November 1st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Dani & her friend Adam

Good Morning! So, did everyone have a good Halloween? Around seven last night, my doorbell rang. I was in the living room watching TV, and Paulie was in the family room watching “his monkeys” – a.k.a. wrestling. I hear him say, “Who the heck is that?” I replied, “No clue.” I went and opened the front door, and much to my amazement, we had two trick-or-treaters. I couldn’t believe my eyes. We have lived here for sixteen years, and we have never had a trick-or-treater.

Dani & Debbie

I told the boys to hang on for a second, and I went out to the car, where I have all of my book signing stuff, and dipped into my stash of candy. I gave them each one of everything I had, so they made out pretty good. Even though the boys were in masks, I recognized their voices. They are friends of Dani, and live just up the road from us. I still can’t get over the fact that they walked down our dark, busy street, with no sidewalks, to come trick-or-treating at our house, and then still rang the doorbell when there were no lights on.

Dani & My Mother-In-Law

Halloween this year was strange all around. My sister-in-law’s kids, because of their crazy schedules, did not do Halloween this year, and with PJ all grown up and working, and Lys away at college, Dani was the only one who went and visited the grandmas and our friends Debbie & Nick. No pictures this year with all the kids together in their costumes; it was really sad.

Dani, her boyfriend Randy,
& Randy's little sister, Bella

Dani, who is not a fan of trick-or-treating, didn’t really want to go out at all, but because her boyfriend’s sister is only eight, she agreed to go out. I made her take her Halloween bag, even though she said she would not be getting any candy. I wanted her to get candy, and I told her as much. She told me if I wanted candy, I should just go to the store and get some. LOL. Even though I do love candy, I assured her that was not the reason behind my insisting. I wanted her to stay young for just a little while longer.

Dani & Bella

I am such a dingy, though. Even though it was only Dani visiting my mom, my mother-in-law, and Debbie, I wanted to have pictures. I brought my camera in to my mom’s, but completely forgot to take a picture. (I got distracted when she gave me a dark chocolate with orange cream filling.) I did get a photo of her with my mother-in-law (after she reminded me), and Dani and Debbie also posed for a photo together.

Dani & Randy

My head was just not screwed on straight yesterday. The whole, everyone not being together, threw me off my game. I realize with the kids getting older, things would be different, but with four still left at home – Max (16), Dani (15), Grace (14), and Holly (11) – I thought I still had more time to adjust, that the transition would be gradual, not BOOM, tradition shattered.

Let the games begin...

So, in case you missed it, today is November 1^st – 26 days until Thanksgiving, and 54 days until Christmas. Good grief! Today is also the first day of NaNoWriMo. Yeah, I’m a glutton for punishment, I signed up again. This time, however, I am going to focus on finishing up stories I have started, instead of starting a new novel. I know it isn’t following the rules exactly, but I figure 50K words is 50K words.

On that note, I should wrap up this blog and get working on doing exactly that – FINISHING.

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

Your Next Challenge:

Don’t they make a lovely couple?

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 31st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

BOO! Did I scare you? Happy Halloween y’all!

Bri, Dani & Emily

I had one of those heartbreaking moments as a mom this morning. At 6:00 am, I was rushing my youngest child (15) over to a friend’s house so three of the four Ninja Turtles could get dressed together, and she says to me, “It doesn’t feel like Halloween. Actually, none of the holidays feel the same anymore.” That made me so sad. Unfortunately, I know exactly how she feels. The one hopeful part is, when she becomes a mom, she’ll be able to recapture just a little bit of the holiday magic again. I guess I’ll have to wait until I’m a grandma to get my third swing at the feeling – NOT that I’m rushing that time to come!!

Em, Bri, Dani, Zach & Sarah
(Em, Zach & Sarah are triplets)

So tomorrow I’m supposed to be at the Peddler’s Village Apple Festival, but now it looks like it is going to rain all day, which means Saturday’s festivities will be cancelled. Although that’s a bummer, it kinda makes my life a little easier. You see, one of my best friends, Fran, works for a big firm, and one of their clients is holding a swanky fund raiser Saturday evening. The firm got tickets, and one of the partners could not make the event, so Fran offered the extra tickets to Paulie and me. The tickets are $500 a pop, so needless to say, my husband and I would not be going if we weren’t given the tickets.

Apple Picking with the girls last Friday
before Lys went back to school.

The event is being held at Princeton University, and the evening begins with author Gary Shteyngart either reading from one of his bestselling novels or just talking (I’m not sure which). After that we are ferried over to another building for appetizers, dinner and dessert, all while an auction – silent and live – are taking place. I looked over the items up for bid, and the few which did appeal to me, were well out of my budget, so I will not be bidding on anything.

Goofballs, but I love them!

Yup, I’m going as a total freeloader for the evening. I do not feel too terrible about it though, because the event is completely sold out, so they should raise a considerable amount of cash for the library. It will be interesting watching my Jersey redneck hubby hobnobbing with the Princeton socialites. LOL. He’ll do just fine while he’s there, but then I’ll have to hear all about it on my way home. I’m shocked he did not put up more resistance when I told him “we’re going” (for once I put my foot down and didn’t give him a choice).

Dani was posing for a pic
in the tree and got stuck
Big Sis lent a hand.

Because I will not be at a book signing all day Saturday in Pennsylvania, I now do not have to stress over leaving early, rushing home and trying to get ready and out the door by 5:00 pm. I can take my time with my make-up, play around until I’m happy with my hair, and reacquaint myself with wearing real shoes (heels – UGH). I will also have plenty of time to make sure every single piece of pet hair is off of both mine and my husband’s outfits. It drives me loopy how much walks out the door with us on our clothes, no matter how careful we try to be.

Last weekend's book signing

Today is going to be a bit of a scramble. I have to coordinate with my sister-in-law when we are going to meet up at my mom’s for pictures, and then at her mom’s. I have to pick up Dani’s boyfriend from football practice, and then get the two of them over to his mother’s house so they can take his eight year old sister trick-or-treating. Plus we have a few traditional stops along the way.

But then, after roughly 6:00, I am in the clear. I don’t have to dress up this year. I don’t have to drive kids anywhere. I do not have to walk the streets while they trick-or-treat, and I won’t even have to answer my door to trick-or-treaters. (In the sixteen years we’ve lived here, we haven’t had any – our road is too busy and there are no sidewalks by our house.) I will be spending a quiet evening at home, all toasty warm, watching the season premiere of Grim. YEAH! I can’t wait.

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

Your Next Challenge (compliments of my friend Loretta):

You're a ghost house hunting with a real estate agent to find the right place to haunt.

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 1st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

The day has arrived, November 1^st. I am about to embark on another frenzied month of NaNoWriMo – stressing, not sleeping, cramped muscles, and general obliviousness to what is going on in the world around me. During the weekdays, I will wake up, write my blog, take a small break while my daughter is getting out of the house, finish my blog until my husband wakes up, take another small break, and then writing non-stop until my daughter comes home from school. The weekends will be a little different. On Saturdays, I will only be able to write until they wake up, and then on Sundays all I’ll probably be able to do is my blog before church.
 

Translation, I’ll have approximately 125 hours to write the 50K words, which calculates to 400 words an hour. My blog takes me roughly an hour to write and generally they run between six hundred and eight hundred words. When I break it down that far and do the comparison, it doesn’t seem quite as daunting. Perhaps if I keep that in mind, and reward myself every 400 words, I’ll be able to plow through yet again, and not get completely freaked out on the days I can’t write. (Thanksgiving Day, the prep day before, and picking up my daughter from school are the three days I know of already, and I didn’t figure them into the 125 hours.)
 

I will keep you updated as to my progress, and any words of encouragement during this insane time, would be greatly appreciated. I asked last time, but no one took me up on my request, but I am going to ask again. If any of you have suggestions for writing prompts, please feel free to send them to me, so I can have a few extras to pull from this month.
 

Now, in an effort to share some anxiety, here’s a reality check for all of you. There are 27 days left until Thanksgiving and Chanukah, 55 days left until Christmas, and only 61 days left in 2013. Yeah, I know I can still be a brat at times. Sorry.

 

I hope you have a great day and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge:
 

I’m going to give you a whole lot of leeway on this one. Tell us about your favorite Halloween memory. It could be a special Halloween, an extra special costume or party, tradition, whatever you want to write about.

There are several Halloweens I remember fondly, like the year all five of us went as a family of Dalmatians. Yup, even my husband. But there is one Halloween in particular which stands out in my mind.

It was the Halloween on 1976, I was in fifth grade. Several weeks before Halloween, I had suffered a terrible accident. My foot went through the spokes in an exercise bike and was nearly severed at the ankle. After many hours of surgery, everything was reattached and my leg was casted.

A few days before Halloween, I was finally given the okay to walk without my crutches. I was thrilled. Although I was slowly thumping about in a cast, I would be able to walk to go trick or treating.

My costume that year was Raggedy Anne. My mother had made it, and it was adorable. I’m not just saying that now as an adult, I actually loved it as a ten year old. She had made the elastic on my pantaloons extra stretchy on my right leg to accommodate my cast, and for the first time in nearly two months, my accident was not as noticeable, or so I thought. I was still walking gingerly and with a distinct limp.

I hobbled up to the first house and when the people answered they had asked me what happened. So I told them. They we so horrified by my story, they gave me an extra piece of candy. The same thing happened at almost every stop. After an hour or so, my leg was tired from walking and my candy bag had gotten too heavy for me to carry, so we called it quits.

 

I remember lying in bed that night and thinking all these people, even though they didn’t know me, wanted to do something nice to make me feel better. They didn’t frown or scold even when I admitted the accident was all my fault, that I had been stupid and caused the whole mess. I think that night was when I started to realize accidents happen, and even if you were the cause of the accident, it did not make you a bad person.

I had been carrying around a lot of guilt over getting hurt. I had caused my family a lot of anxiety and worry all because I was being too competitive and made a bad decision. The kindness from strangers that night helped me start to release some of that guilt.

Your Next Challenge is (one from my writers’ group):

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

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.

October 31st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

First I want to wish everyone a very happy Halloween. Next I want to wish my friend Keith a very happy Birthday! Y’all know my friend Keith, the horror author. I called him last night and left a message teasing him about being cliché – a horror writer whose birthday is on Halloween. (giggle)

So, the cowgirls are off and running. My daughter and her friend slept over another friend’s house last night, and her mother did all the girls’ hair this morning for school. She did a great job. I think they look adorable! (My daughter’s the one on the left.)

I cannot believe NaNoWriMo starts TOMORROW! I still have so much to do before I start writing. I keep thinking about all of the days in November that are going to pull me away from my writing, that I am already starting to panic over getting the 50K words finished. The first day I won’t be able to write is Sunday because I am doing another book signing at Canterbury Tales.

Not a good thing to happen three days into a project, but I cannot exactly put the book signing off until December. It will be too dang cold then to be outside for five hours! Sunday will be bad enough. It is supposed to be cloudy with the high of only 52°. Burrrr!

Okay, already had a late start to the day, so now I really feel like I’m behind. I need to do more work on the never ending insurance papers and then finish the research for my NaNoWriMo project.

I hope you have a spooky day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge:

 

Start your story with: It’s Mischief Night and you’ll never believe what my friends have planned.

It’s Mischief Night and you’ll never believe what my friends and I have planned. There is an older couple who live down the street from me, and as far back as I can remember, every Halloween morning, their house has been a mess. There’s toilet paper hanging from their trees, there are smashed egg guts everywhere, and one time, their mailbox and cars were shrink wrapped.

Although I found the last prank rather clever, I still felt bad for the Emersons. As I said, they were an older couple, both long since retired school teachers. I had heard the stories about them being particularly difficult teachers, but come on, enough is enough. Their last batch of students are all married with their own children in the school system, the time for this abuse to cease is long overdue.

So, here is the plan, and I will tell you the Emersons did not want to go along at first, but after we convinced them none of the mischief makers would be physically harmed, well at least no permanent damage would be inflicted, they relented. My friends and I will be lying in wait in the Emerson’s bushes. When the culprits arrive, they will be doused with foul smelling, dyed water from high powered super-soakers.

 

It is supposed to dip into the thirties tonight, so not only will the delinquents stink to high heaven, be stained a lovely shade of Barney purple, they should also be good and chilled by the time they reach home. Won’t they have a lovely time explaining to their parents their sorry appearance? Gee, I hope purple goes with whatever Halloween costume these kids had planned, because it will be several days before their normal skin tone returns.

 

Hopefully, this will put an end to the annual attacks on the Emersons. If not, I know where I will be spending next Mischief Night.

(Photos added after the ten minutes. FB folks, if you want to see the photos, you’ll need to go to my blog.)

Your Next Challenge is:

I’m going to give you a whole lot of leeway on this one. Tell us about your favorite Halloween memory. It could be a special Halloween, an extra special costume or party, tradition, whatever you want to write about.

 

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.