A Tuesday Two Fer: Kristine Asselin and Loralie Hall

         Today we have two short posts from 2011 participants in the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.

  Kristine Carlson Asselin

          First a short endorsement from KRISTINE ASSELIN who writes contemporary young adult and middle grade fiction and middle grade nonfiction as well as the occasional picture book.  And she still made some time to blog from A to Z in April of 2011.

Reflecting on A-Z

I'm so glad I participated in this challenge! I'm happy to say I successfully completed--even being on vacation away from my computer for a week. And to think I signed up only a couple of days before it started. And didn't realize at first that the posts had to actually be in A-Z order (true, my first few scheduled posts had to be retitled to reflect the appropriate letter. duh.)

I'll admit that I didn't comment as heartily on others blogs as the month progressed, but I did "meet" some great bloggers through this event.

Welcome to all my new followers!

Thanks to Elizabeth Mueller for creating this award.

          Up next we hear from Loralie Hall who assessed the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge on her blog Apathy's Hero.  Loralie is a writer who has several things going these days.

A to Z Challenge Reflections

For anyone who is mourning the passing of the A-Z blogging challenge, or wondered what kind of inanities I'd come up with now that I don't have letters to motivate me, fear not. The wonderful folks who started the whole thing are hosting a reflections blog hop.

It's been an interesting month. Like with a lot of things, when I signed up I didn't pour too much thought into how I would get the task done. I blog five days a week anyway, and even though Saturday is the one day I never blog, I figured it wouldn't be a big deal for four weeks.

And the kind folks I used to work for laid me off a week before the challenge started. So that meant even more free time to blog. As long as I could slog my way through the more negative repercussions of unemployment.

And then I found out that thinking up words that start with each letter is easy. Relating them to writing...took a bit of a stretch of the imagination on my part. I'm pretty sure on most days I didn't quite follow my own themes. 

It was all worth it though. The challenge was nice, but for me the best part was all the new people I met. I have more followers now *waves*. But even better, I discovered some amazing new bloggers and talent out there. I didn't comment on every site, but I visited each and every one and I was amazed with what I discovered. The diversity in theme, blogging style, thought process, all of it, was wonderful. 

In the end, I'm super happy I signed up, and thrilled I got to meet you all. I'd do it again without hesitation, and I can't thank the organizers and participants enough.





          Writers like the A to Z Challenge because it adds another dimension to the writing experience and it allows them do stretch a bit while having a good time writing.  It's also a great way to network.  If you're blogging anyway, you might as well blog from A to Z with us in April.

Related articles

• Show Your Support! (a-to-zchallenge.com)
• The Fun Factor of the A to Z Challenge (a-to-zchallenge.com)