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Monday, May 6, 2013

Day 19 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Happy Monday morning y’all! Hope you had a great weekend! It is good to be home again. All told, I drove just shy of 800 miles, and I will admit, I’m a bit tired today. The ride home took us 7 ½ hours, which was better than the 9 hour ride down, but it was still frustrating. We elected to take 95 north, and sure enough we hit 2 colossal snarls. After taking an hour to go 4 miles, I detoured off of 95 at Quantico and dealt with the lights on the Jefferson Davis Parkway, but I was happy to be moving. The next snag was a 16 mile stretch along 295 near Washington where there was nowhere to detour, so I had to endure. When the warning signs were advertising another major delay around Philly, I gave up and went over the Delaware Memorial Bridge into NJ. It only took another 1 ½ hours from there, but it was smooth sailing the remainder of the way home.

Now I just need a vacation from my vacation, and I think I will indulge myself, one load of laundry, put away the clean clothes and then a nap. I’ll worry about the grocery store later, but then tomorrow it will be nose to the grindstone. I want to finish the one book I am editing (should take two more days) and get it back to its author and do the two other sample edits which are waiting in my inbox. I also want to get at least two more chapters of my own sorely neglected book finished this week.

I am attending my first critique group tomorrow evening to which I will be bringing the prologue to Simply By Chance for review. This group meets the 1st & 3rd Tuesday every month and I will be spoon feeding them Simply By Chance 1,000 words at a time. This will be beneficial in many ways, two in particular will be immediate feedback as I go, and I will now have 2 week deadlines forcing me to produce more chapters. I am determined to hit the EOY deadline I have set, and I’m now taking steps to ensure it. I am still working out the balance between, marketing the books already written, social media (my blog), editing for others and my own writing. It may take a bit longer, but I’ll figure it out eventually.

Yesterday’s challenge:

 
You are playing in a championship basketball game. You are fouled at the buzzer. Your team needs one to tie and two to win…


My heart is pounding. My hands are shaking. Beads of sweat are forming on my lip and brow. I need to calm down, to focus. It’s not like this was the first time I’ve ever had to make a foul shot. I’ve made hundreds; missed hundreds too. No, I can’t go there. I dribble once, twice. I take a breath. The noise of the crowd recedes. I aim, shoot. Swish, the ball goes through the net. The noise is deafening. One down, one to go.

 
The ball is checked back to me. The butterflies in my stomach turn to bats on a rampage. I feel sick. My heart is now hammering. I need to swallow, but the muscles in my throat refuse to comply, so I grit my teeth instead. I dribble once, twice, pause then dribble again. Procrastination is futile. I take aim. My fingers actually tingle as I release the ball into the air. I watch in frame by frame slow motion as the ball makes its trajectory toward the basket. The shot is not perfect. The ball hits the backboard then circles the rim, once, twice.
 

10 minutes is really up, but I think it’s kinda cool where I had to stop.  

Your Day 20 Challenge is (told you I would probably do it):


You wake up one morning and find you have been transported back in time (you can determine how far back)….
 

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.

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