Tag Archives: Kids

January 24, 2023 · 10:00 am

Hot pizza on a rainy day

Bloganuary: Describe the happiest day of your life

I decided to filter this prompt through the advice in Our Town by Thornton Wilder. If you choose to revisit a day, make it an ordinary one.

It was late spring, a weekday, back when my kids and I were taking karate classes together. The weather was warm enough not to need jackets, so we didn’t bring any to class.

A storm blew in while we were doing roundhouse kicks. After class, it was still raining hard. To wait out the storm, we decided to skip along the covered sidewalk of the strip mall and order take-out pizza for dinner.

Except, when the pizza was ready, it was raining even harder.

Pizza in hand, we debated. Go for it and risk soggy pizza or wait and content ourselves with cold slices when we got home?

We were too hungry to wait. We hunkered over the pizzas, cardboard boxes hot against our palms, and raced for the car. After a few steps, we were soaked through. By the time the three of us were secure in the car, we were laughing.

Maybe it was the endorphins from karate, or the promise of pizza, or that it was so close to summer vacation, but we didn’t stop laughing for the entire drive home—or when we had to race inside through that same downpour.

After we toweled off and hung up our karate uniforms to drip dry, the pizza was—somehow—still hot. It was nothing more than franchise pizza, but we ate and laughed, laughed and ate.

I don’t remember what happened before karate, and I’m not sure what we did for the rest of the evening. But this window of time is something my kids still mention in conversation, even now.

I think this is how those important life milestones should feel but never quite do. It was a burst of pure joy, pure living that can’t be manufactured.

You simply must trust that life will give you some of these moments.

Hot pizza on a rainy day after karate class doesn’t sound like the ingredients for the happiest day of my life. But if I had to pick one day to go back and live again, it would be this one.

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March 29, 2015 · 11:24 am

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the 99 cent sale

YA Spring Fling Contemporary

The YA Spring Fling continues this week, so if you haven’t had a chance to enter, head on over. Lots of books, lots and lots of books.

I’m continuing with both of my classes (I should probably go post my homework), managed a little writing, a little outlining, a little ghost research. Plus I sent a new story out into the world.

Also, if you want to grab Now and Later for 99 cents on Kindle, it’ll be that way for a week.

Writing Work:

  • Writing work ~ 2,300 words
  • Description class
  • Narrative Design class

Submissions:

  • In a Manner of Speaking

Rejections:

  • Abandonment Issues

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

None, but the Goodreads giveaway is still going on! Enter to win a print copy of Now and Later.

Or … grab the Kindle version for 99 cents. One week only!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Now and Later by Charity Tahmaseb

Now and Later

by Charity Tahmaseb

Giveaway ends April 02, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

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March 22, 2015 · 8:42 am

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the YA Spring Fling

YA Spring Fling Contemporary

So, yes, the YA Spring Fling started on Friday. There are lots of books, not just contemporary YA, but fantasy, sci-fi, horror. Have a favorite genre? You can probably find it in this giveaway.

In other news, I started another class this week. Why? Because I’m crazy. Well, yes, I am, but that’s not why. Way back at the start of the year, I signed up for the Description class at the Loft Literary Center. Then the Narrative Design class came along, and I decided to start that as well.

And things are just a little bit crazy, what with Girl Scouts and dance competitions and the like. But I know that:

  1. It won’t stay busy forever.
  2. It’ll be worth it if I hang in there.

Now, a deep breath before I jump into my busy Sunday (cookie booth, here we come).

Writing Work:

  • Writing work ~ 5,250 words
  • Description class
  • Narrative Design class

Submissions:

  • Straying from the Path (reprint market)

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

Publications:

None, but the Goodreads giveaway is still going on!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Now and Later by Charity Tahmaseb

Now and Later

by Charity Tahmaseb

Giveaway ends April 02, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Leave a comment

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March 15, 2015 · 1:49 pm

Weekly writing check-in: the one with three stitches in my head

So … this week? A little fuzzy. Monday evening, I smacked my head into a dining room chair, hitting my brow right on one of the pointed knobs on the chair back. I did this hard enough that it required three stitches to close up the wound. No concussion, fortunately (but apparently there was a lot of blood).

So … no new writing this week. I did some revision and editing, set up the Goodreads giveaway, and drafted my lesson for the narrative design class (which I still need to post). I also sent out the two stories that came back in this week, so I came out even there.

Writing Work:

  • Revision/editing work
  • Goodreads Giveaway for Now and Later
  • Narrative Design class

Submissions:

  • A Measure of Sorrow
  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Rejections:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt
  • A Measure of Sorrow (reprint market)

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

None, but the Goodreads giveaway is live, as is the print version on Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Now and Later by Charity Tahmaseb

Now and Later

by Charity Tahmaseb

Giveaway ends April 02, 2015.

See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.

Enter to win

Leave a comment

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March 8, 2015 · 8:30 am

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the dance competition

Very quick update today. My daughter has her first dance competition. Someone is nervous. That someone may be me.

I finished the short story I was working on this week and then switched gears to edit a different short story. I got the proof of Now and Later submitted, and now I’m waiting for the copy to arrive so I can do a final review.

Even better, I submitted two stories this week. And I kept up with my class, more or less.

And now … it’s time to dance.

Writing Work:

  • Writing ~ 3,000 words
  • Revision/editing work
  • Submitted proof for Now and Later
  • Narrative Design class

Submissions:

  • The Perfect Canvas
  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Rejections:

  • None

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

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September 14, 2014 · 9:11 am

Weekly writing check-in: the one with an Eagle Scout

EagleWell, it’s official, hardware and all. My son is now an Eagle Scout. He worked so hard for this, and the process had its ups and downs, to be sure. We’ll probably have a court of honor in a few months or so. But for now, we simply gaze upon the medal and pins–and that’s enough.

In other news, I managed about 3,000 words on the coffee ghost story. I worked through all the audio files for The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet. The Maze is done, and according to my dashboard, headed for retail (!).

Also, I wrote up a book review this week (see link below). And I may do another post in a bit to recap all the WWI books I’ve read in the past few years.

Writing Work:

Submissions:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Rejections:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

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August 31, 2014 · 9:23 am

Weekly writing check-in: the one with a finished novel

dorm5So apparently you can send your son off to college and finish a novel all in the same week. Because that’s what I did this week. Those 11,000 words? Yeah, I have no idea when I wrote them. I just grabbed pockets of time here and there, and the next thing I knew, I was closing in on the last few scenes.

Once you get there, it’s hard to stop writing. So while that looks like a lot of words, it didn’t feel that way. As far as the total goes, the novel came in at ~ 80,000 words, which is a nice size for a novel.

And also, in other big news, my son went off to college this week! It’s not every day these two things happen, right? As you can see, he’s busy doing schoolwork already. Actually, he’s filling out the check-in form so he isn’t charged for damage to his dorm room later on.

So … that was my week. How was yours?

Writing Work:

  • Pansy 2.0 ~ 11,650 words

Submissions:

  • March Madness

Rejections:

  • Five to Freedom

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

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July 20, 2014 · 10:53 am

Weekly writing check-in: the one with another birthday

 

Another birthday, you say? Well, yes, yes there was. My son turned eighteen this week (yeah, how did that happen). We also attended his college orientation. Not to mention he made a jaunt up north for Scout camp.

Busy week means not quite as many words. It also means there’s a grimy dutch oven in my front hall that will be cleaned by someone who isn’t me.

However, I did get some writing in. That’s the power in having a routine. And speaking of routines, I’m going to complete my busy Sunday (more camps! more things!) so I can get back to it tomorrow.

Writing Work:

  • Pansy 2.0 ~ 4,080 words

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • Doreen’s Muse

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

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June 8, 2014 · 8:35 am

Weekly writing check-in: the one with the graduation

I am still gearing up for the release of The Fine Art of Keeping Quiet. Part of that includes finishing the “listening” edit to catch any typos that may have slipped through. It works wonders, you guys. If you’re looking for another way to proof your work, I highly recommend obtaining some sort of text-to-speech program.

Actually, I have two: a software program on my computer and the text-to-speech function on my Kindle. This last is nice, since I can send my manuscripts to my Kindle, then take a pair of ear buds and listen just about anywhere I want to.

I also did a bit of editing work on some short stories and started a read through of a novel draft I wrote last year.

But most importantly, this week, I watched as my son walked across the stage and received his high school diploma.

 

Writing Work:

Submissions:

  • None

Rejections:

  • Like Bread Loves Salt

Acceptances:

  • None

Publications:

  • None

 

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February 23, 2013 · 1:10 pm

My ten-year-old’s bucket list

So in the class I’m taking over at The Loft Literary Center, Breaking the Unwritten Rules in Middle Grade and Young Adult Fiction, we’ve been talking about clichés and tropes, and about all those unwritten rules we might not even realize are holding us back from something original and startling.

We’ve discussed narration and how to balance entertainment with authenticity when writing a middle grade or young adult character. It reminded me of something Kyra said a while back.

One day after school, she mentioned she had something on her “bucket list.” After I got over my internal freak out about my ten-year-old having a bucket list, I asked her what she meant.

Here’s the thing: she’d never heard the phrase “kicking the bucket.” If she saw it in a story (or heard it in a movie) she would probably ask me what it meant if it wasn’t clear from context.

To her (and her friends), a bucket list represented a figurative bucket where they placed all the things that they’d like to do someday.

In Kyra’s case, this list includes:

  • being a scientist
  • traveling the world
  • painting all her pets’ portraits.

So, as writers, we’re told to avoid clichés because they’ve lost their freshness and meaning. But in some cases, all it takes is the next generation to give the old something new.

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