January 3rd, 2015 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Two days in a row, I know, but don’t get used to it. I will try to post a little something often, but it won’t be like before. I need to become greedy with my time if I plan on finishing the two books I have started, and one more contemporary, plus at least another short for Annie Acorn Publishing, before the end of the year.

I have to submit my short story for the 2016 edition of Spirited Tales (as soon as the 2015 edition of Spirited Tales is available, I’ll let you know), plus a possible submission for either the 2016 Valentine’s anthology or a 2016 Romance anthology – we’re still tossing around possibilities. I have a story idea, but I don’t know if it will end up being a short story, a novelette, a novella, or an actual novel. Annie said to just write it, and we’ll worry about how to package it later. Love her! She took that stressor and blew it out of the picture. Now I’ll just be able to write the story until it’s finished, hand it over to her, and let her work her brand of magic. I’ll be sure to keep you in the loop as things become more concrete.

Although it’s three months away, I’m fairly certain I will be participating in April’s Camp NaNoWriMo, so that, and possibly July’s Camp, will produce the next contemporary – which I think will be Taming Tate, unless some other characters start yelling louder between now and then. I need to finish and publish FTQ before April or I will not be eligible for the Princeton Author’s Day this year, and since I had originally planned for it to be out before Christmas, but life got in the way; it is now my top priority.

I will need to take at least day away from writing in order to get all my financials together for taxes. I do this all the time. I start the year off well, recording all my income, expenses, mileage, etc., then I get busy and the “office work” gets shoved to the back burner, and come January, I end up having to reconstruct ¾ of a year’s worth of financials. Then I curse myself for not keeping up with it because I can’t find all my receipts or the slip of paper where I wrote down my miles for my trip out to Bumblesquatch; and then I swear next year will be better, but I only seem to get better by a week or two. At the rate I’m going, I’ll be in my nineties before I have a system down. Pathetic? Lazy? Procrastination? Old timers setting in? Disorganization? Take your pick, any explanation would fit.

Okay, as I said, Faerie Tale Queen is my top priority, and since it is still ridiculously early on a Saturday morning, my house should be quiet for a minimum of two more hours, so I should get to work. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

It’s time to pack away the holiday decorations…

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.

April 29th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina -

Good Morning! Yeah, my daughter finally turned down her radio so I can concentrate enough to write. She HAS TO have the radio on when she’s in the shower, and in order to hear the music while in the shower, it has to be a quite loud.

I don’t know about you, but at 5:00 am, I kinda like it quiet. I require just a little bit of time in the mornings, before everyone else is up, to sit, have my first cup of coffee, and wake up. I don’t need much time, fifteen – twenty minutes or so. Now, with the weather getting warm, unless I plan on waking up at 4:30 every morning, I won’t get that time. Warm weather means shorts weather, and shorts weather means extra time in the shower to shave weather. Which means Dani wants to be woken up at five, so she has time to get ready for school.

So, Monday through Friday for the next seven weeks until school gets out, my writing is going to be done in fits and starts – a couple of minutes before she wakes up, a little bit more while she gets dressed (the music is on low then and it’s in her bedroom, so it doesn’t disturb me), and then I’ll have to wait until she leaves at 6:45. Then I’ll have until 8:15, when I have to stop to get my hubby up and out of the house. Then, depending on the day, I may have from 8:45 – 10:15 before I have to get ready for work. Basically, if all things go smoothly, I get four hours to write every day.

Not sure how things work around your house, but around here, they rarely go smoothly. It’s going to take a whole lot of days to finish FTQ and Simply by Chance, only being able to work for four hours a day. I was hoping for a July release date for FTQ (before the next camp starts), and then a November release for Simply by Chance (before real NaNoWriMo starts), but I’m a little concerned now if I will be able to make those deadlines.

My first two weeks in May are going to be spent editing a book for a friend and also reading and reviewing another book. These were promises I made before Camp NaNo, which I had to put on hold until camp was over. After I finish these two, I am going to hang up my editing and reviewing hats for a while, so I can focus all of my energy on my own work. It’s hard to be creative when I’m stressed, and even though the deadlines are self-imposed, I’m still stressing.

My readers have waited a long time for the next installment in the Bradford Series; and I really don’t want them to wait too much longer, they may lose interest. Although I will be sad when my character dies, I do think I am ready now to proceed with the story. I still have a ton of research to do, but I think I’ll just write and then highlight areas I think need more fact checking, then go back and add it in during the editing / rewriting phase.

Okay, let me get going, because I have holy mess to clean up. I left a double load of clean laundry, in a basket, in front of the dryer, for my hubby to bring upstairs for me. He didn’t get to it last night, and Lys went to take a bath. I realize that statement doesn’t make any sense to you. You see, for some reason, whenever we use the jets on the tub, water leaks into the basement; and, you guessed it, the water drips right over the spot in front of the dryer. Now, if I want to have clothes to wear to work today, I need to go rewash and redry my clothes.

Oh yeah, and the second part of the double load, was all my husband’s work shirts, which were laid out on top of the basket. UGH! Laundry is one of my least favorite chores, so having to do it twice really fries my cookies. I don’t blame Lys though, she forgot about the leak, and it took me about fifteen minutes to register she was taking a bath, before I ran downstairs and moved the basket.

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

Your Last Challenge was:

This is going to be a tough one, for ten minutes straight – WITHOUT STOPPING – do a stream of consciousness writing. If you get stuck and don’t know what to write, write “I don’t know what to write. I don’t know what to write…” The most important thing is you DO NOT stop writing until your timer goes off. Your subject is OUTDOORS.

Outside? Why did I pick outside? Was I thinking I would write about the beach or a walk in the forest? I have no idea. I know, outside is something I get to look at through the window and wish I could spend more time out there, but I’m inside on my computer instead. If the screen was better on my computer, I could sit outside and write, but the battery would die too quickly so that would be annoying. I guess I could drag an extension cord out there. Boy wouldn’t that look ridiculous. If I was outside I would get distracted by the noise or a squirrel or something. You know me, shiny objects. I don’t know what to write. These things are such a pain. By the time I get done with what I call a brain puke – ten minutes of non stop writing, my head hurts and my fingers are all cramped up. I don’t know what to write. I hate it when Kieth does these in our writing group. So why the heck did I suggest one here. My head is starting to hurt already and my pinky is getting cramped. My right pinky. I hold it up in the air while I type. My left pinky I actually use while I type, but that right one is poised like I’m at high tea. I’m glad no one watches me while I write. I have some really quirky traits. What does this have to do with outdoors? Man, another shiny object. I’m hopeless. Three more mintues and I don’t know what to right. I don’t know what to write, I don’t know what to write Outdoors. Outdoors. I want to be outdoors. I want to be at the beach. Watching the waves, listening to the surf, smelling the salty air. I love the beach, but I love the beach when I’m the only one on the beach, and that never happens. It’s always so dang crowded. Even if I go in the off season, and a not so nice day, I still run into someone. It makes me a little annoyed. No that is not accurate it makes me mad. I selfishly want the beach to myself. My quiet time, my time to think or not thing.

Time is up. Yeah!!! Thank God. Ugh, those are tiring. Don’t worry, you won’t get another for a long time.

Your Next Challenge is:

I wonder what’s in the box…

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.

January 7th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Lord it’s COLD out! -19° wind chill! I don’t ever remember it being this cold in New Jersey. The coldest temperature ever recorded in New Jersey was -34 in 1904, needless to say, a bit before my time; so I guess we have a ways to go before we hit a record, but dang – it sure is cold!!

I’m not sure if it was because of the cold or because of frozen road conditions, but the kids have a delayed opening today. I know I’m going to have a battle on my hands later this morning insisting Dani wear a coat to school. She says she can’t because she cannot make it back to her locker at the end of the day and still catch her bus on time; but today I am going to put my foot down. I have her tell her bus driver this morning that she’ll be a minute late getting to the bus this afternoon. I’m sure the driver will understand.

I took on another editing assignment. So far the story is interesting and I am looking forward to seeing where it goes, and other than one recurring correction, it is going rather smoothly. The one thing that will be a challenge is, once I formatted the manuscript correctly, it brought it to over six hundred pages, so finishing it in the six weeks I quoted is going to be tough. Formatting and editing the first chapter took me four hours already. At that rate it would be more like eight to ten weeks of me working every day. Let’s hope things go a little quicker today.

Until I find a job, my plan is to split the allotted hours between editing and my own writing. I still have to finish Simply by Chance and Faerie Tale Queen, as well as do one more thorough edit on Corporate Blues before I send it off to my editor. It has been a few months since I looked at Corporate Blues, so I should be able to treat it as if it is a piece which was submitted for me to edit as opposed to being a piece I have written. Hopefully, my editor will be getting a fairly clean copy and will have an easy time with it.

Okay, off to the salt mines. I wish you all a warm day & happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

It was nice while it lasted…

I can’t complain. I was afforded an opportunity very few people will get to experience; a time to remove myself from the “real world” and focus on something I love to do. During these past two years I have published two books, brought three more to various stages of completion, suffered bumps and bruises of the publishing world, learned a lot about my characters’ worlds and my own, met some amazing people, started a blog, and grew as a writer. I have made public appearances, had several book signings, sat on an author’s panel at a school, and even won a fairly prestigious award for my writing.

All of this was made possible because someone I loved believed in me, and left me the resources to be able to pursue my dream. It was an amazing gift, a gift for which I am truly grateful.  It gave me the confidence to know I can eventually make a living doing something I love, even though it is going to take a little longer than I had hoped. So in the meantime, I need to reenter the real world and figure out how to meld my two worlds into one. It was nice while it lasted…

Your Next Challenge is:

There’s nothing better on a cold day than…

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.

December 7th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

First I want to take a moment to remember all those lives lost over seventy years ago today. Most of you are not old enough to remember Pearl Harbor, but you are, I’m pretty sure, old enough to remember 9-11. Remember the horror you felt when our country came under attack? Well, I’m sure, our country was feeling the same way back in 1941. Over 2,400 people lost their lives that infamous day in Hawaii, and they should be remembered.

So, yesterday was kind of exciting. I realized some of you are not on Facebook, so I will share what I posted there yesterday afternoon:

 

“So I just got off the phone with the publisher from NYC, and I am doing my happy dance. 

He told me he was "proud" to have presented Corporate Blues to his team this morning. He thought it was a published book already, because not only did I send him the fully formatted, ebook ready, manuscript, I sent him the artwork for the cover. He immediately wanted to know who did the cover and if those beautiful blues were mine, and I told him no, they were a friend of mine's daughter's and Riverbench Publishing made the cover. (He raved about the cover, so, Linda Rawlins, there very well may be a phone call in Matt's future as well.) 

I reminded him what I sent was an unedited first draft, and he told me to "Stop it! You should see some of the s**t that comes across my desk." He also said he was having his secretary print out a copy so he could take it home this weekend to read it, and his team would have an answer back to him by the end of next week, because he was "pushing hard for this one".

I know I shouldn't get my hopes up, and I know I shouldn't take a chance in jinxing it by telling you, but he was so excited on the phone, it was contagious. Please keep your fingers crossed for me!”

I also posted this on my personal Facebook page as well. I usually try to keep my personal and my professional identities separate, but I was really excited, so I wanted to share the news in both places. I don’t want to get my hopes up too high because of my last experience with a traditional publisher, but I will admit, it was a big ego boost to have a publisher truly excited about my work.

Now, all I have to do is wait a week to see if his team is just as excited as he was about the book. Piece of cake…NOT. I’m nervous about sending them an unedited version, but that’s what he asked for, so that’s what I sent. I’m also wondering if they will approve of how I ended the story or if they will want more. That is, if they even like what I sent to start with, or if Corporate Blues simply ends up in the circular file.

If it does, I’ll simply polish it myself and release it through CreateSpace as I did the others. I don’t need a mainstream publisher to pick me up, but it would sure be nice. If I did, that would mean someone else was dealing with the business end and I could concentrate on writing instead of having to split my time. Which at the moment is roughly 65% marketing and 35% writing, and that does not sit well with me.

I still have to finish Faerie Tale Queen and Simply by Chance, and I have two more stories rattling around in my brain that are getting impatient and want to be told. Plus, I think a publishing contract would validate my career choice in my husband’s eyes and I’d get a little more support on the home front. But again, I’m putting the horse before the cart. There are no guarantees, and until there are, I just have to sit patiently and wait.

I think I will take a break from writing today and start decorating my house for Christmas, because other than the tree being up, I really haven’t done anything yet. I also have to make a batch of potato pancakes (requested by the hostess) to bring to our first holiday party of the season.

So, I am off to start all of that. I hope you have a fabulous day, and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

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.

 

I honestly cannot think of one person to single out, because of what I consider “great”, can be achieved by anyone who truly wants it. You do not need to be Nelson Mandela or Mother Teresa, to be great. You do not need to have won the Nobel Prize or have found a cure for some horrible disease to be great. You do not need to be featured on the cover of Time to be great.

In my eyes, greatness is a gift within each and every one of us, for I believe if you have the ability to change just one person’s life for the better, then you are a great person. Let’s face it, the Nelson Mandela’s of the world are few and far between. Not many of us are called to fight for justice the way he was, and our small acts of kindness will probably never get worldwide acclaim, but notoriety shouldn’t be a driving factor anyway.

If you start by just trying to make the immediate circle around you a better place, then before you know it, the circle will grow. You do not need to be rich or powerful to make someone else’s life better, something as simple as a friendly smile or a kind word could mean the world to someone.

 

The ten minutes are up, but I think you can figure out where I was going with this.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Write a story containing: an animal, a magical being, and snow

 

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.

September 11th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

The line above my greeting is for a company who sponsors blogs and helps writers. It’s really a cool idea for the professional blogger. It was neat the way it works, but it didn’t like the way I wrote the next paragraph with the “____” or the “kinda sorta” or the alphabet sentence. It found 34 things in first five paragraphs below. I told them I would acknowledge them on my blog today, but I didn’t know if any of my audience could benefit from their services. Whatever, if they think my saying is catchy, it puts me in a drawing for $100 gift card.

J

It’s hard to believe it has been twelve years since the attack. So much has happened in that time, so much has changed. I have noticed, as I’ve gotten older, I have said many times “____ was really that long ago? Wow, I thought it was only___.” Whether this has anything to do with a failing memory, I have no idea, but I think it has more to do with the hectic lives we lead.

Think about it. Haven’t you been surprised to find out so-and-so has been dead for ten years, not six or seven? Or, they’ve been married twenty years already? Really? I can’t be the only one who experiences this…

Last night my writing group started up again, well kinda sorta. It’s a writing group and there are some of the folks from the original writing group, and the group is now being run by my friend Keith instead of my friend Beth, so actually, we didn’t start up again, it’s a new group. The turnout was huge, I think there was close to twenty-five people. It was nice seeing several new people, even a thirteen year old boy came to the group. Keith did this one challenge where you had to write sentences where each word had to begin with the next letter of the alphabet. Here’s one of mine as an example: Only Persnickety Quilters Ruthlessly Stitch Tablecloths Under Verandas With Xavier Youngblood. Needless to say, there was a lot of giggling going on as we shared our ridiculous sentences. Todd, the guy who runs our critique group swam circles around us when he wrote a cohesive story which went through the alphabet three times.

It is time for me to start getting into a routine again, and get out of summer mode. I need to make a “To Do” list so I can stay focused. With my daughter off at school for seven hours, and no one in the house, I have no excuse not to have the place clean and to pound out a minimum of 1K words a day. I need to finish Corporate Blues and send it to my editor so it can be released in November. I also have to write the dreaded blurb for the back of the book and get it to the graphic designer. The cover is finished and it looks amazing, but he is still waiting for me to provide the teaser on the back so he can be done with the project. I also want to have Simply By Chance out in January, so I really need to get my butt in gear.

On that note, I should get a move on. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

I remember where I was that day…

Growing up, my grandparents talked about knowing exactly where they were, what they were doing, and who they were with when Pearl Harbor was bombed. For my parents, it was exactly the same when they heard President Kennedy was shot. At that point in my life, the only monumental thing that had happened was a man landed on the moon, and my memories were sketchy at best; but then again, I was only three, so I really couldn’t relate.

Then, on a cold January day in 1986, I got a small piece of what they had been talking about. I was in my apartment, alone, getting ready for work and I had the TV on watching the space shuttle launch. I watched in shock and I thought it was a Hollywood prank, but no. Seven people were dead. I can still picture the smiling teacher Christa’s face. Yes, it was a horrible memory, but it was not earth shattering, at least not for me personally.

The next disaster, I was clutching my two month old daughter and watching the havoc Timothy McVeigh wrought in Oklahoma. Images are vivid, but life moved on pretty much as usual. Two years later, hearing of Princess Di’s death also left an imprint, but it wasn’t until September 11, 2001 that I really understood what my grandparents and parents meant.

I remember every minute from when my mother called me at work to say they think a small commuter plane had just crashed into one of the towers until I finally passed out over two days later from exhaustion. The images still haunt and the emotions can be brought up with very little effort.

Totally ran out of time, but I am sure you all have your own memories of that fateful day and you do not need my full recount.

I do have a confession to make though. When you see these long responses to a ten minute prompt, I do, after the ten minutes are up, go back and put in the paragraphs to make it look a little neater. The writing itself though IS done in the ten minute time allotment, it’s just usually in the form of one giant paragraph, and if there is dialog, I do make sure I did not miss any quotation marks to minimize any confusion, but that is all the editing I do.

Your Next Challenge is:

It is the first really cold day and you decide you need your coat. You have not worn your coat since last winter. You put it on, reach in the pocket and find…

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.

August 19th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

It’s Monday, so back to the real world. Vacation is over and the “To Do” list is a bit overwhelming. I might actually make a physical “To Do” list so I can keep on track or I very well may lose my mind over the next five days.

 

Tuesday is supposed to be my critique group, but I’m not sure if I will be able to fit it in to the schedule. I’m going to try though, just for a sanity break if nothing else. The critique group is an eclectic bunch and I really enjoy their company as well as their comments. I have been spoon feeding them chapters of Simply by Chance every session and have actually been implementing their suggestions. It has been very beneficial and I hope the suggestions I am making on their respective works is helpful to them as well. I’m not sure if I will be able to continue with the group for much longer if I get a similar program running at my local library. Hopefully, if I can’t, I will figure out some way to keep in touch with the group, and maybe some of the folks who live close will come to my library’s writers’ workshop and critique group. I really need to sit down with the director and hammer out all the details or I will never get the project off the ground!

OK, you have had several days to come up with things to do while stuck in the house on a rainy day. Did you come up with something fun?

Hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

You’re stuck in the house on a rainy day.

 

I didn’t even have to open my eyes and look outside to know I wasn’t going anywhere today. The low rumble of thunder and the repetitive patter of rain hitting my window was what woke me. Perhaps I should just stay in bed and sleep away the day. No, that won’t do. The kids will be up and complaining they’re bored. What can we do to keep them entertained? If I let them, they’ll sit in front of the idiot box all day. It would make things easier on me, but that’s a cop-out. There’s cards, but that will last exactly one game, so forty-five minutes to an hour. Woohoo. They’re not ones for Yatzee or board games, so they’re out. Ooo, I know! A few months ago I bought dye and I have those t-shirts I still haven’t returned. We’ll tie-dye. It will probably make a holy mess, but who cares? It will keep us occupied for a few hours and the kids will have something to show for the day. Now I’m excited to get this rainy day started.

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.

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.