April 1st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

GOOD MORNING! Believe it or not, I have been up for hours already, and I’m just getting to my blog. Since Camp NaNo started today, I decided to dive right in and get the ball rolling. I was kinda bummed to find my friend Dorothy May was not assigned to my cabin…again, but we’ll still keep each other going through this crazy month ahead.

I did finish my editing project at around eight last night, and forwarded the edited manuscript back to its author. The story was good, had quite a few laugh out loud moments, and when he gets done editing, he’ll have a really good story. He had a few questions, so I shot him a LONG email this morning. I love having the opportunity to help new authors, but I think Joe might be the last one I can help as far as pro bono edits. L I just don’t have the time, and I refuse to give a sub-par edit. I’ll continue to do them for my small circle of friends, but I will no longer choose an Indie author at random and offer my services.

Writing today is going to be difficult, but I’m NOT complaining. I have to keep stopping to answer phone texts and FB messages. All the birthday messages have really made my day, and it’s not even eight in the morning yet! I am truly blessed!!

Okay, I’m going to run so I can try to get another chapter completed before I have to leave for work. Ooo, that sounds weird, but I’m looking forward to it.

I hope y’all have an amazing day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Help, I’m shrinking…

In retrospect, I guess it all started about a week ago when I noticed my wedding ring was getting loose. I didn’t pay it much mind though, I just figured I was finally losing a little weight, so I wasn’t going to complain. The next thing I noticed was I couldn’t reach something on the top shelf in my cabinet, and considering I had just put the item on the shelf a few days prior, not being able to reach it again, had me a little baffled. Then, the other night, I had to cheek up into the chair at the dinner table. Okay, I know I have bar height chairs, but come on, my kids don’t even have to stretch to get into them.

Something weird was going on, and I mentioned it to my husband, but he thought I was nuts. Well, this morning, when I woke up, I swung my feet over the side of the bed…and they didn’t reach the floor! I fumbled for the light and flipped it on, just to make sure I was fully awake and not dreaming. I looked down at my feet, and there they were, dangling about two inches off the floor.

Well my five a.m. shriek woke my husband. He got up to see what had me so upset, and did a double take when he saw my feet. He doesn’t think I’m nuts anymore.

Your Next Challenge is:

Oh No! Not again…

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.

March 30th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Guess what I did last night? I went out with a group of friends for dinner, and to listen to some guys from my high school’s band play. Me, the perpetual homebody, the veritable hermit, went out and partied. I haven’t done that in forever. We had a blast, but today I have such a rip roaring headache.

It’s just not fair. For the most part, I don’t drink. If we’re home and having a picnic, I may take a cooler, but then my girlfriends laugh at me because they know they’ll be getting half to three quarters of it, because I won’t finish it. At Christmastime, I make homemade Irish Cream, and I will have a little bit of that – usually in my coffee or hot cocoa. If we’re out somewhere, I may try a taste of something someone else is having if it sounds interesting. Like last night, they had this raspberry beer on tap, and my husband got one of those little sample glasses to try it. He took a sip, made a face, and put the glass down on the table. So, with that reaction, I had to taste it. Ninety-nine percent of the time, I can’t stand beer. I think it tastes disgusting, and I can’t see how anyone could possibly like drinking skunk urine (that’s what it smells like to me). Anyway, the raspberry beer wasn’t half bad. I’d still never drink a glass, but a sip was tolerable.

One of my girlfriends had a Cosmo, and it smelled good, so I took a sip of that as well. I was surprised, it tasted almost as good as it smelled, but again, I wasn’t ordering a whole one. Plus I was driving, so there was no way in hell I was going to have any alcohol in my system. So, as you can see, I’m a real lightweight when it comes to drinking, yet after a night out, I wake up the next morning with a hangover. Again I say, it’s just not fair.

The “morning after” aside, I had a great time last night. At one point, I looked around the table and realized half of my closest friends were there to celebrate my birthday with me. Bec (and Lenny), Fran (and Carl), Sharon, and Dina all were able to come. Now if Barb, Barb (and John), Karolyn, Kelly (and Wyatt), and Nadia had showed up, I would have been over the moon. (I love the significant others dearly as well.) I can’t remember a time when all of my friends were together, in the same room, at the same time.

So, the band did really well last night. I did bust their hump a little. Once when Craig went to take a break, and I told him he must be getting old, because back in their high school days, they could play for hours without stopping; and then once when my friend Gary was singing and I made him spit out his gum. He has a great voice, and it gets muffled when he has gum in his mouth. I vaguely remember yelling at him for the same thing when we were younger. Craig’s daughter was also singing, and let me tell you, she had an incredible voice. Her tone was so pure, it was amazing. So, if you ever have the opportunity to hear “The Craig Leach Band”, and you like 60s, 70s & 80s rock, go see them. I think you’ll enjoy them.

Now, I did have one big surprise last night, Gary, who I have known forever, and always refer to as “my friend from high school”, was never actually in the high school at the same time I was. He graduated before I even got to the high school. However, because the few friends he had who were younger than him were the same few friends I had who were older than me; we ended up knowing each other. All these years, I thought Gary was a grade or two ahead of me, not five! It’s a little strange believing something for a long time, only to find out that’s not the case. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to say, “Gary is a friend I met when I was in high school” now. LOL

I should get going, because I still want to give you a new writing challenge, and I’d like to get more done on my editing project. I’m getting closer, but I’m still not done. ARGH!! I hope y’all have a Super Sunday, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story containing the following three: Quest, Midnight, Promise

Because of a promise he had made to a dying friend, James was now on the quest of a lifetime. Around midnight, two weeks ago, James and Tom were at a bar, having a drink after they went off duty, when Tom told James he had just learned he may have a son. The news had floored James. He and Tom had become fast friends when they met at the Academy, nearly twenty years ago. They were stationed together, and together they climbed the ranks within the department. Ten years ago, when they both made detective, the best friends became partners.

In all that time, Tom had never told James about Becky, his first love, the girl he had wanted to marry, but her father had forbidden it. The man was so against a union between Tom and his daughter, he literally packed up his family and moved them away.

Trying to be creative with a mondo headache, is not working to well for me today. Sorry.

Your Next Challenge is:

Help, I’m shrinking…

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.