November 5th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Eee Gads! It’s after eleven and I haven’t done my blog yet. YIKES! Today was a shiny object kinda day. First thing this morning I started working on a book trailer. You know how good I am with technology, so why not frustrate myself exponentially?

I tried pulling up the program I used to do my daughter’s graduation video, but it was expired, so I searched for another free video program. I found one, downloaded it, and made a video. It was surprisingly easy. Then I went to produce it and save it and I got a warning that since it wasn’t a registered paid edition, there would be a disclaimer right in the center of the video. WHY would you offer something for free that really isn’t free?

So, I promptly uninstalled the program. While I was at it, I went to uninstall the first video program and it gave me the option do downgrade to the free edition. What the heck? I’ll give it a whirl after I get this blog posted.

Yesterday on my Facebook author’s page I posted the second installment of Faerie Tale Queen. I got a few “likes”, but no feedback. I will be posting the next chapter tomorrow. I figure one every other day is a good pace. I just wish I get more comments so I know I’m on track with this one. I don’t want to say the historicals I write are easy, but at least, I know exactly where I’m going with them – history is set, language is set, clothes, settings, time period are all set. This one is out there, with no rules or clear direction, and I’m a little worried because literally anything goes. I have the entire story mapped out in my mind, however, the journey from point A to point B does not need to be a straight line, and it’s a bit daunting.

These ramblings will make more sense as you read the chapters. Faerie Tale Queen takes place in a modern, but not specific, time. Part of the time it is in modern day Ireland – no big deal, I can handle that – but part of the time it is in a world which only exists in my mind. Yes I can see it, but can I get you to be able to see it? There is nothing in your past or in your present for you to use as a point of reference.

Think JK Rowling creating Hogwarts. Other than the slight similarity it had to an old English castle, you had no clue what Hogwarts looked like until she brought it to life for you. Now it might as well be a real place, because there are very few in the world who couldn’t describe at least some of its features. Same with Lewis Carroll and JRR Tolkien; now I’m not saying I am in their league, mind you. They just left incredibly huge shoes to fill, and it is going to be a challenge to attempt to do so. I do fairly well bringing you to a time you are unfamiliar with, hopefully I will be able to bring you to a place as well.

Okay, although I thoroughly enjoy these blogs, if I want to get anything done on Faerie Tale Queen, I’d best skedaddle. I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge:

 I remember it as if it were yesterday…

 

I was seven years old. It was Easter Sunday. We had finished dinner at my grandparents’ house, and we all walked across the back yard to my aunt and uncle’s house. It had snowed the day before and there were still patches on the ground which had not melted. I remember the pretty purple crocus, flowers I was not allowed to pick, poking through small piles of white. It was cold so I had my heavy winter coat over my frilly yellow dress, and because of the snow I had to wear my ugly boots instead of my new shiny black Mary Janes, but I didn’t care, I was so excited.

My aunt and uncle had just purchased a color television, and we were all going to watch a movie in color for the first time. We all gathered in the living room. All of us except my baby cousin. She was only one and she needed to go to bed before the movie started, but I was a big girl, so I got to stay up and watch it. My mom settled me next to her feet, on the floor with a pillow and a blanket. My grandfather and my uncle each took a chair and my mom, aunt and grandmother sat on the couch.

The music started and I could barely sit still. At first I was disappointed, the movie looked exactly the same as all the other times I had seen it, all black and white and grey. But then, Dorothy opened the door and there it was, Munchkin Land. My eyes grew wide and I sucked in my breath. I had never seen anything more beautiful, more magical.

 

Dang, ten minute are up, but the only thing I was going to add was the witch was a lot more scary in color than in black and white.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Look, up in the sky, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s a, a ???

 

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.

July 3rd Writing Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –
 

A Happy Wacky Wednesday to y’all! I went to my critique group last night, and as usual, I had a great time. We had an interesting mix of things read: a play about a woman serial killer from California (true story, fictional adaptation), the beginning of chapter one of a mystery novel centered around two Irish pubs at the Jersey shore, the first page of a mystery novel set in NYC, a performance piece about a father coming to terms with his trans-gender child, and chapters four and five of my Simply by Chance (they were very short chapters). We ran out of time before we got to a rewritten excerpt from a fantasy novel and the memoir of a civil war seen through the eyes of a child, so they will go first two weeks from now.

Camp is going well. My ending word count yesterday was 5,588. At this rate, I might actually hit the 85K words by July 31^st, but that means I have to average almost 2,750 a day, EVERY day. OK, I can’t think that way or I will psych myself out. I’m just going to let it flow and whatever happens, happens.

So, did you have fun with yesterday’s challenge? Which book did you get sucked into? Did you become one of the existing characters, a completely new one or were you like a ghost and no one could actually see you?

Your Last Challenge was:

You literally get sucked into the book you were reading.

 

The last thing I remember is sitting on my bed, reading The Sorcerer’s Stone to my children for the fourth or was it the fifth time, I cannot remember, and the next thing I knew I was standing in front of an entire classroom of children dressed in black robes. Quickly I glanced at the stone walls, the stone floor, and then up at the impossibly high ceiling. Hogwarts, somehow I was at Hogwarts. But how?

I raised my hand to massage my now throbbing temple and I hear, “Professor, are you alright?”

 

Then another voice, “Professor Culbreath, would you like us to call Professor McGonnagall or Professor Dumbledore?

Oh heavens. Professor. They meant me. They were talking to me. I looked out at the room and two dozen sets of worried eyes looked back at me. I cleared my throat and gave the class a weak smile, “No, no. Don’t bother. I’ll be fine. No worries.” I will have to figure out how I got here and how to get back later, but for now I have to go on as if everything is normal. Professor Culbreath. I don’t recall a Professor Culbreath. What did she teach? How am I ever going to pull this off? I smiled again, this time hopefully more convincingly and asked, “Would one of you be so kind as to remind me where we left off?”

“You were about to show us how to conjure an illusion you said we could use as a distraction.” A helpful voice replied.

Conjuring. I can handle that. “Alright then children. This is just one example, but the basis is the same no matter what you wish to conjure. Your only limit is your own imagination…”

 

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.