I'm seriously awful at this! And I'm only on Week 25?! That means I'm only half way done!!! But I am not a quitter, I will do this... I will trudge on, and am setting an assignment for myself, which you'll read about in one of these posts this week!

Week 25: Journals or Diaries?
    I should. I used to. My 8th grade teacher had us write every day for a few minutes, and it was a hobby I kept up with clear through high school and most of college. But then I got a job. A few years later, my man came with kids, and finding time to write was a luxury I didn’t have… In 1998, I began scrapbooking, and that was my journal. Keeping track of our history and stories with photos and words… I don’t remember when I started Facebook, at least eight years ago, and that documented my story. Now with other social media outlets, bits and pieces of me can be put together to keep my story. Also things I want to remember are woven into the tales I write, whether they are published or in my works of fan fiction. I have so many journals laying around the house, I know I NEED to, but it’s just something else I never seem to find time for… But starting THIS week, I will make time! I'm working with a group of young people, interested in creative writing. I'll make the topic part of our weekly assignment, that way, I can kill two birds with one stone!
Week 26 My favorite indulgence
    Oh lord. There’s a few! And combining them together makes for a perfect Friday night. I never follow rules, so I’ll tell you about them, since I can’t pick ONE FAVORITE. But put them all together, and I count it as an indulgence. After the end of a long week, I love to grab my bestie after work on a Friday and we go get French fries and talk about EVERYTHING. Our men, kids, work, writing. We daydream travel plans, gossip about people we know, and really lean on each other. She’s the closest thing to a sister I have. Then, I’d take my long commute home, and sit my ass on the couch, the rest of the night, writing, playing on tumblr and Twitter, and messaging friends in other far flung places- Chicago, Charlotte, Florida, New York, Maryland, Canada and even as far as Sri Lanka. Really, being with friends, sharing stories and food is my greatest indulgence. I don’t know what I’d do without this amazing group of women to keep me sane!
Week 27 Most fun I can have while dressed
    Good lord, these topics are ridiculous and I can’t find the other set of possible blog topics. Really? So um, refer back to Week 26. I really love my friends! Any time I can hang out with my girls? That’s the most fun I have! Really, cuz otherwise, my life is a lot of laundry and clean up as the only woman in the house! Where's the fun in that? Give me a good night out with my girls, or uninterrupted time to chat on the phone, and I am a happy girl!

Want to know about other author’s thoughts? Lucky for you, my fabulous friends are part of this challenge too. Hop over to their blogs and/or Twitter to find out more!

Gisela Grey
Lisa Andrew
Autumn McKayne
Charlie Knight
Felicity Davenport

Thanks!
Love, 
​Cass​

Apparently, I suck at this. I can't keep up. In my defense, in the summer months, I am rarely home on Saturdays, and the one time I was, I had a migraine from hell, so computer time was out of the question. 

Anyway, here it goes! Catching up for the month of August!

Week 21: The Best Gift I Ever Got
    Not to get too personal, but the child I refer to on social media as Kid is the best gift I ever got. I have polycystic ovarian syndrome and from my college years, I had been told I wouldn’t be able to have children. I dealt with it, and found my own littles to care for, in my daily job, and later, when I became a stepmother. But one year, I got the flu and couldn’t stop throwing up. Finally I went to the doctor, and we both cried when she came in, and announced, “It’s not the flu.”
    Kid and I spend a lot of time together. He’s 17 now, and I’m proud of the young man he’s become. We have similar interests and the same type of humor. We enjoy watching Netflix and Marvel movies together, and he’s kind enough to go on movie dates every Tuesday with me and my IRL bestie.



Week 22: The Best Gift I Ever Gave
    Along the same line of “gifts” and parenting, I think the best gift I ever gave was the gift of my time and my sacrifices as a step-mother. But that’s a novel someday, so I won’t go into it here. I am fortunate to have four amazing young adults in my life thanks to sacrifices I made, for bringing them into my home and fulfilling a role they needed that their own mothers couldn’t...

Week 23: My Most Memorable Experience
    I’ve had so many! I think that’s why I write, and incorporate tiny snippets of my real life into stories. Truly I can’t think of a “MOST.” So here’s one I don’t plan to use in a book one day, but you never know. When I was in middle school, we took a family trip to theme park centered in the MidWest. We were spending two days, and had tickets to see one of my favorite music groups give a concert. The family had split up to go different things in the park, and I was with my dad, aunt and cousin, and we went on a roller coaster. They made me do it, because I didn’t want to! I was terrified of heights, and didn’t like the concept of hurtling through the air on metal rails in a small little cart. This roller coaster had a corkscrew tower that loomed above the rest of the park, high above the trees. But I was too young to be left on the benches below, alone, so they made me get on the ride. At the very top of the corkscrew, on a tilted curve, right before the giant drop down, leading up into a smaller corkscrew tower, the section of the carts stopped. Stuck! Leaning on our side. My cousin, much older, held on to me, fearful I’d slide out. We could see workers below, scratching their heads. Some idiot called up, yelling at us not to go anywhere. That was helpful. People in the carts began to talk to one another, and someone suggested we climb across to the ladder that wasn't too far away. Hell, no. Eventually, a worker climbed up the ladder to us, and HAND CRANKED the section of carts back down, backwards. I was never so glad to be on solid ground! When we disembarked, they wre queing our group to go up again to complete the ride.
    By this time, my family was all waiting under the pavillion, having known that coaster was on our list of activities. My aunt was forcing me to go back on the ride and I was holding on to my mom and grandma for dear life. My dad and aunt practically carried me back to the new line of carts, insisting I had to go again, or I’d wind up with irrational fears of coasters. So what! It’s not like roller coasters are an everyday thing! Even at eleven, I knew I could live without them! I screamed and cried the whole time. I survived the second ride, but held a grudge against them for the rest of the trip, for forcing me to ride it again!
    To this day, I still avoid most coasters. And it hasn’t impacted my life, one way or another.

Week 24: Item I Can’t Live Without
    Not to sound cliche, but I would be lost without my phone. Before I started writing, I lived a pretty lonely existence. I live out in the middle of nowhere, 30 miles from anything. My friends all live 30 miles away, so when I was home at night, and on the weekends, phone chats and texting helped me not feel lonely. Then through a sequence of events in 2015, I found Muse, which lead me to finding friend and mentor, Lisa Andrew. I was writing and needed outlets to share it and talk about it. She got me started on twitter and tumblr, and a whole new world opened for me, right there on my phone. Now I have people to talk to all hours of the day! I’m always amazed that on any given day, I can talk to any friend in the US, as well as people I know in Canada, Sri Lanka, Argentina, France, Iraq, and Brazil. Some of these women I message weekly and they know more about me than people I’ve known my whole life! We share stories about our men and kids, complain about the inlaws, share recipes and send virtual hugs and cheesecake during shark week. I honestly need that connection. I love my man, but having the camaraderie with other women is just so empowering to me. I’m stronger every day because of it, and I couldn’t do it without my phone.

​Want to know about other author’s thoughts? Lucky for you, my fabulous friends are part of this challenge too. Hop over to their blogs and/or Twitter to find out more!

Gisela Grey
Lisa Andrew
Autumn McKayne
Charlie Knight
Felicity Davenport

Thanks!
Love, 
​Cass​

Week 18: Character Profiles and Settings
    I am definitely a ‘follow the Muse’ type of writer. I can usually see the beginning and an end, and I work to fill in the gaps as I go along. I have never sat down to fill out a character profile, or think long and hard about the motivation behind things. I just write where the story leads me, and then amaze myself in edits when I find out I included foreshadowing without knowing it, or the character development occurred so naturally. I’m actually amazed my words make sense when it’s all done, since I really do such little planning…

Week 19: My Most Romantic Memory
    Romantic? I’m pretty lucky that my man has his moments, that sometimes inspire me to write… So I don’t wanna say too much, in case I ever work it little snippets of real life into my stories.  But I’d have to say my number 1, TOP, romantic memory is when he proposed in the pouring rain after we’d been to a theater performance and everyone was encouraged to attend in cosplay! Picture the pouring rain, and me, in a poodle skirt!

Week 20: Favorite Social Media Platforms
    I’m such a twitter girl!  All my best contacts and interactions are here! I love the people I meet and get to interact with daily. It’s so much fun to chat and share ideas, or a virtual plate of french fries. I love the fact twitter allows me to have friends from around the globe!

Let's get real! I'm doing this for me. I don't think ANYONE is actually reading them. Sorry this is rushed this week, even though I'd forgotten the last two weeks. I'm not home on the weekends in the summer due to countless family activities, and I find other things seem to be taking my time lately.  But I am DETERMINED to write all 52 of these silly things! Just sometimes I can't give many details, especially if I plan to use it in a story!

​Want to know about other author’s thoughts? Lucky for you, my fabulous friends are part of this challenge too. Hop over to their blogs and/or Twitter to find out more!

Gisela Grey
Lisa Andrew
Autumn McKayne
Charlie Knight
Felicity Davenport

Thanks!
Love, 
​Cass​

Okay, y’all summer is my busiest time of the year, so I am a few weeks behind! I’m gonna crunch all of these together. I’m decidedly doing this for myself, and I always meet a challenge I set for myself. And clearly people aren’t reading these, because no one has cried out, “Cass! You’re behind on your blog challenge!”

So let’s see… Week 13, what have I learned from researching my new book? My project right now hasn’t really required any research. I have a project floating around in the back of my mind, and I’ve worked about 6000 words on it.  I keep seeing the male character as a wounded war vet, so I did quite a bit of research on PTSD, returning soldiers and prosthetic limbs. I’ll be honest… I can’t write that. As a military mom, I can’t let my head go there. The character keeps yelling at me, but I’m trying to ignore it until I can figure out an alteration to the story, to his story… But for weeks after the research, all my facebook ads were about accessories for prosthetic limbs! It took forever for those to go away… FYI- I solved that by shopping online for swimsuits. Now I can't get rid of those ads!

Week 14: What I learned from my worst review?
    Actually, that’s the reason I haven’t been keeping up. I haven’t had a ‘worst review’ perse by a reader on Good Reads or Amazon… but my betas recently sent back notes on my latest work in progress and all four HATED the love interest. That’s not real good for romance! And there was just too much going on…
    The good news is, by the time I separate things out, I’ll have two different stories, with some possible characters to overlap in the same ‘universe.’ So all in all, I didn’t scrap 80,000+ words…

15: How I celebrate completing my manuscript?
    Really, I don’t know that I do? I spend so much time working, and reworking the piece, but I know when it’s done, there’s just more of it to come. I’ll post on my social media, “It’s done!” I’ll tell my man, maybe go to bed early, but that’s about it. The real celebration comes on book release day, when I can send out all the fun messages and order up new goodies from Vistaprint with my cover and and book quotes on them!

​So, since this ia a catch up post, I'm not linking my pals this time. Thanks for following this nonsense!
Love, CASS

https://cassmichaels.tumblr.com/

I’m sure this is supposed to be writing related, but I haven’t won any writing awards. But one time, I did win a reward at work for completing staff fitness goals! Everyone who had participated in work challenges over a four month span got to put their name in for a drawing of cash prizes, anywhere from $50 to $1000.  You had to be present to win, and we were all really just sitting around, using it as an opportunity to socialize. The last time anyone in our division won, it was $50. No one was too excited. I put my name in the little wicker basket when it was passed around, and continued sharing the work gossip. I was more worried about being late for a meeting to follow, because I didn’t want to listen to those teammates bitch that I was slacking off work.  
The announcer reached into the basket and drew out a name, announcing the initials of the winner. What the hell? Three of us had the same initials, but my heart started pounding in my chest. Mine were called! We all stood up and looked at her expectantly, waiting for her to quit playing games… MY NAME! She called my name! Everyone started cheering, and saying if I won, I had to buy dinner. Hell no. It was three weeks before my big vacation. I was already planning how I’d spend that money.
I walked to the front of the room, and listened with shaky knees as she explained the rules. I had to draw two bags from the box and open them. Inside the bags were two puzzle pieces, and if they matched, I’d win the full prize indicated.  If they didn’t match, I’d win half... Dramatically, as my friends cheered me on, I pulled out the first bag and opened it. $1000! So no matter what, I was gonna walk out of there with $500! It didn’t really matter if the other piece matched, Five hundred was exactly what I needed to make my dreams come true.  Hesitantly, I reached in and pulled out another grab bag. Tearing it open, feeling it with my fingers, I could already picture it in my head. The pieces were going to match! SURE ENOUGH when I pulled it out, they matched! $1000!!! I won, simply for completing the health challenges my employer set out for us! Holy hell! I couldn’t believe it! Everyone was jumping up and down, congratulating me, teasing me that it was my turn to buy dinner! We all had a good laugh, but no one knew how relieved I really was… I had these amazing vacation plans, but I couldn’t really afford it. This money was going to be enough to let me go and enjoy myself without having to worry about scrimping and saving, or how I’d eat the rest of the month after I returned home.
The actual check arrived two days before my trip. It was amazing to deposit that kind of money into my checking account, and it felt great on the trip to be a little frivolous and not worry about a thing. (not to mention I met my best friend for life and writer bestie, Lisa, on that trip!)
All because I ate healthy, did some sit ups and walked a few miles...

Want to know about other author’s thoughts? Lucky for you, my fabulous friends are part of this challenge too. Hop over to their blogs and/or Twitter to find out more!

Gisela Grey
Lisa Andrew
Autumn McKayne
Charlie Knight
Felicity Davenport

Thanks!
Love, 
​Cass

Fitting this is the topic today! Things only my family would understand? Only family would understand why I am so excited to attend a graduation ceremony today. It is an event that has been literally 8 years and thousands of dollars in the making! I actually never thought I would see this day… I don’t think the graduate thought it would ever come either!  When someone you love has mental illness, you face those ups and downs too. All you can do is provide unconditional love and support, and hope for the best. Sometimes you have to prepare for the worst… and sometimes the worst happens. But other times, you keep cheering, and pushing, and one day, the clouds break, maybe even for just a few hours, but enough for the person you love to have success. For our family, that day is today!  We are so proud of our graduate!

(ok- this was written WEEKS ago. There was a mix up with dates and the graduation was YESTERDAY! We had a lovely time, celebrating with family and friends!

Want to know about other author’s thoughts? Lucky for you, my fabulous friends are part of this challenge too. Hop over to their blogs and/or Twitter to find out more!

Gisela Grey

Lisa Andrew

Autumn McKayne

Charlie Knight

Felicity Davenport

Thanks!
Love, 
​Cass

Want to know about other author’s thoughts? Lucky for you, my fabulous friends are part of this challenge too. Hop over to their blogs and/or Twitter to find out more! 

Gisela Gray
Lisa Andrew
Autumn McKayne
Charlie Knight
Felicity Davenport

Thanks!
Love, 
​Cass