November 12th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

It’s snowing! It’s only flurries. Well maybe not flurries, more like mixed in with the rain, but nonetheless, it is snowing and I am so not ready for snow!

If we go by my an old wives tale, or maybe an old farmer’s tale, my grandmother told me, then we will see snow, flurries count, fifty times this season. Today is the 12^th, and the winter solstice is 38 days away – 12+38=50. Although the prediction has been fairly accurate in the past, within a few occurrences, I really pray it does not come to pass this year. Who the heck needs to see snow fifty times in one season?

Yesterday was a productive day even though I did not quite hit my 18K mark. I had an awful lot of words to catch up on, but I’m hoping in the next day or so I will be at the correct mark for the month. The story is coming along nicely – you’ll be getting the next chapter in a few hours. It’s finished, but I want to give my blog post a few hours to circulate before I put up a new post.

I did change the name from Rathlin Island to Tallymore Island. By making the place fictional, it gives me a whole lot more leeway. When and if my characters travel to Ballycastle or to any other larger city, the information (streets, landmarks, etc,) will be accurate. I am a few chapters ahead of what I’ll be posting today, and I’m really excited because Kieren will be meeting Caleb, the lead male character, for the first time. Do you like the name Caleb or is the “K” sound too much with the female lead being Kieren? If so, I am open for suggestions. (Christopher, Douglas, Milton, Patrick and Thomas are already taken.)

Its small details like this a writer debates over, or in my case frets over, while writing a story. Avoiding similar sounding names becomes a real challenge when doing a series. The Bradford Series literally requires a spreadsheet of who’s who – you can’t have the villain’s name in book four sound like one of the main character’s names in book two. If you’ve read either A Second Chance or Taking Chances, you’ll know there are a lot of characters in my stories, so you will understand my need for an elaborate spreadsheet to keep them all straight.

In Corporate Blues I must have changed the name of Madison’s son at least half a dozen times before I settled on Scott. A couple of weeks ago I was doing a preliminary edit and I came across the name Jack in one of the earlier chapters and I couldn’t recall who Jack was, then I remembered it was Scott’s original name. I had forgotten to change his name in one place.

Okay, on to the challenges, then off to Ireland. I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge:

 

Write a story containing the following three words: Gate, Strange & Butter.

 

“Hey Nick, could you come here for a second?”

Nick placed the box he had been carrying on a shelf, walked over to Krista, slid his arms around her waist and nuzzled her neck, “Plans on christening this part of the house?”

She swatted her husband’s arm, “Behave. The movers will be here with the furniture soon.” She turned in his arms and kissed him. “Maybe later, but that’s not why I called you over.”

“You sure I can’t do something to persuade you?”

Krista held firm, “Later.” She pointed to the wall, “Do you remember seeing this when we bought the house?”

Nick followed Krista’s gaze and was surprised to see a stone archway, barred with a wrought iron gate, set into the far back wall. He released her, walked over to the gate and gave it a tug, “It’s stuck.”

“Is it locked?”

“No, there’s no lock on the door, I think it’s just rusted. I doubt it’s been opened in years.”

Krista peered into the darkness beyond the gate, “What do you think is back there?”

“The bones of a hundred tortured men. Their souls doomed to roam the Earth until they are given a proper burial.”

Krista swatted his arm again, “Will you stop, I’m serious.”

Nick laughed, “Well there’s only one way to find out. You go try and find some flashlights and I’ll see what I can find to loosen up these hinges.”

It took Krista a while to find the boxes marked “Kitchen” and then several more minutes to locate the one containing the flashlight, so by the time she returned to the basement, Nick was already working on getting the gate opened.

“What are you putting on the hinges?” She wrinkled her nose at the greasy globs covering Nick’s hands and the gate’s hinges.

“Butter.”

“Butter?”

 “My choices were rather limited. Don’t laugh, it seems to be working.”

 

Out of time. I had planned for Nick and Krista to uncover an old wine cellar.

 

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.

November 10th

Hi, it’s Christina – 

Good morning. Yesterday could have been productive or unproductive, depending on how you look at it. Shortly after I posted my blog, my daughter woke up, which meant no more writing for the day, so we decided to give our dog, Colby, a much needed bath.

If you recall, our dog is not a fan of water. We wrestled him into the bathroom and shut the door. While I was preparing the bath, my daughter was hugging Colby trying to calm him down. He was shaking so bad his teeth were chattering loud enough for me to hear them over the running water. I really don’t understand his anxiety, because, although you can tell he doesn’t like it, he’s fine once he is in the tub.

I will not make the recounting as long as the ordeal, so here’s the Reader’s Digest version. Shampooed, rinsed, half a bottle of conditioner, rinsed again, four hours worth of brushing and blow drying, mats would not come out, one hour with the buzzer, we give up. He looks ridiculous and he still has mats that need to be taken care of, but we figured we had traumatized him enough for one day.

At the end, I was tired, my back hurt and I was coughing up fur balls. I looked like I was wearing a Colby coat. I was so covered in hair, my husband fired up the air compressor and tried blasting it off of me. It worked somewhat. Hopefully a trip through the wash will rid the clothes of the remaining dog hair. If not, my sweatpants and t-shirt just became some nice soft rags. My daughter was smarter than I was; she vacuumed the hair off of herself.

It was not exactly the way I had pictured spending my Saturday. So, what do you think, was my day productive or no?

On another subject, I’d like to ask you opinion. Faerie Tale Queen is set on an island in Northern Ireland. The only inhabitable island in Northern Ireland is Rathlin Island. Here’s my question. Should I actually call it Rathlin Island or should I give it another name, but from the descriptions I give, those familiar with the area will know where I really mean? OR Should I pull a Janet Evanovich and use a real place and just change the names of the landmarks? OR Should I do both – change the name of the island and the landmarks?

I’m leaning toward the latter. This will give me a little more leeway as to the buildings and people who are actually on the island and it will make up for the fact that I cannot find names for any of the roads on the island. This will also allow me to stick a few trees surrounding Kieren’s house, where if I actually use Rathlin, I’d be hard pressed to find trees tall enough to conceal a house. The entire island is pretty much open farmland and incredible cliffs. If you have a few extra minutes, Google Rathlin Island and have a look at some of the photos. It truly is breathtaking.

 

I’d really love to know what you think, so please leave a comment – an open debate would even be better, but I’ll take what I can get. The decision does need to be made today though, because the first time I mention Kieren’s destination specifically is in chapter 4, and I am supposed to post chapter 4 for you to read today.

I need to get several things done before I have to leave for church, and if I don’t start now, they will never get finished. This also means I really don’t have time to take on my own challenge, so y’all get a break today. I’ll have my reply to yesterday’s challenge and a new challenge for you tomorrow.

I hope you have a wonderful Sunday, and happy writing!

October 11th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 
 

What a cold and dreary end to the week! This time last week it was eighty-five degrees and sunny. I do realize that was unusual as well for October in the Northeast, but something a little more gradual would have been nice.

 

So, I am still awaiting the information I need to tie up the loose ends on Corporate Blues. I was able to get in contact with the FBI, however, with the government shutdown, the department who handles research requests for authors and film makers (yes, we actually have our own department) is operating on a skeleton crew.

 

In the meantime, I have a publisher in New York who is chomping at the bit to get his hands on the manuscript, but I won’t release it until it is finished. In the middle of one of the chapters it literally reads “{{{INSERT INFORMATION FROM THE FBI HERE.}}}”. Call me crazy, but I don’t want to give it to him looking like that, so my hands are tied until the government is up and running again. Needless to say, I’m starting to seriously doubt I will make my November release date.

 

I was so hoping to have Corporate Blues well on its way to the production stage before NaNoWriMo. Oh well, the best laid plans… This means, by the end of November, I am going to have three novels, in various stages of completion. I just hope I will be able to keep the feel of each of them true while I try to juggle. Each is so completely different, in time, concept, location and even speech, it may prove a bit of a challenge.

 

I have pretty much decided I am going to go with the Faerie Tale for the NaNoWriMo project. The general concept of the book is a young author/illustrator is required to spend a year in Ireland to fulfill the terms of her grandfather’s Will. The books she writes are a children’s series based on the stories her grandfather told her, when she was a child, of a magical faerie realm. When she gets to Ireland and some unexplainable things start to happen, she begins to wonder if her grandfather’s stories where more than just bedtime tales.

 

What do you think of me using “Faerie Tales” as a title? Do you have other suggestions for me? I would love to hear what you have to offer.

 

I hope you have a fantastic day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

 

My heart beat in tandem with the echoed click of my heels on the marble floor. Although it happened innocently enough, I knew if I were caught, there would be grave consequences to pay. How I was separated from the tour group, I do not know, but in my effort to find them I became hopelessly turned around in the labyrinth of endless hallways.

I knew I was in a forbidden area of the castle, but for the life of me, I did not know which direction I should choose to remedy the situation. The windows were too high for me to peek outside and attempt to get my bearings. The urge to hurry nearly overwhelmed me, for although my sense of direction had abandoned me, my sense of time remained acute. I knew it would be getting dark soon and there was not electricity in this part of the castle.

I figured if I could locate a set of stairs, I would stand a better chance of finding someone who could lead me to safety. Each path I chose led to a T, forcing me to pick a direction. At first I chose willy-nilly. However, after passing the same painting at least three times, I decided a more methodical approach was in order.

I had decided to always choose the option to the left. Worst case scenario, I would end up back where I started, or so I hoped. The left theory ultimately landed me at a dead end and I needed to back track, wasting precious daylight.

Oops, ran out of time as usual.

Your Next Challenge is:

 

The pain was blinding…

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.

September 17th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 
 

It has been downright chilly for the past several mornings, but today was different. The smell of the air had changed. It had that crisp quality of air coming from the north. Do you know what I mean? For me it’s a sign that fall is here to stay. Yes, we will be hitting eighty again by the end of the week, but for all intents and purposes, summer is finished. Bittersweet really, but hey, at least we’ll have some good sleeping weather, right?

Yesterday I did manage to get a pot of stuffed cabbage done, but I’m not overjoyed with the end result. They no longer make the brand of tomato sauce my grandmother always used, so I had to use a different brand and it just doesn’t taste the same. It’s not like the company went out of business, they have other products on the shelf; they just stopped making tomato sauce. Can someone tell me what sense that makes? I even had the grocery store check for me and nope, it wasn’t even available to order. Weird. If I had known, I would have stocked up last Easter when I made the last batch. Oh well, what are you going to do? The next several batches will be trial and error until I can find a good substitute brand. If any of you have a favorite tomato sauce, please feel free to chime in. Please keep in mind, I need plain canned TOMATO sauce, not spaghetti sauce.

I also made two stuffed peppers which were a disappointment as well. I guess the skin on the peppers was too thick in spots so the moisture did not penetrate evenly and some of the rice was crunchy. The one thing that did come out good was something I hadn’t planned on making. We have an old apple tree in the back yard which is primarily a source of deer food in the fall. For years the apples have been about the size of an average crabapple and were full of worms. I haven’t been able to use any of the apples for at least ten years, so I usually don’t pay the tree much mind. However, yesterday I was taking out the trash and I looked over at the tree and noticed a fairly good sized apple – think Macintosh size. I went over to inspect it and it was in pretty good shape. Then I saw several others that didn’t look half bad. I picked the eight or so apples, brought them in, cleaned and cut them up, and made a small batch of applesauce. Although my cinnamon has gone mysteriously missing so I couldn’t put any in, the applesauce came out rather tasty if I do say so myself.

 

Today on my agenda is another batch of plum dumplings and then I may just try my hand at making pierogies. No recipe, I’m just kinda going to wing it. I’ll let you know if they are a hit or an epic fail. That is if I even get to them. I may just have time to make the filling (I need mashed potatoes for the dumpling dough) and leave the actual pierogi making until tomorrow.

 

I have critique group tonight and then tomorrow night is back to school night. I HATE back to school night at the high school; that is why I have gone to exactly 1 of the last 8. It starts at 7 pm. There is NEVER enough parking. You are in each of the classes for twenty minutes – times ten periods, you do the math. You have 3 minutes to find your way from one class to the next. You end up getting lost and frustrated, then late for the next class. There really is no time to talk to the teachers, so what’s the point? Yet for some reason my husband is insisting I go this year. I have been to every K-8 back to school night for the past 17 years and the one year I went to the one at the high school was my 3^rd back to school night that year. I think I have done my dues, especially since I know Wednesday night will be exhausting and virtually worthless. I may still just not go. Maybe if I don’t mention it, my husband will forget all about it. Think it will work?

OK, off to cook. I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

 

The early morning fog still clings to the ground as I climb my way up the rock strewn path to the home of Cormac McCarty. The trek is slow. Not because of the significant incline, but because I pause often to absorb the thousands of years of history surrounding me. Ghosts of Robert the Bruce, the Earl of Leicester and even Queen Elizabeth I are sharing images of their pasts with me.

I make my final assent up the weather worn stone stairs and catch my first glimpse of the Stone of Scone. I pose for the required photo, but know better than to actually kiss the stone, for I know what the locals have been rumored to have done to it; and let’s face it, the last thing I needed was a greater gift of blarney anyway.

The view from the top is breathtaking, for at this great height I have risen above the fog and the sun is shining causing the ground below to shimmer and sparkle. Through the trees to the south I can see Colthurst Castle and I begin to dream what it would be like to live there, to wake every day in this magical mystical place.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Something strange was about to happen at the grocery store

(Thanks to K. Fritz, friend and fellow author, for this challenge)

 

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.

September 16th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 

 

Well, it was bound to happen, and it only took 24 days. My daughter calls me from college yesterday and I could instantly tell something was wrong. She scratched her eye taking out her contact lens. It wouldn’t stop tearing, she couldn’t open it, she had a bad headache, she can’t see to do her homework, it hurts, etc. I tell her to put on sunglasses, borrow a baseball cap, and have her roommate walk her down to the infirmary.

It’s a small college, the infirmary is not staffed on the weekends. Let’s visit this bit of logic first shall we? When do you think the possibility of the kids getting sick or injured is greater, during the week while they are sitting in class or during the weekends when they have 48 hours of free time? Hmm…

So, Campus Police drive my daughter over to UVM because their infirmary is open 24/7. The on-call puts drops into my daughter’s eye and numbs it, then put in drops of dye so he could see what happened. Sure enough she has a “paper cut” on her eye. They write her a script for antibiotic drops and send her on her merry way.

Somehow she gets to a pharmacy and gets the drops - $111 for 0.25 ounces. Good Lord in Heaven! What could possibly justify that price? And, of course, there is no generic equivalent. Convenient, no? She could have probably driven the half hour up to Canada and got the EXACT SAME THING for under $10. I’ll be bringing her passport up with us next weekend so she has it, just in case. There is something seriously screwed up with our system here!

We had a nice treat last night. My mother-in-law invited everyone over for dinner. She roasted a pork and a chicken, had mashed potatoes and a ton of veggies. It was delicious, but that is nothing unusual. My mother-in-law is a wonderful cook. It was nice having everyone together, well almost everyone. We were missing three, and their lack of presence was really felt. Obviously one was my oldest daughter, but also my youngest didn’t come because she was not feeling well and my brother-in-law was away on business.

For many, many years, we used to do this every single Sunday. It was an unspoken requirement. Making sure you had nothing else planned for Sunday nights at six became very stressful for everyone, so what should have been a fun and happy event, wasn’t. I’m not sure exactly how or when the Sunday night dinners stopped, but it has been at least ten years. Now, when we can actually get everyone together and have one of these dinners, it is exciting. We look forward to it for days in advance. We laugh over how it keeps getting more and more difficult to squish us all around the table. There are multiple conversations going on at the same time, lots of laughing, catching up, and of course, wonderful food in large quantities.

Please don’t think I’m a horrible mom, leaving my sick kid at home while I went out to dinner. My daughter’s old enough to stay by herself, we were gone for less than two hours and we were less than ten minutes away, it was not the kind of sick which required coddling or even much concern, and we brought her back a plate. Before we left, we asked her if she wanted one or both of us to stay home with her, and she looked at us like we were crazy. We always offer (this is not the first family dinner she’s missed) and she almost always says ‘No’. On the rare occasions she says ‘Yes’, I know she’s really sick and I’ll more than likely be calling the doctor in the morning.

Today I am planning on getting several things cooked so we have them for the week. Yesterday I steamed some cabbage and today I will be making stuffed cabbage and since the filling is the same, some stuffed peppers. I also got another package of plums, so I will be making (an unprecedented) second batch of the dumplings. Everything I will be making makes rather large quantities, so I will be able to portion things out and freeze them for meals in the future. I LOVE when I can do that because, let’s face it, there are some nights when I just don’t feel like cooking. With meals stockpiled in the freezer, I just have to thaw and heat up. No muss, no fuss, no thought required.

On that note, I should get going. I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

The fever was so high…

Christmas morning, 1972

My mother had to come and wake me, which concerned her. What young child sleeps in on Christmas morning? With some effort, she cajoled me to get out of bed. I padded the fifteen feet from my bed to the living room couch, (we lived in an old bungalow which would neatly fit in my current kitchen, living room and family room area) curled up in the corner and burrowed under the afghan.

My mom placed a present on my lap and looked at me expectantly. Not wanting to disappoint her, I unwrapped the package, but the effort it took left me too weak to open the lid. I just couldn’t do it. I apologized, handed the gift back to her, slunk back to my bed and crawled under the covers, shivering. She was right there, pressing her hand to my forehead, checking for fever. Sure enough, I was roasting.

In the time it took her to get the baby aspirin and a glass of water I had fallen asleep. Over the next several hours, my fever continued to rise and I drifted between sleep and semi-consciousness. I can recall snippets of memories: a cool cloth covering my eyes, the weight of more blankets being piled on me because I was shivering so hard, my head feeling like it was full of cement, the doll on my dresser waving to me causing me to start screaming. Eventually my fever got so high, they took me to the hospital, but I have absolutely no recollection.

 

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.

July 27th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Happy Saturday morning y’all. If you happen to live in my part of the country, you woke to the most glorious day. The sun is shining, there isn’t a cloud in the sky, there is no humidity and there is even a tiny nip in the air. I think it’s about 65 right now. I always think it’s funny. When it hits 65 in March or April, it’s down-right balmy, and now 65 is a little chilly. What silly creatures we are.

The hip got better and I was able to write yesterday. I have about 7,000 words to go and four days to do it. That’s 1,750 a day. As soon as I stopped stressing Corporate Blues wouldn’t be done at 50K and my real goal was 85K, I started feeling much better. Who cares if it isn’t done. The challenge wasn’t to complete an entire book, it was to get 50K words done in a month, and I can do it, no sweat. I am kind of hoping to tell the NY publisher who is calling me on August 20^th that it was finished though. Hopefully I will be able to.

So, did you figure out where the picture from yesterday’s challenge was taken? You’ll get to find out in my challenge response, but that doesn’t mean that is where the photo should have taken you. It may have inspired something completely different, Nova Scotia, a vacation memory, into the past or future, or perhaps to another planet. I’d wish you would post so I can see where it did take you.

Your Last Challenge was:

 

 

I pressed my face to the glass, stared out of the plane’s tiny window as  tears trickled down my cheeks. The sense of coming home overwhelmed me. I know it’s silly and unfathomable to most, considering I wasn’t born here and I had only visited once before, but Ireland calls to me like a siren to a weary sailor. The feeling that this is where I belong makes me give serious consideration to the possibility of previous lives. Why else would this foreign country feel so much like home to me? A feeling, if I was being honest, I never really felt in my “real” home.

I’ve often tried to discuss Ireland, but if the person has not visited Ireland before, it is an exercise in futility. They don’t believe that it actually shimmers when you see it from the air or the green is so green it hurts your eyes, like a blue, blue sky in the summer. They don’t understand walking through the ruins of a five hundred year old crofter’s cottage and still being able to feel the families who had once lived there, around you.

 

I honestly could go on about Ireland for hours, because I do love it so and it really does feel like home to me, but alas, I only had ten minutes to write. I will be participating in the official NaNoWriMo in November (it’s going to be a neat trick with the holiday, but you’ve already guessed I was a glutton for punishment), and I will be writing a story which takes place in Northern Ireland. The best way to describe the story would be a modern fairytale romance, completely different from the other stories I’ve written. Stay tuned, I’m sure I’ll tell you more about it in the months to come and I may even ask for help with the title.

OK, off to camp. I have a lot of writing to do before the house wakes up. Have a great day!

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

The fair’s in town.

 

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.

July 14th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Up bright and early this foggy Sunday morning because the girls need to be at the church by 6:30. Today they are leaving for their Summer Mission Project. For one week, they will be in a tiny town in southwest Pennsylvania helping the residents work on their houses or the community center or some other need this extremely poor town has. They will be sleeping and eating at a convent. There is no TV, no internet and even phone service is a little iffy at times. This will be my oldest daughter’s third trip and my youngest daughter’s first. One whole week of my 18 year old being responsible for my 14 year old – should prove interesting.

 

I’m kinda bummed. I never made it to the party yesterday because I got one of my lovely headaches again. I think it was brought on this time because my allergies have been so bad and I may have a sinus infection. A bunch of years ago my brother-in-law’s brother and his wife and daughter moved out to Kentucky, and other than on Skype during the holidays, I haven’t seen them. I was really looking forward to catching up. I’m not sure when they are headed back. Maybe I’ll get to see them today.

 

Oh well, I need to get my rugrats up and out, so let’s get to the challenges. Have a great day!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

For me, THIS is the happiest place on Earth

 

Some say the beach, some say the mountains, and some do actually say Disney, but for me, this right here, sitting in front of my computer writing, is my happiest place on Earth. Now that’s not to say I don’t mind having my computer with me in any of those places, well maybe not Disney, I think I’d be a little too distracted and busy.

Through my writing I’ve been transported to the seediest or the most historic parts of London, galloped over the English countryside, stood on Ireland’s breathtaking rocky coast, and strolled the spice market in exotic Istanbul. I’ve sailed into the battle of Trafalgar alongside Lord Nelson and I’ve danced the waltz at glamorous balls.

When writing I can be anywhere during any time, past, present or future. I can possess skills, talents and abilities only a handful of people can boast. My only limitation is my imagination, and so far, mine knows no bounds. How could this not be my happiest place on Earth?

 

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.