Love in Present Day Blogging #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:

Blogging in the Present

Blogging in the present is so ridiculously difficult. My most successful years of A to Z have been when I wrote all of my posts before April so I could dedicate more time to interacting with bloggers instead of trying to stay caught up. I planned to do the same for my blog posts here. Except...I didn’t. I don’t know why, but there wasn’t inspiration. So I let it go, made sure I knew when I was due for another blog, and didn’t stress about it.

But now that the time has come to write my post for L, I am glad that I didn’t write this one in advance. The world looks very different now than it did a month ago (particularly for those in the hardest hit areas for the dreaded virus). Life is so different. So whereas my blog posts written over the last few months haven’t been impacted, this post definitely is.

As I have viewed blogs from all over the world these last few weeks, I have seen many people struggling with how to handle this worldwide crisis. Address it? Pretend it isn’t happening? (For the purposes of blogging, of course.) The truth is, there isn’t one right answer. Each blogger has to decide for themselves if they will dive into a fantasy world of fiction (as I have) or stay in the reality of the world we live in today. But what I have seen, and hope to continue to see, is an outpouring of love. Love for fellow humans. Love for fellow bloggers. Stay safe and spread some blog LOVE.

And please share with us something you LOVE today.

~Jayden R. Vincente (adult fiction writer)

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Keeping the Tradition #atozchallenge

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

Blogging in the Present

Whether you blog several times a day, several times a month, or several times a year, you're keeping the great tradition of blogging alive. Whether your blog is for music or politics or memoir or poetry or cat pictures or anything else, you're participating in a vital function of the Internet: bringing people together. Blogging has been around since the foundation of the Internet, but even before that, there were LISTSERV mailing lists, bulletin boards, Usenet newsgroups, chat rooms and many other ways of communication across the Internet. Even as those earlier forms of communication became Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter, which further morphed into Instagram and TikTok and WhatsApp, blogging remains.

Why? Because blogging fills a need that neither the old forms nor the newer forms of electronic communication accomplish: It presents the blogger as an individual. Your blog is your living room. When people come to your blog, they're coming to see you specifically. Can Facebook say the same?

There will always be a need for a place where people to fully express themselves, and in the face of occasionaly-draconian Terms of Service at social media sites limiting what you can say, your blog is your own platform where you can get away with saying about anything you want. Terms of Service on blogging platforms are far more liberal, giving you more of a free rein over what you say and how you say it.

So, let's continue this tradition and express ourselves freely, while we still can.

Do you feel that you can say anything you want on your blog?

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John's Choice For "A Blog With 2020 Vision" #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 Blog with 2020 Vision***

Janet Miles is my pick for "a blog with 2020 vision." Janet's blog is Janet's Smiles. I first got to know Janet when she asked about how to "simulcast" her blog on Wordpress. I had written a post on how to do this from Wordpress to Blogger, and she wanted to know if it worked the other way. I think my answer was "it should," and she managed to set it up with little or no help from me. You can find her Wordpress "simulcast" here. We've been "blog buddies" ever since.

Janet is a scrapbooker, and she and her husband and/or daughters attend a lot of concerts in the Bay Area. She takes lots of photographs and keeps track of the set lists. She then turns these memories into scrapbook pages, and does beautiful work. This year, she's sharing the scrapbook pages she's created. They're truly works of art, and she writes a "mini-review" of each show. It's almost as good as being there yourself.

By all means, stop by Janet's blog(s) to admire her work and to say "Hi!"

Who would you choose, just based on what you've seen so far?

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In the moment (#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:

Blogging in the Present

Are you a pre-writer or a pantser? I pre-wrote all my posts over the course of February. I usually do this because my posts require a lot of research (including library trips), and I like to be free to visit others in April. But it also has a downside: Things can change a lot in a few weeks.
Interest changes. Every year I think I know what I want to blog about for the next Challenge. And then I change the idea multiple times. You might do the same. Having multiple interests is a good thing!
Inspiration changes. You might think your theme is up to date when you start, and then things turn around, and you might be inspired to blog, talk, muse about something else entirely. Allow yourself flexibility in the Challenge, and in your blogging!
Intensity changes. When you start a demanding challenge like A to Z, there are days when you just don't feel like doing anything at all. Sometimes you get excited, and sometimes you just cruise along. Both are okay!
In the moment, a lot of things can happen that Influence your blogging. I am writing this post two weeks in advance, and I can't even tell what things are going to look like both online and off by the time if goes live. But that's okay! Even if you plan ahead, you can always go back in an edit. Things change. Things get interesting. Inspiration strikes. Go with it!

Did your interests or inspiration change since you started the Challenge this year? 

Tell us what inspires you!

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Here and Now ( #AtoZChallenge )

Thoughts on blogging in the present...







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

 Blogging in the Present

Here and Now

           Periodically we see the statement made that "Blogging is Dead (or dying).  I don't think so.  Since blogging is often a very personal and individualistic enterprise I think it is inevitable that some bloggers burn out, give up, or let their blogs languish on hold as a blogger waits for inspiration or ambition to rekindle. 

              What I've observed in my 10 1/2 years of blogging is that while bloggers may come and go or some seem to vanish and then reappear sometime later with their personal reason for doing so, the totality of the world of blogging remains consistent as bloggers either blog like they always have or their blogs transition and grow with the times.

              Perhaps there is an illusion of a death or diminishing of blogging on the whole because we as bloggers fall into communities where we have our circles of blogging friends that we try to visit as much as possible or who we see commenting on our blogs with a certain regularity.  The complacent blogger is limited to the world they know best and as they settle into their routine of blogging they may rarely if ever seek out new blogs.  As bloggers within a community fade away, there is a sense that the entire realm of blogging is disappearing.

            Those new blogs are out there I'm sure--I no longer dig up the new ones like I used to because I too have become a complacent lazy blogger.  If it were not for the annual A to Z Challenge, I as well as you might never encounter a blog that has been previously unknown to us.   Though I have no quantitative data to back up my claim, I think blogging remains strong in the here and now.  You might have to look outside the community in which you have become ensconced to find those new-to-you blogs.  Blogging after all involves some action on the part of you the blogger to keep finding more blogs.   As always, there are more than you will ever be able to read or explore.

         From your experience, what is the best way to find "new" bloggers?  How has your blogging community changed since you first started blogging?   Do you think blogging is dead or dying?




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#AtoZchallenge Good Vibes

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:

Blogging in the Present

Good Vibes

As we think about blogging in the present, I feel one big issue we face is negativity. Let's put on our "2020 vision" glasses and talk about how we can get more good vibes.🤓😎

How can we abstain from the negative sides of blogging? What do you do if you encounter posts or comments that are mean-spirited, angry, greedy, self-centered, or unforgiving toward a situation that probably has more than one side? We want to protect the precious freedom of speech and expression that blogging offers our world. Yet it's the negative aspects that so often drives people away. Many bloggers have told me they shut-down their site because there were "too many negative comments."

The old adage is "sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never break me."
🤔 Actually, words have an enormous and lasting impact. Thanks to the Internet, that's truer now than in any era before. Blogging and commenting have the potential to cause glee... or to take it away.


Get glittery! Give gratitude! Get in our comment box with some good vibes. 😁


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Feasibility #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:

Memories from Blogging in the Past

Feasibility of Blogging

When I first heard of the A to Z Blog Challenge, I thought it would be insane for me to try to participate in such an activity. It was not feasible! Not in the least!

Why?

Because I didn’t have a blog.

So on March 5^th, 2015, I created a blog. I made three posts, and then dove headfirst into the A to Z Blog Challenge. I have made some internet friends who have been an incredible inspiration through blogging. And now, five years later, my blog still gets the most hits during the A to Z Blog Challenge.

See those tall lines? That's April.

I will be forever grateful for the interaction with other bloggers, and I am awed that I get to be part of the team to help bring it out to all of you. Without this community, it would not be feasible for me to keep blogging year around.

What makes blogging feasible for you?

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Enthusiasm #atozchallenge

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

Memories from Blogging in the Past

I started my blog, The Sound of One Hand Typing, in 2012 so that I could participate in this challenge. I had been reading about it on other people's blogs for almost a year and finally decided to bite the bullet and start my own blog so that I could participate. I had a great deal of fun participating, so much so that when May rolled around I didn't know what to do with myself. Now I had this blog and a few readers, and I knew I had to keep going with it, lest I lose those readers and the enthusiasm I had for blogging. I tried writing about my nascent career as a fiction writer, but the more I wrote about it, the less I believed that I had a nascent career as a fiction writer, finally realizing that it's awful hard to be a fiction writer if you don't even like reading fiction.

So I started blogging about music, because I love music and I'm enthusiastic about it. I started writing stories about my youth, because the stories were funny and occasionally heartwarming and I liked telling them. I started participating in blog hops that gave me a prompt every week that I would have to write about (or, in my case, find a way not to write about while still using the prompt, which is often more fun). Now I was writing and posting every day, and having more fun than an adult should have with his clothes on.

My blog has taught me that I can be myself and still get people to read it. That's what has kept me going for 8+ years.

What about you? What got you started in blogging, and what keeps you doing it?

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Delightful! Jeremy Tribute Day ( #AtoZChallenge )

Celebrate Jeremy Day
 
         Today we want to take a pause to honor one of our long term behind the scenes members of the A to Z Team--Jeremy.

           If the name isn't familiar with you then his artwork surely is.  Jeremy Hawkins has been designing all of the badges and other graphics for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge since 2013.   All the way from the yearly badge to the daily letter badges as well as headers and even T-shirt designs, Jeremy has been the creative genius behind those ubiquitous graphics that appear on numerous blogs throughout April and beyond

           Where can you find more about Jeremy?  He has an extensive social media and internet presence that covers a wide range of his interests and endeavors.   I encourage you to visit his blog or his other sites to say thank you and hello to him and to get a better idea of exactly what his talents encompass. 

             And I want to say to Jeremy, "Thank you my friend for being there when we need you!"

             Here are some of the places where you can find out more about Jeremy and his work:

Jeremy Hawkins

(Promotions/Design)

For Hire:
Graphics/Design

Art Available:
Animal Art/Design
Cheap Movie Art/Design

Visit: Being Retro

Being Retro

http://www.beingretro.com/

For A to Z T-Shirts as well as a lot of other cool designs:
https://www.neatoshop.com/artist/Jeremy-Hawkins

Music Label:
Howlin' Wolf Records
http://howlinwolfrecords.com/
Executive Producer/PR

Sites:
Six Strings: Magazine
http://www.jmhdigital.com/


HBA [HORROR SITES]
http://horrorbloggeralliance.blogspot.com/

Social Media:
Instagram
@notplayingaround

Facebook
Six Strings: Magazine @jmhdigital68

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HOWLIN' WOLF RECORDS: SIX STRINGS l HOLLYWOOD NUTS! l HORROR BLOGGER ALLIANCE

JMH Digital [2020]

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C is for Communication (#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:

Memories from Blogging in the Past

I started blogging in 2007. I had just gotten a scholarship to study abroad in the USA for a year, and one of the first things my student adviser told me was "Start a blog. It's going to be a lot easier to keep people updated than sending out dozens of emails."
And that is how my blog started. For Communication, for Connection. At first, it was daily news for friends and family about my study abroad adventures. Later it morphed into reports from storytelling festivals and conferences. Then, in 2012, I joined the A to Z Challenge for the first time, and started sharing storytelling and folklore content regularly.
Through Comments, I was starting to make new friends, and meet new Colleagues. I became part of a Community.
Today, thirteen years later, my blog is a Combination of professional Content and reports from my travels and performances. I have grown as an artist and as a person. It is strange and nostalgic to look back at the very first posts, and remember when and how it all began.

How has your life changed since you started blogging? Did it change thanks to your blogging? What does it feel like to look back on the early days?

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Blogging Beginnings ( #AtoZChallenge )

  My A to Z overview starts out with some of my past memories from blogging and my journey from that first post until now...





Blogging Beginnings






         Way back in September of 2009 I was at a sort of crossroads of life.  My job of 18 years had ended earlier that year and having difficulty finding another job I was pondering my next step.  It was at that time that I started running across ads about starting a blog to make lots of money.  Rather than send in the $99 to take the advertised blogging course, I instead researched the topic on my own which led me to Blogger.  Starting a blog was easy though it took some time to learn the ropes.  In fact I'm still learning.

          Having been interested in writing since I was a kid, blogging seemed like the ideal creative outlet for me.  And I started out with a lot of enthusiasm for my new found outlet of blogging.  Initially I spent the better part of every day researching and writing my blog posts, exploring other blogs, and trying to come up with ideas of how to promote my blog to gain readers.    Early on I discovered that to attract readers I needed to visit other blogs and leave comments.

           The principle of reciprocal commenting and establishing blogging communities was the spark that inspired the first Blogging from A to Z Challenge in April of 2010.  This event caught on in a bigger way than I had expected and in that first year an amazing community of bloggers was built around the A to Z Challenge.

              Over the succeeding years we've seen bloggers come and go.  A handful of dedicated bloggers have participated in the Challenge since the beginning while many more have followed along to support the efforts of the A to Z bloggers.  That support fuels those of us who take on this yearly Challenge--just the encouragement we bloggers hope for.  That is the purpose of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge:  To expand interest in our blogs and to become better bloggers while connecting to others who have a similar goal.

             Some of my enthusiasm for blogging has waned since the earlier days of my adopted "career" and I don't put the same efforts into the endeavor as I once did, but I don't see myself stopping blogging.  For now I'm coasting in a sense, but I still see an explosion of functionality waiting for my blog.

           How about you?   How does your blogging experience compare?    Do you think you've found the real potential in your blog?    What lies ahead for you in regard to blogging?


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