Late February check-in :)

Yeah, I've lost track of the weeks, so let's just measure by the part of the month we're up to!

How's everyone going? I've done a lot of photo sorting in recent days, as it's probably the easiest thing on my weekly task list (aside from catching up on reading Michael's Princess Caitlin/Catrina stories, that is). I've got really far ahead in that goal, to make up for the weeks in March/April when I will be out of the country and probably unable to sort any photos at all. My goal is to get that far ahead in other areas, too, though I will probably take some stuff on the plane with me (like printed-out Catrina stories, or printed-out novel chapters to edit, stuff like that). But anyway, the point is that I'm sorting photos but not rushing ahead in any other area. Though I did read an extra Catrina story last night. ;)

I'm very, very close to finishing my first NaNo novel (a YA paranormal, or is it supernatural?) from last year. It's currently at about 60k, and will probably end at not much more than that. Then I have the next novel to move onto, which I reached 50k on but which may be longer than the first (it's sci-fantasy). It's been slow going, writing 1k a week, but it's also been more relaxing than most of my writing projects are.

Anyway... My travels. A friend and I are travelling to Paris, then London, then going on a tour of the U.K., in March/April. Should be fun, and cold, and should leave me with a whole bunch of new photos I will need to sort upon returning home. But I still have a few weeks to go before I get to say I'm leaving! A few more weeks in which to try and make headway with my goals!

How are you all going with your goals/projects/what have you?

Somewhere between Week #5 and Week #6 check-in/up?

Hey everyone! You may have noticed that there's no particular rhyme or reason to when I come by and post here. Mostly it just occurs to me suddenly that, "Oh yeah, I wanna hear how those guys are doing!" So, I guess that's what you can talk about here in the comments - how your weekly goals are coming along so far this year. Have you got any monthly goals instead? Or how about just year-long goals?

My goals are in their usual state, coming along at a slow and steady pace. I now have a new problem to add to the list, though - a possible entire rewrite of a novel I had thought largely "done". I got some really helpful critique, which I shall at some point write about in my "main" blog. For now, I sit and I stew and I plot a possible rewrite.

How are you and your goals going?

How's everybody going?

I've lost track of my fellow Chrysalis hostesses :( I think they're floating in the portion of space known as "real life has taken over". I miss them! But the show must go on, as the saying goes!

How's everyone going with their creative/other goals this year so far?

My goals are mostly on track, but the health goals are on hold temporarily while I recover from a minor surgery I had on Friday. My writing goals are going well, and I'm a little bit ahead in some areas. I'm finding it quite easy to get in my 'slacker' time, which possibly means I'm not doing enough. But I'm not going to expand on my goals just yet, 'cause I think that could lead to exhaustion!

But now it's your turn - let's have your updates!! :)

Week #2 check-in/up

Hey everyone!! How's everything going? Are you meeting your goals? Do you even know your goals yet?

I'm finding it interesting so far this year, because I'm working on a fair few projects at once but I feel like I'm not doing much. I guess last year was really busy and I was working on one given project at a time, and throwing my all into it. This year is a little different. But I'm liking it - the variety keeps things interesting and fresh!

What's a creative project you're working on or planning to work on right now?

Week #1 check-in (check-up?)

So, let's have a rehash of week #1. For me, I had the following goals:

• Revise one chapter of a WIP (any WIP)
• Revise one Chrysalis story from 2011
• Read one Catrina story
• Attend a yoga class (fitness)
• Beach walk 1 (fitness)
• Beach walk 2 (fitness)
• Write 1 song
• Write 1000 words on a WIP (any WIP)
• Sort 100 photos & transfer to iPhoto

I achieved most of these. The only one I didn't do was the yoga class, but I did an extra beach walk to make up for it (or to "sort of" make up for it? hehe). The song was the first thing I got done. I revised a chapter of one of my hugely overblown novels (it was 148k or so at the start...needs to be more like 95k!), which was quite satisfying (slash and burn was involved). I revised my first Chrysalis story and decided it will be shelved, and I won't try and publish it or anything. I wrote over a thousand words on one of my unfinished novels from NaNo 2011. And I technically put a lot more than 100 photos into iPhoto, but only about 100 were newly sorted.

All in all, a productive week, but I'm finding that it's better not to be locked into any particular day for doing any particular task I've set myself. It's good to have so many things to work on, so that I can pick and choose!

Anyway, over to you! How'd you guys go with your weekly goals?

What's your "weekly" goal, then?

Come on guys, share your plans with us!

In my case, I'm actually planning on doing a lot of things on a weekly basis. Posting on my (other) blog, revising a chapter of a WIP (whatever WIP I'm working on at the time), going to a yoga class, walking by the beach... There are more, but I'll leave it there. Except to say that I do have a Chrysalis-specific goal, and that is to write one new song a week.

If we're going to do this "choose your own adventure" version of Chrysalis, then I want to know what you guys are going to choose (barring Mayan Apocalypse, as Michael pointed out :D). Some of the ideas floating around were a) doing one short story per week again, b) writing one novella a month for 2012, etc.

Still waiting on that Exit Survey, by the way, but you'll see it here when it's ready! Meanwhile...how about a little Entrance Survey for 2012?

1. What are you going to aim for with Chrysalis in 2012? It can be any goal, as long as it's weekly!

2. Do you have a strategy for how you're going to handle 2012's writing/whatevering goals?

3. Were you satisfied with your progress (in whatever you were doing) last year?

4. What do you aim to do differently this year?

5. Do you like fluffy bunnies, or shorn bunnies, or neither? :)

6. And finally...what other question should I put here that my mind isn't brilliant enough to come up with?

A new year! What about Chrysalis?

I don't know about you guys, but for me last year was quite the challenge! I wrote 52 short stories in 52 weeks! At one point I was about four weeks behind, or was it five? Either way, it was painful catching up, but I did it. I think the point I'm trying to make, though, is that I'm in no hurry to repeat last year's experience!

My co-hosts and I haven't really talked about what will happen this year with the Chrysalis blog, or anything Chrysalis-related. I get the distinct impression those two are rather burned out, and I can totally relate to that! I can speak for me however when I say I will be doing something Chrysalis-related this year. My challenge is one I've chosen to suit just me, and it's related to songwriting and recording. There was discussion a few months back (I think that was when we discussed it...) about what we might do in 2012. Well, there were lots of different ideas, and it occurred to me that maybe in 2012 everyone should make their own Chrysalis challenge. Basically, something that happens once a week, related to writing, that you can report on here (and on your blog of course). You can use the Chrysalis platform to keep you motivated!

I'm not really sure how it'd work. I'm not sure if we will have prompts. I'm not sure of anything! But I do know that I would be sad to see this blog and Chrysalis in general just die in the dust.

So what do you guys think??

P.S. There will be an exit survey...soon!

PROMPT NUMBER LAST PROMPT HOLY CRAP (...52)

Dang.

Well, this is it, I guess. To give a grisly end to a year of often-macabre prompts, here is...

Write a short story of 1,000-10,000 words based on the following:

She'd expected getting stabbed in the stomach to hurt at least a little more. But to humor her attacker, she supposed she should act like she was in agony.

Hope you had a very merry whatever-religion-you-are holiday or Festivus if you're atheist!

And a joyous New Year!

-Winter

Have a Fairy Merry Christmas!

Have a Fairy Merry Christmas!

Laura and Joey Alvin sat at the kitchen bench, watching their daughter giggle and dance and squeal.

The parents tried really hard not to show their concern, but it wasn’t easy when little Josie was having a particularly bad fit this time. The doctors hadn’t really known what the problem was, but they’d just called it fitting to get the Alvins out of their hair. It was nearly Christmas and the doctors had their own plans—not to be thwarted by irritating parents way too concerned for their children’s health. Laura and Joey weren’t the only pair to have been turned away with flippant diagnoses. Many other local parents had been told ‘they’re just fits…let’s leave it till the new year and see how little Micky’s going, shall we?’ or some variation. Yeah, just leave it till the new year…and who cares if your kid’s seriously ill by then.

Who cares if it’s too late by then.

Fits? Laura thought as Josie was seized by a particularly violent fit of giggling. The little girl leaped into the air and squealed, “Don’t!” though she was talking to no one and, as was usual lately, Laura began second-guessing herself, wondering if the little girl had said something other than Don’t even though that was definitely what it had sounded like. But in truth, the giggling squealing stage was the stage Laura preferred. It was the other stages that freaked her out.

“Three days till Christmas,” Joey murmured, chewing nervously on his lower lip as he followed his daughter’s crazed, jerky movements.

He didn’t even have to finish the statement. Laura knew what he was thinking: Three days till Christmas, and there’s no sign of improvement. In fact, she seems to be getting worse…

“That damn Dr. Verity pissed me off the most,” Laura muttered, tugging uncomfortably at her too-small jumper (how had she forgotten that the extra kilos she was carrying put this jumper off the list of possible wears?). “I mean, he was so condescending.”

Joey nodded, but said nothing, just rubbed at his chest with one hand as if trying to ease some discomfort there. Laura could relate to that. Her own lungs felt under pressure more and more as the hours passed.

“You are naughty!” Josie squealed, and suddenly she was on the floor, kicking and screaming and—laughing. She really was laughing. But her face was going all red and her eyes were wide and bright and crazed and she was…fitting.

That was how it looked. But there was nothing wrong with her brain, apparently. How Dr. Carter had known that without even looking at her brain, Laura still hadn’t figured out. But that was yet another thing to be done in the new year.

What if it’s too late by then?

“Emergency?” Laura murmured to Joey. “I mean, they are still open… They have to be, right?”

Joey frowned. “My parents are arriving in like, an hour.”

All the more reason to get out of here… Laura thought guiltily. “Well, I could take her, you stay here.”

The look she got from Joey then told her all she needed to know. She was not escaping this house, he would not let her. Not unless things got really bad with Josie, at least. Looking at Joey’s face, though, Laura didn’t think that point was very far off.

Josie sighed and lay still, grinning up at the ceiling. For a moment she was silent, then a tiny giggle bubbled up and out of her. “Yes,” she said. “Okay.”

And that was the last thing she said for the rest of the day, until it was bed time.

When Laura put her down to sleep, the little girl still wouldn’t focus her eyes on anything in this world. That was the only way Laura could put it. “Honey, are you feeling okay?” she asked her daughter, pushing back silky blonde locks of hair from the little girl’s forehead. “You’re having fun?”

Josie giggled, twitched, buried her head in the pillow then lifted it again. “They tickle.”

“What tickles?”

“The fairies.”

Laura paused, feeling strangely cold inside. She’d believed in fairies when she was a kid, but fairies had never taken over her entire life. Not like they apparently had with Josie.

“Are the fairies your friends, honey?” Laura asked, gripping handfuls of Josie’s bedspread and leaning closer to her daughter.

“No,” Josie said, shaking her head. She was still grinning, shuddering with the occasional giggle, but a strange look had come into her eyes. “They don’t like me. But they tickle.”

“They…don’t like you?”

Josie shook her head, then giggled loudly and burrowed back down into the pillow— “Don’t! Ahhh!”

Meanwhile, Laura was frowning. Since when do fairies not like people? I mean, Tinkerbell…

But then there were the old fairies, or maybe they were called faeries or something…the vicious ones from ancient myth. Maybe they didn’t like people. Maybe they tickled people to torment them.

You are insane, Laura told herself, even as she formulated words to say to her daughter.

“You’re talking to the fairies right now?”

“Yes. But they don’t listen.” Giggle. Squeal. Twitch. Gasp.

“What do they say to you?”

For a brief moment, Josie’s eyes seemed to focus. But then she was off in fairyland again, seeing nothing of the real world. Laura was sure she was not going to get an answer to that last question, and was preparing to kiss Josie goodnight. But then words slipped out, so softly spoken they were barely audible. They were words to chill Laura’s blood:

“They say lots of things…”

Unbidden, helpless tears sprang into Laura’s eyes and she cursed the doctors who had turned her child away, the doctors who she would not hesitate to sue if anything went wrong.

At the door to the bedroom, Laura and Joely exchanged words. “I’ll sleep in here tonight,” Laura told Joey. “I don’t want to leave her alone.”

“Shall I stay with you?”

“No, honey—you need your rest.”

His eyes accused her. “So do you. You’re not invincible you know.”

“Yes,” Laura said with a quaver in her voice. “I do know.”

They stared at one another. Joey sighed, reached out to touch her cheek. “We’ll be okay. Try not to worry.”

But what a hypocrite he was, when worry practically oozed out of his every pore. Still, Laura loved him for trying to reassure her. At least somebody was trying.

They parted ways and Laura rested in the lounge chair by the old cot Josie had used up until a year ago, before she’d got her first ‘big girl’ bed. Those had been days when Josie was still in this world, still truly engaging with others. Those days were gone now. Josie was in fairyland and Laura had no idea how to get her back.

Laura spent the night in her daughter’s room, and woke to a day of more giggling/squealing/dancing. Two days till Christmas. The day passed much as those before it had. Joey’s parents were in the house, and they reprimanded him and Laura for not getting help for Josie. They wouldn’t listen to any excuses, not even the ones where the doctors had refused to help. Laura longed for the day when Joey’s parents would run off back to their homes. She hated them, more now than she ever had at any other time.

That night, Joey stayed in Josie’s room, and though it was a terrible night’s sleep for Laura, she awoke to find her daughter still present. It was a strangely huge relief, as if she’d expected to find the girl gone.

Gone where? she wondered, but had no answer.

It was Christmas Eve day, and it passed as any other had done lately. “I think she needs a doctor,” Mrs. Geraldine Alvin told Laura for the thousandth time in the last couple of days, as if Laura had never thought of that herself before. “Why don’t you take her to a doctor?”

Laura just gritted her teeth and walked away.

Christmas Eve night, it was Laura’s turn again to stay in Josie’s room. She was tired, she truly was, but she sat in a way that she knew was terribly uncomfortable, just to prevent herself from falling asleep. When even that seemed not to be working, she retrieved a fire engine toy from the bedroom floor and stuffed it behind her back, making sure it dug into her flesh uncomfortably. That ought to be sufficient.

But when Laura woke in the middle of the night, she realised she’d slept for at least two hours. And leaning forward in her chair, she realised her daughter’s bed was empty.

Laura screamed, and Joey came running.

They waited and waited, but Josie didn’t come back. Laura became convinced that the fairies had taken her. They weren’t the only parents in town who had woken up on Christmas Day to find their children’s beds empty. Laura wasn’t the only parent to lose her mind and start mumbling about fairies. Joey wasn’t the only bereft parent who also had to take his spouse to a psychiatrist for evaluation. And the Alvin family wasn’t the only family destroyed by Christmas that year.

But the fairies had a good one, at least.

Prompt #51 (?!?)

Wow.  I guess we are winding down.

Here's my prompt:
"This is the time of year when you start to wonder if the tickle monster is the new vampire."

Happy Holidays!