September 28th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

My Booth

Good Morning! It’s going to be one of those days. I’ve been up for three hours and I have done absolutely nothing, and have no clue where the three hours went. Working on my second cup of coffee now, but it’s not helping much.It is amazing to me how exhausting book signings are, all I’m doing is talking to people for hours, but when I’m done, I’m spent.

Barbara and Her Mom

If it wasn’t for the company I had, yesterday would have been a total bust. When we got to Milford Alive, and hauled all our stuff over to where we were to set up, I got a nice surprise. We were right next to another author, Barbara Steingas, who I met at an event I did last year at Canterbury Tales. I really wish my Paulie would read, because if he did, I’d give him one of Barbara’s books, “Germans AreFunny, Too!”. I think he would get a kick out of it.

Kathi & Me

Kathi Kurz is such a doll. I have known her for roughly a hundred years. She was friends with my sister-in-law when they were growing up, and my mother-in-law and her mother were best friends, so we were together quite often. (I really should be saying “are” not “were”, because all parties are still alive, and well, and friends.)

Kathi's Book
Does a Robot Have a Nose?

Kathi’s book, “Does a Robot Have a Nose?”, is an adorable and very imaginative children’s book inspired by her oldest son. It is the first book in a series (next installment due out in December). The story is about Robbie the Robot, but at the end of the book it shows you how to build Robbie with items you find around the house – a shoebox, a tissue box, water bottles and their caps, yogurt tops, etc. As Kathi says, “All of the items are recycled, except the glue.” Each of the books in the series will have arts and crafts projects parents can do with their kids when they finish reading them the books.

I couldn't get the link to

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(717) 254-7581

Across the street from where we set up, there was a tent where Face Paints by Maggie was doing free face painting. I told Kathi she should go over and see if they would do a robot on her cheek, and I said that if she did, I would go and get a heart on mine. (Barbara was supposed to get a beer stein on hers, but she never made it over there.) Hey, it was free right?

Kathi’s robot came out great, but I was a tiny bit disappointed with my heart. I told the girl she could do whatever she felt inspired to do. I thought, since she knew I was a romance writer, she would do something red and pink with white frillies of some sort, but she just made a plain red heart with a black outline. It came out fine, but oh well, what do you want for nothing? The ladies doing the painting were really sweet, and the work they did on the kids was true art. It’s no big deal that they didn’t do anything elaborate on this old lady.

As I’m finding out, events such as Milford Alive, favor children’s authors. Neither Barbara nor I sold a single book, but Kathi did quite well. As a matter of fact, she sold her 200^th book while we were there, and we all did the happy dance.

We were set up between Church Street and the bridge going into PA, in front of the Milford Station Bakery. On our corner the Grace Fellowship Church had a stand and their praise band was playing on the mobile “River Stage” (an Updyke Lumber flatbed truck) across the street. Later in the day there were two other bands playing, Bad Hands & Bliss, so we had music all day long. It made it a little difficult to talk over the music, but it was still nice having them there.

The Milford Historical Society’s stand was around the corner from us. Two of their members were decked out in full regalia. They looked amazing, but it was a bit warm yesterday, so they must have been dying. They told me they were going to be doing a historical walking tour, which I believe will be on Saturday, October 4^th to commemorate the 137^th anniversary of the wreck of the Oswego Express. Unfortunately I do not know any of the details, and there is nothing currently up on their webpage, but if you are interested, you can contact the Milford Historical Society at http://milfordnjhistory.org, and I’m sure they will be able to help you out.

If you have never been to Milford Alive, I would suggest you attend. It was quite an event. The streets were closed to traffic, and packed with vendors and patrons – both two and four legged kind. I wish I had the time to go and check out the fair, because folks walking by my stand were eating some yummy looking treats. You know me, I’m all about the food. At the other end of the fair, they had the “Main Stage” with bands playing, but they were out of earshot, so I cannot comment on them.

At 2:00 pm, the main event occurred. The event which Milford is famous for… the bed race. It started off with a parade. First came the boy scouts, troop 187 if I recall correctly, and they lead the crowd in the Pledge of Allegiance. A teenage girl sang the National Anthem. I wish her name was listed in the program, because I would love to be able to tell you who she was. She did a great job and deserves to get some credit.

After the boys were done, the parade of antique cars and trucks rolled by. I loved the old fire truck, and this car was really cool. I think it’s an old Aston Martin, but I’m not sure. Do any of you recognize it?

When the cars finished their second drive by, a flock of bi-planes flew overhead. All totaled, I think eight or nine planes flew the length of Bridge Street, signaling the start of the race.

Now this wasn’t a typical race. Not only were the “vehicles” unusual, converted bed frames, but the racers went one at a time, not head to head. Each vehicle consisted of one driver and either three or four runners, and all the vehicles are themed. There was one which was quite clever. They used a bunk bed frame, and atop sat Cleopatra and her Roman guards – in togas of course – were her runners. I wish I had gotten a photo of that one for you.

Even though the photo of this one isn’t great, it was hysterical. It was the O Farma entry. All the runners were in plaid flannel shirts and caps, and the “driver” was a hugely pregnant cowgirl, supposedly in labor, huffing and puffing, as her runners were trying to get the bed to the hospital in time. I was about five seconds late on snapping this photo. She was already climbing down from her perch, but you get the idea.

Okay, I have yammered on long enough. I hope you have a wonderful day, and happy writing!

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November 4th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Well, I survived. Boy was it cold out there yesterday! I spent part of my day doing my Tigg’r imitations – bouncing up and down to try to keep the blood flowing. It didn’t help. I made the mistake of sitting on a metal chair when I first got there, and that was the end of me. After my butt froze, I couldn’t warm up for the rest of the day. You would think I’d know better.

 

The Peddler's Village Apple Festival was almost as huge as their Scarecrow Festival. The place was packed all day, and all day people were going by with the most heavenly smelling apple dumplings. I was hooked. Come the end of the book signing, I had to have one. So after I packed up my stuff, I went on a dumpling hunt.

 

 

Here's the line I encountered. It stretched from the lower patio, up the stairs and into the main courtyard. There were at least two hundred people in line. I began to feel defeated when I noticed the sign for the bakery across the lower patio. There were only a few folks standing outside, so I went over to investigate. Sure enough, there was a line inside, but there were only about thirty people in it, and they were selling dumplings inside. There was a fifteen minute wait for the next batch of dumplings to come out, but I didn't care. I was inside, out of the wind and I was warm for the first time in six hours. It could have been half an hour wait and I would have stayed.

 

While I was there waiting, I chatted with one of the bakery's employees and she told me they were just short of 6,500 dumplings sold that day and they still had several hours left. The dumplings were selling for $6 with the custard sauce. That is $39K worth of dumplings. They sold almost 9,000 the day before, so it was feasible for them to have sold A HUNDRED THOUSAND DOLLARS worth of apple dumplings in two days. Mind boggling! And dumplings weren't the only things they were selling; they had apple pies, strudel, fritters, kuchen, zeppole and more.  

It was a good day. I sold a bunch of books and I got to meet two new authors. Barbara Steingas wrote two books. The Healing Puzzle was about how she battled Crohn’s disease and won, and Germans Are Funny Too!, the story about her crazy German family.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hannah K. Jones wrote a historical pictorial about a recently torn down landmark entitled Byberry State Hospital. Both women were really sweet and it was a pleasure chatting with them.

 

Standing out in the cold all day really took it out of me, that and the normally thirty-five minute ride home which took an hour and twenty minutes. I came home, popped two Motrin and went to bed. I was out until four-thirty this morning.

Other than my blog, I did not get any writing done yesterday, so I really have to crank out some words today, but the first thing I am going to do is pull something out for dinner. I forgot to do that yesterday before I left, so my husband and daughter had to fend for themselves last night. (They went to Applebee’s.)

I hope you have a fantastic day and happy writing!

 

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I wasn’t expecting it when I woke up this morning, but there it was. The undeniable sign winter was on its way and there wasn’t a dang thing I could do to prevent it. Sure it is beautiful and the air is so crisp you can taste it, but it’s just so darned cold.

I’ll admit it, when I first saw the view, the child in me got all giddy, jumped up and down and yelled “SNOW!”, but then the adult side of me got annoyed, flopped down on the couch and groaned, “SNOW!”.  Sure it’s pretty now, but in a few hours it will have turned into a muddy, sluggy, yucky muck.

The snow signals the beginning of long, cold, dark days, of slippery roads and treacherous walkways, of hibernation and isolation. Yes, there are a few holidays interspersed in the long months of winter to keep you from teetering completely onto the side of depression, but they are barely enough. In the warm weather, there are picnics, barbeques and get-togethers aplenty. It is a happy and social existence. For the next few months we will be huddle in our caves for warmth, with only rare occasions which warrant us bearing the cold.

 

Can you tell I am not a fan of the cold weather?

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

I remember it as if it were yesterday…

 

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.