April 25th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning. It’s six a.m. and I’m up, showered, dressed, have my first cup of coffee, and I’m typing away. When we came back from dinner last night, the room was a little chilly, so I cranked the heat (which had been off) to seventy so the room would warm up. I had every intention of turning it back down to sixty five before I went to sleep, but I forgot. At four thirty, Tim woke up because it was rather toasty in the room. He turned down the heat and promptly fell back asleep. I, on the other hand, laid in bed and wished I could fall back to sleep. It didn’t work so well. I gave up at about a quarter after five, and got up. It’s going to be a long day.

After I finished my blog post yesterday, Tim took a look at my computer. I guess he couldn’t stand all my grumbling, cussing, and hair pulling, so he put me out of my misery. I’m not sure exactly what he did, and I really don’t care, but I can now type, navigate pages, and do searches without all the redirect pop-ups detouring me every five seconds. Yeah!!!

Around seven last night, even though I was still pretty stuffed from lunch, we went out for dinner to a restaurant they don’t have by us, but I have eaten at before, when we went to the Hunter Hayes concert last year in Connecticut. It’s called Ninety-Nine, and it’s really good. They have a huge selection to choose from, and the prices are very reasonable. Tim was so excited when I told him he could have one beer. It was so cute, the waitress, Chrystal, asked if he wanted a pint or a tall and he hesitated. I chimed in and said, since I

was only allowing him one, he’ll take the tall. She laughed, I laughed and Tim turned red.

I cheated a little yesterday. When I went to check my word count, I noticed I was really close to a cool number, so I added, “Oh beans, I needed to write just a few more words to have 44,444 be my word count for the day, so I’m cheating a little bit here.” There have been times where I was close to an even number, and I’ve gone back and added a few words or a sentence, or I un-contracted a word into two

words, but the changes always pertained to what I was writing. This addition of twenty eight words was an out and out cheat, but I don’t care. Sue me.

Our “cabin” for Camp NaNoWriMo is doing great this time. I think there will be five of us who actually make goal. I was the only one who made goal in July. I have no idea about November, because we aren’t in cabins then, just kind of on our own. What I don’t understand is why some folks sign up, and then either don’t write at all or never post their stats, or why people put up ridiculous goals of 100K words, and then freak out and don’t write at all. They don’t realize by them not doing what they promised to do, brings down the

whole cabin.

I’m not saying it’s a bad thing to fall short of a goal, like your goal is 50K and in the end you wrote 46K, at least you tried. Your effort supported the cabin, it kept the group’s spirits up, kept them working toward goal. When you log on in the morning and you see stats of zero, or that your cabin as a whole is at 25% when they should be at 75%, it’s discouraging to all of us.

Sorry. I’ll step off my soap box. It’s time for me to sneak back to the lobby for another cup of coffee. These little 8 oz. cups don’t cut it. I’ll do the challenge when I return and then I may be able to squeak out a few paragraphs on Faerie Tale Queen.

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

Your Last Challenge was:

The students have taken over the classroom (or school)

Thank God this only happens once a year. I don’t think I could survive it, if it occurred more often. In all honesty, most of the kids do a good job, really put forth an effort, but there are always a few who leave me scratching my head.

Five years ago, we got a new Principal here at Crestmont Middle School, and let’s just say she was forward thinking. She has implemented many new programs which get the students involved, excited, and thinking toward their future. The teach/principal for the day program was one of them. Every February, on the last day before the kids have off for Presidents’ weekend, select kids and teachers swap places for the day.

In the weeks leading up to the event, teachers choose the students who show an aptitude for the subject and the possible desire of becoming a teacher in the future, and they are given the opportunity, for one day, to test the waters. Ms. Davidson, the Principal, also makes her selection of who will replace her for the day as well. The only difference is, that student plays Principal for the entire day, whereas the other students may be only teaching a class or two.

If I had more time, I would have went into detail as to how the program was to work, and probably a comical anecdote or two where the program did not go exactly as planned, but there’s only so much you can do in ten minutes. Oh well.

Your Next Challenge is:

Use the following three in a story – Lamppost, Fedora, and Banana

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.

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.

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.