Editing The A-Z Challenge by Kate from Another Clean Slate:

Kate from Another Clean Slate has been blogging for only three months. A former lurker, her introduction to writing her own blog coincided with the start of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge. She said it was a great way to jump in head first and really embrace the blogging community right away. She is sharing with us her "E" entry from the challenge- Editing the A to Z Challenge. 

During this Blogging from A to Z April Challenge, I began to think about what other challenges we could do and blog about from A to Z in upcoming months to share our experiences. Some of my favorite challenge edits are:

• Eating my way from A to Z- Some people could do this with full course meals, cereals, fruits, exotic foods or cutting their food into shapes. I can imagine their families would be thrilled for "Frog Leg Friday." Although, I've had frog legs on several occasions and they really do resemble the taste of chicken.
• Falling in love from A to Z- Did you ever see the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days? This would be along the same lines but the goal would be just to have a date with a day whose name starts with a letter consecutively from A to Z. It might backfire when you meet your future first ex-husband at the bar and decline a date just because his name is Mike and you already are all the way to P- searching for Peters, Pauls and Pasquals.
• Hobbies from A to Z- This would be good for anyone who wanted to have a chance to try being an acrobat or zoologist. They would be able to join this challenge and spend a day going through each of their potential passions by letter. Beekeeping anyone? Ghost hunting?
• Send a gift to Kate @ Another Clean Slate from A-Z- This is my personal favorite. Everyone could use their creativity to send me gifts- anything from Alcohol to Jewelry to Zumba soundtracks.

What are some edited challenges you can think of? Maybe one of ours could go viral like the Blogging from A to Z Challenge! Imagine the possibilities!

Thanks to Kate for contributing today! You can find Kate almost every day on her blog, Another Clean Slate, as well as her Twitter and Facebook pages. Follow away and share your own ideas for editing the challenge!

#Writers Helping Writers: Get Your #Book Featured

During my A to Z Challenge on Daily (w)rite I featured authors, through posts like this one. Had April not turned out to be the personal nightmare it became for me, it would have become an even bigger success.

I regularly read bunches of books by author friends and from time to time, I feature them on my blog. This exposes my audience to new books to read, and brings the authors some sales. I'm now planning to make this a regular Wednesday post on Amlokiblogs.

If you're an author looking to get more publicity for your latest book, or buzz up an old one, send me the following at atozstories at gmail dot com:

1. Title of Book, Genre, Author Name
2. A one to two sentence elevator pitch (Not more than 50 words)
3. Author's fave excerpt from the book (Not more than 250 words)
4. Links from where the books can be purchased.
5. Blogpost-sized Book Cover

I'd like an email expressing your interest first, before you send out the above.

The elevator pitch and the teaser excerpt need to be well-polished, ready to be showcased. This is for books only-- novels and short story collections. I'd like to feature non-fiction as well, but no poetry or erotica (sounds horrible, grouped like that, I know, but I run fiction-based, PG13 blogs).
I have June covered, and some of July, but slots are still open. If you need your book featured urgently, I might also feature them on Daily (w)rite.

I look forward to reading your excerpts, and if intrigued enough, featuring them and buying your books!

Rhonda Albom: Focus, Fun, and Adventure!

Focus is the buzz word of the day around our house. I am focused on our upcoming Alaska travel plans in an effort to avoid some of the mishaps of our last adventure. Hubby is focused on what ever it is that rocket scientists do in their spare time, our teens are focused on our soon to arrive house guests and, of course their education. I should introduce myself, I am Rhonda from Laugh Quotes. com. I am a travel photographer, humor writer, homeschool mom, American expat based in New Zealand and I race yachts in my free time.

Our life is an exciting adventure and I try to live by my favorite quote (attributed to Mark Twain):

“Life is short, break the rules, forgive quickly, kiss slowly, love truly, laugh uncontrollably, and never regret anything that made you smile. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Here we are on a dragon boat in Beijing, China

If you are wondering why I write a travel humor blog of randomness entitled Laugh-Quotes, don't worry, so am I. In 2012, as we laughed our way around the world the focus changed, yet it retained its stupid name.

To bring the focus back to AtoZ, I thought I would share my reflections poem from the 2013 AtoZ challenge. I went for a theme - Travel Tips I Learned the Hard Way. Another year finished. Before I sign off of the AtoZ Challenge 2013 Can I tell you my views? Don't run away. Everything is cool, Funny, fabulous and filled with new friends all Going the distance. Humor and travel were my focus, Idiots that we were on the road. Joining in to AtoZ, Keeping a focus on one topic, Laughing as I go, Made the blog hop that much more challenging. Never a dull moment. Opportunities to meet new friends. Pausing for a breath or Quiet time Rarely happened in April. So we all pushed to the end. Tired, Unnerved, Victororius. When we finished Xtatic at learning how to use X without the E. You did it too? Now it's time for . . . Zzzzzz


Now that the Challenge is but a memory, what are you focused on?

PS: I also write a blog called Kibitz Spot, but is so far off this topic I wasn't sure I should even mention it.

Thanks for sharing your enthusiasm and love of adventure with us! Best of luck in all your travels!