Join Something: Guest Post by A to Z Veteran Matt Conlon

 
     Today's guest is Matt Conlon who blogs at =]V[= and other blogs as well (a complete list can be found at his main site.  He is a veteran A to Z participant with two years with two participating blogs under his belt.  Join him as he talks about his latest project.

I started blogging only a few years back with the intention of leaving behind a sort of journal that I and my loved ones could look back upon in the years to come. I loved the idea that someday my kids, grand-kids, etc. could find out who I was by reading the thoughts I had bouncing around in my head. As I looked into blogging, I couldn't help but get excited about the idea that people I didn't know were going to read what I wrote, and comment.

I tossed up my first blog post and waited for the comments to pour in. They didn't. Perhaps it wasn't interesting enough. I started taking content from other places and re-posting it. Nope, that didn't work either.

I looked around for a blog directory on blogger (the platform on which I started) and came up with nothing. I was shocked that there wasn't a place I could look at a list of blogs about this or that. I started searching Google for "blog about humor" and stuff like that and found one or two here and there. Left a few comments. After a few months, I got a half dozen followers, and it was almost like work!

Eventually, I stumbled upon the A to Z challenge, purely by chance. I signed up, and within the first couple of weeks my followers had sprouted from somewhere around 32 to over 100! Not only were people reading my content, but they were commenting! I found a few dozen great blogs which I still follow today, and created great relationships with wonderful people I may never have found otherwise. 

The 2011 A to Z challenge came to a close, and while recovering from a month of blogging like I'd never blogged before, (cause I hadn't!) I realized how powerful a blog challenge can be. Further, I realized how fortunate I had been to have found that one blog that linked to it! ...But what if I hadn't?? It certainly wasn't all that easy to find, I only happened to hit the "Next Blog" button on blogger and found a link to it on someone's side-bar. 

Thus, JoinSomething.net was born. The idea behind JoinSomething.net was to create a community where bloggers like us could come and register a blog challenge, or a blog circle, or come look for challenges and circles to join. There is also a user forum where you can come and post a link to your latest blog post, or join in some of the goofy word games we're playing, or simply mingle with other bloggers. 

We are currently tweeting updates about challenges, forum posts, blog hops, etc. Tweet your latest blog post @Join_Something and we'll re-tweet you.

Our hope is to bring more readership to your blogs, more exposure to your blog challenges, and help lost bloggers find a place to share and find content. 

I hope to see you there!

http://JoinSomething.net

- Matt Conlon

http://mattconlon.com

How about you?  Are you ready to join something?  Check out the links to see what Matt's talking about.



.

Alphabet Remix - Stop Staying Silent about Suicides

These blogging prompts are brought to you by Nicole at The Madlab Post....

It’s time for The Alphabet Remix - A Writing Prompt Idea Engine Treating A to Z Blogging Avoidance Disorders

After reading recent news reports about NFL player O.J. Murdock's suicide -- and talk of a grim trend of suicides among players, I couldn’t help but wonder if the story will quickly lose traction in media outlets since everybody appears to be focused on the Olympic Games. So today, S is for Suicide and we’re remixing it to find topics that you can blog about during the next Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Surprising Suicide Statistics
Write about a suicide statistic that you either just learned about or think that many people are unaware of. This means covering something other than what the average person may already know such as the common statistic that women are less likely to commit suicide using firearms, compared to men who kill themselves. Instead, find a statistic that may surprise your readers -- like, more or less suicides occur in a particular state/town/city/country or job, etc. than in any other industry or location.

Suicide Stigmas
Since some men and women who are considering suicide hesitate to seek help due to stigmas associated with this act, try blogging about ways that people can change their perceptions regarding mental illness, depression and bipolar disorder.

Your Stance on Suicide “Selfishness”
It is not uncommon to hear people labeling suicides as a selfish act because of the pain caused to people left behind. So, write a blog post that summarizes or explains in detail, your position on the matter -- tell readers whether you agree or disagree with viewing suicides as “selfish.”

Suicide in Sports
Highlight little known sports related suicides that have taken place during a regular season or during the off-season. You could also write about suicides among female athletes, which is a topic that your blog readers may not be familiar with because the media does not seem to cover it as much as it does suicides among male athletes.

Now, on to something bright. The WINNER of last week’s Silver Screen Alphabet Soup game is...

Marta Szemik who writes at her Self-titled Blog

Marta correctly unscrambled all ten Silver Screen related terms that start with Letter S. Her prize packages includes: Title of Alphabet Wizard, the authority to pick the letter for the next Alphabet Soup game and the option to pick the Monday Movie Meme topic for an upcoming day on my blog. I’d also like to send a special thanks to Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out for unscrambling five of the ten correctly.

Congratulations Marta!

Here are the Answer’s to Last Week’s “Silver Screen” themed Alphabet Soup:

1. cdnSuatork is Soundtrack.
2. tamnntuS is Stuntman.
3. rpoSrpsetrvuiciS is Script Supervisor.
4. neSec is Scene.
5. lSaet is Slate.
6. uSgadtenso is Soundstage.
7. uqelSe is Sequel.
8. rSotodbyar is Storyboard.
9. tuebsSilt is Subtitles.
10. rrudonSduunoS is Surround Sound.

Happy Friday, everybody!

Sign up for the Monday Movie Meme, a weekly group blogging series that inspires discussion about entertainment in a whole new light and provides recommendations for your DVD, on-demand or theater fix. New topics are posted every Monday at The Madlab Post!
.
NICOLE 
@MadlabPost on Twitter

A.E. Howard and her Flight of Blue!

 Today’s guest blogger is A.E. Howard! She’s a writer and an artist, as you'll see if you visit her blog. She is sharing with us an  interview with Reginald Long-Tail Jackson Weaver, Opossum Sorcerer, who is a character in her book Flight of Blue, released recently. We love the voice of this character, and wish Anna all kinds of success with her book. Take it away, Anna!

--------------------------

I sat down with Reginald the other day to get his view on the events in Flight of Blue, and also to fill in some of the blanks that I didn’t discover while writing the story. Some of the things happened so fast, I had to go back for details.

AEH: Reginald, thank you for being here today. I know you’re very busy.

Reginald: Yes, terribly busy indeed. What is it that you were so desperate to know that you dragged me out here?

AEH: Ah, well, some of the folks who’ve been reading the story I wrote about you and the other, you know, Flight of Blue and they want to know more about you. One of the questions I hear a lot is: what makes you different from normal Opossums?

Reginald deadpans me.

Reginald: I take it they have not yet read the book, have they?

AH: Uh, well, it just came out like four days ago, so, no, most of them haven’t.

Reginald: So you have dragged me out here to ask silly questions that people could easily understand if they simply read that... that... amusing little tale of yours.

AEH: I’m sorry, “amusing little tale”?

Reginald: Yes, that story in which you felt it necessary to render with precise detail situations that you found amusing while skipping over salient information about the folk you were supposedly writing about.

AEH: This is about the “playing possum” thing isn’t it?

Reginald: That is utterly irrelevant.

AEH: Oh, admit it, you don’t like how that made you look.

Reginald: I will tell you as I told Kai, that little trick has been ensuring the survival of my people for millennia. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a little subterfuge to protect oneself when one is threatened.

AEH: True... but you’re “little trick” as you call it has become a sort of saying in the human world. It can mean anything from “feigning death” to “playing dumb” depending on how it is used.

Reginald: (bristling up his fur just a tad) How it is perceived in your world does not make it any less effective a strategy.

AEH: But it could be perceived...

Reginald: Oh, enough already. Perhaps the idea that the incident could be misconstrued, has, in fact, bothered me somewhat since you wrote the story. But what is done is done and cannot be undone. So let us move along with this inquisition you call an interview, shall we?

AEH: If you insist. Okay, so when we first meet you in the story, you’re naked by the side of the road, having been injured by a car. But later we see you dressed like the other Opossums, was there a reason you were running around nude?

Reginald: You have got to be joking. This is what you call an interview? I mean, other than the fact that you might be attempting to humiliate me with the reminder that I must masquerade as a common possum by running around in the buff when I am not with my folk, I can see no reason such a question is even relevant.

He’s glaring at me with those little round eyes at this point, and I’m beginning to wonder if messing with a powerful sorcerer is such a good idea. Even though he’s so cute when he’s grouchy. Oops. Don’t tell him I said that, okay? He really might curse me then.

AEH: Okay, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you. I just think it’s interesting.

Reginald: Of course you do, so a note on that little curiosity makes it into the story, and yet nothing about my family or lineage does. Now that is some interesting material.

AEH: Okay, then, Reginald. Tell us a little bit about your family... and, er... your lineage.

Reginald: Finally. A decent sort of question. Let us see. When you let me speak long enough in the story to introduce myself, you discovered that I am none other than Reginald Long-Tail Jackson Weaver, Sorcerer of the Third Order. And yet after that fascinating name and title, you asked no other questions, but rushed off, willy-nilly, into some discussion of how Kai and Ellie sneaked a stretcher out of the house to carry me in. I mean, really.

AEH: Er, Reginald? Your lineage?

Reginald: Ah yes, where was I? Let us see. It may interest you to know, although given your mundane tastes, perhaps not. But it should interest you to know that the First Order of Sorcerers died out seven generations ago. In our struggle to maintain our way of life, stranded here in the Middle Realm, our magic almost died out with the First Order as the Second Order, the magical line of Weavers, had no other magical line with which to procreate. But it was discovered by a fortunate accident as it were that there were traces of magical blood in the Jackson line, even though no full-blooded Jackson was a sorcerer. But my great-great-grandfather Archimedes Weaver (and his mother was a Long-Tail from the First Order), went against his parents wishes and married a girl from what all of them presumed to be a non-magical line, the Jacksons. And so it was that their descendants, and others from the two families that married as well, become sorcerers, not quite as powerful as their predecessors, but the magic lives on in us, the sorcerers of the Third Order.

AEH: Reginald, about their love story...

Reginald: I have not yet finished with explaining how Opossum folk take names. You see, I bear the surname of both my ancestors, as well as my great-great-grandfather’s mother, which indicates...

AEH: Reginald, I hate to cut you off.

Reginald: No, you do not. You are bored. Admit it.

AH: No, no, I’d love to learn how your surnames work, but right now, we need to stop, we’re taking up too much space as it is. Another time perhaps? The coffee’s on me...

Reginald: Humph.

AEH: Okay, then, thanks for your time!


I will confess to beating a hasty retreat at this point; he really looked unhappy with me. And, well, he has been known to curse things out of vengeance... I would hope after the traffic light incident, he’d have learned his lesson, but you never know...

Purchase Flight of Blue: Paperback | Kindle

A.E. Howard’s Author Page |