Another Win on the Books | Now to Finish Said Book

I did it. I won.

Oh my aching fingers!

Ever since the calendar flipped to December 1, I’ve felt like breaking out in song: “It’s the most wonderful time of the year!” 

At least, that's what I imagine it feels like for many writers across the globe right now.
November is over and it feels like I can finally get my life back! This monster known as NaNoWriMo has taken over my life for the past 30 days. But for the second time I crossed into the National Novel Writing Month winner’s circle by successfully penning 50,000 words worth of a novel in just one month’s time.

That oh-so-wonderful 50,000^th word was written November 30^th at approximately 8:53 p.m. Upon realization that I had crossed the magical word count threshold, I promptly jumped up from my computer desk, grabbed my cat and danced with her around the house for a solid three and a half minutes (or until the song on the radio was done, at which point my cat decided she didn’t really like her dancing partner and I decided I should get back to the task of finishing the novel).

But upon sitting back down to my desk to continue the not-yet-finished-story, a rush of emotions overcame me that anyone would expect upon coming out the other side of such an audacious task as a winner.

On Deadline | A NaNoWriMo Update

Hey there internet and happy Saturday! I know what you must be thinking:

“Whoa! What’s this, an update from Amanda in November? But isn’t there, like, that thing going on?”

This blog post is brought to you by Procrastination! Keeping you from getting stuff done!

Well, yes, there is in fact that one thing going on. That thing called National Novel Writing Month, that which has consumed my very being since 29 days ago. Almost every spare second of my time has been dedicated towards writing my novel The Light Within the Darkness.

I know it’s the day before the deadline and while I haven’t validated my novel yet, a little bit ago I crossed the threshold of 45,000 words on my project. That means I have just under 30 hours to come up with 5,000 words in order to win this year.

So why am I over here on my blog writing an update to you my lovely reader?

"What's Your Story About?" | A NaNoWriMo Update

Almost two years ago, I moved from my childhood home to my current residence in a town called Webster. I’ve always liked my new home’s name.

I mean, really. I’m a writer who lives in a town called Webster. Isn’t that awesome? (I’m currently trying to petition the need to change our motto to something like “find your definition” or “define yourself.”) What’s more, a neighboring town that I visit often has the tagline, “write your story.” It would seem I live in a writer’s paradise.

That’s what I’m attempting to do this month, during National Novel Writing Month.

I write a weekly column in the local newspaper where I am employed as a journalist and last week I wrote about and explained to my readers what NaNoWriMo is. On the few occasions I have been out of my house since then, people have stopped me to ask how my noveling is going – something that is very encouraging to me.

But then comes the question that causes me to cringe inwardly.

“What is your story about?”

My reply: “Uhhhh...words, and stuff?”

You see, because NaNo snuck up on me this year and I didn’t have much time to do my normal thing – outline – instead, I’m doing what WriMos call “pansting,” which is making up the story as you go along. While it’s true that the idea for this particular story has been roving around in my brain for several years, it involves a complex concept and storyline that I haven’t quite figured out yet.

Besides that, since my work is a tale of fiction – something my newspaper readers may not readily associate me with – I also usually don’t know how to reply or even begin telling them what my NaNo novel is about. I’m classifying it as a Young Adult Modern Fantasy Fiction. It’s not quite High Fantasy, but there are just enough elements of magic to distance itself from the realm of normal fiction.

Upon a brief and hurried attempt at an explanation to a well-meaning church lady who asked that question after services Sunday, she finally said, “Oh, so kind of a ‘Lord of the Rings’ kind of thing?”

Close enough, I thought.

I’m still working on that description for you guys. I’ll share it when I’m ready, but for now, I’m concentrating on word count alone.

So It Begins!

It's here, the first day of NaNoWriMo 2014 - welcome to the madness!

If you're here at my blog, I'm going to assume that you already know what National Novel Writing Month is and that I need not explain it further to you. If you have never heard of this craziness that is writing a book - 50,000 words - in a single month, bless you. You probably got a full night's sleep last night and will sleep just fine tomorrow and the night after. At the very least, you will not find yourself at a single point this month sleep deprived due to worrying over the lack of words you have put to a page in the pursuit of telling a story on a deadline.

This year will be my third attempt at completing NaNoWriMo. My first year, in 2012, I won. My second year, last year, I was unable to complete the task.

The first year, I knew what story I had planned to write as far back as two months before the start. I spent that time before the first of November plotting, outlining and writing character sketches and background stories. I made plans and told family and friends that I was undertaking the task of writing a book in a month and did my best to catch up on my sleep before the strike of midnight on All Hallows Eve.

Chat Pack Challenge 20 – Happy Birthday To Me

Today’s question: What is the one thing you are most fearful of doing?

Happy birthday to me! I’m a quarter of a century old today and had an amazingly blessed day. There are two flower shops in the small town I live in and I think I alone have kept them in business a bit longer today. I had three bouquets of flowers sent to me at the office – one from my parents, one from my aunt and uncle and one from a lady who just felt like giving me flowers because she thought I’d written a nice story about her in the paper.

All my birthday flowers (plus the just-because flowers). Oh, and chocolates. Someone got me chocolates too.

Yes, I know I am spoiled.

In response to today’s question, the one thing I’m most fearful of doing is not giving my best effort one hundred percent of the time.

While I’m really scared of spiders and creepy bugs, I can always find a shoe or some other object to squish them with and then carry on with my life. But failing at something because you didn’t try hard enough? That’s something that haunts you for the rest of your life, knowing you could have done better.

So what about you? What are you most fearful of? (Note: your birthday present to me could be answering today’s question in the comment section!)

Chat Pack Challenge 19 – The Young Journalist

Today’s question: What is the highest award you’ve ever won or highest honor you’ve ever had conferred upon you?

The Young Journalist

The highest award I’ve ever received was back in 2009 at the South Dakota Newspaper Association’s annual convention when I was named the Outstanding Young Journalist for all weekly newspapers in the state.

This remains one of my proudest moments.

The Outstanding Young Journalist award is only awarded to two individuals each year, one for weekly newspaper journalists and another for daily papers. The recipient must be under the age of 30 and can only receive the award once in their lifetime.

I was 19 when nominated and had just turned 20 when they announced my name during the formal banquet to which it was my first time attending.

My mind was whirling a million miles a second as I looked around the room in complete shock. People were beginning to stand and applauded. A gentleman to my left heartily slapped my shoulder and a lady across the table leaned forward to say her congratulations. My editor was on my right, beaming, laughing with a huge smile on her face. When I continued to just sit there, she kind of pointed towards the stage and mouthed something like, “go!”

As I walked forward – it felt more like I was floating – random people reached out to shake my hand and those who I then barely knew were greeting me with smiles. I could barely get my brain wrapped around it all.

Chat Pack Challenge 18 – What is Dull?

Today’s question: What do you think is the dullest topic to discuss?

What is dull to you?

I’m breaking it down today, going honest Abe on you all. That means no short story in this post and just straight up truth speaking from my lips—er, finger tips.

The answer of today’s question of the day is from the real me.

And the answer to what I think is the dullest topic to discuss is...

Chat Pack Challenge 17 – The Wedding Gift

This story was inspired by a true life tale. Maybe because Valentine's Day was just last week is why this one came to mind.

Today’s question: What is the most heartwarming/uplifting human-interest story you’ve ever heard?

The Wedding Gift

We were almost ready, hair and makeup done, the gals all had their dresses, and all that was left was to slip me into the white gown.

There was a knock at the door and a voice from the other side jokingly called out, “Are you ladies decent?”

We all giggled and one of my bride’s maids ran to the door to check who it was. Then she stepped aside and let my fiancé’s brother into the room. He was wearing his black suit and silver tie, more dressed up than I’d ever seen him before. In his hands was a package in red wrapping with a write ribbon and bow.

Tears began to well up in my eyes and I didn’t even know what was inside my future husband’s gift yet.

My friends and soon-to-be brother-in-law all started laughing and giggling at me. My face was burning because my smile couldn’t grow any wider.

“Don’t you cry now, you’ll ruin your makeup!” one of my sisters was teasing.

Then I was holding the package, carefully removing the paper. Inside was a little wooden box.

I opened the lid.

Chat Pack Challenge 16 – The Big Oops

Hey everyone, wow, isn’t it amazing how quickly life can take you in a different direction than you had intended to go?

My month long self challenge to write a short story or post in January came to a screeching halt when I became overwhelmed with a large work schedule, family health issues and other obligations I had pre-committed myself to prior to beginning this challenge. I moved in the middle of all of this and had to make a couple of unexpected trips half way across the state for various reasons.

And now I’m absolutely convinced that when life sees you trying to succeed with a goal it will throw anything it can to knock you down.

If you get knocked down, that’s okay. No matter how strong you are or you think you are, you will get knocked down at some point.

The important thing is to get back up.

Thanks to Twitter pal @alexalvar7 for prompting me to continue my #ChatPackChallenge by tweeting, “Who cares about deadlines? Just keep writing.”

So, without further ado, here is today’s question with my short story (fiction) answer: What is the costliest mistake you’ve ever made?

 

Chat Pack Challenge 15 – You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream!

Today’s question: What do you think is the best flavor of ice cream ever created?

You Scream, I Scream, We All Scream For Ice Cream!

Vanilla. With chocolate and caramel syrup. Or strawberry syrup. Or put some hot fudge on that baby, and I’m yours.

Cookies and cream, chocolate chip – cookie dough, yum! A twist cone, caramel swirl or strawberry.

Can we count orange sherbet as a kind of ice cream? I think I’m going to list it here anyway.

 

I'm not a big fan of rocky road, but there's this thing the ice cream shop near where I grew up makes called an avalanche.

 

That's pretty much heaven in an ice cream shape.

But I’m always on the hunt for the perfect chocolate malt. I have a recipe that includes peanut butter. Someday I'll maybe share the recipe here.

Quick, wipe that drool before it gets on your keyboard! Now, go out and get yourself some ice cream!

What’s your favorite kind of ice cream? Leave a comment below!

Chat Pack Challenge 14 – Go The Distance

Today’s question: What is the longest distance you’ve ever walked in a single day?

You know I couldn’t resist getting a good zombie apocalypse story in here sometime during the month. :)

Go The Distance

Mid-afternoon, the sun bearing down and I was about out of water. Nothing but desolation lay ahead of me, as far as the eye could see. I’d already walked far, so far… and I had a long ways yet to go.

“Chase back the demons!” I shook my head to chase back the words, but just as we’d failed in driving away the demons, so the words bore down upon me.

“Don’t let them in!”

The battle of Northberg had been twenty-four hours ago. Had it really been only that long? It felt more like a lifetime. A day ago the monsters encircled our walls, the last fortified city this side of the divide. When they mounted the attack against the concrete and brick that had kept us safe for so long, we thought we were safe.

How wrong we’d been.

Now my captain’s words kept echoing over in my head, “Don’t let them in! Keep back the demons! We’ll be all lost if they do get in! Kill them all!”

But they had broken through.

 

And all hell broke loose when they did.

Because, how did you kill something that was already dead?

Twenty-four hours ago, that was a question we lost the battle trying to answer.

The monsters had overtaken our city a day ago and I had been walking ever since. I was the lone survivor of the attack. At least, I hadn’t seen another living being – I wasn’t counting the vultures circling overhead – since my escape.

I was making an assumption, of course, however grim an assumption it was.

 

All that was left now was to walk on. I had to go the distance and find another city of survivors soon.

 

The lack of water wasn't the thing that would end up killing me out here.

Chat Pack Challenge 13 – The Most Comfortable Shirt in the World

Today’s question: What is the most comfortable article of clothing you’ve ever owned? The most meaningful?

The Most Comfortable Shirt in the World

Okay, so this is going to sound really crazy, but I once had a shirt when I was a kid that I loved so much, when it got too wore out to wear it any more, I actually had my mom turn it into a pillow case.

Please don’t laugh, I’m serious.

I have no idea what kind of material it is and that makes me sad because someday it will be too wore out to be even a pillow case and then I won’t be able to replace it. The fabric is really, really soft and stays cool all the time – which is a major thing for me and pillows. They have to be cool to the touch or it’s a no-go-to-sleep. That’s a rule. For me anyhow.

So, when it was no longer appropriate to wear the shirt any more, my mom took it, squared up the neck and shoulders, cut off the sleeves and sewed them on the inside.

If you were to look at it for the first time, you would never know that it had once been the most comfortable item of clothing in my wardrobe.

Chat Pack Challenge 12 – Sister

Today’s Question: What is the longest-lasting friendship you’ve ever had?

Sister

The longest lasting friendship I have is with my sister, Alexis. She’s just sixteen months younger than me so she is literally the best friend I’ve had for the longest time.

Chat Pack Challenge 11 – I Just Wanted Some Ice Cream

Today’s question: What is the worst customer service you’ve ever experienced?

When I started this challenge, I did say it didn’t matter how much I wrote, as long as it was at least something each day. So, here you go.

 

I Just Wanted Some Ice Cream

 

I was ignored.

No, like really. They had a special – advertised in the newspaper and everything – that if you stopped out and donated money to their selected cause they’d give you a free ice cream cone.

I was stopping out for supper at the fast food joint and thought an ice cream cone would make a delicious desert.

Chat Pack Challenge 10 –Answered Prayers

Today’s question: What is the clearest answer to prayer that you’ve ever received? 
 

Answered Prayers

Before storming out of the room to throw myself on my bed for a good cry, I tossed my hands in the air in defeat and shouted at my mom, “Just sign me up for veterinary school!”

My frustration was in no way directed at my mother nor was it her fault. It was simply the result of an ongoing conversation about what I would do with the rest of my life when I had not a clue. I was a senior and high school and still hadn’t decided if or for what I would go to college. I knew I was overwhelmingly ignorant about the outside world – having been raised on a farm and homeschooled, hardly ever going in to town or having relatively few friends – and the statement I’d just shouted was proof of that. As far as I knew, college – a degree in something, anything – was my only ticket on to bigger things.

Chat Pack Challenge 9 – Game Night Monopoly

Today’s question: What is your all-time favorite board game?

Game Night Monopoly

The Miller family was all gathering around the kitchen table. Dad was bringing the box of games from out of the front closet.

“What game do we want to play tonight?”  he asked.

Little Billy burst out, “Monopoly!”

Sally, his older sister by exactly three years and two months, rolled her eye and crossed her arms. “Nu-uh! Let’s play Clue!”

Little Billy shouted back through clenched teeth, “No! We’re playing Monopoly because that’s my favorite game of all time.”

“You can’t even count yet. You always have to have someone help you,” Sally retorted.

“I was thinking of Yahtzee,” their mom began to say.

“No!” the siblings shouted in unison.

Dad sighed. “Here we go again.”

“Well, tell him we should play Clue!”

“Tell her we are gonna play Monopoly!”

“There’s always Battleship,” Mom suggested.

“No!” the siblings shouted together then went back to arguing with each other.

 

Dad propped his elbow on the table and rested his chin in his hand. "We should have just had a movie night instead," he mumbled to Mom. She nodded her agreement.

Chat Pack Challenge 8 – $1,000,000

Today’s question: Besides a new house or a new vehicle, what is the single most expensive purchase you would make if you won a million dollars tomorrow?

Okay, I couldn’t resist doing this with this story. Enjoy!

 

 

(Play the video as you read the story)

$1,000,000

 

“If I had a million dollars, if I had a million dollars! If I had a million dollars… I’d be rich.”

The song faded and left Christian to his thoughts for a moment. He sat in a dusty arm chair in his cramped living room.

The 98-year-old man didn’t think winning a million dollars in the lottery had changed him. In some ways he was still the same guy who’d scratched down some random numbers on a lottery ticket once. He still lived in his two bedroom home at the end of the block and still had that new car, a 1994 Oldsmobile Royal. Two decades old now and he couldn’t really drive any more on account of his fading eye sight. That and the kids having taken his keys away from him…

Someone cleared their throat and Christian jerked. He’d begun to fade off to sleep, but the sound brought him back. He looked up. The guys in the band stood looking at him. It was a bit of a tight space, here in his house, but the band had managed to get all their equipment in here.

Christian just smiled at the Barenaked Ladies and said in a raspy, aged voice, “Again.”

As the music picked up and the lead singer stepped up to the mic, Christian laughed at the very thought. He had the band on a million dollar contract to play whenever he wanted them to until his dying breath.

The joke was on them though.

His doctor told him he was healthy as a horse.  

“If I had a million dollars, if I had a million dollars, well I’d buy you a house…”

Chat Pack Challenge 7 – Something Interesting

Today’s question: What is the coolest item you’ve ever discovered at a yard sale (or similar type of venue)?

If you're just tuning in, then welcome to the seventh challenge of my month long Chat Pack Challenge. This is a personal challenge to get me writing every day of the new year. Feel free to join in by leaving your answer to today's question in the comment section or write a reply on your own blog, but if that's how you do it, let me know by leaving the link so I can check out your answer!

I like the way this short story came out today.

 

The plot had a couple of surprise twists for me while writing it, but everything came together in the end. I had intended to write this tale from the point of view of the older sister, but for some reason the little sister sort of took over the story.

 

And I’m okay with that now.

 

Enjoy the story below!

Chat Pack Challenge 6 – The Greatest of These

Today’s question: What do you think is the most valuable attribute for any person to have?

Ooh, this is a good one today. This question drives at a very personal subject for me t. I hope this isn’t confusing the way it's written.

The Greatest of These

…The greatest of these is love…

He closed the book and closed his eyes. The passage had etched a picture on the inside of his eyelids. It was a picture of a lonely hill, an angry mob standing at the top while angry dark clouds hovered overhead. From the distance he was in his mind-picture, he could just make out the shape of three crosses.

He knew that each bore a man ‘til their death. One man bore an extra weight besides his own body. It was the weight of the world.

…If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not love, I gain nothing…

That man’s name was Love.

…Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves…

For it was love that drove him to bear the cross upon that hill that day. It was love that kept him nailed there. It was love that kept him locked within his frail human flesh.

…Love never fails...

It was a love for the world – past and future. For you. For me. For those who spat at him, teasing, jeering at his feet, watching him die, naked and humiliated, on that cross.

… But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known…

But Love did it because he knew. He knew the price and he paid it willingly. In the act of the greatest sacrifice, Love gave all.

…And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.

Chat Pack Challenge 5 – Thoughts of a Slow Eating Individual

Today’s question: Who is the slowest eater you've ever known?

Thoughts of a Slow Eating Individual

Everyone around the table bursts into laughter. The joke is funny, but not that funny.

My joke would have been better.

Too bad I can't take the time to say it aloud.

The food on my companions' plates are already three-quarters of the way gone. Mine just looks like I’ve been stirring it around this whole time.

I don't join in the conversation much. A word here or there, that's it. I feel like I've had time to do nothing but shovel food into my mouth since the waiter set the meal in front of us. They are all good at carrying on a conversation without me anyway.

But I hate that I can't figure out their secret to eating quickly.

Bit bite, lots of chewing; small bites, swallowing whole. Doesn't seem to matter, I am always the last one done. No matter what tacit I try, I know I'm going to be sitting here still eating when they finish and then they'll be just looking at me, waiting.

 

And I know what they'll all be thinking.

 

Why is she such a slow eater?

 

I'd like to tell them their guess is as good as mine, but I'll still be eating. So I won't be able to take the time for the remark.

Chat Pack Challenge 4 – Moving Day

Today’s question: What is the worst “moving-day” experience you’ve ever had?

Okay, for starters, I had to laugh when this question came up. It was about a year ago that I wrote a column for work about card board boxes and my inability to rid myself of them for the difficulty it took me to acquire the amount I needed to move halfway across my home state.

And now I’m packing boxes again, across town this time.

In reality, I’ve moved very few times and I’ve never really had a bad experience. I’m hoping this time is the same as all the times before.

So instead of a real-life example, I give you this micro flash fiction instead.

*A disclaimer: I’ve never hired a moving truck and so I have no idea if this story is even possible in reality. I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.  

Moving Day

The house was big and the porch built to match. Our new two-story farm house stood before us in all its majesty. It was the picturesque fairy tale country home, complete with a white picket fence.

 

It was our dream home.

I looked over at Jamie and she smiled back at me. I’d hoped she was thinking the same thing I was; a couple kids running around in the front yard someday. There weren’t any kids yet, but Jamie and I hoped to start our family soon enough. I put my arm around her shoulders and she leaned into me. I felt her sigh of contentment.

“It’s perfect, Scott,” she said as she looked up at me.

I leaned down to kiss her forehead. “It’s going to be an amazing place for us.”

Her smile only grew.

Just then, we heard a vehicle approaching and turned to see our moving truck rumbling down the narrow country lane, dust billowing out behind it.

“Oh, quick,” Jamie squealed. “Give me the keys and I’ll go unlock the house while you guys start carrying boxes in.”

I laughed at her enthusiasm but dug the key out of my jeans pocket anyway. I planted one last kiss on her forehead before releasing my arm from around her neck. She practically skipped up the pathway to that giant porch.

The truck came to a screeching halt in front of our new home and I cringed as the tires slid on the gravel. That couldn’t be good for our stuff inside. The movers climbed out and headed to the back, seeming to ignore me. Suddenly getting a sour taste in my mouth and a knot in my stomach, I followed the guys to the back of the truck. They slid open the door and right away I knew something wasn’t right.

The red-haired doll sticking out of the top of the box marked “Annie’s Toys” was one of the first thing I noticed.

As the movers began to lower the ramps and moved to start unloading the boxes, I cleared my throat and tried to speak, hardly knowing what to say.

“Ah, guys, I don’t think this is the right truck,” I said lamely.

The two guys stopped and just looked at me with blank expressions. I tried again.

“Um, what I mean, is, this is not our stuff…”  I waved my hand toward the boxes.

By now, Jamie had come back from unlocking the house. She bounded up the ramp and said, “All set!” She grabbed a box without noticing the strange names written on it and headed for the house. The two movers sort of looked back and forth at each other and then continued to pick up some stranger’s couch and move it out of the truck.

“Ah, Jamie,” I called as I bounded out of the back of the truck. I caught up with her on the porch of our new house. She turned and looked at me, right away scanning my empty hands. She looked at me accusingly. Her mouth began to open to lecture me about not helping, but I cut her off. “There’s a bit of a problem,” I told her.

“What is it?” she asked, her brows suddenly furrowing.

I simply took the box from her she’d been carrying and pointed to the writing: “Annie’s Toys.”

Her jaw dropped open as she looked at the box. Just then, the movers walked past us, carrying the couch between the two of them, walked up the steps and into our new house.

Jamie’s jaw was still gapping open when she turned to me. “Um, gentlemen, I think there's been some sort of mistake,” she called out and the movers stopped, the couch half way over the threshold, and looked at Jamie. Their expressions were borderline bored. The movers looked back towards each other, shrugged and then kept going, taking some stranger's couch into our house.

 

“That’s not our couch,” she stated then turned to me. "Scott, that's not our couch."

I shrugged, at a loss for what to do.

 

This was a moving-day nightmare.

Chat Pack Challenge: 3 – Changes

Today’s question: What is the single most significant change you’ve ever made in your life?

Changes

“Ch-ch-changes! Turn and face the strain, ch-ch-changes!”

What an appropriate song, Justin thought as he stepped onto the city sidewalk traffic. He looked down at his iPod. Ah, David Bowie.

Behind him, his now ex-boss was shouting profanity at him, but Justin didn’t care as he stuffed the other ear bud in. The peppy beat from the ear pods worked its way down to Justin’s feet and he was practically dancing down the street. He couldn’t help but bop his head to the music. He found that he didn’t even care that those around him were staring as he went by.

Of course, they could just as easily be wondering after him for the shouts coming from the restaurant he’d just left. The place of his former employment.

Justin smiled. Things were going to be different from now on. He was sure of it.

“Time may change me, but I can’t trace time!”

Chat Pack Challenge: 2 – Memories

Today’s question: What is the earliest memory you have from your childhood?

This is one of the earliest memories I have from when I was younger. I really have no idea how old I was, but I was barely more than a toddler.

Later in life when I told my parents about the memory, both scoffed and didn't beleive I could possibly have any memories of my great grandpa. He died not long after this memory.

Memories

I remember it like they portray memories in the movies. Everything is blurry, nothing in focus. There’s a white fog at the edge of my vision. I don’t know that I remember any particular feeling, I am just there.

Some of my early childhood memories I get like this third-person omnipresent feel, like I’m watching myself in a film, not in my own head. But in this memory, I am in my own head, looking out of my own eyes, although it’s like I’m set back a little ways, like looking down a tunnel.

I’m standing in the drive way in front of my grandparents’ house. It’s twilight with just enough light that it’s hard to see. I feel warm, summer. The air is cool.

In front of me, on the ground, is a pair of glasses. I reach out and pick them up and turn to see my dad and two uncles helping my great grandfather into the house. The old man looks unstable and is holding is forehead.  I have the feeling like Great Grandpa George fell. That’s why his glasses were on the ground.

But is that blood trickling down his face? I look down at his glasses in my hands.

Then my dad is calling to me and the memory fades out.

Chat Pack Challenge: 1 – The Dream Job

Today’s question: What do you think would be the best job to have in the entire world?

So obviously this thing was a last-minute plan, the writing every day challenge thing. I’m still writing today, but I realized later that yesterday’s post should have been a December 31st post and today’s post should have been yesterday and what I should be writing now would be the real day two.

Sigh.

I’ll have some time tomorrow (Friday) so I’ll catch up then.

As of now, here is the short story I was inspired to write based on today’s question. Feel free to write your own response in the comments or on your own blog (but please put a link to your response in the comments so I can read what you wrote).

Write Your Novel (With Me) in 2014

I let my subscription to Writer’s Digest laps, but finally decided to re-subscribe. The other day, my first new issue came in. Sprawled across the cover was the title of an article that was meant as a call to action.

Instead, it felt more like a reprimand.

“Write Your Novel in 2014!” the glossy magazine cried out to me. You see, over the course of 2013, my subscription wasn’t the only thing I let laps. My daily habit of writing creatively went dormant also.



But now, I need to wake up, to get busy, take action.

Because it’s a new year.

I have a plan to kick start that creativity again. It’s sort of a challenge for the month of January. It’s kind of a personal thing, but I wanted to extend an invitation to you, my dear reader, anyway.

Won’t you join me?