shelf again. “Do you see the box?”

“You could have stuck it on another shelf. You were really beat last night.”

“Okay fine,” Jamie spread her arms wide and turned in a slow circle. “Look for yourself. The box was bright blue with gold lettering. It shouldn’t be hard to spot amongst all this brown.”

Michael carefully looked around. “I don’t see it.”

“That’s what I have been trying to tell you.” She said in an exasperated huff. “You want to hear the strange part? Carly, from the shop over on the corner of 7^th and Ocean, stopped by to see if she could borrow a few dozen hermit crab sponges until her shipment came in, somehow she had misplaced two cases. Then Tyler from Shipwrecked came over, his back scratchers disappeared. Tell me Mike, how does a gross of back scratchers just vanish into thin air?”

Your Next Challenge is:

The morning light looked strange

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.