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.

January 29th, 2015 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Yeah, I know, it’s been forever. If it’s any consolation, I have been busy. All of my books are available on Nook again. I am also trying to get them up and running on Kobo, but I keep running into problems. They won’t load correctly. I couldn’t get the chapters to break properly, so it didn’t look right. Then I finally figured out how to fix it – sort of – and then I found a bunch of other issues.

The most annoying one was, for some unexplained reason, when I started a sentence with a quotation mark, the Kobo program put a space between the quotation mark and the first letter. I had to go in and manually change each and every one of them. When I FINALLY finished, I couldn’t get a preview of the book. I gave the Kobo team access to my books, so they could try and figure out what is going wrong.

Even though all three books are uploaded onto their system, I only did this for Corporate Blues. Be darned if I am going through and correcting line by line the other two. Heck, Taking Chances is over 120K words!

I don’t get it. It’s not like I’m a novice with creating e-books. I’ve been doing this for three years, with very few issues. Kobo, which is supposedly the easiest platform, is giving me the most angst. Hopefully I’ll hear back from them today, and the remaining two books will load without a hitch. I have invested just shy of sixty, that’s right 60, hours already, and I don’t even have one book live on Kobo. It took me between three and four hours to get all three books live on Nook.

I also took this opportunity to re-edit all three books. It has been years since I’ve read them, so I was seeing them with fresh eyes. Thankfully there were only a few small errors, but there was one in Taking Chances, which had me doing a head smack. Even though I’m pretty sure none of my readers would take the time to do the math, something jumped out at me. (No, I’m not going to tell you what it was. If you didn’t catch it, then that just proves my point.) I corrected, what to me was a grievous error, and all is right with the Bradford world again.

This brings me to a question for all of you. Even if you do not chose to do today’s writing prompt – even though I think you would have fun with it, I did – I would like you to reply. My question is, how closely do you pay attention to small details while you are reading? Do you stop and say to yourself, “wait a minute, that doesn’t add up” or go back and do the math?

I think I have always done that, and now with writing and editing, I do it even more. I’m down right terrible with it. I have even, while reading a series, gone back to a previous book in the series, to check something – back in book one you said he had three sisters, now in book four he only has two, where did he lose a sister?? You get my drift.

Perhaps this is one of the reasons Simply by Chance is taking so much longer to write than the first two books in the Bradford Series. I have come to a decision. I am going to get one of those large evidence boards like you see in TV cop shows, and I am going to map out my books. Characters, relations, homes, staff, distance between each point of interest, timeline. This way I will be spending less time going through my previous books to figure out if something I’m mentioning in a current book gels.

Speaking of writing, which is something I should be doing WAY more of, I had an idea. I bounced it off Annie Acorn, my publisher for all things non-novel, and she liked it. I want to know what you think. (Yikes, I’m asking y’all to respond to three different things in one post.) Here’s the idea – a project I’m going to call Bradford Shorts. Would you like to hear how Aaron & Suzanne got together, or how about Derrek & Anna, or Patrick & Arianna? I’m not sure each of these couples warrant an entire novel, however, a short story or novella may be just the ticket. I would sell each one separately and in a boxed set. As the Bradford Series progresses, I’m sure more secondary couples will arise, and with them subsequent “shorts”. So what do you think?

Okay, there are some things I need to get done before I have to leave to pick up RV. One of the things is calling the courthouse to see where my jury duty papers are. Last year, I was called for jury duty, and it was supposed to start on the same day I started with RV. They let me postpone it until this year. Even though I know it is supposed to be either the first or second week in February, I don’t know the exact dates, and I have not received notification. I need to be able to plan accordingly, so not knowing won’t cut mustard; hence the phone call.

Alright, let me boogie. I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is (stolen from my friend Keith. Since we didn’t have our writing group this week because of the snow, this was one of our “homework” assignments – I’ve also posted my response below, if anyone is interested):

A dog's (or cat's, or horse's, etc) perspective/ interpretation of experiencing snow for the first time

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.

My response:

You said the “O” word. I heard it. Out, out, out. We’re going OUT. Yeah, I like out.

Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go. Why are you taking so long? Quit looking for your glove, you’re not going to find it. At least I hope you don’t find it, or you’ll start yelling.

Come on, come on, come on. Open the door already, I gotta pee! Hallelujah, it’s about time. Let’s go, let’s go, let’s go.

Whoa, what? That stuff wasn’t here last night. What is it? It smells…Ahh, cold, cold, cold, on my nose, on my nose. Get it off, get it off, cold, cold, cold, on my nose, get it off.

Wait Mommy, what are you doing? I don’t want to go out there. No Mommy, don’t make me. It’s cold…umf. Why would you do that? It’s… it’s…fluffy.

Is that a ball you have? Throw it. Throw it. Throw it! I’ll get it, I’ll get it, I’ll get it. I got it, I got it, I got it. Where’d it go?

Another ball? Throw it. Throw it. Throw it! I’ll get it this time Mommy, I’ll get it. I got it, I got it, I got it. What the heck?

You’ve got another one? Where are all these balls coming from?

April 16th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Winners, we have winners! Several people received an email from me this morning saying “YOU WON! No, this is not spam, you won a signed copy of one of my books!” Their email also said, “Because I'm a technological ditz, I was not able to figure out how to get the winners to post through the Rafflecopter widget (even though it was just supposed to require pushing one button), so I will be announcing the winners in today's blog.”

It was supposed to be so easy. Just push this button and the winners’ names would appear on the widget. I pushed the button several times, refreshed the page several time, and nothing. How could I mess it up? Computers just hate me I guess.

Anyway, congratulations to Paula, Shirleen, Keith, Jenifer, and the grand prize winner Joanne. Although technically two of the winners were only supposed to get electronic copies of my books, I decided to send them a hard copy instead, and they will be getting a bookmark as well. (However, if they’d like, I will also email them an electronic copy if they ask for it.)

I realize this will be more expensive for me, but the reason I did this was, I had just won some books from another author’s raffle, and when I downloaded the books, even though they were a mobi file, I was not able to open them up on my Kindle. So, if I want to read them, I have to do it from my laptop. I’m sorry, and I don’t know about you, but I can curl up in bed with my laptop. I didn’t want to take a chance my winners wouldn’t be able to open their book.

Okay, I have a question for you. How is it possible that one day it’s eighty degrees and we’re reaching for sunscreen, and then two days later it’s thirty five degrees and it’s snowing? I don’t know if the same is happening where you live, but weather in New Jersey has been beyond bizarre lately. I wish the warm weather would just stay already. I’m so sick of winter, and if I never seen snow again, it would be too soon.

So as suspected, I fell short of NaNoWriMo goal yesterday. My word count came in just over 1500, and you’re supposed to produce 1,667 every day. Although every other day has been well over the requirement, and I’m way ahead of where I should be (yesterday was the half-way point of the month so I should have been at 25K, and I’m actually over 31K), I was still disappointed in myself for not hitting goal. I need to keep ahead of the game because I know I will not be writing this Sunday because it’s Easter. Then I won’t be writing next Thursday and Friday because I’ll be bringing Lys home from college. Then the 26^th is my niece Gracie’s confirmation, so that day is shot; and then the 27^th is my hubby’s birthday, and I’ll be cooking and cleaning instead of writing.

That means, I really only have twenty five days to produce 50K words, translation, two thousand words a day. So, just like July and November last year, this NaNoWriMo will come down to the wire and with me pulling my hair out. UGH!

Oh well, time to get some real writing done. I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story about a day in the park – but here’s the twist, you can only use dialogue…

“Thank you for suggesting this Michelle. It’s beautiful here.”

“It’s one of my favorite spots. My grandfather used to bring me when I was a little girl. Whenever I feel like I need to escape the insanity of my life, I find myself here.”

“You must come here often then. I don’t know how you do it. Three kids, a job, a husband, a house, I only have one kid, and I feel like my life is spinning out of control sometimes.”

“That’s why I proposed this little outing. You sounded a bit frazzled, and this way Danny and Jake can run around and burn off some of their energy, and we can sit and talk. Are you okay Sue?”

“Things have been tough, I’m not going to lie, but I’m still holding out hope.”

“John’s not getting any better?”

“Not yet, but we’re seeing a new doctor next week. Maybe this one will be able to tell us what’s going on, and why he’s not responding to any of the treatments.”

“I can’t even imagine what you’re going through. If anything was ever to happen to Steve, I’d be lost.”

“No you wouldn’t. You’d be able to handle it, just like you do everything else, and manage to stay strong and upbeat in the process.”

“I seriously doubt that.”

“I don’t, but I do hope you’ll never need to find out.”

“You do know you’re not alone in all this right? Steve and I would do anything for you, John and Jake.”

“I know. I appreciate it, and I promise to come to you if I need anything, but that’s just it. I don’t know what we need, other than a firm diagnosis and a game plan. Unfortunately, those are two things no one can seem to give me.”

Man that’s hard without using any narrative. Could you hear the catch in Sue’s voice? Could you hear Michelle’s compassion for her friend or her disbelief in Sue’s confidence in her? Boy I’m glad I don’t have to rely solely on dialogue to get my stories across.

Your Next Challenge is – random line, from a random page, pulled from a random book off my shelf (bonus points if you can name the book):

Mark Reynolds is not in a position to forbid or allow.

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 12th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

For the first time since my daughter started going to college in Vermont, I’m a wee bit concerned. Okay, I’m a mom; I’m a whole lot concerned. Snow started up there early this morning and it’s not supposed to stop until six tomorrow night. Between four this afternoon and seven tonight, they are supposed to get a foot of snow. Yeah, do the math, that’s four inches an hour. When all is said and done, they may end up with around two feet of snow. Holy Moses!

I can’t remember, but I’m hoping she doesn’t have a late class on Wednesdays. They have already cancelled classes once this year because of the weather, so hopefully they will do the same today, and possibly tomorrow. True she only has a few hundred yards to get to just about anywhere on campus from her dorm, but in a blizzard, a few hundred yards might as well be a few hundred miles. I hope she calls today to let me know how she’s doing.

So, last night’s speaking engagement went well…I guess. It was a little strange speaking to a group when my mom, my mother-in-law and three other ladies who have known me since I was a teenager were in the audience. I talked for about twenty minutes or so and answered questions about writing and publishing, and how I was still learning all the ins and outs of this insane profession.

Based on listening to what the ladies were saying, I was able to determine a good many of them also enjoyed reading mystery novels as well as romance novels; so I was able to give my friend, Linda Rawlins’ books a plug too. I was happy to see them all right down the titles of her three books right along with my books. I know I have said it before, but if you like mysteries, you really should read The Bench, Fatal Breach, and the newest in the series Sacred Gold. I’m not saying this because Linda and I are friends, I’m saying this because they are truly amazing.

You’ll be happy to hear, just because you won’t have to hear me complaining anymore, my taxes are finally finished. All that remains to be done is for my husband to sign our state return so I could mail it in. I did find it annoying that because my return required a Schedule C, I was not able to file it electronically unless I paid an e-service to file it. Hmm, a buck and a quarter for postage or fifteen bucks to send it electronically. I’m thinking that’s a no-brainer. I’m also thinking that since it was my business’ fault I couldn’t file for free, then postage to mail my taxes is a justified business expense. (Not that I think the IRS would disallow or even bother taking the time to look at $1.25 charge.)

With my taxes finished, I can now get back into my routine. Today I plan on finishing up the edits on Corporate Blues. Then, as one final set of eyes before it goes to print, I am going to send the file over to my mom to review. She has caught typos missed by my editors in the past, so this time I’m giving it to her BEFORE it goes to print. Hopefully the edits won’t take all day and I can also finish the dreaded blurb for the back of the book and get it and the ISBN# over to Matt so he can finish the cover. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I will be able to get everything finished and have printed copies in hand buy April 12^th so I can have my new book with me at the PPL Author’s Day. If I finish, then tomorrow and Friday I am going to completely devote to the other book I'm editing so I can give the author another installment this weekend for him to work on. (I ended in a preposition, shoot me.) :)

Alright, if I don’t get going, I’ll never get finished. I hope y’all have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

When will it ever end…

When will it ever end? I’m sure I’m not the only one asking this question this winter. We have now had six months of winter weather, and with the latest band of storms coming through, it doesn’t look like we’re quite finished yet. Oh sure, Mother Nature has teased us with a few mild days, but then she immediately slaps us back down with frigid temperatures and frozen precipitation.

This never-ending winter is starting to affect everyone. Have you noticed how short tempered folks are lately?

Yeah, that was really short. I just couldn’t think of anything more to write. See, this winter is affecting me too. When will it ever end?? LOL

Your Next Challenge is:

Scratch that, reverse it…

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 10th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I woke up a few minutes after six to the unmistakable sound of snow plows scraping the road. I was stunned. Yesterday, even in Vermont, it was beautiful, sunny and in the high thirties.

As quietly as I could, I got dressed, grabbed my phone and left the hotel room to call Dani to make sure she was awake and getting ready for school. Six rings then voicemail, so I hung up and tried again. Three rings and voice mail again… oh no. Three rings and then voice mail a third time. Now I’m beginning to panic because the bus was coming in less than half an hour, so I call my hubby. I can tell you, I am not his favorite person at the moment having to wake him up two hours early. Grudgingly he gets out of bed to check on her, and she was up. She had just left her phone in her room. Crisis averted, even though I am now on my hubby’s short list.

Now that I’m up and downstairs at the hotel, looking like Heat Miser with my hair sticking up every which way, I go and get some coffee and ask, were we supposed to get snow? The front end manager says no, but this is Vermont, and basically since no one knew it was coming, no one could enlighten me as to what to expect. Wonderful.

Remember how I said I wanted to take my mom to the quilt shop on our way home today? Well, yesterday on the ride up, she asked if we could take a small detour on our way home to stop at King Arthur Flour, “It’s on the way”. I tell her sure, no problem, then when I see where it is on the map and realize it’s clear across the state, I begin to regret my snap decision. Then I figure we are not in any real big rush to get home, so if it will make mom happy, no big deal…right? Yeah, that was before it decided to snow overnight. Just shoot me now. Well we aren’t planning on leaving until around ten, and the weather report says it’s supposed to get in the forties up here, so the snow should all melt and not be an issue…hopefully.

I just realized I forgot to tell you. The reason I was doing my Heat Miser impressions this morning was on Saturday, I got all my hair cut off. No more ponytail. I have a short haircut – I’m talking over the ears short. The last few times I’ve colored my hair, something I have been doing since I was seventeen (to cover the grey), it has been a painful experience. My scalp would burn for several days after having my hair colored, so I decided to just let it go grey. I have been fighting the battle for thirty years, and I have given up; but the half grey / half colored look I was sporting looked ridiculous if I wore it down, so all I ever did was slick it back into a ponytail. Not exactly an attractive hair style, so on Saturday I bit the bullet and had it all chopped off. 

The flip side of having a short haircut is in the mornings no two hairs on my head are going in the same direction and a ponytail fix is out of the question. The cut is only two days old, so I’m still in the ‘playing around with it to figure out what works best’ stage. Today I’m going to go for the ‘wet it and forget it’, and we’ll see how it works. I’m not holding my breath, but I’m hopeful.

Even though I was trying to be quiet, I’ve already woken mom up once, and since my coffee’s finished and I am in desperate need of another cup, I’m going to wrap things up for the day. I hope y’all have a marvelous day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

That was the weirdest dream ever!

Dreams are bizarre creatures. Sometimes they are vivid and remarkably detailed. Sometimes they are disjointed and nonsensical; and sometimes they are just… well… weird. I guess because I’m a writer, I am blessed with the ability of remembering most of my dreams, hours, or even days, after waking.

As a matter of fact, it was a recurring dream which spawned my first novel. The characters had become so insistent, I had no choice but to write them down in the hopes that if they were on paper they would get out of my head. Thankfully my theory worked, but the second the first book was finished, a new set of dreams began – a high-grade problem I know.

Anyway, one of the weirdest dreams ever was one I’m still not sure was even a dream at all. I was sound asleep and something woke me. I hear a low growl. I leaned up on my elbows and squint my eyes to try to see through the dark. There, near the door, I could just make out the outline of a dog. Somehow, through my sleep fogged brain, it registers this dog was twice the size of my dog. Another growl penetrates the darkness. I sit up in bed. The dog stalks toward the bed. Just enough moonlight peeked through the curtains to reveal sharp white teeth as the dog peeled his lips back in a snarl.

My heart began to pound and I scrambled up onto my headboard (the headboard of my bed is a books shelf – big surprise, huh) and started smacking at my husband to try and wake him up. I never took my eyes off of the dog who was now at the foot of my bed. Still not wanting to make a sound, in fear I would wake my children and they would come running into my room and be mauled by the beast, I start hitting my husband harder and harder until he finally wakes up. At this point I am totally curled up on the bookshelf above my husband’s pillow because the dog now has his front legs on the foot of my bed and he’s staring me down.

Out of time, but I’ll finish the story since this actually happened.

My husband finally wakes up and, still not making a sound nor taking my eyes off the creature, I point to the end of the bed. He says, “What?” I glare at him for half a second and quietly hiss, “Oh my God, just look.” I look back, and there was nothing there.

I’m shaking like a leaf and still curled up above my husband’s head, so he flips on the light, grabs the bat which we used to keep by our bed, and goes to investigate. Keep in mind, he still has no clue what had happened. A few minutes later he comes back and tells me there’s nothing and asks me what exactly was it I thought I saw. What I saw, was a huge, snarling German Shepherd. He told me I must have been dreaming and I argued I had been awake for the past fifteen minutes watching the thing stalk me. He flipped off the light and went back to sleep. I stayed awake the rest of the night gripping the bat and staring into the darkness.

I don’t think I had ever been so scared in all my life. I truly felt like, somehow a rabid dog had gotten into the house and we were going to be attacked. This happened over seventeen years ago and I still remember every second of it. See what I meant about not being sure if it was a dream?

Your Next Challenge is:

When will it ever end…

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 3rd

Hi, it’s Christina –

Our Ka-boom went Ka-plop! YEAH!!! We woke up this morning to only a dusting when they were originally calling for 18” – 24” inches a few days ago. WooHoo!! I am so sick of the snow as I’m sure most folks in NJ are as well.

Unfortunately when Lys woke up this morning, she was miserable and on the verge of tears. She’s running a fever, her throat is sore and swollen, everything hurts her, and she didn’t sleep at all night. I managed to get her to take some children’s liquid Motrin, I sent her back to bed, and I left a message on the doctor’s answering machine to call me when they open at nine. Technically, by two weeks, Lys shouldn’t be allowed to go to her doctors’ since they are pediatricians, but hopefully they will still let her come in and be seen. Guess I’ll find out after nine.

Saturday’s party went well. We were an hour late to the party because Lys was finishing up Max’s cake. She stayed up until one baking, then she started assembling and decorating at eight Saturday morning. She didn’t finish until four. The cake came out beautiful and it was very tasty too.

Originally the cake was going to be done in pink and white fondant, but we didn’t have enough, and at $8 for a tiny little container, we weren’t going and getting any more, so we settled for pink fondant hibiscus flowers instead, and just glazed the white icing so it looked like fondant. All totaled, the cake took Lys about twelve hours to make. What you can’t see from this photo is the inside of the cake was a pink and white checkerboard. Keep in mind, we do not have one of those special checkerboard pans, so Lys did that by hand as well. Plus the cake was filled with homemade vanilla custard. It was a big hit, and Max loved his pink “Sweet 16” cake.

Today after I get Lys all squared away, I have a holy mess to clean up. I had a ferocious headache yesterday (not a migraine thankfully, just a headache), but it was still bad enough to knock me out of commission for the day; so today I have the kitchen to clean up. There’s pink icing, pink chocolate, flour, dirty baking pans and decorating stuff everywhere. The kitchen is going to take a good hour to be set to rights. My kids are wonderful bakers and cooks, but when they get done in my kitchen, it looks like a bomb has been set off. In Lys’ defense, if she wasn’t sick, she would have cleaned it up, but since she’s feeling miserable, I have to do it.

After the kitchen, I need to make a grocery run and then I need to start my taxes because the FAFSA’s for college need to be done. Translation, no writing and no editing will be done until I get the taxes finished. Way back, in a previous life, I used to prepare taxes, but it has been eons since I’ve had to do a Schedule C, so this may take me a few days to get everything done correctly. I may be calling my girlfriend Fran in for reinforcements, she’s a CPA, but I’m going to at least give it a try before I bother her. It’s tax season and she has her hands full enough without me adding to her burden.

Okay, I need to get my hubby up and out of the house. We’ll do the writing challenge tomorrow. I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

February 27th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I haven’t packed a thing. I still need to get dinner going in the crock pot so my husband and daughter have something for dinner tonight. I need to run to the grocery store to get a cupcake for Lys to give to her friend for her birthday today and pick up drinks for my trip, and the warning light came up on my dashboard telling me it was time for an oil change. Thankfully, I don’t have to be in Vermont until five to meet Lys for dinner. So, if I can get everything done by nine, I should still be good.

We’ll be leaving Vermont by one tomorrow, so it’s going to be late by the time we get home. I was hoping to get home before it got dark, but Sammi’s class doesn’t let out until 12:30, so we can’t leave until then. Originally we were supposed to drop her off at the airport because she was going to visit her mom for spring break, but plans changed and now we are dropping her off in Albany on our way through. It’s really no big deal. We literally have to go a couple hundred yards out of our way to drop her off.

Updates – Dani’s eye looks much better. The drops are working, but now the poor thing seems to have caught my cold. Hopefully she won’t have it as bad as I did. It would be sad if she missed her cousin’s and sister’s birthday party this weekend.

Yesterday’s snow fizzled out to nothing. It was really strange though – one minute it was white out conditions, and then fifteen minutes later there were blue skies and sun. What do you think our chance are of the same thing happening with the storm that’s supposed to hit us on Sunday and continue through until Tuesday? I know I’m keeping my fingers crossed!

Oh well, I guess I should probably get a move on. I may bring my computer with me since I’ll be hanging around all morning tomorrow with nothing to do, but I haven’t decided. You may see a post in the morning, you may not.

I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

I am the illusive albino panther, highly sought after, rarely seen. I am the largest in my family, most ferocious, most feared. I am the master of stealth, a warrior, a Ninja. My home is in the jungles of South America where I hunt day or night depending on my mood.

Prey, large and small, quake when they hear my blood-curdling call. They know they are in for the chase of their lives; a chase they know they will ultimately lose, for no one can escape my speed, my cunning, my…

“Sprinkles. Sprinkles! Psst, psst, psst. Come to Mama.”

Geez, how humiliating. Can’t I guy have his fantasy? His homerun in the big game where the crowd goes wild?

“Sprinkles, come on baby. Time to come in for dinner. Psst, psst, psst.”

Dinner? Ooo, I hope she made the one with the little shrimp in it. I so love those little shrimp. Coming Mommy.

Your Next Challenge is:

Oh, that will never work…

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.

February 26th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I tried the reverse order thing again yesterday, but as you can see by the lack of a February 25^th blog post, it didn’t turn out so good. I was on track, honest. I had finished the few chores around the house I had intended to do, and I had just sat down at my computer when I received a text from my youngest daughter. It was a picture of her eye. It was all red, and the message said “help”.

After a few texts back and forth, I learned she had no idea what happened, the redness was getting progressively worse, it was starting to hurt, and her vision was blurry. After convincing Dani her Spanish teacher would not kill her for not doing her presentation and it would be ok for her to go to the nurse, she finally went down to the nurse’s office. I waited for the inevitable phone call, convinced the child probably had pink eye and I needed to come get her immediately. While I waited I hunted through the medicine cabinet for the appropriate eye drop.

After fifteen minutes, the phone call came, but the nurse said she didn’t think it was pink eye and she was concerned about the blurry vision. Wonderful. I picked her up and we headed straight to our eye doctor whose office is at Costco. When we get there, there are no lights on in the office but the door is opened a little and the receptionist is still there (she was about to head out for lunch).

I explain the situation and I hear Dr. Mike’s voice come from the other room, “Is it Alyssa?” I poked my head around the door and said, “No, it’s Dani.” He tells us to come right in and has Dani sit down. LONG story short, Dani did not have pink eye, but her eye was red and swollen probably from some type of allergic reaction and she needed steroid drops for a few days to fix it. Dr. Mike felt bad he didn’t have any samples, but assured me the drops weren’t that expensive. THEN, when I asked him how much I owed him for the visit, he said “Nothing.”

How sweet is this guy? He knows we don’t have any insurance and he gives us extra free samples whenever he can. The last time we were there, we had to pay for Lys to get contacts, and the exam was over $150, but when we walked out, she had several months’ worth of sample lenses and all of her supplies to maintain her lenses, so our only expense was the exam itself.

By the time we got home, I didn’t have time to do a blog entry because I had a few other projects which needed my attention. Now, because of all the wonderful snow we are getting at the moment, I’m kicking myself for not adding clean out the car as one of yesterday’s projects. I leave tomorrow morning to go pick up Lys from Vermont. We’re also bringing her friend Sammi home, and at the moment, there is no room in the car for the girls and their stuff. Oh well, whatchya gunna do?

Okay, since I may or may not be posting for the next two days, and it has been forever since I have actually given you a writing challenge, which what this blog is supposedly all about, I had better rectify the situation post haste.

I hope y’all have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story containing the following: The moon, a telescope, crickets

“Keep your hands over your eyes. No peaking.”

“I’m not, but so help me Cameron, if you let me fall, I’ll never trust you again.”

“I’d never let you fall Amy.” He assured.

“Where are you taking me?”

“Now if I told you, it wouldn’t be a surprise now would it?” Cameron admonished. “We’re almost there. Just a few more steps. There. But don’t open your eyes.”

“Cam!” Amy exclaimed as she let her hands drop to her sides.

“Humor me. Tell me what you hear.”

“I don’t hear anything.”

“Really? Nothing? Listen harder.”

Amy sighed. She was about to tell him she still couldn’t hear anything when a gentle breeze tickled her ear, “Crickets Cameron, I hear crickets.” She furrowed her brow, “Isn’t it a little early for crickets?”

“Someone forgot to tell them I guess. Without opening your eyes, what else can you tell me?” Sensing she was becoming frustrated, he added, “Please.”

Resigned Amy stood perfectly still and opened her senses. “We’re in a clearing, not too far from the edge of the woods.”

“How can you tell?”

“The last bit we walked I wasn’t crunching over leaves or sticks, and the ground feels soft under my feet.”

“Go on.”

“It’s not dark.”

“How can that be? You know it was night when we left, and you know we’re outside. Have I brought you under a streetlight?”

Amy shook her head, “No. The light is brighter, yet softer somehow. More encompassing. Did the clouds clear Cam? Is the moon out?”

I’m out of practice. I never got to the telescope before my ten minutes were up. Oh well, better luck next time.

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.

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!