An eXploration of John #AtoZChallenge

The team decided our theme for this month's posts here would be a take "2020 visions of blogging." This set of weekday posts focuses on:

A 2020 Look at the A to Z Team

12 Writing Questions for 12 years of A to Z:

1.      Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Sometimes it energizes me, sometimes it exhausts me. A lot will depend on my mood when I'm writing. If I'm in a bad mood when I'm writing, it exhausts me. If I'm in a good mood, I can go all day.

2.      If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

You don't have to get it right the first time. Leave yourself enough time to edit it.

3.      What was the best money you ever spent as a writer?

I'm not sure I've ever spent money as a writer.

4.      What’s your favorite under-appreciated novel?

"Flowers For Algernon" by Daniel Keyes. I don't remember how many times I read it when I was in high school, and I can't remember why I did, either.

5.      How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have?

None. I'm not an author per se. All my writing is done for the blog.

6.      What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a blog?

The posts that I do the most research for are the music ones. I may look up some interesting facts about a particular artist or song from Wikipedia (The Blogger's Best Friend), Allmusic, Discogs and artists' web pages. I'd say probably no more than an hour.

7.      What’s the most difficult thing about writing characters from the opposite sex?

Getting it right. It's why I don't do it anymore...

8.      How many hours a day do you write?

Typically about two hours. If it's going well, three to four.

9.      Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?

I don't especially care for fiction, in all honesty. I think the last novel I attempted to read was Janet Evanovich's most recent Stephanie Plum novel. I read a few chapters, put it down and haven't picked it up again. That was when I realized I was burned out on fiction.

10.   How do you select the names of your characters?

I don't have characters per se. when I'm writing a memory I'll use real names. If I need to give someone an alias, I might just use their first initial. When I'm telling stories on my brothers, I just refer to them as "my brother." They know when I'm talking about them, because they'll know the story. There have been one or two situations when I've used a full name as an alias, in which case I just pull it out of thin air.

11.   Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

One of the beauties of not having written a book is not having to cope with reviews. I'll get comments on my blog, of course, and respond to as many as I can.

12.   What is your favorite childhood book?

There were several, but the one that immediately comes to mind is a collection of the works of Wilhelm Busch, author of "Max und Moritz" and other stories that were about evil children and how they get their comeuppance from adults. Busch wrote poetry in German, and the translation was beside the original text.

8 More Questions to round out to 20 (for 2020):

13.   Do you Google yourself?

I don't Google anything: I use DuckDuckGo as my search engine. ;) Having said that, I very occasionally will look myself up, just for a laugh.

14.   Are you usually early or late?

Since I'm handicapped, Mary does all the driving, and she is an inveterate early bird, so I'm almost always early.

15.   How often do you people watch?

Not as often as I used to. I spent so much time people watching in airports that I kind of burned out on it.

16.   What do you hope never changes?

My relationship with Mary. We've been married 42 years.

17.   What job would you be terrible at?

Given the troubles I have with my arm, paper hanger.

18.   What skill would you like to master?

Playing the chromatic harmonica.

19.   What takes up too much of your time?

Reading blogs. I think I follow too many.

20.   What’s the best way to start the day?

Waking up.

Do any of these answers resonate with you? Feel free to share in the comments!

Find John's blog here! 

  ~Jayden R. Vincente (adult fiction writer)

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A is for Amazing Alphabet Team #AtoZchallenge

For our team A post, we present a brief interview with the 2018 Amazing Alphabet Team!

(The fine folks who volunteer their time, energy, and skills to make this challenge happen for you. There will be a seperate post to honor our Amazing graphics guy, Jeremey, later this month.)

1- What's your passion in life?

Arlee-  One passion that consumes much of my thinking is road tripping.  I hate to think of a time when I wouldn't be able to drive.

J- Writing is my passion. That's how I relate to the world.

Csenge- Storytelling. It is both my passion and my profession, which makes me incredibly lucky.

John- Music. Roughly half of my posts outside the A to Z Challenge are about music, and a couple of years ago I had two themes (quite by accident) and one of them was music.

Jayden-Writing, of course. It's therapeutic. But music is a close second. Singing is like sharing a story through song and I love that.

2- What are your goals during the A to Z Challenge 2018?

Arlee-  To keep a balance in my life between blogging and other stuff around me.  But I do want to get my posts done before April.

J- My goals are to make this year really fun for all participants, to complete the challenge, and to leave comments on 300 blogs. On my own blog, I have a short story told in parts, which my goal is to get people to think about life. (If you do too, check out the stories of A to Z post!)

Csenge- My goal is to write posts that people find both entertaining and informative. Also, to make some new blogging friends! I have found marvelous blogs through the challenge in the past, I am looking forward to more.

John- To have all the posts done by April 1 and do as much visiting of other blogs as I can during April.

Jayden- My goal for this year is to have all of my posts ready to go before April 1st so I can enjoy exploring new blogs! I have found some awesome writers I am excited to catch up with this year and I look forward to finding even more!

3- What was your biggest accomplishment in the last 12 months?

Arlee-  It's become a yearly tradition--driving back east to see family, friends, and especially my grandkids including the newest girl child, Logan Lego.  This past year I made the trip twice.

J- Publishing my debut novel, Fractions of Existence, was my biggest accomplishement in the last 12 months. One of the coolest parts was being interviewed on the Debut Author Spotlight at Operation Awesome. (That's what I usually do on Wednesdays, so it was fun to switch to the hotseat.)

Csenge- Finishing my PhD, and publishing Dancing on Blades, my new folktale collection!

John- Continuing my streak of consecutive days posting to the blog, now close to 1500.

Jayden-Publishing my first Choose Your Own Adventure Erotic Novel: Runaway. I couldn't believe how much fun I had writing it for NaNoWriMo last year. I released one iteration of the novel in last year's A to Z Blog Challenge. Publishing the whole novel April 30th was incredible!

4- What about a blog will catch your eye and turn you into a regular visitor?

Arlee-  Interesting material written in an accessible style--and preferably in black print on a white background.

J- A blog with a subject I enjoy written in captivating manner will always keep me coming back for more.

Csenge- I like blogs with interesting topics or themes. Bonus if they are related to folklore, mythology, or role-playing games.

John- Humor. I like to laugh.

Jayden-I love a well written story. I enjoy characters whose lives are compelling, particularly if it's an ongoing story!

5- Besides your blog, how can you be reached online?

Arlee-  I'm not on social media very much, but I can be found on Twitter @ArleeBird

J- Twitter twitter.com/JLenniDorner is my favorite method of online communication. I'm also on facebook.com/WhatAreThey and most of the other major social media outlets.

Csenge- Twitter (https://twitter.com/TarkabarkaHolgy), and the Facebook page for my "Following folktales around the world" series.

John- I have presences on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/johltonehandtyping), Twitter (https://twitter.com/onehandtyping), Pinterest (https://www.pinterest.com/onehandtyping/), and Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/onehandtyping_/). Probably the best way would be through Instagram, as I don't check the others that frequently.

Jayden- http://twitter.com/jrvincente, https://www.facebook.com/jrvincente,  www.goodreads.com/jrvincente


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"I enjoy challenges. If a challenge is in front of me and it appeals to me, I will go ahead and conquer it." - Conor McGregor

Interview with Triberr Founder Dino Dogan

 A month or so after I joined Triberr, a site for bloggers who tweet, I first interacted with Dino Dogan, one of its two founders. As those who know me would tell you, I'm neither very tech-savvy, nor very tech-fortunate. So I got into Triberr glitches quite often-- and Dino has bailed me out each time, with compassion and good humor!

I haven't told Dino or Daniel (the other Triberr founder), but I call each of them "My Friendly  Neighborhood TriberrMan," because they come to my rescue every time I'm in Triberr-trouble. Without further ado, I bring you my chat with Dino the Triberrman:

1. How and when did you start off as a blogger?

I first started blogging on a now defunct community website for motorcycle enthusiasts. It was called 2WheelTips, and it was essentially like Facebook with lots of educational content for bikers. 

Then I started my dog blog, followed by my social media blog DIYBloggerNET.

2. Did your interest in blogging inspire you to build Triberr.com? What is Triberr all about?

It absolutely did. I always tell people that Triberr is built for bloggers, by bloggers. And I mean that. 

Here's the thing. 

1% of superstar bloggers get 99% of attention. And attention equals traffic, book deals, sales, speaking engagement, money, opportunities, etc.

Alas, superstar bloggers are not making superstar content. In fact, their content is safe, it's boring, it's regurgitated, it's just plain mediocre, at best.   

Yet they get 100s, sometimes 1000s of social media shares. Why?  

Meanwhile, there are so many amazing small bloggers writing kick-ass content that no one ever sees. 

I decided that enough is enough. Amazing bloggers writing awesome content need to be heard, and Triberr is a way of stealing attention away from 1 percenters of the blogosphere and giving it to those who actually deserve it.

3. What are the most important things to keep in mind if a blogger wants to succeed on Triberr?

It's a platform unlike any other, so it may take a while to get the hang of it. Stay with it, it's worth it. 

Tribe up with people you would invite to your house. People who's content you would share even if they never shared yours. 

Be a connector. Build your own tribes.

4. How can a new blogger kickstart his or her blog? Would Triberr work for new bloggers?

Triberr's original intent is to help new bloggers. Getting on Triberr is THE BEST way for a new blogger to get things going.

5. For bloggers who have hit a ceiling in terms of number of visitors, what is your advice to break into a higher level?

That is an excellent questions with which I struggle all the time. Here are few tricks I've successfully implemented in the past. 

I. Meet new people

As humans, we have this tendency to get comfortable with our surroundings. I try to fight that tendency, and make a point of meeting new people. In person, via social media, commenting, whatever it takes...new connections = new possibilities.

II. Interview

Get interviewed or interview others. 

One of the best online relationships I've developed is with Christian Hollingsworth. And the way it started was with an interview where he called me the Triberr MacGyver. I mean, how could you not love that?

III. Become a Source

Subscribe to HARO and become a source for news stories. 

It's a great way to get some links back to your site, and afterwards, you can use it to add credibility and social proof to your blog. 

It's how I managed to get on ReadWriteWeb as the source for a news story.

IV. Join a new Tribe

Triberr is a great way to extend and expand your circle of friends. Join a new tribe. Start a new tribe based on a new/different ideology. In short...get yourself out there.

6. What is #TribeUpNYC? Why should bloggers sign up for this event?

#TribeUpNYC is a 1-day conference for bloggers. We have 5 amazing speakers, like Geoff Livingston, who is a living legend, and Lena West, who is a dynamo in heels. 

But most importantly, #TribeUpNYC will be an opportunity to bloggers from the East Coast to meet each other face to face. Make some new connections, expose themselves to new opportunities, and have fun in the City that never sleeps.
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Dino Dogan  Founder of Triberr Lousy Mixed Martial Artist and a recovering Network Engineer. Pretty good singer/songwriter, trainer of dogs, and a blogger of biz. Fun at parties and a global force for badassery.   Current Location:          New Jersey Phone (US)                  201.403.1362 Phone (Paris)            + 33 6 51 72 50 33

Contact me: dinodogan dino.dogan
Latest From My Blog: You Don’t Get Paid to Speak. You Get Paid to Promote.
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This interview was brought to you by Damyanti@Amlokiblogs , a Triberr fan who has seen a boost in her blog and twitter following due to her Triberr membership, and recommends it to all lovers of blogs and blogging.