#atozchallenge -- Stormy the Weather Gnome talks about A to Z Themes!

 This post is originally from 1-15-2014 and re-posted with permission.

Actually, I didn't get permission from Stormy at all, but since he lives with me, rent free I might add, I took the liberty of assuming he would be okay with headlining yet another A to Z post.

Thank you. Heather

Hi. My name is Stormy the Weather Gnome and I'm being used.

For the last two years the host of The Waiting is the Hardest Part has been using me as her theme for the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge.

She never asked me.

She never consulted me.

She never even mentioned it.

I just thought I was at a photo shoot.

Anyway, jokes on her, because I'm much more popular than she will ever be.

Since I starred in the Challenge...

I've been a guest poster on other blogs.
I've been quoted on the bathroom wall.
I've been requested to start my own Facebook page.
I've been told to stay away from the gate at the White House.

I am popular!

So, I'm guessing you want to know what my point is.

My point, besides the one on top of my hat, is that sometimes having a clearly defined theme can be the best option for your A to Z April Challenge.

Readers will know what to expect of you and come back ... willingly!

Are you thinking about a theme for this April?

 

Heather M. Gardner

The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Top Ten reasons you should join the 2016 Challenge! #atozchallenge

Every year we ask ourselves why we want to take on such a tough challenge.

So, here are the Top Ten reasons...

10. It's a tough challenge. And when the going gets tough, the tough get blogging.

9.  We might actually learn something. (Learning is fundamental.)

8.  We had nothing better to do for the month of April. Nothing.

7.  Some of us need to make new friends. We won't name names, but you know who you are.

6.  We might just get some new traffic to our blogs. That can't hurt.

5.  Who knows what exciting blogs have been out there that we've been missing all this time?

4.  What else are we going to do with all those vacation photos?

3.  It's possible we could actually inspire someone with our vast knowledge and skill.

2.  PR/Marketing/Promotion opportunities all wrapped up into one challenge!

And, the number one reason to take on the Challenge?

1. It's FUN! No, really. It is a whole lot of fun and very rewarding.

Sign-ups start on 1-25-2016!


Heather M. Gardner
The Waiting is the Hardest Part
 

Are you doing a Reading Challenge this year?

A to Z is a couple of months away, and your hosts are already working behind the scenes. But blogging is not the only challenge you can face this year! Since so many of our participants each year write book blogs, or plan on having reading-related themes (*raises hand*), I wanted to write about reading challenges today.

Are you doing any?
Are you planning to?
Why / why not?

I have stumbled upon this question recently through the Hungarian version of Goodreads. On that site, people can create challenges of their own, and invite others to participate. The result is literally thousands of challenges, of all shapes, sizes, and difficulty levels. Some invite you to read one specific books; some require dozens; some ask you to read something with a season in the title, etc. For completing a challenge, you earn a badge on your profile.

I am a sucker for badges.

I learned one very important thing as I got sucked into the rabbithole of reading challenges:

Pick the challenge for the book, not the other way around.
No one should read piles of books they are not interested in, just for bragging rights.
(... all right, so there are probably many people who do that.)

There have been articles floating around on social media about challenging yourself in your book diet. Some people suggested reading internationally; there is even a TED talk making the rounds, about reading one book from each country in the world. There are reading challenges focused on diversity (very important!), and my personal home turf: fairy tales and their adaptations. Emma Watson, everyone's favorite Hermione, just started a feminist book club open to everyone! Some Reading Challenges even have levels of difficulty you can pick.

Challenges are supposed to push you, and coax you outside your comfort zone. My advice, though: Be careful - you don't want reading to become a task. Those of you who are in graduate school probably do way too much of that anyway (my reading challenge is called Dissertation Lit Review...).

Go grab some books. (Yes, I'm enabling you)
Have fun.
Tell us about it!