When I heard about the April A-to-Z Blog Challenge (blog every day in April except Sundays, basing each post on subsequent letters of the alphabet), I was like, “Piece of cake!” Fans of Labyrinth know better than to say that, right?
So I signed up and have had:
- edits of new novel, FORCE OF HABIT
- edits of short story written to promote FoH, “By the Book”
- a cold
- my mom with a pulled muscle
- my mom with esophageal spasms (originally thought to be a heart attack)
- multiple tornadic and thunderstormic activities
- power outage
- the bad judgment to join Second Life when I have little time to spare (I love it!!)
So far, I haven’t missed a post but the month isn’t over yet. Oh, yeah–and OVER A THOUSAND other bloggers signed up for the challenge, and I want to visit all of them.
Here’s a tree in my Mom’s side yard. Fortunately, it fell AWAY from the house. An unexpected upending. Just days earlier, the electric company came through and took down a couple of trees that, if they had fallen, would probably have fallen toward and onto her. 🙂
WRITING PROMPT: A character has difficulty fulfilling a pledge. That isn’t a prompt; it’s a plot!
MA
Holly Jahangiri
April 25, 2011 at 10:07amIt’s all fodder for your writing.
My sympathies to your mom – I have been there, done that, and missed my son’s elementary school year-end awards because I was confined to the hospital while they ran all manner of cardiac tests on me, only to reluctantly agree with my own initial assessment – “esophageal spasms.” I know they are right to be cautious, but I wish I could bill them for lost time and missed awards ceremony (an my son’s in high school, now!)
Bronchial spasms are worse. Esophageal spasms are mainly annoying and tiring (like having hiccups for hours would be). Ironically, treatment for them is similar to treatment for heart attack, so two days on a nitro patch and they’d mostly subsided. I went home with nitro tabs and beta blockers. Knock wood: Haven’t had a recurrence in years.
Marian Allen
April 25, 2011 at 1:35pmIt IS all fodder for writing. No telling where the bits will end up. 🙂
I’m so glad your “heart attack” turned out to be esophageal spasms, too, and that they can be treated. I’ll have to tell Mom if they continue.
Mary Montague Sikes - Monti
April 25, 2011 at 10:08amGoodness, you’re a super woman! All the tornadoes in so many different states is a scary scenario! We had one in our area that destroyed most of a middle school and many of its buses. Also, went through the middle of a church in another community. Tornadoes in Virginia are pretty rare.
Good luck with the new book. Hope your mom is doing better!
Monti
NotesAlongTheWay
Marian Allen
April 25, 2011 at 1:37pmMom is doing fine now, thanks! 🙂 We went to the grocery together today and she’s planning to go out to lunch with friends tomorrow. You talk about a super woman! 🙂
Bob Sanchez
April 25, 2011 at 12:15pmI enjoyed your post. Yeah, life is full of the unexpected. Our cat bit my wife the other day, and now the law says we can’t bring him to the vet today without an escort from Animal Control.
Marian Allen
April 25, 2011 at 1:37pmWow! That must have been quite a bite!
Lisa Ricard Claro
April 25, 2011 at 1:42pmOnly a few more days of A to Z, so hang in there. This was my first go round with the Challenge, and it’s been fun, but I think I need a vacation! LOL
Marian Allen
April 25, 2011 at 2:01pmI’ll be glad to get back to writing without constraint or commitment. The biggest challenge is the number of participants!
gail
April 25, 2011 at 3:35pmAnd you still managed to post your atozchallenge blogs regularly!
Now that the light at the end of the tunnel is visible, I’m hoping my goal to increase my weekly posts from one to at least two becomes a reality.
Marian Allen
April 26, 2011 at 8:15amGood luck with increasing your posting! I hope you enjoy frequent blogging as much as I do. 🙂
Sharon Reece
April 25, 2011 at 4:29pmHow do you manage to sit at your computer long enough to get everything done?!
I couldn’t imagine what your unexpected upending would be about. We also had a u u. Our favorite shade tree split and fortunately fell away from the house. That’s after we had been sitting in the shade of it all afternoon!
Marian Allen
April 26, 2011 at 8:17amSharon, that isn’t the question I’m usually asked. I’m usually asked, “Lord, don’t you ever MOVE?” lol!
Too bad about your shade tree–I feel that pain–a few years ago, the tree next to our house fell over. The good news is that it fell away from the house. The bad news is that it fell directly on our cherry tree and smashed it to splinters. :/