Not everyone is ready for a cup of coffee at 3pm on a Saturday afternoon. So, I’ve got the highlights of my Live video for you!
On Saturday, I chatted about my author partnership with A21. What does the Global Freedom Summit means for me – and you! Do you want to check out what I’M doing in the fight to abolish slavery forever? Check out the video of my Coffee Catch Up with Christy (FB LIVE) below:
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I hope you enjoyed the video, and I can’t wait to see YOU in the fight against human trafficking and modern day slavery. If you want more specific information on A21, you can check out their website >>>here. Or you can see my blog post where I went over the amazing partnership I’ve got for my first book KIDNAPPED ENTANGLEMENT >>>here.
October is CRIME PREVENTION MONTH. Check your own country/state information on what you can be doing to prevent crimes against you, your family, and your community. We need to keep each other safe – especially in these challenging times!
Furious Fiction is a short story workout for a writer!
I hope you enjoy this CGSP Short Story that was entered in a recent FURIOUS FICTION.
All of my family were out there. I could see them through a small crack that I wedged open in the door. They’re waiting for me. Sweat trickled down the back of my neck as I paced the small back room of the large church. This event wouldn’t get started until I went out in front of all those people.
I know I shouldn’t be afraid of my own family and friends, but this wasn’t just an everyday event. It was an ending. Or a beginning, depending on how you wanted to look at it. All we knew was coming to an end; there wasn’t any way around it.
Of course, I could always leave and not deal with it all. I could Jump over the chairs, and head for the large doors at the back of the room. I shook my head, quickly discarding the idea, and turned back to my earrings on the small table. If I was going out there, I was going to look my best.
My hands shaking, I attempted to poke one through my right ear. The sweat was all over my hands now, and I tried to wipe one hand on my clothes. The earring flipped out of my hand and rolled under the table. Groaning, I shuffled onto my knees and narrowed my eyes as I searched for the small, pearl earring.
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“Aha!” I yelled out loud as I spotted it, wedged between the back, table leg, and the wall. I yanked it free and stood to my feet, slipping it into my ear.
“Susan, are you ready?” My cousin Emily asked through the door. “We’re all waiting for you to start this thing.”
I sighed. “Just a minute Emily,” I said.
Great; it was time now.
How was I going to do this? How was I going to honour the man out there? Nothing I could ever say could portray my feelings about him. I felt for the notes in my pocket, then nodded and sucked in a deep breath. I was going to do this service; no matter what.
As I got myself together, I opened the door and smiled at Emily. She cut the lights to the room behind me, and we walked closer to the doors. I listened quietly for my queue. As I walked towards the front of the church, the butterflies pounded in my chest and stomach. I wasn’t used to being in front of a crowd like this.
As I finally made my last step towards the pastor at the front, he gave me a wink. I turned and stared at the man who I wanted to honour; my groom.
Furious Fiction is a fun story competition to stretch yourself and write less than 500 words in 55 hours. This story was to take place in either a wedding, or a funeral. I wanted to try and get BOTH as a possibility as you were reading; right up until the very end. If you want to enter Furious Fiction, check out the AWC website for all the details.
I have a very blessed life, with a good family, home and food on the table. Not everyone is as blessed as I am. As an author, I’ve decided to partner with the anti-human trafficking organisation – A21. Together, we’re going to fight against this huge injustice.
My book KIDNAPPED ENTANGLEMENT touches on this social justice issue. I wanted to shine a light on the real modern day slavery that still exists. We can – and should – stand up for those without a voice.
I’m doing my part, by giving 10% of every copy of KIDNAPPED ENTANGLEMENT sold, to A21 to help them in the fight! When my book comes out, you can read an exciting story of adventure AND contribute to the cause!
Did you Know:
There are millions of slaves currently in the world today. Human trafficking is a 150 BILLION dollar industry and includes sex trafficking, forced and bonded labor, involuntary domestic servitude, and child soldiers. It doesn’t have to be this way! We can stand in the gap and recover, rehabilitate and reeducate victims.
If you want to be involved there are so many ways. You can donate your time, money or voice in so many ways:
A21 are also doing something incredible with the Global Freedom Summit and I am going to be hosting a watch party! More info on that coming soon – and on my Facebook Live on Saturday 3pm (Australian EST) I will share more about it also!
Stay tuned for all the information about the A21 Summit, and my amazing partnership with them in the fight to abolish slavery/human trafficking.
With all the concern about losing jobs (thanks a bunch covid… not), and my current situation of being on stand down until schools go back (school photography woes… *cries a little*) I was considering jobs.
Not just jobs, the ones that you don’t actually have. I know, insightful right? Not really.
My spy weekly series – The Hannah Carmichael – recently wrapped up ‘SEASON ONE’ and I was looking back at some of the instalments (editing them, really). I found one that caught my attention.
In this instalment, Hannah Carmichael is casually making it look like she works somewhere, that she really doesn’t (such a novel idea for a spy :P).
It made me think. Is there a job that you’ve always wanted? Something you’d just start doing for FREE if you had the time/chance? Here in Aus, we do a thing called ‘work for the doll’ where if you’re still on government $$ for long enough, you have to do volunteer work. Proving that you’re not just bludging on the tax dollar and not bothering to look for work.
Granted, the WFD jobs aren’t usually glamorous or exciting, but if you had the chance to work in your DREAM JOB (even for free), would you?
Delicious Peanut MnM’s are deciding my fate! Or, my reading fate anyway…
I saw a cool way to pick my reading list for October, and decided to give it a go! What books made the list? How did the game work out? Check out the video below:
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I hope you enjoyed the video. Let me know what books you have on YOUR TBR (To Be Read) list!
There are SO MANY amazing detectives in the real world. BUT, there are some awesome detectives in Fiction too!
Granted, I haven’t seen or read every story about amazing detectives. Some, like Columbo or Monk (and more) haven’t reached my view just yet. Having said that, the follow list is totally reliant on the detectives that I’ve personally seen and ranked as in the top!
10. Magnum PI
9. Inspector Clouseau (Pink Panther)
8. The Chicago PD Team
7. Rizzoli and Isles
6. Booth and Brennan (Bones)
5. The Brooklyn Nine Nine Team
4. Veronica Mars
3. Shawn & Gus
2. Richard Castle
1. Sherlock Holmes
Honourable Mentions:
Olivia Bensen (SVU)
Nancy Drew (Nancy Drew)
The Criminal Minds Team
Like my list? Did I miss some that are also amazing? Share them with me, so we can all check them out!
Apparently throwing up your hands and screaming at a book is weird. Oh, and tossing books at the wall is also odd….
Estimated Reading Time: 7min
I’ve seen people talk about “weird reading habits” and didn’t realise some of mine fall into that category. So this is me sharing them anyway, partly for fun and partly to find out if I’m actually alone in this or not. If you recognise any of these, or have your own version, I’d genuinely like to know.
Facial expressions while reading
Apparently this is not standard behaviour, but I make facial expressions constantly when I read. If a character does something confusing, stupid, or completely unhinged, I react. It’s automatic. I’ll sit there reacting to the page like the characters can actually see me judging them. It usually goes something like: confusion, disbelief, and then mild outrage.
Random hand gestures and physical reactions
This one surprised me the most when people pointed it out. I don’t just sit still reading. I react physically. Hand movements, sudden pauses, dramatic reactions mid-sentence. It’s not intentional, it just happens when I’m fully absorbed in a story. If I’m not enjoying a book, this disappears completely. If I am enjoying it, it gets worse.
Talking to books (and yelling at characters)
This one I already knew was questionable. If a character does something ridiculous, I will say so. Out loud. To the book. To the character. To nobody in particular. I also do this with films and TV, so books are not spared. It’s not confusion about fiction versus reality. It’s more like a temporary suspension of patience when characters make bad decisions.
Needing background noise to read
I cannot read in silence. Music works best. Silence feels distracting in itself, even though that sounds contradictory. Background noise helps me focus on the story. TV is too much, but silence doesn’t work either. It has to be “controlled noise,” otherwise I lose concentration.
Book formatting obsession
This is the one I fully accept is strange. Book series need to match. Same cover style. Same size. Same format. Paperback or hardcover, but consistent. Mixed formats or mismatched covers are distracting enough that I would rather replace the book than tolerate the inconsistency. If a final book in a series doesn’t match, it feels unfinished even if the story is complete.
Rewriting scenes in my head
This is probably the strangest one. Sometimes I pause reading because I’m too busy reworking a scene in my head. I’ll mentally change dialogue, alter decisions, or run an alternative version of events. It can take a few minutes before I continue reading because I need to “resolve” what I think should have happened. If I don’t do it, I end up rereading the same line repeatedly anyway.
These habits probably look odd from the outside, but they’re just part of how I interact with stories. Books aren’t passive for me; they’re something I actively respond to while reading.
If any of these are familiar, or if yours are even stranger, I’d be interested to know.
THIS STORY IS FICTIONAL. ANY SIMILARITIES TO REAL PEOPLE OR EVENTS, IS PURLEY COINCIDENCE.
“He watched the scene below him carefully. From his place high above the fray, the humans looked like ants. Of course, that meant the ants were invisible from this height. He’d been put through vigorous training to get to this point. He’d known he could do it – always. The humans hadn’t been so sure. They hadn’t realised the power he held within his own wings. Now, he had his chance to prove it. It hadn’t been done yet – using a pigeon as a sniper. Sure, they’d been talk about it. Talk about using our amazing gifts to be spies – but assassins were new.”
Steven stopped typing and rubbed his hand over his face. He was officially out of ideas. A pigeon as a sniper… He rolled his eyes at the comical idiocy. His own work was still trying to find its place after the incident last year. A pigeon sniper was a new low.
He raised his hands above his head and stared out the office window. The grass was swaying in the soft breeze, and a pigeon spread its wings, taking off. He wished he could rise like the bird, take off and never come back to his deadline.
Groaning dramatically, Steven replaced his hands on the keyboard and shook his head. He could do this. Wiping the words that he’d already written, he started again.
“He watched the street of people through his sniper scope. He loved watching the people, walking through life as normal. Like ants, ready to be stepped on, or picked off one by one. He waited to catch one of the ants that he liked, in his scope. Easy target. Nope. He moved past the woman and her child, and instead focussed on a runner. The man was tall, and from the looks of his sweat, he’d been running for quite a while already. People may even think he’d dropped from exhaustion. Until they saw the blood.”
Steven stopped typing again and felt the panic overwhelming him. Damn flashbacks from the incident. He wanted to write this story. He had to. If not to have another book for his publisher, then to get the story out there. People needed to know what it was like. To be in front of the scope, and behind it. The why, the when, the how. It was important. He went back in.
“Carefully adjusting for wind, angles, and obstructions, he lined up the shot perfectly. His finger itched, and he released the rush as he pulled the trigger. His miscalculated shot ricocheted off the stone fountain beside the runner, and he continued. Oblivious, thanks to his headphones. He sighed, then returned his focus back to the ants below. Someone would be his target, and this time he wouldn’t miss.”
A sound behind Steven gave him pause. He stopped writing and flicked his head behind him. He was too late. The man was already standing behind him.
The man who had looked through the scope. The man who had missed the runner, who had killed the woman and her child instead. Steven raised his hands in the air in surrender and let a tear fall down his face. He’d found him after all.
The man behind him leaned in close. “This time, I won’t miss.”
He pulled back and released the trigger.
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