February 17th, 2015

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning. It’s another snow day in central New Jersey. The main roads all look clear, but I wonder what all the back roads look like. A while back RV and I discussed that if the kids have off because of snow, then we have off, but I’m not sure if she’s changed her mind or not. I’m waiting for a phone call to see if I have to go to work today or not.

Honestly, I’d rather have the day off, but not for selfish reasons. I really don’t want her out in this weather. The last thing she needs is to slip on an unshoveled path. She’s supposed to have therapy today, but with the wind blowing the snow, I don’t think they will be able to keep the walkway clear enough to be safe. It’s her call, but…

So, since this really is supposed to be a blog about writing and not just me, I am going to try to dedicate at least a portion of it (other than the writing challenge) to writing or books or marketing your books, whatever. It’s only right.

Today’s writing related topic is writing itself, and if you are a writer, your need to get in the habit of writing every day, not matter what. The only way to get good at something is to practice, but let’s face it, life tends to get in the way. There is a tool out there which you may find helpful. A friend of mine, and fellow author, K.Edwin Fritz, put together this spreadsheet to help you form good writing habits.

The spreadsheet tracks for you how many words you’ve written every day, and it also tracks how much time you have spent reading (the best writers read veraciously), and how much time you spend on other writing related endeavors (ie: social media marketing, editing, appearances, etc.) You earn points for each thing (not that the points get you anything other than a feeling of accomplishment), and you can see how you stack up against other writers – a friendly competition to push yourself to reach the next rung on the ladder.

The sheet is on its second reincarnation – he made it a lot easier – so there are only two dozen or so writers signed up at the moment, but if the last sheet was any indication, that number will climb exponentially over the next few months. The time couldn’t be better than to jump on board. It’s FREE, and it offers you – the lonely writer – a sense of community. Please consider signing up today.

Well, I should get ready, just in case I do have to go to work today. I hope you have a terrific day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

What is up with the wildlife today???

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.

February 18th

Hi, it’s Christina –

I was up before five this morning, and when I went outside with the dog, there was less than an inch of snow on the ground, but when I came back in, I checked the school’s website just in case. Sure enough, we had a two hour delay. Two hours later we had a little over two inches of snow. No big deal. I woke Dani up so she could get ready for school, and fifteen minutes later, we get a phone call saying school has been cancelled…again. Really? They couldn’t have called a few minutes earlier?

So, as of right now, the only day the kids have left of spring break is Good Friday. I feel bad for all the families who had vacations planned. I also worry that these families are still going ahead with their original plans, because I just heard yesterday that if the schools don’t have 80% attendance, the day doesn’t count. I have not verified this little tidbit of information, not exactly sure how I would go about doing it really, but if that is the case, I think we may run into a whole lot of problems.

This winter has been murder for schools throughout the state, and I truly feel the governor needs to step in at this point. Yes, the kids should be in school for 180 days. Yes, education is extremely important. However, when Mother Nature steps in and makes it virtually impossible, the kids shouldn’t be made to suffer. It’s not like anyone can control the weather.

UPDATES:

My “niece” is now home from the hospital and learning how to function without the use of one arm and one leg. The doctors told her eight weeks before she is allowed to put any pressure on her ankle, and with her hand being out of commission as well, she can’t use crutches. My girlfriend Sharon is going to have one stir crazy, cranky teenage on her hands in a very short amount of time. Perhaps you should add prayers for her sanity as well as for my niece’s recovery.

The driver from the other car, Jimmy, is still in ICU, on a vent, and in a drug induced coma, so he is still in desperate need of your prayers. I do not know the boy or his family, so it’s questionable if I will be able to get any more updates, but if I do, I will let you know.

To the best of my knowledge, there are still no leads in Billy’s, the young man who was found beaten to death Saturday morning, case. I find it hard to believe no one saw or heard anything. You can’t honestly tell me there’s no one on or around the Rutgers campus who’s either acting squirrely or has bruised knuckles or has simply been MIA since Saturday. Perhaps the police do have leads and they are just not making them public. In the meantime, yet another family in my town is making preparation to lay their child to rest and all the young folks are reeling. We have lost so many kids since the summer of 2008, it is positively heartbreaking.

Thanking you in advance for all your prayers! (For those of you who don’t believe or are non-religious, please just send out good thoughts into the universe.)

I did get some editing done yesterday, but zero writing done on my own projects. Instead of stressing myself out, I am going to put my own stuff on hold until I finish editing the book I’m working on. I had hoped to be finished with it by now, but it is REALLY long – over 600 pages at the moment – and life has been getting in the way of me being able to spend as much time on it as I’d like.

The one thing that is keeping me from pulling my hair out, it the story is quite good, and after the author does some rewrites, it’s going to be really good. The manuscript has some booboos, recurring booboos, but no major catastrophes, so he’ll be getting a whole lot less yellow highlights than some of my previous edits. The biggest challenge will be convincing him the story needs to be cut down to the 400 page range or it will be a tough sell. We’ll cross that bridge when we come to it. He’s smart and very talented, so I have every confidence he will be able to trim effectively.

Okay, enough chit-chat, I’ve got to get to work. (Since it is getting late, I’m going to save the challenge until tomorrow.) I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

January 22nd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I’m the biggest idiot ever! The last big snow we got was over Christmas break, and when my husband came home from work, he was annoyed that he had to go and shovel snow after working all day when the girls and I were home all day. I didn’t want a repeat of that whole scene, so I started to shovel yesterday afternoon. We only had about five inches at the time and it was a very dry, light, fluffy snow, so it wasn’t very hard to move. I made one path (so I wasn’t standing in snow) by pushing the shovel across the driveway and then I tossed small shoves of snow from the edge of the path out of the way. The first two path/toss sections went very well, but when I was pushing my third path, I hit a crack in the driveway, my shovel got caught, it jostled my back and sent it into spasms all over again. I spent the rest of the day in bed, on a heating pad, in agony. WHEN WILL I EVER LEARN??

Now it’s Wednesday. The house is still a disaster. My back is still killing me. I have a house full of people coming on Saturday, and I’m debating about driving to Vermont tomorrow and spending the night because I don’t know if my back would be able to handle a round trip on Friday. Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you, I’m going to pick up Lys for the weekend so she can see Kyle. If I don’t, they may miss seeing each other in August because he doesn’t know when his leave is going to be and she may be back at school already. Since they were born, I don’t think they have spent more than ten days apart, and this separation has been tough on both of them. So off to Vermont I go so Lys can see him at the dinner I’m having for him on Saturday. Then we leave early Sunday morning to bring her back because she has class on Monday. (Fair warning, there may not be any writing prompts this weekend.)

At around six last night the township emergency alert called to say there would be a delayed opening for the schools today. They said they would be monitoring the roads in the morning to determine if school will be cancelled. I woke Dani up at 7:00 so she could start getting ready for school. She was in the shower by 7:10, and at 7:15 the call came saying school was cancelled. Boy was she happy when she got out of the shower and I told her to go back to bed. I got the “well, I’m up now” glare. Whether she actually goes back to sleep or not is still to be determined, but she is in her room being quiet, so I can continue to write.

Although it’s hard to tell because the wind has been blowing a bit, I’m pretty sure we got at least a foot of snow yesterday. Remember back in October I told you about the old wives’ tale my grandmother had told me about when we see the first snow and it’s correlation to how many times we’ll see snow during the season? I’m sure most of you thought I was crazy predicting such a high number, but here it is January 22^nd, only one month into winter, and we’ve already seen snow twenty-one times. Baba’s tale isn’t sounding so far-fetched any more is it?

Okay, my back is cramping up so I need to get up and move around for a little while. I hope you all have a wonderful day & happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

I’ve never seen a (insert animal here) do that!

I was laughing so hard, I had tears rolling down my cheeks. If I hadn’t known better I would have thought I was either dreaming or had stepped into a cartoon, because I have never seen a squirrel do that except in a cartoon.

It was a beautiful spring day and the kids had the day off from school, so I suggested we have a picnic lunch in the park. We gathered our food, a huge blanket, a Frisbee and a ball and headed off for a carefree afternoon. We spread our blanket on a sunny patch of grass near the edge of the woods. After we finished eating, the kids grabbed the Frisbee and headed up the hill to play and I elected to stay on the blanket and enjoy a little peace and quiet.

I had just finished packing up the remains of our lunch, and was sitting on the blanket watching the squirrels’ antics. It was apparent they were enjoying the beautiful day as well. They were chasing each other around the grounds, up the tree, then around the grounds again.

Then I noticed one squirrel not playing with the others. He was off to the side, near the base of a tree, and he looked like he was trying to get something unstuck. He pulled, released, backed up and looked at the object, then went back and started scratching the ground around the object and tried pulling again. Whatever it was, it wouldn’t budge, and the squirrel repeated the whole process.

No big deal, right? You’ve probably seen animals do this hundreds of times, but here’s where it gets funny. After four or five attempts to dislodge the object, the squirrel backs away again, stands up on his hind legs, scratches his head, and then puts his hands on his hips. It honestly looked like he was puzzling out his dilemma. I laughed myself silly.

  

Your Next Challenge is:

Tell us about a toy you still have from your childhood

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.