April 24th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Water's a bit rough and there's still
snow on the mountains

I’ll confess. I took a little nap when I got to the hotel instead of jumping right online and doing my blog. Up before five, then driving for six hours wiped me out. 

Since all of the snow and most of the ice waterfalls were completely melted, I decided to take the ferry over from Essex, New York to Burlington, Vermont. This usually cuts over an hour off of my trip and saves about a quarter of a tank of gas. 

The water on Lake Champlain
is so high from the snow melt
it's lapping up on to the dock.

Unfortunately, we got there ten minutes after the ferry had left, so we had to wait fifty minutes for the next ferry. They only run once an hour this time of the year. So, I still saved gas, but missed the short window between exams when Lys would be in her room.

Since we were late anyway, my nephew and I stopped at Chipotle for lunch. I have never been, but it is one of his favorite places. I had the chicken tacos, and other than them being a little too spicy for me, they were very good, but $1.95 for a little cup of guacamole was a little ridiculous. After we ate, I called Lys’ roommate Rhea, and she let us in so we could bring the rest of Lys’ packing bins and space bags up to her room. Rhea’s just about finished packing, so the room looks so bare. I did give Rhea something extra she needed to pack though; I gave her a copy of Corporate Blues as a thank you for being a good roommate for my daughter.

I can't believe Lys is finished with her first year of college already. It feels like we were just dropping her off, and now we are packing up her dorm. Boy that

I think this was the groundbreaking
for the new sophomore dorms. 

school year went quick! Granted, some of it has to do with her school year ending so early this year. They only had two weeks for Christmas break, where most colleges had five. I’m not 100% sure, but I think Champlain has some construction projects going on over the summer and they needed the extra time. Next year, the schedule is like every other college, and they get out in the middle of May.

So, when I woke up from my nap, I procrastinated some more, and went to the lobby for a cup of coffee – decaf of course. I chatted with the girl at the front desk, then I went outside for a few minutes. Whenever I stay at a hotel, I like to check out the cars in the parking lot to see where everyone’s from, I know, I’m a kook. The one thing which never dawned on me until Samantha, the girl at the front desk, mentioned it, was just because the license plate says one state, it doesn’t mean the folks are actually from that state. If it’s a rental, the plates could be from anywhere. It was an “ah ha” moment. I had never thought of that.

There was one vehicle in the parking lot which really piqued my interest. I came back inside and whispered to Samantha, “Please tell me they’re a guest, and I have no reason for concern.” She knew exactly what I was referring to, and assured me they were a guest. (Sorry, FB readers. If you want to see what I’m talking about, you’ll need to look at the blog.)

Okay, I don’t want to push my luck. Tim is reading quietly while I write so as not to disturb me, and I don’t want to take advantage. I hope y’all have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Aaarrrggghhh! I can’t take it anymore. Why do they have to make things so difficult? Why can’t anything be simple? Or go easy? It’s a plot, a scheme, I just know it. All the big companies are banning together against us little people. They want to make us feel so insane, we need to turn to them to do everything. See, it must be working, they are turning me into one of those conspiracy nuts.

Every little thing we used to be able to do for ourselves, is now a major production. Example, last weekend, my husband went to change the oil on my car. This is the first time we have had to do it, because the maintenance plan we had ran out. This should be no big deal. He has changed the oil hundreds of times, even on his relatively new, three year old, work truck.

So he picks up the six quarts of oil and the new filter, which should have been his first clue that this project was doomed to fail. The filter isn’t a one piece unit anymore, it’s literally a filter and “O” rings, which need to be placed into a stationary housing. Okay, interesting, but not a deal breaker, so my husband proceeds. He figures out the funky mechanism to release the oil so it can drain from the car – luckily the special adapter needed came with the oil filter. The oil drains, and he goes to replace the filter. He gets the cap off, only to find another top which requires a special wrench.

I ran out of time, but I thought you’d want the end of the story. He realizes he doesn’t have the right tool, so he calls the auto part store, and they tell him they have the wrenches needed. He goes back to the store, makes a wild guess at which of the six wrenches was the right size – the guy at the counter couldn’t tell him – brings it home, and it doesn’t work. My husband ended up closing the oil plug back up and dumping six quarts of cheapy oil in the car, just so I wasn’t driving to Vermont with sludge in my engine. He’ll get the correct wrench and then do a proper oil change next month.

I’m telling you, it’s a conspiracy. They want to make things so difficult, you have to turn to them instead of being able to help yourself. It’s very frustrating.

Your Next Challenge is:

The students have taken over the classroom (or school)

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 23rd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. It has been a frustrating morning already. Instead of writing for the past two hours like I should have been, I’ve been fighting with my computer. I’m about to pull my hair out, what little is left of it.

Every time I try to do any kind of search or even try to pull up a new page, I get a pop-up saying my Goggle or my flash player or my media player is out of date and it needs to be updated. This has been going on for almost two weeks now. I have tried running the updates. The first time, it loaded all sorts

of other junk onto my computer, and we needed to back everything out. That’s when I realized they now tack on all this other crap you really don’t need during the update process, and you have to hit “decline” until you get to the update you really need.

I thought we uninstalled everything, but now Bing has taken over my internet explorer and Conduit has taken over my Google Chrome. Annoying, but I can deal with it. What I can’t stand is all these stupid ads that keep popping up any time I move my mouse, then, if one inadvertently gets clicked (because the system manages to stick the ad right under my mouse when I try to navigate a page) a second window pops up saying “ad cannot be found”. SO WHAT THE HECK IS THE SENSE??? Not that I want to see the ad anyway, but I’m trying to get work done and I keep getting delayed.

So, the last time these MUST UPDATE things popped up, I said, okay, one last time. I try to run the update and it either tells me I have the most updated file or it puts the run button so far down on my screen I can’t click on it. I ran a virus scan. I ran a malware scan. I ran a download scan. EVERYTHING comes back clean. I am {this} close to throwing my laptop across the room.

The final straw this morning was I needed to give CreateSpace the final approval for the proof on A Second Chance – I added the “Also available” and “Reviews” pages to the book. I can see the proof just fine, but when I try to hit the “approved” button, it won’t register. Until I hit the “approved” button, the book is not available for purchase, so now all these dang computer ads, pop ups, and tag ons have cost me money, because my computer is no longer working the way it should be. I’m pretty sure, if I could locate the person responsible for creating this lovely feature, and could get my hands around his or her neck, it would be deemed a justifiable homicide.

So here it is, one week until the end of the month, seven short days, four of which I will be able to do very little, if any, writing, and I still have 8,400 words to go. I’m starting to twitch, my jaw is hurting from clenching it, and my throat is getting sore from me growling at my computer; a state of mind not exactly conducive to creativity.

I’m leaving for Vermont between five and five thirty tomorrow, so I very seriously doubt there will be a blog post before I leave. However, Lys’ day is pretty full tomorrow, so all I’ll be doing is dropping off her packing stuff, and then heading to my hotel. Hopefully my nephew can find something quiet to occupy himself for an hour or so, so I can get a little writing done. (I’m bringing my 22 year old nephew with me as muscle. There’s no way Lys and I would be able to wrestle a fridge into my van on our own, plus all the other bins and junk from her dorm.) Then, Friday, I don’t think we are leaving until around noon, so I may get some writing done before my nephew wakes up. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.

Okay, I’m going to take a five minute break, go get another cup of coffee, and try to let some steam out of my ears so I can write. I hope y’all have a much better day then I’ve been having, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Once upon a time, in a small town far away, lived a young girl named Tabatha. Tabatha was

a beautiful child, had parents who loved her very much, and provided her with a good life, but she was not happy. Tabatha was incredibly lonely. She prayed every night for a brother or a sister, someone with who she could share her life.

She dreamed of playing tag, building snowmen, late night camping under her covers with a flash light, giggling and trying to keep quiet so their parents wouldn’t hear, and come in and yell at them that it was time to go to sleep. She even imagined the fights they would have, as all siblings do.

She had asked, begged, her parents, time and again, for a little brother or sister. She had even told them it could be her only birthday or Christmas present. Her parents smiled sadly at her, and told her they were sorry. They would love nothing more than to be able to grant Tabatha’s wish, but they were unable. They would buy her fabulous gifts and take her to magnificent places to try to make it up to her, and although she appreciated all they tried to do, she was still sad and lonely.

Then one day, a knock came on her bedroom door. Her dad poked his head inside her room and asked if he could come in. Her dad had that look on his face, the one he got every time he had a surprise present for her. So, not wanting to make her dad sad, Tabatha smiled and welcomed her dad into her room. She was surprised to see her mom follow him in. Her mom also had the same look on her face, and Tabatha started to get excited.

Her mom sat down on her bed, put her arm around Tabatha, and Tabatha’s father said, “There’s someone here we’d like you to meet.” He went back into the hall way, and she could hear him talking with someone. A few seconds later, he walked in. Holding his right hand was a girl Tabatha’s age, and holding his left hand was a boy a few years younger. “Sweetheart, I’d like you to meet, Kirsten and Matthew. They would like it very much if you would be their sister.”

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.

April 22nd Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. So, did you survive your Monday? I did, even though, regrettably, I did not get a whole lot of writing done. Eight days left in the month, just short of ten thousand words to go, this is the point where you start to see me panic, especially since four of those days I will not be able to write very much, if anything. This is my third NaNo, and for the third time, I find myself in the same situation. Remember in July I had to use some redneck creativity to rig up a shade umbrella at the beach so I could hit my 50K? Then in November I added “Yeah, NaNo is finally over!” which put me at my 50K goal. This final week is sheer torture, so I apologize in advance for all the grumbling I’m sure I’ll be doing this week.

Dani had half a day yesterday, so I picked her up from school at noon to do some running around. She hops into the car, and before she even says “Hi”, she announces she’s starving. Okay, fine, I try not to do it too often, but I asked her which fast food drive thru she would like to go to. She says she can’t decide which she wants more, because she likes the frosty from Wendy’s, the fries from McDonalds, and the burgers from Burger King. So, I say “OK”, and she asks what do I mean by “OK”? Luckily for her, between the high school and Costco, our first stop on our list of errands, there is a Wendy’s, two McDonalds, and two Burger Kings (but one is closed for remodeling). Dani got her dream lunch yesterday, and the whole process only took about fifteen extra minutes. I wonder if she’ll remember yesterday, when she has kids of her own, and they have a similar wacky request.

We were running to Costco to pick up a prescription – one item, fifteen bucks, get in, get out. Yeah right. Dani saw shorts and a polo she wanted her dad to wear for her confirmation (who knows, just roll with it). Then I figure, since we were there, I should get something quick for breakfast, ie: apple danishes, and milk, which was always considerably cheaper than anywhere else, but now I think it’s the same price. Hey Mom, we could use some cereal, and make-up removing wipes…and the dog is out of cookies… I swear, I can never get out of that store for under $100!

From Costco, we went over to Kohl’s. I had three things to exchange, I wanted to use my Kohl’s cash before it expired, and Dani wanted to use her gift card. I exchanged the shirt I had originally bought for Easter with a shirt for Lys, because I couldn’t find one at the exact same price (to do an even exchange at Kohl’s you need to match the price exactly) that I liked. Dani found a few things, and I found one top. I let Dani use up the extra $15 of my Kohl’s cash, since the shirt I got for her sister was $15.

After Kohl’s, I had wanted to run into Staples. I needed to get some of those padded envelopes so I could mail out the books to the raffle winners, and then I wanted to stop at the bank to deposit the money for the books I sold at PPLAD. Then the final stop was supposed to be at my mom’s to pick up some of the ham she had left over from Easter. However, when we left Kohl’s, it was getting pretty warm, and I had milk in the car, so we bypassed Staples and the bank, went straight to my mom’s, ran in, ran out, and headed home to get the milk in the fridge. It was still cold, but I didn’t want to take any chances.

Since I only have a little over an hour before I need to hop in the shower and leave for work, I should go get some work done on FTQ. I hope y’all have a lovely day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

Stuff in your house keeps appearing and disappearing

When I was a teenager, I spent a lot of time at my girlfriend Laurie’s house. It was an old, red, saltbox style home. You walked in through the mud room, then the galley kitchen was in the middle, with a miniscule bathroom off of it, then you went through swinging doors into the living room. In the living room, there were stairs going up to the bedrooms. When you reached the top of the stairs, you were in one bedroom, then Laurie’s parents’ room was at the north end of the house, and Laurie’s room was at the south end, which faced the Revolutionary era cemetery across the street.

The house was tiny, but it sure packed some surprises. Laurie always insisted her house was haunted, but folks thought she was crazy for thinking so. I now, on the other hand, think otherwise. Apparently, when Laurie told me about the happenings in her house, I looked skeptical, because she set out to prove it to me. On my first visit, she said, “Watch this.” She dangled her keys from her finger, then placed them in the middle of the kitchen counter. She then scooped up her dog, Doodle, and told me to follow her to her room. After fifteen minutes or so, we went back downstairs to get drinks, and when we got into the kitchen, she asked me to grab her keys. There were no keys to grab. They had disappeared.

She could tell I still was not convinced, but she just smiled, we took our drinks, and I followed her up to her room to do our homework. A little over an hour later, we went back downstairs so Laurie could start dinner, so it would be ready when her parents got home from work. When we got to the kitchen, Laurie told me to go in first, so I did; and there, on the counter where she had originally left them, were her keys.

I ran out of time, but I wanted to add, the keys were just the first example of things disappearing and reappearing in her house. It happened so many times, it got to the point where if I couldn’t find something, I’d yell at whatever took the item to put it back, I’d leave the room, come back in, and whatever I had been looking for would miraculously reappear. Although it did get frustrating at times, never once was I afraid, or felt threatened by the prankster who resided in Laurie’s house.

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.

April 21st Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good morning. For some reason, it was tough to get the motor going this morning, but I had no choice, because Dani needed to be at school early to take a quiz. So, instead of diving right into my blog, like I usually do, I poked around on Facebook a little.

That’s where I stumbled on a post, from a FB friend, saying he had a horribly vivid nightmare last night. I urged him to write it down, even if he didn’t think he had a flare for writing, someone else could always turn it into a story for him. He wrote back saying he’d rather just forget it. So I wrote back and said the best way to forget it is to get it out of his head and on paper, then I told him about the story behind A Second Chance. We went back and forth a few more times, then a post from author Melissa Foster pops up on the feed. (You should recognize the name. I often share her posts on my page.) Here’s what she posted:

How freaky is that? Of course I promptly shared the post on Jeffrey’s page, which led to a whole bunch of other notes back and forth. It’s these little things, little signs, that proves to me, God or Fate or whatever Power you believe in, leads us where we need to be. If it had been a normal morning, chances are pretty good, I would never have seen Jeffrey’s or even Melissa’s posts.

As I get older, and especially in the past two years, I have come to realize that, if I hadn’t taken some sort of detour from my norm, I wouldn’t have been in a particular place, at a particular time, and I would have missed an opportunity, or missed meeting someone. The first time I noticed this, and it really sunk in, was a few years ago, when I was working this AWFUL temp job forty-five minutes, on a good day, from home.

Convertible Blue Beemer

One day in May, I was driving home in horrendous traffic. It turns out it was Princeton’s commencement day. After two hours of inching along, staring at the gold Camry in front of me, and the blue convertible Beemer in my rear view, scrolling through my GPS to see if I could find an alternate route, I found a turn off. My GPS had showed a road going through to another street, and from there I could bypass Princeton proper completely.

Gold Camry

I made the left, and headed down this new road, only to find it came to an abrupt end. My GPS was wrong. I turn around, headed back the way I came, got back into the flow of traffic, and continued my slow crawl home. An hour, and less than a mile later, I was moved over to the left lane by the police, to get traffic around an accident in the right hand lane. As I rolled by, I realize the cars which were involved in the accident, were the cars which were directly in front of, and behind me, before I had made my misguided left hand turn. If I had stayed my course, the blue convertible Beemer would have plowed into me, and not into the gold Camry.

Karen & Me - My first book signing

After that incident, I began to notice more and more. A friend, of a friend, of my mom’s noticed an article in the paper, which eventually filtered down to me, and led to me being invited to my first PPL Author’s Day. A random paring at a table during the PPLAD, led to a close friendship. An old school chum, who I hadn’t seen in twenty plus years, shows up at my first book signing. A few weeks later, her boss contacts me, and invites me to be part of an author’s panel at her daughter’s school. At the author’s panel, I chat with another author, research the information he shared with me, and end up pulling my first book from its original publisher, and rereleasing it through my current publisher, at a lower price and at a much better percentage for me. Another random conversation led me to the Indie Next Generation site, and A Second Chance ended up being the winner for 2013 for Romance.

Writers Panel 2013

I could probably site twenty more examples of things which have happened over the past two years, but you get my point. I have truly come to realize that God (who is who I personally believe in) puts someone in our path, or you in their path, who need to be there at a certain time. Either you are meant to help them, or they you. It’s only since I have stopped fighting or resisting the fact, that I have been blessed.

Please don’t get me wrong, my life is not all unicorns and rainbows. Heap loads of bad things, of varying degrees, still happen, but I now take, even the bad things, as an opportunity to learn and grow.

Enough philosophical who-ha, I have a novel to work on. I hope y’all have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

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

Alex, Dani, Colby & PJ
"Where's my basket PJ?"

So, were you good? Did you do your homework? Did you have a fun day? I’d love to hear about it…

I’ve come to the conclusion my family is nuts, certifiably bonkers, and I wouldn’t trade them for the world. When we get together, there is lots of laughter and general silliness. Even the youngest, three year old Alice and two year old Isabelle, are showing signs of fitting in perfectly with the rest of us.

Alice and Isabelle - Easter 2014

Yesterday, we had a change of venue. Normally Easter was spent at my dad and step mother’s house, but since they are moving to Florida next week, we all met at my aunt’s house. I’m sure I mentioned it before, but my aunt, my father’s sister, and I are only a few years apart, so we were brought up more like siblings than aunt and niece. Are kids are alternating steps – 25, 23, 20, 19, 18 and 15.

Dad & Me - Christmas 2012

So we were at my aunt’s house, and my husband tells me, I should spend extra time with my dad, because it may be the last time I get to see him. Oh my God! It hits me. He may be right. My dad was retiring to Florida in a week, and I may not get to see him for a really long time, if ever. Granted, I only got to see my dad a couple of times a year, which was sad, but he was only half an hour away. So if needed, I could always just hop in the car, and be able to see him. Now I won’t be able to. Multiple trips to Florida, just isn’t in my budget. Although the realization put a damper on my mood, we still made the best of the remaining time we had together.

Your Next Challenge is:

Stuff in your house keeps appearing and disappearing

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.