February 2nd, 2015 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning and Happy Ground Hog’s Day. Happy Birthday to my aunt, Mary, and to one of my best friend’s hubby, Lenny. Hope you have an amazing day!

Rumor has it that Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow this morning, which means more winter is coming; but without the aid of artificial lighting, I’m not sure that’s possible. The Staten Island ground hog, Chuck II, – which the mayor managed NOT to kill this year, had a different opinion. But seriously folks, precognizant rodents, really? No matter what these little beasties see or don’t see, Spring is still 46 days away, and yes, I’m counting down the days.

Yuck. That is the only way to describe today’s weather - Y.U.C.K. Sleet and freezing rain – yeah, I’m NOT a fan. The kids have a two hour delayed opening because of it, and I’m hoping that will be enough. The freezing rain started after roughly two inches of snowfall. The road in front of my house looks good, but what about all the roads up on Zion Mountain? I doubt they will get them cleared before the 9:00 am bus pick up.

Honestly, my concern isn’t for the buses. Their drivers are seasoned. However, all the juniors and seniors who have recently received their driver’s licenses, now that’s a concern. This kind of weather condition is challenging for those of us who have been driving for years. It can be downright deadly for an inexperienced driver. So I am praying for either an upward spike in the temperature, or a phone call cancelling school for the day.

Me, I’m not going anywhere. Unless it’s something urgent, I don’t go out on days like this. I plan on finishing straightening up after yesterday’s party, spending a little more time marketing and at least two hours of writing. A load of laundry and a much needed nap are also in my future. A body can only survive so long without adequate sleep, and I am hitting my limit. Hopefully the dreary weather will aid in my endeavor.

Day 3 of my Tweet campaign was underway before 6:00 am. Today’s tweet said “The reviews are in, and it’s looking good!” with a screen shot of a review and a picture of the book’s cover. Also went through and read the 318 Tweets which happened while I was Tweeting. Sorry, but Twitter still makes my head spin.

Too fast and furious for this old brain to wrap around, but I’m giving it the old college try. I followed folks who retweeted me, retweeted a few interesting tweets, favorited a few tweets, and replied to a few tweets, but I’m sure I’m missing a whole lot. Can I at least get an “E” for effort?

I still haven’t heard back from the Kobo tech team. I’ll let you know when, or at this point if, we get the issues resolved.

Okay, the household is either off to work or off to school, so I am going to take full advantage to this blissfully quiet house. I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

The ideal way to spend a cold rainy day…

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 19th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. Oh what a glorious Spring day here in Central New Jersey. This is what Spring should be like, not too hot, not too cold, sunny with all the flowers and trees in bloom. I just love the Japanese cherry trees and the weeping cherry trees. The shock of pink against the lime green is so beautiful.I keep asking, but I still haven’t received one for our front yard.

I totally forgot to mention it, but yesterday marked the one year anniversary of this blog. What originally started as a two week project, has turned into a daily “must” for me. If I can’t blog first thing in the morning, my day just doesn’t seem to ever get into sync. Over the past year, you have been with me through me winning my first award for writing. You talked me down from a panic attack over going into NYC to accept the award. You cheered with me when my daughter got into her first choice college, and you cried with me when my son moved out and my daughter left for college. You rooted me on during the insanity of NaNoWriMo. We have celebrated every holiday together. You’ve sent prayers when requested. You’ve laughed with me, and I’m sure a few times at me. All in all, this has been one of the most wonderful years of my life, and in part, I have all of you to thank for it. I appreciate all of you, and may God bless you as much as you have me.

I did manage to get some writing done yesterday, again mostly from a horizontal position. Yesterday was better than Thursday, and so far today has been better than yesterday, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow won’t be too terrible. It took me a little over three hours, but I also managed to get the Easter baskets finished. (This photo is from a previous year.)

That still leaves, the eggs – both dying the real ones and filling and hiding the plastic ones, the letter from T.E.B., the cleaning, the baking, the cooking, and the grocery shopping. My hubby’s not going to be happy, but I’m sending him to the grocery store. We qualified for the free ham or turkey at out ShopRite, and it has to be picked up by today, the dog is out of his morning chew sticks, and I want juice, danishes, bagels and muffins for tomorrow’s breakfast. It’s less than ten items, I think he can handle it.

I had a nice surprise yesterday. At around quarter to six last night, my dog started fussing, so I thought he needed to go out. I open the garage door, Colby goes rushing out, I follow at a much slower pace; and there it was, a box, just sitting in my garage. I walk over and check out the label. It's addressed to me. To the best of my knowledge, I hadn't ordered anything. Curiosity piqued, I abandoned the dog, who was perfectly secure by our invisible fence, and brought the box inside.

Dani asked, "What's that?"

"I don't know." I reply.

"Who's it addressed to?"

"Me."

"Who's it from?"

"I have no idea."

"So open it!"

"That's what I had planned on doing before you started asking all your questions."

"Can I open it?"

"Sure, why not?"

I hand the box to my daughter, and with painstaking care, she opens the box. After a few minutes, she gets the box opened, reaches inside and pulls out a beautiful gold box, adorned with a royal purple ribbon and bow. Thankfully, tucked inside the ribbon is a note.

It seems the Easter Bunny is a bit of a detective, and he managed to track down my address so he could leave a box of incredibly yummy chocolate truffles, as a thank you for editing his book.

It was a wonderful and totally unexpected surprise, and I had never heard of the chocolatier. Being a confirmed and admitted chocoholic, I thought I knew (and probably sampled) most of the chocolates the world has to offer. Between friends traveling, me traveling, and a brother-in-law who sets up candy store all over the world, I thought I had them all covered. Happily, I was wrong, and missed a chocolatier who has been around since the mid-17^th century.

Bissinger’s started in Paris, sometime in the early 1600s. Then in 1668, King Louis XIV, bestowed the title of “Confiseur Imperial” on the Bissinger family for their confectionary excellence. Their name and reputation grew throughout Europe, and in 1845 they found their way to America, when Karl Bissinger settled in Cincinnati, Ohio. Over the past 169 years, Bissinger has received many Sofi awards, been featured in Food magazine, and has caught the eye of numerous celebrities including Lauren Bacall and Oprah.

See, this is what happens when you have a historical romance writer do a blog. A tiny thing sparks my curiosity, and I need to seek out its history. Hopefully I didn’t bore you too much. If you have a chance to try Bissinger’s chocolate truffles, do so. So far I have tried an espresso flavored one and a raspberry flavored one, and they were delicious. The only complaint I have is, there was no key in the box, so I have no clue what the flavors are before I try them.

Okay, enough already. I have tons to do today, and one of them needs to be some work on FTQ. I hope y’all have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story about Easter eggs…

I love Easter eggs, all kinds of Easter eggs.

When I was a little girl, I used to go over to my neighbor, and best friend, Nadia’s house. Her and her family made Pisanke, aka Ukrainian Easter eggs. We would use these strange sticks with a medal nail pushed through the end, we’d heat the nail up with a candle flame, dip the hot nail into pure beeswax, then draw on the raw egg. After we drew everything we wanted kept white, we would submerge our egg in yellow dye. After the egg absorbed enough of the dye to be a deep rich yellow, we would take it out, add beeswax to everything we wanted to stay yellow, then dip the egg into the orange dye. We’d repeat the process with the red, then purple and finally the black dye.

When the egg came out of the final dye bath, it looked hideous. It had lumps of grey beeswax all over it, and the only part of actual egg showing was black as pitch. Ah, but that’s when Nadia’s mom would bring our eggs over to the stove. She would warm a towel by rubbing it on the inside of a hot pan, then she would take the hot towel and start to rub our egg with it. That’s when the magic happened. As she rubbed, the ugly grey wax began to melt away, and all our colored designs started to appear.

Right from the start, Nadia’s eggs were beautiful, and mine were a disaster. My lines were shaky and incomplete. I’d miss covering portions of the design in beeswax, so the color scheme was off. I guess I just don’t have enough Ukrainian blood in me. 

I haven’t given up though, every few years I get out my Pisanke kit and give it a whirl. Although they are better than when I was young, I could never make the pieces of art that Nadia can, but that’s okay. I kinda like the silly face eggs my daughters have been making the past few years.

Your Next Challenge is:

To spend tomorrow enjoying your family, whether you celebrate Easter or not.

You have 24 hours. There is no right or wrong, just enjoy. Spelling and punctuation don’t count, and NO ONE is allowed to criticize how someone else chose to spend their day. Go

April 8th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. It’s a rainy Tuesday here in central Jersey, but at least it isn’t too cold. As a matter of fact, we’re supposed to get up into the sixties by noon, and the sun should be poking through around the same time. Tomorrow is only supposed to get up to fifty-eight, but the rest of the week it’s going to be in the sixties. Hallelujah, Spring has finally decided to stick around.

So yesterday didn’t work out exactly as planned; I got to RV’s and she was surprised to see me. Her first words after hello were “Didn’t you get my message?” Yup, still not smart enough for my smart phone. She had called to let me know she had forgotten about a lunch date she had planned, and said I should just come on Tuesday.

Well, since I was there already, and we had an hour before her friend came, and I had brought some of the left over roast beef from Sunday, I got her dinner prepped for her, but then I left. I was home by quarter after twelve, but did I do something productive like write or finish straightening up after Sunday’s party? Nope. I took a nap.

I had stayed up chatting with my son and his girlfriend until almost midnight Sunday. Then, by the time I got to bed, it was almost one, and you know how early I get up in the mornings. I was actually a little worried I would be able to get all that running around done yesterday on less than four hours of sleep. So I guess I was lucky I didn’t have to find out.

I am going to get very little writing done today. I wrote one chapter (it was a dream sequence chapter, so it was short), and now this blog, but I doubt there will be much more. In a few minutes I have to stop and make lunches, and get Dani out the door. Then I’ll have forty five minutes to write before I have to hop in the shower and get ready for work.

So far, I have been able to keep up with the daily quotas for Camp NaNoWriMo, but I’m a little concerned, with working and all, if I will be able to stay on track. Yesterday I hit over 15K, which means I only have 35K to go and three weeks to do it. That translates to around 1,500 words a day. I’m not wigging out just yet, but since this is the third time you’ll be going through this with me, I think you know the freak out will inevitably surface.

Okay, I’m going to boogie. I hope y’all have a fabulous day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

You’re voicing your frustrations while you’re driving, and your GPS starts to answer you back.

“Argh! Where did you get your license, a box of Cracker Jacks? Traffic is backed up for over a mile. Where do you think you’re going to go? You’re just going to cause another accident, then we’ll all be screwed because you’re an IDIOT!”

Turn right in four tenths of a mile.

“You’ve said that already Sally. Soon as I can get ‘four tenths of a mile’ I’ll be sure to turn.”

I didn’t mean to offend you Donald, but you don’t yell at me the way you yell at the other drivers, and you were getting very upset, so I thought it would be a good time to speak.

“Who said that?”

Me, Sally. Well, actually my name is Susan, but I don’t mind you calling me ‘Sally’, Donald.

“Sally? Yeah right.” Since traffic was at a dead stop, Donald looked around his car frantically. He checked under the visors, in the glove box, in the back seat. “Am I being punked?”

‘Punk’d’ a television show which ran from 2003 until 2012 on MTV, created by Ashton Kutcher and Jason Goldberg. Practical jokes were played on unsuspecting celebrities. No Donald, you are not being ‘Punk’d’. It’s just me, Susan.

“What? How? What?”

Caution Donald, I detect your blood pressure rising. You need to calm down.

Okay, that was fun. I could have kept going with that one. It makes up a little for yesterday’s terrible challenge.

Your Next Challenge is:

The Easter Bunny can’t get motivated this year…

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 22nd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Guess what? This is my 300^th Blog post. Holy cow!

I forgot to say it Thursday, so I’ll say it now… HAPPY SPRING! So did you go and get your free Rita’s on Thursday? I forgot completely, and Dani didn’t say anything. I guess it’s not as big a deal o high school kids as it was for the middle school kids. Dani and her friends would walk to Rita’s on the first day of spring, and then I’d have to fight the traffic to pick them up. I’ll admit, I’m not overly sad the tradition has been broken. Lol

It’s Saturday morning, and every flat surface in my house is not covered with sleeping teenagers; and guess what, it won’t be tonight either. Amazing, right? The pack of kids slept at Adam’s last night, and tonight they are all sleeping at Shauna’s. A whole weekend without teenagers… man is it quiet around here! Now, please don’t get me wrong, there aren’t five to seven kids sleeping here every weekend, but one or two is more the rule than the exception.

I did receive my proof copy of Corporate Blues in the mail yesterday, and it proved to me I’m an…idiot! When writing, and then editing, you have your work double spaced because it is easier to read and review. However, when you format the book for print, it’s supposed to be single spaced. Wanna take a guess what this dummy forgot to do? Now Corporate Blues is a hundred pages shorter, which means the alignment and font of the writing on the spine of the book is off. I had to shoot Matt an email this morning to tell him of my mistake, and to begggggg his forgiveness. I so hate making mistakes which cause more work for others! On a positive note, since the book is smaller, I was able to reduce the price to $10.95 from $14.95, so that makes me happy.

I figure I have two and a half to three hours where I can work this morning before I have to go and pick up Dani, but after I get her, we have running around to do, so that means the rest of my day is shot. I have made a lot of progress. Do I think I’ll finish all three edits and the review in eight days? No, but I should have two finished. Other than my blog and a few hours this morning fixing my print file, I have been doing nothing but editing; six to seven hours straight, every day, of nothing but editing.

Now you might say, “So what? I work at my job for eight hours a day, every day.” I usually do three, or at the most four, hours in a row because, other than my eyes usually start to cross after three hours, I find I get more and more witchy with my comments, and I don’t like to do that, it’s counterproductive. I may have had to highlight the exact same mistake sixty-eight times, but the author has not been made aware of, nor been given the opportunity to correct, said mistake. However, since I’m under a deadline, I am pushing on and making a conscious effort to quell my poison pen, so the comments will be helpful and not a reflection of me getting cranky. I’ve only had to backspace and correct one so far, so it’s working.

Now, that’s not to say I won’t make the occasional tongue and cheek comment like “So how did that desert taste?” when the author wrote desert instead of dessert, but that’s just my style of editing. We all do silly stuff like that, it doesn’t mean we are a bad writers, it means we are human, and that’s what editors are for anyway, right? (Remember I told you in one of my books I inadvertently had “piece” of mind instead of “peace” of mind, and since my character was not berating someone, nor offering a chunk of grey matter, it was the wrong word.)

Okay, it’s time for me to put my nose to the grindstone. I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

The tunnel stretched on and on…

Charlie clutched his side, bent over, and took in gulps of air. He needed a minute to catch his breath, but he wasn’t sure he had a minute to spare. They were close, he knew it. He knew his only chance at escape was at the other end of this never ending tunnel. With one final breath, he straightened and forged on. His legs and lungs burned, but he couldn’t stop until he reached the highway.

It can’t be much further, can it? How the hell did I get myself into this kind of mess? This shit only happens in the movies, not to real people, not to a nobody like me.

As he ran, he replayed the events of the past forty-eight hours in his mind. The strange email, the encrypted message, the scrolling list of figures and coordinates. It hadn’t made any sense. It had obviously been sent to him in error, an error someone has now realized, and was now trying to remedy.

Your Next Challenge is:

Write a story containing the following three elements: An Amusement Park, A Monkey, A Flat Tire

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.