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.

October 30th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

What day is it??? Oh that’s right, there’s been a giraffe invasion, not a camel invasion. If you have a Facebook account, you know what I’m talking about. If you don’t, then it’s too silly to bother you further.

My daughter and one of her friends decided they were going to be cowgirls for Halloween tomorrow. Nice easy costume. We have all the pieces. So I was getting off easy this year, right? Wrong. Yes we have all the pieces, but not in our possession. My daughter was borrowing my son’s cowboy hat, which his girlfriend was supposed to bring over on Monday, but then couldn’t because of his mishap. Then she was supposed to bring it over yesterday, but instead she drove my son to class last night so he wouldn’t have to drive in the dark with his injured eye. I’M NOT COMPLAINING about her doing these things. It was very sweet of her to rearrange just about everything in her schedule to be able to be there for him, but this does mean I have to drive down to my son’s house today to go get the hat.

The next piece of the puzzle that’s missing is the shirt my daughter wanted to wear, a purple plaid number. She tore apart her room and all the laundry she put in the basement looking for the thing. Then, out of frustration, she asked if I thought her sister took the shirt with her to college. Since I can’t keep track of my own things, I had no idea. I shrugged and sent a text to my other daughter. Yup, you guessed it. The shirt is in Vermont. Now other than my forty minute ride to my son’s house today, I have a trip to Kohl’s on my “to do” list. Well, at least I know where my cowboy boots are…

So, I am going to have my second cup of coffee, take a quick shower and get my day rolling. I hope you have a fantastic day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was (this is the challenge I offered as homework while I was covering the class for Keith, but the group mutinied and would not do it):

 

Write you own obituary 

 

Christina, just like she always said she would do, left this Earth on the anniversary of her birth. She would say, “This way I’m not messing up anyone’s day but my own.” In life Christina wore many hats. She was a mom, a wife, a coach, a writer and a friend. Although she never conquered her stage freight, she sang in her church choir on Sundays. She enjoyed music, baking, cooking, reading, writing, painting, and playing silly games on her computer, but most of all, she enjoyed spending time with her family. She left this world with a messy house, dishes in the sink and laundry to be done, but a freezer stocked with meals to get her family through the next millennium and her final story completed and submitted to her publisher.

There will be no wake or funeral for Christina, however, on June 23^rd, all who knew her, are asked to participate in a celebration of her life. She wanted a “good old fashioned Irish funeral”. We ask that you bring photos and stories to share; the good, the bad, and undoubtedly the irreverent. Christina has asked for her ashes to be scattered in the places she loved and the ones she never had a chance to visit while she was alive. Please take whatever money you would have used for flowers and spend it on doing something fun with your family.

 

Okay, I really don’t see what the big deal was about writing your own obituary. This has been used as a creative writing assignment in colleges forEVER. I remember doing it when I was in college, and that was over twenty-five years ago. It didn’t kill me then, and I seriously doubt it is going to kill me now, and if it does, I have until April 1^st anyway. I don’t see it as a negative thing; I see it as a reflection of how we see ourselves and how we hope to be remembered. If there is a disparity from how we are to how we want to be, we recognize it and can work to fix it before it is too late. Think Scrooge, not Grim Reaper. Whatever, to each their own. I hope some of you took up my challenge.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

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

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.