October 14th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Good Morning! Sorry there was no post yesterday, I wasn’t feeling well. I don’t know about you, but allergies this year seem a whole lot stronger than usual. My sinuses are working overtime, and the headache from them is making my eyes cross.

A friend of mine has offered me a unique opportunity. A publisher friend of his is putting together a compilation of short stories and such for Halloween, and he asked me to be one of the ten authors. The submission needs to be between 4,500 – 7,000 words.

I have said time and again, I cannot write a short story. I’m all about the building of the characters and the details, so this is going to be a real challenge for me. I have no idea what I’m going to write. I could go ghost, or witch, or séance, or Jersey Devil for that matter. I could even do a cute love story where the characters meet at a Halloween party. I just don’t know.

What I really should be doing is finishing Faerie Tale Queen, but I guess with being so busy lately, compounded with not feeling well, I just can’t get back into the story. This happened to me before with my other stories. Then, as if someone flipped a switch, it all came back, and I finished the novel in a flurry of writing.

I think I have decided to forego NaNoWriMo this time around, but I’m not sure. I may just submit another combination of my daily blog posts with what I write on my novel. I am going to concentrate on finishing Simply by Chance, but because it is a historical, it’s not really NaNo material. Since there is such extensive research which needs to be done while I’m writing, the writing goes at a much slower pace, making 50K words unobtainable.

I have come to the realization that nothing of significance occurred in the region in early 1806, so instead of wasting more time hunting, what I might do is plant a seed for an event which occurs a few years down the road, and then just wing it. I abhor doing that, but what are my options?

The next scene I have to write is where one of my characters dies, and I have not decided if it is going to be the actual death or just his co-workers finding his body. I’m sure, after I go back and read everything I have written up to this point, the scene will become clear.

Okay, I am off to try my hand at writing something scary. Wish me luck…I’m going to need it.

I hope you have a fantastic day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

Another Fairy Tale Twist: When Prince Eric’s ship sank, instead of saving Eric, Ariel turned Eric into a merman ...

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.

December 10th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

The first snowflake hasn’t fallen yet, and probably won’t for another couple of hours, but our schools are already closed. Makes you wonder how many kids slept in inside-out backward pajamas last night. LOL. Is that just a New Jersey thing or do the rest of you have a clue what I’m talking about? We are firmly in the three to six inch range, so this may prove to be a very long day. I just pray we don’t lose power.

So, I’m here. I’m alive. I survived last night, but I did take a Benadryl when I got home. Oops, I just realized you don’t know what I’m talking about. I cut the blog part short yesterday because I went over-board on the writing challenge. Anyway, last night I went to a greens making event. My mother purchased a ticket to make a boxwood tree, but then had a scheduling conflict, so I went in her place.

I have no problem with boxwoods, but I have a HUGE problem with the evergreen wreaths and center pieces the other folks were making. After half an hour in the room, my voice started getting raspy, and after an hour, it was getting hard to breathe. I finished the project in an hour and fifteen minutes and got the heck out of there, came home, took a Benadryl and went to bed. Breathing ok this morning, so crisis averted. Thank God!

Being allergic to greens really stinks! It took a long time to figure out why I was always sick at Christmas. After two Januarys in a row where I ended up in the hospital with pneumonia, someone asked if I was allergic to Christmas trees? I had never even considered it. The following year, we put up and artificial tree, and I was fine the whole season. We haven’t had a real Christmas tree now for years. A couple of years ago, I made an Advent wreath and brought it home. Within two days I started to feel sick, so out went the wreath. There will never be live greens in my house again.

The allergy has gotten so bad, I have issues being in a room with evergreens for more than an hour. This was lots of fun trying to sing in the choir at church. This year, the church hung artificial greens, so no inhaler hit for me before singing anymore…YEAH!! Now if I can just survive my husband’s office Christmas party and wrapping presents at the Somerset County Home for Temporarily Displaced Children, I’ll be in the clear.

I am going to attempt to get some running around done before the snow starts. I’m not holding out great hopes of getting a lot accomplished, but I’m willing to give it the old college try.

Again, I hope you have a warm and safe day, and happy writing!

Your Last Challenge was:

 

Pandemonium breaks out at the North Pole…

 

“What the hell is going on?” Santa bellowed.

Jingle, the head Christmas elf, skidded to a stop in front of Santa. “Everything is going haywire.”

“I can see that.” Santa barked. “What I want to know is why!”

Jingle wrung his hands, “I don’t know. It all started with the cocoa machine, and now nothing seems to be working right. The conveyor belt jammed and then started running backwards. The paint guns are all clogged and won’t spray.”

Dingle chimed in, “and the stuffer won’t stuff.”

“And the fluffer won’t fluff.” Wingle added.

Mrs. Claus held out a tray for Santa’s inspection, “And the oven is turning out charred messes.”

“This is the last thing we need two weeks before Christmas.” Santa stroked his beard and began to pace. When he had to duck out of the way of an out of control toy plane, he yelled, “Pull the plug! Shut everything off! NOW!”

The elves scrambled to do his bidding as he resumed his pacing. When, at last, all frenzied activity stopped, the elves gathered in front of Santa and waited for instructions.

Santa ceased his pacing and turned toward the group, “When did you first notice things going wrong?” Everyone began speaking at once. Santa raised his voice over the crowd, “One at a time! Jingle, you said it started with the cocoa machine, right?”

“Yes Santa.”

“Okay we’ll start there then. Tell me what happened.”

“It was almost three and time for our afternoon cocoa break. I was getting the cups ready for the crew and the machine started going berserk, cocoa spraying everywhere, marshmallows flying through the air. I couldn’t get it to stop.”

Santa scratched his chin, pondered a moment, then asked, “Did anything happen before the cocoa machine started acting up?”

Out of time.

HOLY COW! I just looked out the window, and where ten minutes ago there wasn’t even a flurry, now we are in near white-out conditions. So much for doing any running around before the snow starts. I make it a point NOT to go out in weather like this, unless there’s an emergency. Since there is no emergency, my running around can wait until tomorrow.

Your Next Challenge is:

Battling the storm with French toast…

 

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.

October 8th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 
 

Yesterday I was dealing with some drama a friend was going through. She told me I should write a book about her life, and I told her even though I only write fiction, her story was so bizarre, it wouldn’t even be a believable fiction piece! After she left, I had such a headache, I couldn’t think even about looking at my computer screen.

 

No, I am not blaming her for the headache. LOL. I am blaming it on my annoying allergies which are making sleep difficult and causing eye crossing sinus pain. Yesterday’s rain tamped down a lot of the pollen, so I’m doing pretty well today.

 

Now that it’s October, the NaNoWriMo email notices have started to come in, and I signed up again to participate. I have from November 1^st to November 28^th (I don’t know why it is not going until the end of the month) to get 50K words down.

 

I am going back and forth over what story I would like to write next. There has been this Irish fairy tale type one that has been rattling around in my brain for quite some time, but there is also another one which started as a writing homework from my Tuesday writing group, then expanded upon in this blog. Two little girls were hidden by their mother in a pile of laundry moments before the assailants broke the door in and gunned her down. Why were the parents murdered? Were the perpetrators ever captured? What happened to the girls? This one just won’t let me go, but I may hold off until the April out of respect for Queen Bevin who has been waiting patiently for years to have her tale told.

 

Yeah, my brain can be a strange place at times, but the folks there accept or at least tolerate me. J  

 

I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

  

Your Last Challenge was:

You and your sibling(s) are out raking leaves…

 

“Sometimes I really hate this time of year!” I grumbled to my little brother Tommy. He hated it when I called him Tommy and when I referred to him as my “little” brother. We are only a year apart and he started to tower over me by the time he was fourteen.

“Are you kidding? I love this! Bright sunshine, crisp air.”

His cheerfulness annoyed me even more. “And a bazillion flippin’ leaves!”

“Hey, I’ll take raking leaves to shoveling snow any day.”

I had to concede his point, light dry fluffy leaves were a heck of a lot easier than wet heavy snow. “Don’t even go there. Memories of last winter still make me shiver.”

As the two of us raked the week’s pile to the curb for the town to pick up, I paused and looked at the neighbor’s house across the street. “I don’t get it.”

Tommy stopped what he was doing and looked up, “Get what?”

“The Johnston’s. They have all those trees, but not a single leaf is on their lawn.”

 

“So? They do a better job than we do.” Tommy said with a shrug and went back to shoving his pile to the curb.

 

“That’s just it. I don’t recall seeing the Johnstons doing any yard work, ever. Have you?”

Tommy leaned on his rake and furrowed his brow as he stared across the street. “A lawn service?” He offered.

 

“Ever see a truck? A mower? A snow plow for that matter now that I think about it? Their house is always picture perfect. How?”

“They’ve been living there for three years and you just noticed this now?”

 

“You didn’t notice at all!”

 

Just then, Mr. Johnston stepped out onto his porch to get the paper. Tommy and I smiled and waved.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Use the following three words in a story: Movie, Bicycle, Newspaper

 

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.