Upcoming Schedule of Events! #AtoZChallenge Please Share This!

Upcoming Guest Posts

The following are date ranges. Exact dates in those ranges are up to the winners.

• October (5 to 18) Debbie Stott [already posted]
• October (19 to 31) Laura Roberts of Buttontapper Press
• November (1 to 15) J-Dub
• November (16 to 30) Sonia Chatterjee
• December (1 to 15) Janet Miles of A Smile 4 U from Janet
• December (16 to 31) Tupeak Hope
• January (1 to 15) 2019 Wendy of Wendy's Waffle
• January (16 to 31) 2019 Shalzmojo
• February (1 to 14) 2019 Camille Flores
• February (15 to 28) 2019 Tom of true north bricks [Has not responded yet, but this was the only unclaimed date.]

JANUARY 7-18 2019

First Annual #AtoZChallenge Book Reviews, Tour, and Blog Hop SIGN UP

WEEKDAYS in February 4 to 28 2019

First Annual #AtoZChallenge Book Reviews, Tour, and Blog Hop
19 days total

March 1 2019

A to Z Sign Ups OPEN
(Closes on April 6.)

March 18 2019

THEME REVEAL
(Closes on March 28.)

APRIL 1 2019

THE TENTH BLOGGING FROM A TO Z CHALLENGE in April begins

Our tenth anniversary! Celebrate with us.

May 3 2019

A to Z Challenge after survey OPENS
(Closes on May 17)

May 6 2019

Reflections OPENS
(Closes on May 17)

May 20 2019

Road trip 2019 OPENS

It would be great if you could share this post to help us spread the word. Thanks!

Books Resulting from the #AtoZchallenge

A friend of mine shared a book with me that was written because of the A to Z challenge. It contains a selection of alphabet-themed short stories that were originally written for and published on a blog during the A to Z challenge.

My own reference book was originally written as A to Z posts. This has me wondering — how many of us have books out there for sale right now that exist as a direct result of this wonderful blogging challenge?

I would like to see some titles and links! PLEASE ONLY LINK TO BOOKS WRITTEN FOR AND PUBLISHED AS A RESULT OF THE A TO Z CHALLENGE.

(Links should go to Amazon, Smashwords, Goodreads, or other such websites where your A to Z book is for sale.)

What else has participation in the challenge resulted in creating? Is there artwork thanks to the challenge? Games, new recipes, or a travel itinerary perhaps? Talk about it in the comments, please!

by J Lenni Dorner
Reference and Speculative Fiction Author
A to Z Challenge Co-Host
Operation Awesome Debut Author Spotlight Organizer

#atozchallenge: Introducing Damyanti and her team, D's Company!

 I've been part of the A to Z family for a while, and many of you know me as Damyanti from Daily (w)rite.

I'm camera-shy, so the spotlight is on Guilie Castillo, who is introducing herself and her team mates, (my gang) this year : D's Company.

 Take it away, Guilie!
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The A-to-Z Challenge is, undisputedly, the blogging event of the year. In a community where blogfests and hops abound, that's saying something. And the magic was there from the beginning. In 2010, around 100 bloggers took up Arlee Bird's call to arms; by the following year participation had increased more than tenfold: over 1300 blogs signed up. And that number grows every year. Why? What's this A-to-Z magic that sweeps the blogosphere as soon as the sign-up list opens in January?

• The community. No group of people is as welcoming, and as fascinating to get to know, as bloggers. They come from such varied backgrounds, product of such different cultures and lives, that their posts become doors into entirely new worlds.
• The exposure. Nothing grows a blog's audience like the A-to-Z. Nothing, short of being featured on the Huffington Post, exposes your blog to as many potential readers, fans, and friends. 
• The relationships. You will forge unprecedented friendships. There's something about the hectic atmosphere in April that... Well, you know. The best friendships are forged in fire.
• The challenge. It's a human trait. We love challenges. We might enter the A-to-Z world hopelessly (and, honestly, kind of adorably) clueless as to what exactly we've signed up for, and we might finish the month exhausted and certifiably brain-dead, but we can't wait for it to be April again.

It's such a rush to see that list of 27 posts. We did it. Our creativity stood the test. We committed to something and we actually saw it through. That sense of achievement is a high that's hard to pass over. Last year I seriously considered sitting the Challenge out. Among other pressing things, I was behind — like, months behind — on the edits for my first novel, due for publication in spring 2015. But I signed up anyway. And I didn't finish. I skipped one letter outright, and my last post was a three-in-one. Should I have abstained? You know what? Nah. Finish or fail, the A-to-Z is the highlight of my blogging year. 

This year I'm joining co-host Damyanti Biswas's team, and it's my pleasure to introduce the fabulous women who make up D's Company.

 Vidya Sury Lives in hot-and-happening Bangalore. Tries to live mindfully, doing what she loves and loving what she does as a mom, writer, blogger, editor, and social media enthusiast.

 Misha Gericke Lives close to Cape Town, South Africa. She's either writing, editing, or working as a fresh produce exporter.
  
Andrea Michaels A writer in love with the sky and the ocean and brown eyes in general. Regularity and structure aren't her strong points but she makes awesome pancakes.

 Soumya Prasad The group's second Bangalorite is a hard-core techie. Her name means "one who is soft-spoken", which she considers the biggest irony of her life. A lover of love and all things related to it.

 Samantha Geary Jones Speculative fiction author living in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains with her lover, her two adorable little girls, and a border collie sidekick. Freelance writer for film, TV, and the gaming and trailer music industries.  

Guilie Castillo Mexican author and dog rescuer living in Curaçao. When not writing she'll be found wandering the island's wilderness with her seven dogs. 

Damyanti Biswas Blogger, author, troublemaker. A to Z cohost. An inept housewife, tea-and wine-lover.

We're all looking forward to getting to know you!
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Follow the A to Z Blogging team on our Facebook Page!
Email address is contactatozteam at gmail dot com
Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge and Twitter id is @AprilA2Z. 
If you have a theme for you A to Z Challenge, sign up for the Theme Reveal!

We’ll hold Twitter chats on Thursdays at the tag #azchat at 9.00 PM EST. Please follow the Twitter and Facebook handles, and the hashtags in order to keep up with the conversation.

Holiday season is upon us

If you haven't noticed, it's not long to Christmas, Hanukkah and many other festivities relating to the middle of winter or the solstice.  It's even closer to Thanksgiving.  If you like being bombarded with things you can buy and throw away again when you're bored with them you are probably enjoying life to the full.  Since I dislike waste, and don't like shopping, and would rather sit in a corner by a log fire with a book (or my eReader) than party outrageously, this is the time of year that I go into hibernation.

What really frightens me is the number of books that are available now.  Self-publication has a lot to do with this.  The flood has turned into a tsunami, and good books are being tossed in the flotsam of life, hoping to surface long enough for the right reader to find and enjoy them.  It always was this way around now, every commerical organisation hoping to make its big buck in the run up to the present-fest.  I don't compete - I try not to bring my books out when there is fierce competition, fuelled by deep pockets.

But I do try the odd promotion.  I'm working on an anthology for middle grade children (8+), with six writer friends, called BookElves Anthology Vol. 1 and I'm doing some Giveaways.

I'll draw your attention to Read Tuesday, styled as a "Black Friday type of event for readers and authors" which takes place on December 9th.  Hundreds of special offers will be featured, on all types of books, with particular emphasis on family friendly ones.  And in the lead up to the event there are things to interest authors and readers and bloggers, so that probably includes you!

The A to Z Blog Challenge is another promotion for authors and bloggers, but of a less 'in your face' kind (on the whole).  I'm constantly amazed by the number of writers taking part.  Not all of them blog stories during the Challenge: some choose different topics entirely, others mix and match.  It's only five months till we reach G in the Challenge, so anyone writing short stories may already be past that!  I have seen blogs that do a serial through the month, but I confess that turns me off.  It's difficult to get into those serials if you're blog-hopping, and very disappointing if you arrive on day 23 and find the story makes no sense to you.  I also learned the hard way the first year I took part, that doing a detailed background to your stories only works if you already have a core of readers who would be interested!  It may help your own writing, though.  Blogs that do flash fiction during the month work best for my style of doing the challenge - but you may disagree.  That's what makes this whole thing so much fun.

I've met some wonderful people and wonderful writers during the Challenge, so many that I'm hard pressed to keep up with them all.  Damyanti Biswas writes amazing short stories as well as talking about writing, and she does two blogs (at least) plus Team Leading through the Challenge!  I've thoroughly enjoyed Sue Ann Bowling's Homecoming blog for the last three years thanks to her Challenge participation.  She writes great stories as well as blogging about her Alaska home.  Sadly, Sue is seriously ill, but I hope this mention cheers you up, Sue. 

More writing blogs I've enjoyed through the Challenge you could look out for:
Hilary Melton Butcher at Positive Letters, Inspirational Stories
Ragged Writers
Sara C Snider, a lovely author
Patricia Stoltey, Writing, Colorado and things
Madeline Mora-Summonte's Flash Fiction Collection
Silvia Writes
Noelle Granger Sayling Away
Tyrean's Writing Spot
and so many more, and not forgetting Samantha Redstreake Geary and Csenge Zalka who were among my co-minions #Team Damyanti on last year's Challenge.

Jemima Pett writes scifi/fantasy The Princelings of the East for older children and is working on a new scifi series, with asteroid miners and sentient trees, for publication in 2015.  Twitter + Pinterest

#AtoZChallenge #Book Launch: Do You have Imaginary Friends?

         The A to Z Challenge has given birth to many books (my post about them here), and the latest to hit the stores is Imaginary Friends by Melanie Lee. 

         It has been published by MPH, Malaysia, and recently I went to the book launch in Singapore-- a fantastic event, full of warmth and good cheer!
          Melanie wrote this book inspired by the A to Z Challenge, writing a story a day, and then tweaking and polishing each to bring it to a publishable level.
        

What do an overachieving octopus, a zealous zither and a hopeless hippo have in common? They're all part of the zany world of Imaginary Friends, a collection of 26 hilarious, satirical tales by Melanie Lee. Note: This is NOT a children's book. These fun fables are for the BIG kids, the young-at-heart adults who love laughs and poking fun at the silly grown-up world!

Imaginary Friends on Amazon

     The Author Melanie Lee, and Illustrator, Arif Rafhan

 
MORE ABOUT IMAGINARY FRIENDS:

 A SUCCESSFUL EBOOK HIT IN KOBO IMAGINARY FRIENDS was first released as an e-book of witty, original fables targeted at teens and adults. It has done remarkably well since its debut, shooting up the Kobo Top 50 chart and being picked up by e-book vendors from around the world, hence the subsequent release of it in Print version. 

           Originally published by MPH Digital (a subsidiary of MPH Group Publishing), IMAGINARY FRIENDS made it into the Kobo Top 50 in the week of its release and even briefly touched the No. 2 spot. Launched in mid-October2013, IMAGINARY FRIENDS (at the time of writing) was still in the Kobo Top 15 under several categories. At first glance, Imaginary Friends may look like a typical children's book but its sophisticated wit and references to modern pop culture make it an enjoyable read for New Adults.

       I found the book entertaining on different levels-- a feast for the imagination, with fluid illustrations, and a bite in the writing that only got enhanced by the moral of each story. As the author said at the launch, the morals are a way to end each story with a snap. I think the morals bring the stories out in relief, and I spent happy two hours reading all the stories. 

          Imaginary Friends is also available on Amazon. If you’d like to buy the print edition, you can buy it from MPH Online (they do international deliveries). If you’re from Singapore or Malaysia, the book is available at MPH and Kinokuniya bookstores. If you’d like to buy the ebook version, it’s available on Amazon and Kobo.

          Melanie Lee is a freelance writer based in Singapore. You can find her at her site, her blog or talk to her on twitter: @melanderings and her Facebook Page.

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Have you thought of compiling your A to Z posts into a book? Would you enjoy a book like Imaginary Friends? If yes, please leave a comment below, and Melanie would randomly choose two commenters-- she has an ebook and a physical copy to give away! To support this excellent author, consider buying the book-- it makes a sweet little gift, I'm told-- and share this post on social media. Have a question for Melanie? Ask away in the comments!