River of Thoughts

Christine Royse Niles — Changing the world one word at a time

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Third Time’s a Charm?

by Christine | 13 Comments

Welcome to Fiction Friday. Every Friday I share with y’all a glimpse into the mind of Zach the Zombie and some of his friends. For the last two weeks, Zach has been trying to get over the City wall, but has mysteriously stopped his climb. Will the third time be a charm? You know the drill–this is not really edited, and there are some challenges with this one. I appreciate your grace and forgiveness for all the flaws!   The dusty land drops away just beyond my tree. The low trees and scrubby bushes don’t provide a lot of cover, but I […]

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Starving

by Christine | 6 Comments

The little boy stands in the center of the dusty road, his vacant eyes looking far beyond the camera pointed at him.  Flies buzz around his head.  He is covered in a crust of dirt. His belly extends outward in ironic contrast to his bony arms and legs. We’ve all seen the pictures. We all feel sorry for him, and for the other children like him around the world. And then I go to Burger King. Sigh.   This weekend, our family is blessed with a chance to invest just a little of our time to make a huge difference. […]

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Quitter Winner

by Christine | 12 Comments

Happy October y’all! The leaves are beginning to turn, the air is crisp, and I’m coming down with my annual case of bronchitis. All my former coworkers can now jump for joy at not having to hear me cough incessantly on conference calls for the next eight weeks.  Yay! This month, I’m joining my friend, creative coach Jim Woods in Writers Unite, a movement of bloggers to stop focusing on numbers and statistics and renew the focus on writing that matters. I’m climbing up out of a “slumpy” time of discouragement, and I’m looking forward to Writers Unite to launch […]

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If at first you don’t succeed…

by Christine | 8 Comments

Welcome to Fiction Friday. Every Friday I share with y’all a glimpse into the mind of Zach the Zombie and some of his friends. Last week, Zach mysteriously stopped his climb. Today, he’ll try again. You know the drill–this is not really edited. I appreciate your grace and forgiveness for all the flaws!   I walk more slowly back to our camp. Delaying the conversation as long as I can. “Arthur, I don’t know what happened. The spot was perfect. I was halfway up the wall. I felt great. And then I didn’t. I was climbing back down like it wasn’t […]

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Coffee

by Christine | 19 Comments

This weekend was amazing…but also exhausting. For an introvert like me, that much social contact in that short a time just wears me out.  So today, I’m going to sit back, enjoy a whole pot of coffee and just chill with the critters in the back yard. Oh, and work on drawing a bunch of visual notes from the Quitter Conference for Wednesday’s post. In the meantime, thinking of coffee reminds me of an amusing list that a friend and I were putting together last week… The worst coffee habits (well, at least the worst ones we could think of during […]

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