September 23rd Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! I tried, but I just didn’t have it in me yesterday to make a blog post. I was wrecked after the two day book signing. Sunday, I had intended to walk the festival after the signing and get pictures of all the displays so you could see, but I was spent. I was literally fighting to stay awake during the drive home. I will be back at Peddler’s Village next weekend (not this weekend), and I will get the photos for you then.

I did well on Sunday, not as good as on Saturday, but it was a good day nonetheless. It wasn’t quite the same without the two Karens there. Karen Scheuer was not feeling well, so she was unable to return on Sunday, and Karen Hluchan had a prior commitment. I did however get to spend some quality time with Joanne Holliday, and I have decided I thoroughly enjoy the woman. Her and her sister Lucy were a riot! I look forward to seeing both of them at future signings.

I did have a nice surprise on Sunday. Do you remember me telling you about meeting Jessica at a previous signing? She was the aspiring writer and jewelry maker (I told you about an upcoming craft fair she will be attending). Anyway, she stopped by to say “Hi”, and it really made my day. She brought along her husband and her mom, who barely looks old enough to be her big sister, let alone her mother, so I got to meet her family. It’s moments like these that warm my heart.

Yesterday the only writing I did were email correspondences and I did jot down some notes on a story idea which popped into my head. It may or may not turn into anything, we’ll see. If it does, you’ll be the first to know.

I also spent part of the day hammering out details for this weekend’s event – Milford Alive. I’ll be honest, I have no clue where Milford even is, but I am happy to report, it is only about half an hour away. I really should do a little more research before I agree to do these things. My friend, Kathi Kurz, an author of children’s books, will be joining me this weekend. I am picking her up early, we are packing up my car, and heading up there. We will be sharing a tent, so if you happen to be in the Milford, New Jersey area on the 27^th, please come by and say “Hi”.

So my big sale started on Sunday, and things are going a little slow which is surprising. I’ve only sold about twenty books so far, and they have all been on Amazon.com. Not a single one has sold on Amazon.co.uk, and I’m not sure why. All three books are either at $0.99 or £1 – that’s a 67% discount. I created an event on Facebook and invited over 800 people. If they’d each share it with two friends, I’d be able to get the word out.

The last time I ran a sale, I did almost no advertising for it, and the amount of sales surprised me. So this time I figured, if I put forth a little more effort, they would be even better. Logical, right? This is just one of the many mysteries of book marketing for me – truly not my forte, but a necessary evil all us authors must endure.

I have received several direct messages requesting the link to my radio interview. Really? WOW. Thanks! At the risk of no one seeing this post on Facebook, I have decided to chance it, and post the link here. (If you are reading this directly from my blog, this comment won’t make much sense to you. You see, if I include any pictures or any links within my posts, Facebook severely hobbles the number of followers the post reaches. It is very frustrating.)

Okay, I should go. I hope you have a great day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

I’ll set the stage: A crowded room, lots of people are chatting, you notice one person standing alone…

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.

September 16th Challenge

Hi it’s Christina –

Good Morning! It’s a chilly, rainy, yucky day here in central New Jersey, but I’m not going to complain. It has been forever since we have had rain, so it is desperately needed.

Sorry I didn’t do a blog post yesterday. I knew, the way my day had started, I was not going to do much other than complain. Yesterday started with me waking up early, because Dani was supposed to go back to school, and I come out into the living room to find it completely littered with trash. My hubby forgot to take the garbage out on Sunday night, and Colby helped himself. Not the sight I wanted to see at 5:00 a.m.

I said Dani was “supposed to” go back to school yesterday. It didn’t quite work. She got up, showered, dressed, put her make-up on, and she was done. She came out of her room, shaky and white as a sheet; and I said, “Uht, ah. No way. Back to bed.” I knew she wasn’t up to it because she didn’t fight me on it, not one complaint. She just turned around and went back to bed.

So, at nine, I called the doctor and told him what happened. He advised she slowly work her way back into school, so that’s what we are doing. Today she will be at school through third period, tomorrow through sixth, Thursday through eighth, and then the full day on Friday. It’s a good plan. Now I’m just keeping my fingers crossed it will work out that way.

I brought her to school this morning, and we went directly to the nurse’s office. We got her a pass to get out of gym, a blanket hall pass to the nurse’s office whenever she needs it, a pass to use the elevator because she’s still having issues navigating stairs, and a pass to get to class, because by the time we got all the paperwork filled out, she was late for first period.

Since first period had already started, the nurse asked me if I would walk Dani to class. I get her to the classroom, I signal the teacher I would like to talk to him for a second, Dani walks in, and the first words out of the teacher’s mouth are, “You picked a bad day to come back.” What the heck? Is he out of his mind? Why would he say that??

Then, I’m still standing outside the classroom, and he completely ignores me. You would think, he would excuse himself for the fifteen seconds it would have taken for me to bring him up to speed, but no. After five minutes I gave up and left. Man I really hope this was an isolated situation and this guy isn’t such a jerk all the time, or we are going to have an issue.

I refrained from posting yesterday because I didn’t want to complain, and here I am today, complaining; so enough with that.

I had the radio interview on ArtistFirst Radio Network last night. It was a ton of fun. Ron and I spent most of the hour laughing. I did get to talk a bit about me, my books, and the stories behind them. I also managed to work in shout-outs for three of my author friends, Keith, Linda and Dorothy May. All three of them will be appearing on The Ron Shaw Show sometime in the near future. We also talked about the covers for my books, so I was able to give Linda’s son Matt – the creator of my Corporate Blues cover, and her daughter Krista – the model for my Corporate Blues cover, some airtime as well.

It was so surprising how quickly the hour sped by. Ron warned me it would, but honestly, I didn’t believe him. Let me tell you, I enjoyed the radio interview far more than the TV interview last week. I got to do my radio interview in a sweatshirt, old pair of shorts, no make-up, and my hair was probably a mess, and it didn’t matter. You can’t get away with that on TV, that’s for sure.

We had such fun last night, Ron asked me to come back on his show the second Monday in December, and I accepted. Not exactly sure what we will talk about then, but what the heck, right?

Hey, if you get a minute, go check out ArtistFirst’s website. I glanced at it before, checked to make sure there were no errors in what they put up about me and my books, but I didn’t really look at the whole page. I did last night, and I got a big surprise.

My book’s cover and my bio are right next to a picture of Johnny Depp! Other folks they have interviewed are Dr. Oz, Priscilla Presley, Joan Collins, Jaclyn Smith, Ben Vereen, and MANY more names you’d know – HOLY CROW! Here they are, interviewing all these mega stars, and then little old me. I feel unworthy. I’m so glad I didn’t notice that until AFTER my interview, or I really would have been ill.

In case you were wondering, the last challenge was a quote taken from The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch. If you haven’t had a chance to read this book yet, I highly recommend it. As a rule, I pretty much do not read non-fiction. The spare time I have to read, I want to escape, to be taken away to another time, another place, and most of all to a happily ever after; and let’s face it, non-fiction usually cannot deliver my requirements.

This book however, was an assigned reading for Dani last year, and I read all of the books my kids have had assigned to them. I finished the book in a little over two hours, and then I went and watched the video of the actual lecture. The book was amazing, and it is the first book EVER that I did not find a single editing error. That alone impressed me. My only complaint was the insane cover price for the tiny book. $22 for a 4X5, 205 page book, even the Kindle edition was $11. I’m sorry, I don’t care who you are or what you’ve got to say or how amazing what you have to say is, it’s not worth that kind of money. I managed to get a used copy for $5, and I strongly suggest, if you plan on reading it, you should too.

Okay, I’ve rambled on long enough. I have to get this puppy posted everywhere and then go get Dani from school.

I hope you have an amazing day, and happy writing!

Your Next Challenge:

I think I can, I think I can…

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.

July 19th

Hi it’s Christina –

not my kitchen, but close

Good Morning! I woke up at five today so I would time to get a little writing done before I needed to get ready and leave for my book signing, but then I went into the kitchen to make coffee, and realized I forgot to do the dishes last night. Then of course the sink was messy, so I had to scrub that. Oh yeah, I promised Lys I would soak the top to her water bottle in bleach to clean it – hmm, I should do that to the travel mug lids while I’m at it…

I finally drag myself out of my distracting kitchen, and sit down at my computer, but I’m munching on a cinnamon roll, so I can’t exactly write. So I go take a look at Facebook. My first stop, every day, is the birthday reminders. I try very hard to wish everyone a HBD on their birthday, and I feel bad when I miss. (I know, I’m a kook, but you already know that.)

Then I noticed my cousin posted a photo with “Happy Birthday in Heaven” written as the comment. That made me want to share a song I had saved down to my timeline. After half an hour of hunting, one posted plea for “does anyone know an easier way to do this”, and one failed brainstorm of – Ooo, I sent this to Lisa, so the link should be in one of my messages to her (it wasn’t), over an our was wasted.

Then a back and forth chat with Ron Shaw about doing an interview on his

radio show, sucked up the rest of my expendable time, so this will be just a blog post today, without a challenge. I’m not complaining, it was all good. The chat, not the hunting for the link – I’m still a bit steamed over that. It was a youtube video of a girl singing a song about a friend going to Heaven. The song was amazing and comforting. The girl’s voice was phenomenal. I can’t remember the name of the song or the girl, so I can’t go hunting for it on youtube.

There needs to be a better way to find things on your timeline. I don’t understand why Facebook doesn’t do something as simple as have an “only me” folder, so when you share something with an “only me” status, it dumps it in there. I don’t know how many recipes and “home remedies” I have shared via “only me”, but when I go hunting for a new idea for dinner, or can’t remember if it’s vinegar or baking soda what gets out a grape juice stain, I can never find the post. If they automatically went to an “only me” folder, I’d know exactly where to look. Y’all know what a technological ditz I am, but seriously folks, this seems like a no-brainer, don’t you think?

So the reason for the back and forth between Ron and me, is his radio show is LIVE. I’m not sure I can be entertaining for an entire hour. Yup, you read that correctly, an HOUR long interview. I made Ron a deal. I said we chat on the phone FIRST. If, after our conversation, he still feels he wants me to do his show, then I will. If not, no hard feelings.

He agreed, but said he has read my blog, so he knows I’d be fine. Yeah, my blog, written word, where I can backspace and delete where needed. Ya can’t exactly do that on LIVE radio.

Oh yeah, did I mention, each segment is archived and can be accessed at any time via the radio’s website? So when I stick my size nine foot in my mouth, which I’m sure I will, it will be out there for all eternity. My only hope is for a bleep delay – I’ve been known to let a “D*mn” or “H*]]” or “S&*T”, among other things, slip from time to time in conversation.

I’ll keep you updated as to when and if I’ll be doing the interview. Okay, it’s time for me to hop in the shower. Wish me luck at the book signing. It’s cloudy right now, so I am hoping the weather holds out (the signing is outside). I hope you have an exceptional day, and happy writing!