November 5th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! NaNoWriMo this time around was a mistake. Unless some miracle occurs, which I seriously doubt, I will not be able to get to 50K this time around. The ideas are there, bursts of inspiration, but I just can’t seem to hold on to them long enough to make them into full scenes on paper (computer screen). Even writing this simple blog the last few weeks has been a struggle, and I don’t know why.

It’s very frustrating. I sit down, start to write, and, for the lack of a better explanation, a slight headache starts behind my eyes. It doesn’t really hurt, but it is annoying and distracting enough that I cannot focus. Then my mind starts to wander.

I have figured out where it is wandering to, but I will not let it go there, not yet. I need to finish what’s started before I start another project. It’s funny, I have described writing like my characters are having a press conference in my head, and the one yelling the loudest gets called upon. However, in the past, once I call upon one, the others back off until the story is finished. At the moment, they are not playing nicely in the sandbox, and I don’t know how to reign them in.

It’s bad enough I have two stories going right now, there is no way I can let another one, or two, intrude. When I write, the story completely surrounds me. I am physically there, experiencing what my characters are experiencing, hearing, seeing, smelling, etc. If I can’t get to the state of complete submersion, it’s like I sitting on the couch rapidly flipping through the TV channels with the remote.

Actually, that’s not quite right. It’s more like I’m sitting on the couch and someone else is flipping through the channels. I see something I like, but they’ve already flipped to the next channel. If you have every experienced this, you know how annoying it can be.

Now that I have convinced you I’m a total nut job, I will let my insane version of writer’s block rest and tell you what I did yesterday – which will explain all the whacky photos accompanying today’s blog. Dani, my youngest is in driver’s ed. (Btw, she passed her written exam on Monday, but won’t be doing her road training until April, so, for the moment, y’all are safe.) Anyway, she had this assignment where she needed to photograph Officer Flat Stanley with various road signs.

So yesterday afternoon and into the early evening, Dani and I went gallivanting all over our town, plus three or four other towns, covered two different counties, and traipsed almost fifty miles collecting pictures of this silly paper doll in front of road signs. I was pulling off in weird places, blocking traffic a time or two, backed up on one road, K-turned on another, and made more than one (probably illegal) Uie in the middle of a road.

By the time we got home last night, we were whooped. All totaled, we collected 192 pictures. She did not need that many for the assignment, and honestly, we did not realize we took that many photos. She did use over a hundred for her PowerPoint presentation. Some of the photos needed to be scrapped because Stanley was being a ham. He came out clear, but you couldn’t see the road sign behind him clearly.

A lot of the parents were complaining about the assignment because it was more of an assignment for them than it was for their child. Honestly it was, but Dani and I got to spend almost two hours together, alone, and most of the time was spent laughing, so I think it was time well spent.

Okay, I only have an hour before I have to go to “work”. RV has a few watches that need batteries, so we have to hit the jewelry store, and then she needs to return something to Kohl’s. It’s going to be a tough day, but someone’s gotta do it. LOL.

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

Your Next Challenge:

The countdown has begun…

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 –

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 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.

December 6th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Good Morning! At about eight last night I realized I never posted a blog entry yesterday. This was the first time I missed in I can’t even remember how long, but I do have a really good excuse.

While NaNoWriMo was in full swing, I received the information from the FBI I had been waiting for in order to finish Corporate Blues, but I couldn’t take a break from Faerie Tale Queen to be able to work the information into the story. Well, from six yesterday morning until around seven last night – with only one break to take my daughter to the chiropractor – I wrote and revised Corporate Blues. And…wait for it… sent it to the publisher in NYC who has been asking for it. Now, I have no idea if he will pick up the novel, but at least it is out of my hands and into his.

I have been down this road before, the traditional publishing road, with less than a positive experience. I have learned from my mistakes, so unless they come back with “an offer I can’t refuse”, I will be releasing Corporate Blues myself. I will keep you updated, and I will probably be asking your opinion when the time comes as to what you think I should do.

Today, after a little bit of maintenance housework, I will be headed back to Ireland. It has been a few days since I’ve written anything on Faerie Tale Queen, and quite frankly, I’m starting to miss Kieren and Logan. I guess that’s a good sign, no?

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

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

You are posing for one of those “Old Time Photos”. The camera flash goes off, and when you blink the spots from your eyes, you find you are no longer at the photo studio, you are actually in the place where the photo is set.

 

It was silly really. Just a whim. The four of us were walking along the Wildwood boardwalk and we saw the “Olde Tyme Photo” sign, and we walked in. There were dozens of scenes we could have chosen. We could have been princesses and the guys could have been knights, but they weren’t keen on putting on the armor. We could have picked a scene from a royal ball, but the guys refused to wear tights. Then like kids in a candy store, the boys saw the Al Capone era photo, and they wouldn’t settle for anything else. Pretty sure the machine guns are what hooked them. Okay, so we’d be in corsets and fishnet stockings. I could live with that.

My boyfriend’s sister and I went into our dressing room to change and the guys went into theirs. When we all emerged, there was a lot of giggling, especially when the photographer posed us and told the guys they needed to look pissed off.

Finally, he snapped the photo. It was the biggest and brightest flash I had ever seen. Before my vision returned, the room slowly began to get noisy. I blinked and I blinked, and kept trying to focus, but the spots were still swimming before my eyes. The sound of piano music started to permeate the din. My peripheral vision started coming into focus. Where the heck did all these people come from?

 

Out of time.

 

From left to right: My husband Paul, me, my sister-in-law Cindy, and my brother-in-law Frank. I think we were 23, 21 & 18 when this photo was taken. Dang, I would kill to look like that again! LOL.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

With Nelson Mandela’s passing yesterday, it made me think, what is it that makes someone great, makes someone stand out over the rest? Write about who you think should be remembered as “great” and why.

 

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 30th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

I DID IT!! Just before 10:30 yesterday morning, I hit the 50K mark for NaNoWriMo!! YEAH!!! The official number is 50,864. Yeah, I know I was over 68K last time, but last time I wasn’t driving back and forth to Vermont or having two major parties at my house two days apart. I’m happy I reached goal, and I rewarded myself with a piece of pumpkin pie and a long nap.

 

I had planned on pre-making the potato pancakes yesterday and then just throwing them in the oven to heat up today, but I just couldn’t force myself to cook two days in a row. The nap helped, but I was still exhausted from Thursday. So now, after I finish the blog, I will start making them – all ten pounds - and hopefully, by four o’clock, when people start showing up, the house won’t still smell like cooking oil. I doubt it though. I made a small batch last week for just the three of us and I could still smell the oil two days later.

I will also be making thirty individual pot pies, the ones you do in the muffin tin with a refrigerated biscuit for the crust. Plus I have cheese and crackers, chips and dip, and pie. Others who are coming are bringing, appetizers, desserts, and one person is bringing a third main dish. I think we’ll have enough food.

One of the fun things about my tree decorating parties is, I really never who is going to show up. Word just gets out there and friends start walking into my house, picking up and ornament or two, sticking them on the tree, then they start chowing down. Everyone brings some food with them to share, so there’s always enough, except for my potato pancakes. I swear I could make twenty ponds of them, and every single one would go, but I draw the line at ten pounds.

Okay, off to peel potatoes. I’m pretty sure I’d rather be “off to Ireland” like I have been for the past twenty-nine days. Oh, don’t forget, you’ll be getting your last installment, chapter 16, of Faerie Tale Queen later today on my Facebook page. So, until tomorrow, I hope you have a great day, and Happy Writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

Tell a little something about you and the holidays – what makes them special for you, a tradition you’re pretty sure is only done by your family, you’re little holiday secret, whatever you’d like to share.

 

I am going to let you in on a little secret – I am a total Christmas sap. The very second radio stations start playing Christmas songs, even before Thanksgiving, I have them tuned in, but I make sure to flip the station before anyone else gets in the car. Ooo and if I can sneak in a Christmas show on Lifetime when no one’s looking, woohoo!

I get excited when I see the first Christmas lights go on in our town, and I even drive home different ways, just so I can see more lights and decorations. Although everyone rolls their eyes over the silent decoration war between my one neighbor and another neighbor a few houses up the street, I anxiously await to see what’s new every year in their displays. Pretty soon both families are not going to be able to add anything new unless they swap out with an old, because they are seriously running out of lawn space.

The holiday also turns me into a bit of a water fountain. I can’t hear Christmas Shoes on the radio without crying. I get a touching card in the mail, I cry. Heaven knows most of the Christmas movies make me cry at some point, and I will admit, there are a few commercials that get me going as well. This year’s zinger was the Budweiser commercial where the snowmen offered their carrot noses to the team as a thank you for saving the mail truck and delivering the presents. Want to hear the really sad part? I only caught a glimpse of the commercial on Thanksgiving. My husband simply told me what had happened and I got choked up.

 

See, I told you, total Christmas sap. Today I was glad for the time limit because, believe it or not, there’s more, but I ran out of time…

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

You hear your mom’s (or your dad’s) words come out of your mouth for the first time.

 

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 29th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

It’s the morning after, and I’m so tired and I’m so sore, my hair even hurts. Thanksgiving is a LOT of work!

I had planned on eating at six last night, and I think I did pretty well. We were only about fifteen minutes behind schedule, and I only forgot one thing. We sit down at the table, four people short of who I thought was coming, and my husband asks, “Where’s the stuffing?” Dang it! The one thing I didn’t have prepped because it only takes a few minutes and I didn’t want it to take up oven space. So, while everybody’s dishing out, I go make the stuffing. DISCLAIMER: I used to actually make stuffing and it would take quite a bit of time to make, but everyone loves Stove Top, so I figured stuffing was one corner I could cut and not feel guilty about it.

So, stuffing crisis averted. We all had a yummy meal. I broke out the containers and divvied up all the leftovers, so everyone walked away with another Thanksgiving dinner, including leaving enough home for the four of us. I loaded the dishwashers once, started doing the remaining dishes by hand, my daughter unloaded the dishwashers, I loaded them again, and then finished the last dishes by hand.

It is mind blowing how many dishes get used for Thanksgiving. Before dinner, all of the dishes I had used to prep the food where already washed and put away, several of the pots were washed, and the turkey roaster was washed. The four loads of dishes were just the plates, glasses, silverware and serving dishes we used.

Now today, I get to put all this stuff away…yeah. For the holidays, like I’m sure many people do, I pull out the good china, so all of that needs to be packed away again. I also use my aunt’s pots to prepare, so they need to get stored in the basement again. The folding tables need to get dragged outside and the furniture needs to be put back in place. (We don’t have a dining room, so our Thanksgiving dinner takes place in our family room.) The floor needs to be mopped, the vacuum needs to be run, and then I get to drag all the Christmas stuff upstairs because tomorrow we are having our tree decorating party. Just shoot me now…please.

Other than going to the grocery store to pick up some stuff I need for tomorrow, I am NOT Black Friday shopping. My daughters, on the other hand, are out with their grandmother, aunt and cousins at Jersey Gardens. My son PJ and his girlfriend Alex are out, God knows where, shopping; and my husband is off to work, so he’ll be out in the mess as well. No thank you. What about you? Are you braving the crowds?

One last funny story before I close, I took the dog out this morning just as it was getting light out. I heard a strange noise and I looked up toward the sound. Directly overhead was a navy and red hot air balloon. It took a minute for Colby to spot the balloon, but when he did he went bat guano. He was wagging his tail so hard his body was literally shaking, and he was barking his head off. (I’m sure the neighbors just loved that at 6:30 in the morning.) Colby wanted to get at that balloon in the worst way, and I had a devil of a time getting him back in the house. My dog is such a nut!

Okay, I’m off to Ireland. I have less than 1,800 to go, so I’ll probably be finished today. Even if I finish today, I will still post one last chapter tomorrow for you to read. I want to thank you all again for reading as I wrote. I don’t think I would have made my NaNoWriMo goal if you hadn’t been.

I hope you have a fabulous day. Safe and productive shopping if you are out there in the insanity. And, Happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was to spend a wonderful day with your family. I hope you all took me up on my challenge!

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Tell a little something about you and the holidays – what makes them special for you, a tradition you’re pretty sure is only done by your family, you’re little holiday secret, whatever you’d like to share.

 

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 24th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Good Morning! So we made it home with only encountering a few flurries along the way. I actually saw more snow last night driving my youngest daughter to a birthday party then I did driving home from Vermont. I am glad we left when we did though. One of my daughter’s housemates sent her a snap chat of their dorm with a pretty good covering of snow, and another one of him with a pretty good covering of snow.

Sadly, I have come to the realization today I probably will not hit my goal for NaNoWriMo this time. I have only six days left and twelve thousand words to go, and I have no idea how I will be able to do them and prepare for Thanksgiving all at the same time. This does not mean I am giving up. Whatever spare minutes I can sneak, I will spend writing. When the girls are out shopping on Friday, I plan on chaining myself to the chair and writing. Unfortunately on Friday my husband is home as well, so I’m really not sure if I’ll be able to get much work done then either because I’m sure he’ll be pestering me to clean up for the party we’re having on Saturday.

We are having our annual tree trimming party on Saturday. Every year we shoot for the first Saturday of Chanukah to put up our tree, unless Chanukah happens to fall really late. It’s a tradition that started in our family quite by accident well over a decade ago. One of my dearest friends happens to be Jewish, but she loves decorating Christmas trees, so I invited her over for dinner and to decorate our tree. It was a Saturday and it was the second or third night of Chanukah, so since my girlfriend’s family wasn’t around, I thought I would surprise her by making potato pancakes for dinner. She was thrilled. We had a blast and made some good memories.

The following year, purely by chance and not design, the same thing happened. We were putting up our tree during Chanukah, my friend came over again, and I made potato pancakes because it was Chanukah. Now, I believe this is our seventeenth year, the tree trimming party has grown to include friends of various religions and family. I still make potato pancakes, although now it’s ten pounds of potatoes instead of five. We have a blast, and we make more good memories. Oh yeah, and my tree gets decorated.  

Maybe I’ll start setting my alarm for 4:00am for the next three days as well, instead of getting up at 5:00 am. This will give me an extra hour to write, an hour which my husband can’t complain I’m not cleaning. Sorry, for swinging back to this, but I’m still trying to figure out a way to get to my goal. If I say I’m going to do something, then dang it, I will do everything in my power to do it. I can’t stand falling short of a goal.

Don’t get me wrong, Faerie Tale Queen will get finished. I never had any delusion of actually completing the book in a month, because it will take far more than 50K words to finish the story. The question is, whether or not I will be able to hit the 50K goal by November 30^th.

Well, I have forty-five minutes before I need to start getting ready for church, so I had better use every second efficiently and get writing. I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

“See, I told you I wasn’t lying.” Camie whispered. “It’s right there, just like I said.”

Joey peaked around the bush, “Whoa.  Do you think anyone lives there?”

“I don’t know.” Camie repositioned herself to get a better look. “Do you want to go and find out?”

“What do you want to do? Just go up and knock on the door?”

“I don’t know. Maybe?”

“Are you crazy? What if an axe murderer or something lives in there?”

Camie rolled her eyes, “Like an axe murderer would be living there. Now who’s crazy?”

“Well I’m not going anywhere near the place, and neither should you.” Joey insisted. “Come on we should go.” Camie’s eyes widened and she began to rise, but Joey pulled her back down behind the bush, “What are you doing?”

“Look the door is opening and there’s an old woman coming out.” Camie whispered again.

“Who’s there? Timmy, is that you? Timmy, have you come home? Timmy?” The woman called.

“Oh Joey, she sounds so sad.”

Joey moved a branch so he could get a clearer view of the house. “What are you talking about? I don’t see anyone.”

“She’s right there,” Camie pointed, “and she’s calling for someone named Timmy.”

Camie rose, rounded the bush and walked into the clearing. The woman turned and smiled at her. As Camie began walking toward the woman, Joey grabbed her arm and spun her around. “What are you doing?” He hissed.

“I just want to go and talk to her.”

“Dammit Camie, there’s no one there. Let’s go.”

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

This year you are able to go home for Thanksgiving for the first time in many years. When you get there, things feel just a little off…

 

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 22nd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Good Morning! I’ll confess, I was worried about waking up early enough to be able to do a blog post before I left, so I am actually writing this several hours before you are reading it, and I’ve managed to throw in a writing challenge to boot. Now you’ll only be going one day without a challenge.

I actually wrote over 2,500 words before eleven yesterday, so I decided to give writing a rest for the day and start straightening up the house a bit before my daughter came home. My husband has been on my case to start cleaning before Thanksgiving week so we wouldn’t be running around like nuts on Thanksgiving week.

Although he does have a point, and I have been doing a little bit every day, but according to him, it wasn’t nearly enough and he blew a gasket on Wednesday night. He still does not accept the fact that the hours I spend at home every day, I’m actually working not playing computer games, watching tv and eating bon-bons. Well, actually with NaNoWriMo in full swing, there are a few bon-bons, but normally there isn’t.

I’m seriously beginning to wonder if his attitude will ever change, because even when I had a “real” job, because I was able to do it while sitting down, automatically it was not a difficult job, so I had no excuse to be tired all the time. You would think after knowing my husband for over 35 years, I would handle his little annoying idiosyncrasies a little better.

Please don’t get me wrong, 95% of the time my husband is this great guy, but every now and then he gets into one of his moods and makes me want to scream. If you haven’t guessed…he’s in one of those moods. So in order to keep the peace, I shut off my computer and started straightening. Of course, he made no comment last night when he saw the almost clean house, but I really didn’t expect him to. Sigh!!

I hope you have a fantastic (non-frustrating) Friday, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story with the following three elements: a wicked storm is brewing, you lose power, and there are young children with you.

 

Karen was annoyed. The weatherman had said the storm shouldn’t be hitting them until late that night. Yet here she was, at three in the afternoon, with a house full of kids for her daughter’s birthday party, and it looked like the beginning of the apocalypse outside. The lights had already flickered several times and she could tell the children were getting anxious.

“Okay guys, we are going to move this party into the basement. Everybody grab something and follow Shelly downstairs.”

While the kids set everything up downstairs, Karen gathered candles just in case, and some games to keep the children occupied. If the scene outside her window was any indication, she knew parents wouldn’t be there in an hour to pick up the kids, so she needed to plan accordingly. She hoped, since the storm arrived much earlier than planned, it would blow through quickly.

As she descended the last step, a loud clap of thunder sounded and the basement was pitched into total darkness.

 

Hmm, this one wasn’t as easy as I thought it was going to be. I had no clear idea of where I was going to go on this one. Oh well.

 

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.