Postcard Challenge Week 09

Not many people caught the link in the story between week 7 & 8! Haha!

Melinda is saddened and excited by the fact that Connor (Mac) was in Bristol at the same time she was but they didn't know it! He said he wished they could have had tea! Her mind wandered off into a daydream of how they might meet.

As she begins to clear up her lunch remains, she thinks maybe that daydream should be part of her novel. She picks up the sketch of the castle she made and wonders if Mac might like to see it. It's about the right size for a postcard....

Postcard Challenge Week 08

The fictional date is Feb. 24, 1956. Week 8 finds Mac (Connor) in Cuba - walking on a beach and getting a tan.

 

He still shakes his head over being in the same city at about the same time as Melinda. He wishes they had met! He would love to know what she looks like and thinks back on the lovely woman he saw in Bristol. She had dropped a few packages and when he helped her she smiled at him. A very nice smile it was, too.

Mac puts his fedora back on and walks on up the beach where his new friend, Miguel is waiting to show him around.

Postcard Challenge Week 07

In week 7, Melinda is traveling from Cardiff to Newport along the coast of Wales touring as many castles as she can. She wants to begin her new novel this month if at all possible. She met with her editor and turned over the last one. Her editor seemed pleased with it and asked if Melinda could have the next one done by the end of Summer. They wanted to publish in November - in time for the Holidays!

She wonders if she should try for a Holiday theme. Have the story take place during that lovely, wonderful time of year! A castle in the snow - just think of it! Knights and Ladies, romantic horseback rides and perhaps getting caught in a snow storm....

She is riding a passenger train out of Cardiff, heading to Chepstow Castle. She has been to Castell Coch (Red Castle), to Cardiff Castle and a few others along the way. There just might be time for shopping in Bristol after Chepstow. Celia had told her of this little shoppe she found last year. It sounded perfect!

She remembers that she just picked up the forwarded mail, reaches into her bag for the package and is pleased to see a postcard from Connor! She will save it to read with her afternoon tea. As the train pulls into the station, she begins to look for her ride to the castle and spies a few cabs parked awaiting patrons.

This was it! THE castle she'd been looking for! And look at that - it was starting to snow! Melinda knew she had the start of her novel beginning to brew in her head. The snow did stop but it was lovely while it lasted and it did spur her imagination.

Catching another cab back to the train station she was determined to have tea in Bristol since it was earlier than she had thought and then shop. It was a productive ride - the beginning of her story was ready to be brought to life.

 Outside the dress shoppe, she stopped for some roasted nuts at a cart and smiled at a nice man who helped her when she dropped some of her packages. She got a funny feeling she'd seen him somewhere before but that was silly. She'd never been to Bristol before today.

Postcard Challenge Week 06

The fictional date is Feb. 10, 1956 on this postcard.

Connor is in an airplane going to Belgium and is reading Melinda's last postcard (again). So, she writes romance novels it seems and has been doing so for a while. He pictures her hands at a typewriter - it's cold and she's wearing knitted gloves with no fingers. Delicate fingers are hitting the keys with confidence. There is a fire in the background keeping the hotel room warm.....

Connor shakes his head as if to wake himself up. Stop daydreaming! Finish the postcard! He doesn't have an ink pad with him so he decides to try the grape juice he had with breakfast. Success! Ooops - he spills the juice on his trousers. Ah well, he needed some new ones anyway. Luckily it wasn't his fedora!

 

Postcard Challenge Week 05

I'm running a bit behind for week 5 because of a road trip among other things so it's hurry, hurry to try to catch up!

Melinda would really like to visit Provence in the summer to see the lavender fields in person. She is enjoying Connor's handmade postcards very much! She hopes he keeps it up. She is beginning to wonder what he looks like and tries to picture him on the Great Wall, pointing his camera at the sunset.

Postcard Challenge Week 04

Here we are in week 4 already! I am really enjoying this challenge and look forward to every Monday morning! This week we are in China - big country with lots of people and fascinating cultures.

Connor has been walking the Great Wall for his assignment this week, trying to capture what he feels and sees as well as paying attention to what the magazine is paying him for. At one point along the way in the wall section out of Beijing, he stops to rest and daydreams about being here with someone he cares for - telling her what he imagines when he is behind the camera.

He shakes himself, smiles and gets back to work. The wind almost carries his hat away! Good thing he has quick reflexes. That is his favorite fedora!

He brought his lunch and while he sits leaning against the wall to eat, he reaches in his pocket and re-reads Melinda's last postcard. She did notice he made the postcard - perhaps he should try it again.

 

 

Connor seems to be taking Melinda's lead by ending with "Sincerely" and his first name. And perhaps he is using the same tactic of the question to be answered to keep getting postcards from Melinda. After all, it would be rude not to answer.

Photo info says:
China is mostly known for it's Great Wall - built out of stone and compacted sand that stretches for thousands of miles. The Great Wall rises and falls with the contours of the mountains westward, crossing nine provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions for 6,700 kilometers. The construction of the wall began during the Spring and Autumn period (770-476 BC) and Warring States period (475-221 BC) during the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
 

Postcard Challenge Week 03

Here we are in week 3 and Brazil.

Technically, Melinda is still in Austria when she answers Connor's postcard. She had to track down a postcard for Brazil and since Rio is one of the most popular vacation spots of the times it wasn't that difficult. She asks him a question and hopes to keep the correspondence going.

 

 Melinda has been to Brazil before and looks forward to eating more of some of the foods that were her favorites. ‘Frango Asado’ is barbecue chicken with rice and fries. 'Prato Feito' (rice and brown beans with steak) was delicious.

Rio de Janeiro also holds Carnival – Brazil’s world-renowned celebration. It takes place 40 days before Easter. Melinda would like to stay in Brazil that long, but doesn't know if she can. Perhaps she will be able to arrange a short return trip.

The text about the photo says: The Statue of Christ the Redeemer, standing 30m (98ft) tall and overlooking the city of Rio de Janeiro, is one of the tallest statues in the world. The statue represents Jesus standing with outstretched arms and is one of the most famous symbols of this lively city, and of Brazil. Construction started in mid-1926 and was completed in 1931. The statue sits on top of Corcovado Mountain (Hunchback Mountain) located in Tijuca National Park, a popular area for picnics and walking. From the statue, there are superb views of Sugar Loaf Mountain, downtown Rio de Janeiro and Rio's beaches.

You can view the postcards in my Flickr here.

Postcard Challenge 2012 Week 02

So here we are in week 02. My story takes place in 1956. Each postcard has a unique postmark with the appropriate date on it.

I intend to do my postcards mainly digital and may add other things to them as well as time passes. A box or altered book will be made also - to hold all the correspondence. It is also my intention to date everything - so the story can be read in order no matter if things get disarranged in the box/book.
I will also include text of my blog posts within the box/book - as I am hopeful it will add to the story as it unfolds!

Connor is pleased someone likes his photography enough to let him know it. He decides this woman should know he enjoyed receiving her postcard and assumes she is single by the "Mrs" missing in her return address. He wants to send her another photo and will turn one into a postcard.

He finds a darkroom to use via the magazine he is working for. He prints up some photographs in an appropriate size and backs his favorite with heavy cardstock. The word "PostCard" proves to be a challenge. He ends up carving a stamp from an eraser he finds in his hotel room. It took two tries because he forgot you have to carve the text backwards!

Practice stamping

Postcard Challenge 2012

I have joined an interesting Challenge this year! The Postcard Challenge 2012 put on by DarcyW(UK). You can read all the details here. The challenge is based on Nick Bantock's Griffin and Sabine series - where two characters of your choice write postcards back and forth to each other every week. Darcy will post a different country for us each Monday of the year!

Our first country is Austria. Here is where my A character (Melinda Blake, author of romance novels and then some) will take the lead. She discovers a photograph in one of the library books she is using for researching her latest novel. There is the address of the photographer imprinted on the back of the photo. It's a very lovely landscape that might have been taken near her home in Tuscany. She begins to daydream about what inspired him to take that particular photograph. Perhaps he would like to have it back? she wonders. So...before she can think of a reason not to....she writes on the postcard in her purse and takes it up to the counter to ask if the clerk will post it for her.

 

 

And so we shall see where this will lead Melinda! I will do my best to keep up with the challenge and post here once a week with a new postcard and newest portion of the story. I do love to write fiction and it will be difficult for me to hold back!