Keep Track of #atozchallenge via The #atozchallenge Daily!

Last April, the A to Z challenge had about 1300 participants.This year, more than 600 bloggers

 have already signed up . Who knows how long the list would grow by the third of April?

I have to admit I was a little lost last year--so many blogs to visit, so little time! Plus, I had my 

own posts to think of, which according to my leave-everything-till-the-last-minute personality, 

I had left unscheduled, writing each day as it came. By the time I came to the list, I was 

horrified. Which link had I visited last? Then, when I clicked on a link, it sometimes turned out

 the blogger hadn't posted in a week. Which pissed me off, of course. 

This is when I discovered the #atozchallenge tag which our host Lee helpfully added to all his

 comments. I went on Twitter and discovered fresh A-Z posts by bloggers on this hashtag. No 

worrying over whether the link was valid, and I also got to make new Twitter buddies, and 

agonize with them about the number of posts to be written or visited! (For explanation of hashtag 

for those new to Twitter go here.)

So I basically went and created Twitter newspaper, The #atozchallenge Daily, one which 

automatically collects all the links posted with the  #atozchallenge tag. Even if you're not 

on twitter, all you have to do is bookmark this newspaper. Opening it everyday is a 

great way of finding links to fresh A to Z posts. You'll also find it embedded here in 

this blog, on the sidebar to the right! Embedding it on your own blog is as easy as clicking on 

this link, clicking on the "Embed" tab to the right on the page that opens, and copying the

resultant code into your blog.

If you are on Twitter, you can follow us for updates on @AprilA2Z, and use #atozchallenge 

for any posts you make about A to Z, now, or during the challenge in April. This would make 

it very easy for us and others to find you---adding tons of exposure to your blog. Also, we can

 be twitter buddies and obsess over A to Z building up to the challenge, and also when it 

begins to make us dizzy with all the comment love and discussions!

Of the host team, (besides the main @AprilA2Z) you could follow these folks on Twitter :

Alex J. Cavanaugh :                                              @AlexJCavanaugh

Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs :            @StephenTremp

Matthew MacNish at The QQQE  :                       @MatthewMacNish

Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie:                      @iZombieJMH

DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude :                    @DL_H

Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse :         @thewarriormuse

Elizabeth Mueller :                                                @ElizbethMueller

Karen Gowen at Coming Down the Mountain : @KarenGowen

Damyanti (that is, moi) at Amlokiblogs:               @damyantig

So if you're on Twitter, follow @AprilA2Z and let us know you're participating--and spread the word via the #atozchallenge 

The more we are, the louder the noise we'll make, the more the people we'll make friends with, and the more fun we'll have. (Not to mention additional twitter and blog follows!)

If you don't like Twitter, keep your finger on the pulse by bookmarking The #atozchallenge Daily...either way, have fun and win new fans this April by participating in the A to Z Challenge!


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Damyanti Biswas, co host of the #atozchallenge.

Teaching Often Makes You the Student

Today we have a special guest post from Heather of Random Interruptions. She's a very new blogger, but is jumping off the high dive and joining us in the A-Z. Please give her a warm welcome!

Teaching Often Makes You the Student

        I am so happy to be joining you today. Thanks Tina for the invitation to guest blog.    I started my blog at the end of 2011, so I am still very much a newbie. I am really excited about participating in the A to Z Blog Challenge.

       I work as a supervisor of an agency that provides support coordination/case management to people with disabilities. A couple years ago I was asked to co-train a class titled Person-Centered Planning, which focuses on how to write plans based on individuals’ needs, wants, goals, etc. That sounds like a no-brainer, doesn’t it?

      The introduction to the class is for all of the participants and trainers to share their greatest goal for themselves. Most answered with goals of traveling, furthering their education, etc. My goal was to write a book. I have been telling my friends in casual conversation for years that I wanted to write a book, but now I said this OUT LOUD to people who look to me for guidance every day. The pressure was on!

     Making this proclamation, I felt that I would be a hypocrite if I didn’t start taking steps to make it happen. After all, in my profession we assist others in achieving their goals every day. Shouldn’t we lead by example?

     I have learned that writing is easier said than done and it has been a process to say the least. My first step was to buy a laptop to make writing more convenient and portable. Step 2 was joining Goodreads where I have read some incredible advice. That has all been wonderful but I still hadn’t written anything! About a month ago I started my blog, just to get the creative juices flowing. I am still struggling and learning how it all works but I am looking forward to the A to Z Challenge to light a fire under me.

     And, …I am teaching the class again in March 

What would your greatest goal be? What are you doing to achieve it?

You can visit me at: http://randominteruptions.blogspot.com/

Stephen Tremp "Opening" Release

Hi everyone, and thanks for stopping by. I'd like to thank Lee for the opportunity to promote the recent release of my suspense thriller OPENING, the second installment int he BREAKTHROUGH series. Here we go .....


“A scientific breakthrough of such magnitude it could radically alter the future of humanity—for better or worse—is in the wrong hands.”

Graduate students from M.I.T. have stolen a breakthrough in wormholes. Their leader, Nicholas Fischer Jr., has convinced the group to assassinate powerful politicians and World Bank executives, privy to the discovery, to prevent them from using it for their own New World Order agenda and egregious profits.

Orange County resident Chase Manhattan, man of danger, is part of a new breed of modern-day discovery seekers. As the death toll mounts, Chase and his friends must battle this group of misled zealots from M.I.T. The conflict: will this discovery be used to benefit and advance the world in ways only previously imagined, or will greed and incompetence be used to manipulate the masses and benefit a select few. Amplifying the problem, events escalate as a scientific Pandora’s box is knocked over and the contents spilled out.

Stephen Tremp, author of the BREAKTHROUGH series, has a B.A. in information systems and an MBA degree in global management. Stephen has a background in information systems, management, and finance and draws from this varied and complex experiential knowledge to write one-of-a-kind thrillers.

His novels are enhanced by current events at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and other scientific research facilities around the world. These potential advances have the ability to change the way we perceive our universe and our place in it!

REVIEWS

I am a big fan of BREAKTHROUGH, the first book of the Chase Manhattan series, so I was looking forward to OPENING. Author Stephen Tremp has not only not disappointed with the new installment, but also raised the bar in OPENING, providing a slick complex action thriller.

The scope of the story is breathtaking and the action is non-stop. The events are so plausible that at times I was nodding in agreement thinking, "Yeah, that could happen." The story is cued directly from current world events and scientific breakthroughs.

Arlee Bird
Writer, Blogger and Juggler of Words and Phrases

I enjoyed reading OPENING. You did a great job of grabbing and keeping my attention. Your use of description was wonderful and your attention to detail just helped to add to the book. The action was quite intense at times. I am a big fan of BREAKTHROUGH, the first book of the Chase Manhattan series, so I was looking forward to OPENING.

Audrey Sillett Lintner

You can visit Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs. BREAKTHROUGH and OPENING can be downloaded:

Kindle for $1.99

Smashwords for $1.99