February 13th, 2015 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! I had a blast yesterday at B & C. I was there for four hours and I took a boatload of orders, made up several dozen single rose packets so all the panicked teen boys who come in on Saturday and just grab-pay-and-go. I helped one “doe in the headlights” customer and even came up with something prolific for him to write on his card. I boxed, I wrapped, I chatted, I laughed. Yeah, it was a good day.

One of the cool things was seeing several of my friends names while boxing up orders for today’s deliveries. All I have to say ladies, is your significant other has great taste. The flowers are GORGEOUS! You’ll love them. And I was good, I didn’t read a single card – except for the one I wrote.

Today is going to be a challenge because it will be an eleven hour day, but I’m still looking forward to it. When I showed Ron (the owner) and Carly (one of the designers) yesterday’s blog post, they were thrilled. Carly laughed at me because I called the experience exhilarating. I told her if she only did it a few days a year, she would see it from a different perspective.

Carly is a phenomenal floral designer. She made up this one bouquet yesterday which was absolutely stunning. It consisted of various exotic flowers, and such a vibrant array of colors, it simply took your breath away. I won’t even bother praising Ron, his stuff is consistently picture perfect. He pairs things you would never expect, and the results are remarkable. Okay, so maybe just a little praise, but don’t tell him, he doesn’t need an ego boost. JUST TEASING, he’s a sweetheart and I love working with him.

Ron’s son Nick came home from college so he could lend a hand. This was great news for me, because it meant I didn’t have to de-thorn a single rose. This year my hands won’t look like they’ve broken up a cat fight. Nick’s a rose cleaning beast. He flies through the zillions of roses in nothing flat, but then again, he was brought up in the business, so I guess it’s to be expected.

I’m not sure if there will be a blog post tomorrow morning or not. I have to be in the shop around 8:30, and I’m sure today is going to whip my butt. I am going to try, but I’m not making any promises.

Now Sunday, I know there won’t be a post. We – Paulie, Dani and her boyfriend Randy, and I are leaving for Vermont at 5:00 am. That will get us up to Lys by roughly 11:30 (depending on the road conditions). We are going to take her out to lunch, give her her birthday presents and her cake, sing Happy Birthday, eat cake, then turn around and come back home. I’m hoping to get back by 10:00 pm.

Crazy, I know, but not seeing my baby on her birthday last year truly bothered me, and as long as Mother Nature cooperates this year, I not going to let it happen again. The real bear of it is going to be the high of -11° with wind chills in numbers I don’t even want to think about. It’s times like these I really wish she had accepted the invitation from Austen Peay in Clarksville, TN. LOL. Then again, if she was down there, I wouldn’t be seeing her on her birthday. Oh well…

Okay, I need to go get ready for work. I hope you have a fantastic Friday the 13^th, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

I love you to the moon and back…

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.

February 6th, 2015 Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

I’m a bad person. Well, maybe not bad, but definitely a bit ditzy at times. Since the girls were little, we’ve always held their “family party” on the Sunday between their birthdays – Dani Rose is the 4^th & AlyssaLynn’s is the 15^th of February. So, this Sunday is the day, but with Lys off at college, I guess it didn’t occur to me that some people would question if I was doing a family party just for Dani.

My SiL, MiL, mom and three of my friends just said “what do you need me to bring Sunday?”, and I’m such a scatterbrain, I didn’t realize everyone who is usually invited didn’t know we were having the party. Then my mom told me she mentioned it to her sister, and then I get a text from my other aunt asking “Did I miss something?” I felt so bad that I didn’t extend an official invitation. Then I had to wrack my brain to remember who I said something to, and who I had just assumed would know. See, I’m a bad person.

I am going to take the easy way out this year as far as food goes. I’m ordering several half-pans of Chinese food. I’ve done this a few times in the past, and the food was always a big hit, plus, the Chinese restaurant by us gives me a really good deal – lots of food, not too expensive. I’ll be able to feed 45 people for under $100. It’s a beautiful thing.

I spent four hours this morning on Twitter related stuff. I created an Excel spreadsheet for Tweets, Follows and Retweets. I wrote a couple of dozen Tweets for each books so I can have them at the ready, and then I tweeted, retweeted and thanked. I took a small break to be able to make the kids lunch, and when I got back, there were over 2K tweets in my queue. I’m trying, I really am, but I’m still finding Twitter exhausting. However, even though it is making my head spin and my eyes cross, my books have been climbing in the rankings since I started this Twitter marketing blitz, so I guess it will be worth it in the end.

I finally sent Corporate Blues off to the Indie Next Generation Book Awards. I have been signed up since September, but never managed to get around to mailing them the three copies they requested. Then, two days ago, I get an email saying there was only ten days left to get the books to them. SHOOT! By the grace of God, I still had three copies left in my inventory – and ONLY three copies.

Needless to say, I need to order more books, but I think I’ll wait a little bit. I won’t have another book signing until April, so there’s no sense in ordering them now and storing them in the basement until I need them. I haven’t completed my spreadsheets yet for my taxes, but if memory serves (which is sketchy at best lately, but I try), then I’ve sold – or raffled or donated – 250 copies of Corporate Blues since it was published in March 2014.

Combined with A Second Chance and Taking Chances, I went through close to 1,000 copies of books in 2014. That’s just hard copies and does not include sales on Kindle. Now folks like Nora Roberts and James Patterson probably do that in a day, but considering the competition out there, I’m not complaining. Would I like the numbers higher? Well, DUH, of course, but I’m thinking, for being relatively new to this profession, it’s not too shabby.

Well, I’ve got places to go, and things to do, so TTFN. I hope you have a Fabulous day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge is:

If I could return to any time in my life, knowing what I know now…

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.