Alphabet Remix - Mystery Mavens in the Making

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

In the short film ‘Batman: Puppet Master,’ a movie character by the name of Edward Nigma is asked how to catch the Batman. He replies: “Batman is a mystery. You cannot catch a mystery. You have to solve it.” This was one of, if not my most favorite lines of dialogue in that movie.

Today, Letter M is for 'Mystery' and here are some ways that you can write about this particular topic during the Blogging from A to Z Challenge.

Mysterious Men of Mythology

Blog about the men in mythology whom you think are the most mysterious mythical figures. You can just name them for a quick and simple blog post but another way to make your post a little meatier would be to explain the reasons WHY you selected these men. Add a sentence or two (or three…whatever length helps you get your point across) that tells visitors to your blog what makes these particular men stand out among all of the other mythical figures.

Mystery Madness

Try your hand at writing a mystery and then challenge people who visit your blog to solve it. Wait until the following day in the A to Z Challenge, or at the end of the challenge, to reveal what happened in the story that you wrote. If you’re interested in creating a Mystery theme for the entire month of April, you could write one or a few lines per alphabet letter, creating anticipation for people who return to your blog and want to find out what happen next. The theme could be centered on one story or 26 very short mysteries – one for each letter. The choice is yours!

Modern Mysteries

Has any mysterious happenings been reported in your town? Have you, your friends or family ever had a mysterious experience that is difficult to explain or even comprehend for yourselves? If the answer to any of the previous two questions are ‘YES,’ then use the Blogging from A to Z Challenge as your opportunity to share some real-life mysteries with people who read your blog. These modern day mysteries can be your way of adding something different to the mix of blog posts written by the rest of the hundreds, or thousands fellow A to Z Challenge participants.

Now on to other Friday Fun Time business…

At the time of this writing, it looks like no one played last week’s Movie Monster-themed Alphabet Soup game – so there is no new winner and Marta Szemik remains the current Alphabet Wizard. As such, she will be able to continue to select a new letter to be featured on the next Alphabet Soup.

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

For Potential Joiners: What is #atozchallenge about? #blogchat

For those of us who have been part of the A to Z Challenge with Arlee Bird  or Lee and the rest of the team, this challenge needs no introduction.

Lately, I've seen quite a bit of interest about the challenge on Twitter and Facebook tho, so I'll quote an explanation of the A to Z challenge from Lee, who founded it:

Most of the time if you subtract Sundays from April, you then have 26 days--one day for each letter of the alphabet.  When April 1st lands on a Sunday you begin on that day which will be the only Sunday you would post during that month's challenge. 


        Using this premise, you would start beginning April First with a topic themed on something with the letterA, then on April second another topic with the letter B as the theme, and so on until you finish on April thirtieth with the theme based on the letter Z.  It doesn't even have to be a word--it can be a proper noun, the letter used as a symbol, or the letter itself.  The theme of the day is the letter scheduled for that day.

         Most of you are probably familiar with Sue Grafton and her best selling series of detective novels known as the "Alphabet Series" that started in 1982 with "A" Is For Alibi up to her most recent "V" Is For Vengeance".   She has made a franchise with the series and there have been  other authors who have taken similar approaches.  This Blogging From A to Z Challenge will be in the same vein.

 So, for those of us on #blogchat here's a good challenge to bookmark for April 2013-- it welcomes diverse topics from parenting to quilting to gardening and writing, and a whole gamut of subjects in between. I can personally say that it helped my blog and twitter to be part of this challenge, not to mention the hordes of blog-friends I made, and the e-book I published.

So, if you're looking to boost your blog, keep Blogging From A to Z Challenge in your schedule and follow @AprilA2Z on twitter (and this site, of course) , for updates!

Challenge Participant Special Feature - Golden Eagle!

Today I have a truly remarkable guest, The Golden Eagle from The Eagle’s Aerial Perspective! Her theme for the A to Z Challenge focused on the sciences. Even if science doesn’t excite you, her posts were down to earth and really explained what each topic was all about. And it wasn’t just her posts that were impressive! I’ll let Golden tell you herself…

What made you tackle a research-heavy theme such as the sciences?

I love research. It's a great opportunity to dig through facts, learn new stuff, and use the internet for something it's quite good at: providing information.

Which letter/topic was the most fun to research?

Oh, all of them were fun. :) But because it's one of my favorite subjects (and featured one of my favorite scientists, Lisa Randall, in addition to one of my all-time favorite science videos) I guess I'd have to pick Particle Physics.

Do you foresee a career in science for yourself?

Hopefully! It would be awesome to study the sciences in college.

Fluid dynamics was fascinating – can you give a short description?

Fluid dynamics is the applied science of how liquids and gases work. It includes aerodynamics, acoustics, and some oceanography, along with other fields, and is often used in manufacturing.

You listed notable scientists throughout the month – who do you admire the most?

It's pretty much a tie between Neil deGrasse Tyson and Lisa Randall. I love Tyson's humor and his style of presenting science to the public (he's been compared to Carl Sagan), but I also admire Lisa Randall for being the first tenured female physicist at Harvard, Princeton, and MIT.

Which topic surprised you with its popularity?

My post about Jumping Genes. I didn't expect such a specific subject to get as many comments/views as it did!

Now, blow everyone’s mind with a little bit about yourself:

I'm a teenage writer/webmaster/nerd who does not usually think of herself as having anything mind-blowing about her--though if you'd like a random fact, I can say I taught myself how to write with my weaker hand. For the heck of it. Learned ambidexterity!

If you participate in next year’s Challenge, what topics might you cover?

I'm not really sure at this point. There are so many other fields of study that I'm not lacking in material science-wise (there were several subjects I wish I could have covered, but I didn't want to choose more than one for each day), yet I also like the idea of branching out into other topics. For example, I've been toying with the idea of making 2013's series about world cultures/religions/traditions. Now that would be a challenge to write about.

Thanks, Golden! You are the sharpest teenager I know.

Co-host Ninja Captain Alex is the author of CassaStar and CassaFire and his blog can be found HERE