September 20th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 
 

Happy Friday Y’all! I’m getting an early start today because I need to leave soon to take my van into the shop. The second sliding door failed and they need to replace it. I knew it would. After what happened the last time, I begged them to fix both doors at the same time, but they wouldn’t. I even wrote a letter to the CEO of Toyota, but they wouldn’t listen, and sure enough, the door crapped out while I had a van load of kids in it. Thankfully, with a really hard thump from my oversized rump, I was able to get the door closed to get back safely from the shore.

 

Let me tell you, if I couldn’t have gotten it closed, I would have been on the phone with the dealer demanding they come down to Sandy Hook and pick us up. And knowing the dealer, they would have. They are such nice folks at Crystal, and I know they would have fixed the door the last time I was there, but corporate wouldn’t allow them to do it. Big corporations can be so shortsighted sometimes. What if that door failed while I was driving and something happened to one of those kids, especially after I warned them, in writing, that was what I was afraid would happen?

 

I’m not going to get riled up. The kids were fine and the door is being fixed. That’s all that really matters.

 

Technology is confusing me again, but in a good way this time. Every day I open my email and see I have several more followers on Twitter. I’m averaging five new follows every day. This is wonderful, and I am not complaining in the least, but I would love to know what has caused this spike in interest so I can keep doing whatever it is I’m doing. I have asked the question before when I jumped from thirty followers to a hundred followers in two weeks, but no one answered me. However, my Facebook author’s page has been hovering around three-fifty “likes” for months now and I can’t seem to manage to get to the five-hundred level. The tweets are directly linked to my Facebook feed. I have made less than ten direct tweets. Very few of my Twitter followers are also followers on Facebook and visa-versa. Can you see why I’m confused? How can I be doing the EXACT same thing in two different places and be getting dramatically different results?

 

Speaking of Twitter, I came across a site through a Twitter connection, and although I cannot participate as a sponsored author because I do not have enough reviews yet, I thought it was interesting and you might want to check it out and participate as a reader. The concept is really cool. You tell them exactly what kind of books you enjoy, ie: Romance, Thriller, Mystery and they notify you when a good book (3.5 star review rating or better) comes out. BUT WAIT, it gets better. You only like Historical and Paranormal Romances with a little sex, but nothing too graphic; the Thrillers you like have to be FBI ones and the Mysteries need to be the old fashioned London ones, neither of which can have excessive violence, then that is what they are going to tell you about. They tailor your requests into that level of specificity. See, I said it was really a cool idea. Check out the site if you get a chance.

 http://www.thefussylibrarian.com/

 

After I pick up my car, I need to pick up a few last things for my book signing this weekend – like candy for the jar. Remember, both Saturday and Sunday I will be at Canterbury Tales Forever in Peddler’s Village. If you’re in the area, please stop by to say “hi”. I’d love to see/meet you!

 

Tomorrow and Sunday may be a little hectic, so I probably won’t be able to get any challenges out there for you; which means, you very well may have until Monday to think about today’s challenge. I will try to get photos and updates of the event posted. I’ll just have to get up earlier. It’s ok, you’re worth it! I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

 

Your Last Challenge was:

Write a story containing the following three words: Queen, Computer & Assignment

 

I joined a writing group which meets every other week and the person who is running it is a middle school English teacher, and I guess you can’t take the teacher out of the classroom. He actually gives us homework assignments! Thankfully, for the first time ever, I don’t mind doing homework.

 

Over the weeks the assignments have been quite creative. One week we needed to rewrite or summarize a story (book, movie, heck someone even did a song) without using the character’s names or mentioning the name of the story. It was fun reading what the others in the group wrote and trying to guess what story they were retelling.

 

Anyway, this week’s assignment was to choose a historical figure, and tell a story completely different and unexpected than how the history books have portrayed this figure. As an example we were given General George Patton, renowned military genius, known for his quick thinking in difficult situation, actually needed to consult with is astrologer before making a single move.

 

For the assignment, I chose the Queen of England, the epitome of grace and good manners. I had many ideas swirling in my head, like she was the reigning beer pong champion in disguise and paid off the producers of “Girls Gone Wild” not to air a certain video, but when I got to my computer, opened up the page and had my fingers hovering over the keys, I drew a complete blank. The previous brilliant and hysterical ideas I had tickled the far reaches of my brain and would not come to the forefront. For an hour I sat there and stared at a white screen.

 

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.

September 19th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina – 
 

Good morning! As usual, I got distracted by a shiny object this morning. An article online caught my eye so I read it, then I made the mistake of reading the comments, then I left a comment of my own which I was going to share with you, but caffeine deprivation had me clicking out of the site and then not able to locate the site again.

 

Anyway, it was the article about the 8 year old boy who wrote a letter to Santa, but instead of asking for toys, he asked if Santa could stop his twin sister from being bullied. One of the comments made in response to the article was the girl was probably getting bullied because she was overweight, to which the commenter received a boatload of backlash. Then in the comment right before mine, the woman shamed all the other people who left comments by pointing out how they had become the bullies. The person who made the initial comment probably didn’t know the child’s excessive weight was, more than likely, a side effect of the medication she was taking for the other conditions she had.

 

My comment basically was if we want to stop bullying, we need to start at home. Watch what we say around the kids. Set an example for them to follow.

 

I admitted to having slips – loudly questioning the mental faculties of a bad driver – making an off handed comment about someone’s make-up or clothing. I (someone who was bullied, teased, picked on, ostracized, whatever you want to call it, from 7^th – 12^th grade) should have known better. I am just as guilty as everyone else. I just lucked out to have children who felt the need to stand up for and befriend kids who were getting bullied.

 

Kids don’t know if that FAT girl has a medical problem or if that boy with the DUMB CLOTHES dresses that way because his dad lost his job two years ago and those are the only clothes he can afford. Kids don’t know if that STUPID boy does, in fact, have a learning disability, or that WEAK girl is just trying to hide herself away from any confrontation because she gets more than enough at home. Bullies only see FAT, DUMB CLOTHES, STUPID, WEAK.

 

If you hear your child teasing someone, don’t yell at them, point out a possible reason behind whatever it is they are making fun of. It will give the child a chance to see things from a different perspective and maybe refrain from tormenting the other kid. It may be fun to pick on someone who’s FAT, but is it fun to pick on someone who’s fat because they are taking medication to shrink a tumor in their brain and they can’t help the side effects? (No, I do not think it is funny to pick on someone who is fat - unless of course I'm poking fun at myself who has become a little "fluffy" over the years.)

 

Bullying is an epidemic that has spanned every race, religion and sexual orientation since the dawn of time, and if you believe otherwise, you’re delusional. If you have ever chanted “fatty, fatty 2 by 4”, ever called someone “four eyes”, “brace-face” or “beanpole” you have bullied. If you were on the receiving end of any of those comments, you have been the victim of bullying. Even if you never did any of those things, you know of them occurring, so therefore you have been a witness to bullying. This is nothing new, but it is well past time it stops. It sad this horrific issue has only recently come to the forefront and is only starting to be addressed.

 

OK, stepping down from yet another soap box. Thank you for your indulgence during my tirade. I hope you have a wonderful day and happy writing!

  

Your Last Challenge was:

Your mission today, should you chose to accept, is to scare me. Even though I am not a fan of horror novels, I would like you to write a scary story and share it.

 

Whether it was the loud thump or the sound of breaking glass which woke Keira, she wasn’t sure, but it rousted her from a sound sleep. She glanced over to the next bed and noticed her little sister had been awakened by the noise as well. When they heard their father run down the stairs, both girls slid out of bed, into their fuzzy slippers, and padded over to their door to see what was going on.

 

Keira pressed her finger to her lips, warning Julia to keep quiet. She didn’t want them to get in trouble for being out of bed. Julia nodded. That’s when they heard shouting from downstairs and a loud POP, POP, POP. Keira grabbed Julia’s hand and raced into the hall. As they reached their parent’s bedroom door, it opened and their mother pulled the girls inside and quickly closed the door.

 

She looked around frantically as she whispered to the girls, “There’s someone one in the house. I’m going to find somewhere for you two to hide, and I want you to promise me that no matter what, you will stay hidden until Daddy or I come and get you. You can’t make a sound. Promise me!”

 

With tears in their eyes and a small whimper from Julia, the girls nodded their promise. Their mom, knowing under the bed or in the closet would be the first places someone would look, desperately tried to think where she could hide her children to keep them safe. Then she noticed the small piles of laundry she had sorted and was planning to wash in the morning.

 

“Come here girl. Lie down. Don’t move. Don’t make a sound.” When the girls laid down on the floor, their mother repositioned the laundry on top of them, completely concealing them from the naked eye, yet keeping the appearance of haphazardly sorted piles of dirty clothes. Before she straightened she whispered, “Mommy loves you.”

 

Keira tried to be brave. She tried not to cry, tried to lie perfectly still. Under the piles of clothes she still held her sister’s hand, and when she felt that tiny hand start to shake, she gave it a little squeeze in hope it would give her sister some comfort. When she heard the bedroom door crash open, her mother scream and then another POP, POP, POP, she squeezed Julia’s hand harder and prayed she would not give them away.

 

Dang, I flew through that one! I will admit, I dreamt about it last night, so that’s what probably made it much easier and able to get so much down in ten minutes.

 

Your Next Challenge is:

 

Write a story containing the following three words: Queen, Computer & Assignment

 

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.

June 28th Challenge

Hi, it’s Christina –

Happy Friday! If you happen to be from this area, I hope you all survived the wicked weather we had last night! Wouldn’t you know, the worst of it hit while my hubby was outside grilling! It was only spitting when he started the burgers. I went out to hold the platter when the burgers were finished because he couldn’t hold the umbrella and get the food off the grill without getting the food soaked, and just in those few minutes, I was completely drenched.

Had a little bit of exciting news last night. Oprah's list for summer reading came out, and in the comments section, a reader suggested my book, A Second Chance, should be added to the list. No, Oprah did not recommend my book, but her staff has allowed the comment about my book to stay on the site, so I'm doing a happy dance!! http://www.oprah.com/book-list/New-Books-Summer-2013-Summer-Reading

As I think I mentioned before, in March I made a visual goal chart which contains various things I want to accomplish in the next 24 months. One of my goals was to complete Simply by Chance as well as two other stories by the end of 2014. Pretty ambitious goal I know; so yesterday I bowed to peer-pressure and joined camp NaNoWriMo. Camp NaNoWriMo, National Novel Writing Month, is one of the events which lead up to the main event in November. You have from the 1^st of the month to the last day of the month to write 50,000 words. Since I will be writing one of my “other” stories, not a Bradford Series novel, my word count for a completed book will need to be between 75 – 80K words. OBVIOUSLY, the novel will not be complete, nor will it be edited in the 31 days, but this will still give me a healthy jump start at achieving my goal. I have to keep in mind, A Second Chance was written, edited, and in the hands of an agent in just under 8 weeks, so it is possible.

The first difficulty I ran into while signing up was filling out the form to get started. Name, Christina Paul; Age, 47, and I actually told the truth; Genre, Romance; Title – uuuuhhhh… After much deliberation I came up with Corporate Blues (what do you think?); Cover – yeah right, like I’m going to have a cover BEFORE the book is written; Synopsis - Modern day romance. Single executive mom meets the new CEO for one of her long time clients; Excerpt - Haven't written it yet so there is nothing to excerpt. Think they’ll be annoyed with my response?

If you want to find out more about NaNoWriMo, here’s the link to their website.  (http://www.nanowrimo.org/) Wish me luck!!

Your last challenge was:

 

Reality is flipped. (Her examples were: whites were discriminated against or heterosexuality was the minority or the outcome of a war was reversed.)

 

As we neared the two-hundred and fiftieth year anniversary of the American War of Independence, preparations were in full swing. King William, Queen Catherine as well as their children were planning a month long stay during the celebration, so getting the logistics of their security detail in order was proving to be a challenge. Their appearances as a family would not be an issue, however, when they split up, our resources were going to be spread a little thin. There were two weeks which were proving to be particularly bothersome. King William was speaking at Parliament in Boston, and then flying off to the west coast. Queen Catherine was meeting with various chapters of The Council for Woman’s Rights up and down the eastern seaboard. Prince George was touring Princeton, Harvard, and Yale Universities. Princess Ophelia was attending an equestrian camp in Colorado, while the twins, John and Josephine, were at camp in Florida.

 

Didn’t get very far with the story, but as I’m sure you gathered, the Revolution did not turn out the way we planned it.

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.