Samantha Geary Jones: Heroes of Phenomena

Today please welcome, from the famous Team Damyanti, Samantha Geary Jones! She has some news about her latest project. She's one busy lady, so it's a real privilege to have her guest today!

Heroes of PHENOMENA

Where epic music, captivating tales and visionary art inspire the HERO in all of us!

FREE ebook Launching June 2nd!

Cover by Jennifer Redstreake Geary

Welcome to Heroes of Phenomena, with my favorite composer gang over in Hollywood and leaders of the film music advertising industry, audiomachine! As part of a global, cross-industry promotional project for audiomachine’s upcoming public release, PHENOMENA—by celebrated composer, Paul Dinletir—we’re introducing a groundbreaking campaign to encourage the next generation of authors, artists & musicians! With each download of the upcoming FREE PHENOMENA companion ebook, audiomachine will make a donation to the LA Youth Orchestra. The ebook will also feature a dedicated YOUTH section, showcasing the talents of aspiring artists and authors from the gifted students of Elevate’s Life & Art Studios!

Winning authors & artists of PHENOMENA’s EPIC HEROES CONTEST will be joining our innovative & inspiring event, alongside these amazing industry professionals: Authors Susan Kaye Quinn, M. Pax, Amy Willoughby-Burle, Jessica Bell, Alex J. Cavanaugh, Ruth Long, Darynda Jones, Crystal Collier, Samantha Redstreake Geary & C.Lee McKenzie!

PHENOMENA Available NOW!

Itunes

Amazon

CD Baby

Samantha blogs at Writerly Sam, and can be found at facebook, and Twitter.

Gary Pennick Guest Reflection from the Alphabark Challenge

Today we have the amazing privilege of having one of the most infamous A-Z affiliated bloggers (and I say affiliated since he has never really, though that's up for debate... participated in any of the A-Z Challenges)  graciously allowing us to use his satirical Reflection Pawst.

To really understand how special this is, you need to know that Gary does the Challenge in his own way.  One year it was backwards through the alphabet, this year he had his Alphabark Challenge, run by Penny, the Jack Russell dog and modest internet superstar.

Despite his "disdain" for a month long Challenge which "hogs the blogosphere" he probably does more to promote our endeavors than most.  We love our Gary and his trusty sidekick, and graciously thank him for all he does behind the scenes for us.  Take it away Gary and Penny!

The Alphabark Challenge, 2014! Reflection Pawst.

"A" if for "Arf!"

I'm having a laugh

"B" if for "Bark"

Sometimes I snark

"C" is for "Chihuahua"

Hello, how are ya? 

"D" is for "Dog"

A pawblished blog

"E" is for "eekPawblishing"

If that's your thing

"F" is for "Feline"

Having a whine

"G" is for "Gary"

How very scary

"H" is for "Howl"

Without a scowl

"I" is for "Insect"

A bug I detect

"J" is for "Jack Russell"

The dogs that hustle

"K" is for "Klahanie"

Pawmoting I see

"L" is for "Loon"

A Canadian tune

"M" is for "Metrosexual"

Such a transport ball 

On all things Metro

Didn't you know.

"N" is for "Noodles"

Oodles of noodles

You stick them in water

Just like you ought ta

And what have you got

One silly noodle stuck to the pot

"O" is for "Ogopogo"

Way to go, go, go

Canadian lake creature

Is what we feature

Ogopogo can kick Nessie's rear

Take that, you Loch Ness dear

"P" is for "Poodle"

Which rhymes with noodle

Doggy jumps through hoops

And you scoop its poops

"Q" is for "Query"

Hi pawblisher, deary

"R" is for "Rivet"

Don't you forget

The noise of a frog

Over there on a log

There you go

I toad you so

"S" is for "Sasquatch"

Go have a watch

Don't say, "Big Foot"

Or you might be kaput

"T" is for "Toadstool"

How very cool

No, not that load

Not a stool from a toad

"U" is for "Unread"

Start over, instead

"V" is for "Vacuum" 

Instead of a broom

Knowing my luck

My vacuum wont suck

"W" is for "Weird"

Oh, how they cheered

For the Alphabark

That's having a lark

Not lark as in bird

Haven't you heard

"X" is for "Xerox"

Photocopy your cocks

Place your butt on the screen

How very obscene

"Y" is for "Y am I doing this?"

Am I taking the p**s?

Look below

And you will know

"Z" is for "Zest"

My good-natured jest

I did this with Zeal

How do you feel? 

The above, a recap

That makes you clap.

Sadly, my friend

We've come to the end

That sums it up
From this lovable pup
Just one last thing
I do bring.

The reflection pawst
From your cordial host
The Alphabark Challenge
My friendly revenge. 

Gary blogs at Klahanie, where his goal is to take away the stigma of mental illness and to spread kindness, love and peace to all who visit.  Please go say hi.  You'll make a great new friend!

#atozchallenge #roadtrip - Stormy is on the move!

Yeah, keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel
Keep your eyes on the road, your hands upon the wheel
Yeah, we're goin' to the Roadhouse
We're gonna have a real
Good time

(Roadhouse Blues by The Doors)

So, welcome to our second leg of the Post A-to-Z Road Trip!

Stormy the Weather Gnome and I are going to try to hit at least 20 new blogs a week from the Challenge list and tell you about a few of them in each of my posts.

When you go visit these awesome blogs, please make sure you tell them that you're visiting on the Post A to Z Road Trip!

No trip would be any fun at all without visiting Alex J. Cavanaugh!

Ninja Captain. Rock Guitar enthusiast. Science Fiction Adventure Author extraordinaire. Blog Genius. Music and movie connoisseur. IWSG creator.

Need we say more?

If you're not visiting his blog regularly, you are missing out.

Tara Tyler Talks
Tara Tyler

Stormy and I LOVE Tara and we always have a great time visiting her blog. She is a mom, a teacher, an author, and a lazy housewife (her words, not mine). She has a new book coming out soon and I'm so proud of her and excited to see what she comes up with next.


The future's uncertain
And the end is always near.

Let it roll, baby, roll.
Let it roll, baby, roll.
Let it roll, baby, roll.
Let it roll, all night long.


Christine Rains-Paranormal Romance Author
Christine Rains

Christine's 13th Floor Series is one of my very favorites and I'm looking forward to what she's got up her sleeve. She always adds a twist to a tale you think you know and proves you, oh so, wrong.


DL Hammons

One day, DL put up a few paragraphs of his writing for all of us to read on his blog. I can still remember my heart pounding while I read it and the premise still haunts me today. I really want to finish reading that story and I hope that we all get the chance to do just that.

Have you heard about Write Club? Well, DL is the founder of the Club and he really wants you to go visit his blog and check it out, maybe even sign up! There's only a few days left.

Thanks for visiting with us today!
Are you finding any great blogs on your trip?

Two Rewarding Results of Writing in Response to Blogs You Visit

Did you know that writing responses on your blog is of the quickest ways to feature a blogger in one of your posts? 

There are many ways to use the topic of another blogger’s writings as a springboard for your own blog’s content. Consider posting content that elaborates on a comment that you left, if any, on his or her original post. You can also forego commenting altogether, and write a response on your blog, making sure to link the post that sparked this subject you’re covering.  

No matter how you approach this method of responding to blogs you visit, it’s a win-win situation for all parties involved because it comes in handy where marketing and content creation is concerned.

Writing in response to the blogs you visit helps to cure writer’s block. Reading someone else’s perspective on a topic, or learning about certain experiences he or she had, is likely all it takes to revive your creative juices when you find yourself coming up short of blogging ideas.

Writing in response to the blogs you visit fosters interaction between bloggers. There is a good chance that bloggers whose post you’re responding to will visit your blog if you leave a comment on what they originally wrote with the permalink to your reaction. This might even lead to a mention and link in their latest blog post, which is one of the easiest ways for you to gain new readers. In the same breadth, linking to their post in the body of the content you write also helps to send your visitors their way – helping both blogs to build a network within the blogging community.

Have YOU ever written a comment that ended up being as long as the average blog post?

Nicole Ayers hosts the 'Monday Movie Meme' while also writing about independent film directors and their work at The Madlab Post. When she’s not keeping up with Jack Bauer, she also tweets.

Themes That Rocked! Challenge Participant Lanise Brown and Libraries From Around the World

Please welcome book reviewer, Lanise Brown!

Your theme was libraries around the world. What made you choose that for the Challenge?

My idea for the challenge sort of came last minute. While I was thinking up a theme and searching for cool bookish things online, I came across an article about the amazing libraries of the world. And I had my theme.

Which one was your favorite?

It’s difficult to pick just one, but I think the Rijksmuseum Research Library in Amsterdam and the José Vasconcelos Library in Mexico top my list.

They were all very unique – which one was the most unique or even odd?

The most unique and unusual was Mexico’s José Vasconcelos Library because of the building’s size, the painted whale skeleton that’s on display in the main hall, and the fact that the library’s been nicknamed the Megabiblioteca (megalibrary).

Which letter was the most difficult?

All of the letters towards the end of the alphabet were challenging, but the letter X was the toughest by far. No states or countries in the world begin with the letter X, so I had to resort to cities. Eventually, I found the Zhangzhou Campus University Library in Xiamen, China. There weren’t many pictures of the library though.

Have you ever visited any of the libraries you featured?

Sadly, no. But I hope I’ll get to visit a few of the locations some day.

Which one is the oldest?

The oldest is the National Library of France, which was founded in the 14th century. I featured the library’s Richelieu Reading Room that houses the library’s rare and antique collections.

If someone let you loose in one of those libraries, what would you do and how long would you stay?

Oh my goodness. I’d be like a kid in a candy shop. I’d probably grab more books than I could possibly read, and take a lot of pictures of the architecture. I’d make it a daylong event of course.

If you do the Challenge again next year, do you have a theme in mind?

I’ve been thinking about next year’s challenge. I suppose I’ll go with the rarest books from around the world, or I might even continue the library theme. There are so many more libraries to share.



Co-host Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh is the author of Amazon Best-sellers CassaStar, CassaFire, and CassaStorm, and his blog can be found HERE

Guest Reflection: Maria Dunn #atozchallenge

Today please welcome Maria Dunn, one of the A-Z Challenge participants.  I've been reading reflections, and will be choosing some special ones to feature here at the A-Z.  Here's the first in the series.

As I reflect on this year’s A to Z challenge, I find a smile come to my face, satisfied to have completed another and already planning for next April.  Why smile?  Well it feels good to accomplish something that is, well, a challenge.   It is always fun to reacquaint with friends from the previous year’s challenge, meet new friends and cultures, and discover talented bloggers to follow.  It’s also a real delight to find how I grow through the challenge.  I appreciate alternative views a little more.  I find myself more compassionate towards the hurting.  I understand blogging, writing, and thinking a bit better.

1.     Loved catching up with some blog friends I made in last year’s challenge.

2.     Loved meeting new friends.

3.     Loved visiting with people from diverse cultures and from around the world.

4.     Loved being challenged to write.

5.     Loved being challenged to think and grow.

6.     Glad to be back blogging again after such a long hiatus.

7.     Sad so many didn’t finish.

8.     Glad I learned so much from some great bloggers like Silvia at Silvia Writes, who wrote on all things Romanian and Sharon at Shells, Tales, and Sails who taught us about all things fruit.  Did you know there was an ice cream fruit?

9.     Sad I wasn’t able to visit 5 new A to Zers every day.

10. Glad for those I did visit and revisit.  I hope to continue to check out others on the list in the coming days and months. 

Things I learned that were helpful.

1.     It was valuable to check in with the challenge website as often as I could to see the daily post there.  Often there were helpful tips to enhance the challenge experience.  Also, those who are commenting on the challenge website are among those who are surely continuing and so they make good first visits.

2.     It was nice not to have a particular theme, but I find that I enjoy visiting those who did, so I am thinking about that for next year.

3.     I like being able to find out more about the bloggers themselves.  So I appreciate reading the about me link and seeing their photo.  I may have to do a better job of that myself.

4.     I really liked when someone recommended another blogger, and I usually went over to visit them as well.  So I did do that a few times.  If I plan it out better, I'd like to include  more recommendations or bloggers I found worth a visit.  There are plenty I could and would recommend.

5.     Last year I planned it out a bit more.  That was helpful especially when time got tight.  However, I feel less stress about it at this year’s conclusion.  Is that because it wasn’t all new or because of just getting to it when and if I could?  I don’t know, but I think, if possible, I’ll plan ahead a bit next year.

Thank you to all who stopped by.    Thank you to the all the A to Z team for your dedication in seeing this through and encouraging all of us.  I don't know how you do it, but I know it wouldn't happen if not for you.  I appreciate you.  And thank you again, Lee, for your brainchild.  Really enjoyed visiting with each one of you.

                                                                                                                  God bless, Maria

A to Z Challenge, 2014

Thanks for being here, Maria and sharing your thoughts with us.  Maria blogs at Delight Directed Living.  Please pay her a visit.

~Tina, who apologizes for the late posting of this.  8th grade graduation festivities got the better of me.  Mea culpa...

Shifting Gears to Locate the Hottest (Blog) Spots on A-Z North #atozchallenge #roadtrip

The daily specials provided at this rest stop for the 2014 A-to-Z Road Trip are aimed at helping you navigate this alphabet highway most efficiently; to keep your tires, engine and gas tank in tip top shape. Any of the new blogs we visit can be likened to roadside attractions, complete with fishing lakes, hiking trails, historic parks, ancient monuments, carnival rides, festive games and little souvenir shops offering novelties that visitors can share with their friends. 

So while each road tripper has his or her own map on navigating the A-Z route, which stretches for miles, here are a few additional ways that you can prevent getting lost in deserted towns where “keep out” signs, “out of order” pay phone machines and an undefined substance dominate the atmosphere.

Random Reflections - Try to visit all (or most) of the blogs located on the 2014 A-to-Z Challenge Reflections list during your road trip escapades, if you haven’t done so already.

Since many of the people who wrote reflections for the challenge, these bloggers are also likely to still be active, displaying new blog posts for you to read and comment on.

Social Strategy - Skip the 2014 A-to-Z Challenge Sign-Up List for a day and instead, visit participating #atozchallenge blogs that have been active on Twitter. 

As previously mentioned in a Co-Host Reflections post, this is one way to almost ensure that the blogs you come across will have completed the challenge and are continually blogging about fun and interesting topics, on a regular basis. Many of the tweets posted by bloggers during the challenge contain links to A-Z blog posts they wrote for specific letters of the alphabet, which could be a great way for you to make-up for blog posts that you missed in April. Either way, you can visit these blogs by following the link trail and or discussions within A-to-Z Challenge tweets. One of the easiest ways to do this is by searching the hashtags #atozchallenge as well as #AZchat and, if you’re venturing out into the off-beaten path… #atozroadtrip.

How Many Blogs have YOU visited as of this 3^rd Week in May, during the 2014 A-to-Z Road Trip?

Have an awesome Memorial Day weekend, everyone!

About the Author:

Nicole Ayers makes movies while also writing about independent film directors and their work at The Madlab Post. She is currently celebrating high school proms and graduations of family and friends; thus, may be offline throughout the greater part of the Memorial Day holiday weekend, but wish you all well.

The one-stop shop for all your Trickster needs!

It is the 3rd Wednesday of the month already, and as promised, the Storytelling Series continues. With Tricksters!
Tricksters are all the rage these days. They are unkillable, unforgettable, and we can't help but love them. From an author's point of view, they are extremely hard to write, and even harder to write well. But when they are done the way they should be, they. Rock. The. World.
I have recently posted on my blog StorySpotting about Tricksters done right in contemporary movies and TV shows - you can find the list here. Today, for inspiration, I'll introduce you to some of the stars in traditional Tricksterdom. They are the storyteller's best friend; there is no audience, however old, young, tired, unwilling, or hopped up on candy, that does not love a good Trickster tale. They saved my bacon countless times, on and off the stage.
Let's see some of the big guns:

Ananse
The Spider. Originally from West Africa (Akan and Ashante folklore), he made his way over to the Caribbean and the Americas. According to legend, owns all the stories in the world. Constantly hungry, not above stealing and cheating, endowed with serious balls. The latter is not a metaphor. Married to Aso, who is pretty much the only person who can out-smart him. Find stories here. Also, check out Neil Gaiman's The Anansi Boys.

Sun Wukong
Better known in English as the Monkey King; the undisputed main hero of the Chinese epic Journey to the West. Immortal, invulnerable, invincible, still a monkey. Crossed his name out of the Book of Death, stole the Peaches of Immortality from Heaven, scared the stuffing out of the Dragon Kings. Deity of Blunt Force Trauma. Turned Buddhist. Stars in Chinese, Japanese and Western movies and TV shows. All. The freaking. Time.

Mouse Deer
Also known as Sang Kancil, the resident Trickster of Indonesia. Tiny, smart, thinks fast on his scrawny little feet. Strong contestant for the title of "weirdest creature" in Tricksterdom. But do not be fooled: Mouse Deer, in my experience, is the uncontested favorite of many audiences (including, surprisingly, teenagers).

Loki
Seriously, I'm not going to introduce Loki. Duh. Move along.

Coyote
One of the greatest Tricksters in the Western hemisphere, Coyote pops up in several American Indian cultures. Unkillable, wily, foolish; known for stealing the fire, among many other things. The original inventor of "dancing with the stars." Find a lovely collection of Coyote tales here. Also, you want to read Christopher Moore's Coyote Blue.

Puck
Remember the little guy from Midsummer Night's Dream? Yep, that's a Trickster. Also known as Robin Goodfellow. Half human, half fae. Completely out of control.

Jack
The one and only. Hero of hundreds of Appalachian Jack tales, killer of giants, navigator of flying ships, climber of beanstalks, challenger of Death, ravager of other people's property. Young, cheeky, with serious attitude.

And then some...
Believe me, I can go on about Tricksters until someone duct tapes my mouth shut. Raven. Iktomi. Nanabush. Kitsune. Tanuki. Reynard the Fox. Ti Malice. Nasreddin Hodja. Every culture has one. Some of them have more. But if I listed all of them, where would be the fun of discovery?
Go forth, and find your Trickster.

As usual, you can find Csenge at her blogs:
The Multicolored Diary (Adventures in Storytelling)
MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...
or on Twitter: @TarkabarkaHolgy
or you can buy her book, Tales of Superhuman Powers, which incidentally also features tricksters. Go figure.

Is Planning Now for the 2015 A to Z Too Soon?

Hello everyone. My name is Tim Brannan. I blog over at The Other Side where I primarily talk about games, RPGs and horror.  I am a game author so I use my blog as a platform to talk about my books, but also to share with others in my blogging community to sorts of things I like to write about.

I have been writing material for games nearly as long as I have been playing them.  I started in 1979 and my first "custom class" was a Healer. And....I am not afraid to admit my first new monster I ever wrote up was a "Smurf". Yeah. I was 10.  My first witch class was written sometime between 1985 and 1986.

This was my fourth year of doing the A to Z Challenge on the Other Side. I have also done it one year on my Atheism blog, The Freedom of Nonbelief and another year at Red Sonja She-devil with a Sword, a shared blog dedicated to the comic book character Red Sonja.  Plus I have guest-posted here before on how to use the A to Z challenge in your own writing efforts and the importance of having a theme to your posts.

One would have thought I would have been more prepared this year!

At some point in February I was still planning on doing an A to Z theme on Vampires.  I had started the posts last year when I did Demons. I had an idea for a book about vampires and I thought it would have been a good way to do some research.  It was. Till I shifted midstream.

My newest book is now at Kickstarter to get funding for art and printing.  "Strange Brew: The Ultimate Witch & Warlock" is, well, the most complete guide to playing a witch in the Pathfinder game.  A bit of background.  Back in 2000 the 3rd edition of Dungeons & Dragons hit the shelves with the "Open Gaming Licence" which briefly meant 3rd party authors could make their own books for D&D and not get sued or anything like that.  If you followed the admittedly simple rules of the Open Game Licence then you could do it.  Well I did and in 2003 I released "Liber Mysterium: The Book of Witches & Warlocks".  A friend of mine released a similar book for witches called "Way of the Witch". We liked each other books and we were happy.  2013 rolls around and this friend, Christina, decides it is time we mixed our books together with the newest version of the D&D 3rd edition game, Pathfinder (it's not exactly, but close enough).  We added in the Pathfinder witch and some others and decided to kick start it as a project.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/962794554/strange-brew-pathfinder-the-ultimate-witch-and-war

So far things are going great!  But my extra writing time was taking a solid hit.  I have 13 years worth and thousands of pages of notes and material to go through.

So to save some time I switched over to the A to Z of Witches.

It was a good idea.  Go through notes, post ideas as they come to me.  I only managed to stay about 10 days ahead of schedule and that was nowhere near enough.  So much for my own advice about theme and planning!

I got a lot of great posts up and in fact have enough for another couple months of solid witch postings.   I got to participate in a "mini-hop" of people doing supernatural creatures during the A to Z as well and that was the best!  I have to give very special thanks to Tasha (Tasha's Thinkings) and Sophie (Sophie's Thoughts and Fumbles) for helping me with the idea and then doing all the heavy lifting afterwards.  THEY, and everyone in the Supernatural mini-hop, really made this A to Z special for me.

If you look at my May 5th post I state I survived the A to Z challenge.  Survived is the right word. Not beat, not won, but survived.  Yes I posted everyday and still got in some of my other posts. Yes I visited my neighbor blogs, but didn't always comment on them.  Yes the material I wrote will find a home somewhere in Strange Brew.

But, I didn't get to interact with other bloggers as much as I wanted. I didn't visit every blog on the list like I have in years past.  And while I noticed that I was getting a good amount of traffic from the Supernatural A to Z and from the A to Z site itself, my regular readers dropped off.  So in that respect I didn't do as well as I would have liked.

I write about games.  That is who I am and what my readers want.  I tried to keep the topics I posted very relevant to gamers, but also to the non-gamers.  Most people in the world don't care if some beastie has 5 HD or 15 HD, you just want to know how tough it is. To gamers that is a big deal. It's a big deal to me.

I love doing the A to Z and I am taking my own advice to heart and starting my 2015 posts this summer.  I am still considering doing vampires. So to make it work there needs to be plenty of material for gamers (what we in the RPG biz call "crunch") and plenty of narrative material enjoyed by everyone else (what we call "fluff").

So what is my plan?

• Start my post writing early.  Crunch takes longer to write than Fluff. I'll need the time.
• Keep enough crunch to keep my regular readers happy. Especially if it something new.
• Keep the fluffy interesting to keep the A to Zers coming back.
• Visit and interact with more of the bloggers in the A to Z. If I write all my posts this should be easier.
• I would LOVE to participate in another mini-hop like I did this year. That was awesome.

Looking forward to it!

About the Author 
Timothy S. Brannan is the author of The Other Side blog, http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/
He has worked on a number of games including the "Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG", and is the author of “The Ghosts of Albion RPG”, “The Witch”, “Eldritch Witchery” and the upcoming “Strange Brew” which is currently in a Kickstarter Campaign. Please stop by and see if this is something you would like to support.

#atozchallenge #roadtrip - Stormy and Heather hit the road!

They made up their minds
And they started packing
They left before the sun came up that day
An exit to eternal summer slacking
But where were they going without ever knowing the way?

(The Way by Fastball)

So, welcome to our first leg of the Post A-to-Z Road Trip!

Stormy the Weather Gnome and I are going to try to hit at least 20 new blogs a week from the Challenge list and tell you about a few of them in each of my posts.

When you go visit these awesome blogs, please make sure you tell them that you're visiting on the Post A to Z Road Trip!

Tossing It Out
Arlee Bird
 
We really can't start this trip without visiting the founder and leader of this great Blog Challenge, Arlee Bird aka Lee.

His vision for the Challenge may have started small but it certainly has taken on a life of its own. Over 2000 people participated in the April Challenge. Lee's theme, on 1 of his 4 blogs, was Marketing Concepts from A to Z.

We can all learn a lot from Lee, so I highly recommend visiting his April posts.

They drank up the wine
And they got to talking
They now had more important things to say
And when the car broke down They started walking
Where were they going without ever knowing the way? 

No Page Left Blank
Tracey Lynn Tobin

Tracey's A to Z theme was all about her favorite fictional characters. Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Marvel, Star Wars, Disney, Harry Potter, Supernatural & Star Trek just to name a few!


Dreaming of Publication
Jossie Marie Solheim

Joss's A to Z theme was all dogs all day long! So many dogs so little time! Pictures and videos! DOGS!


The children woke up
And they couldn't find 'em
They Left before the sun came up that day
They just drove off
And left it all behind 'em
But Where were they going without ever knowing the way?


Beneath the Jack Reviews
Tiffany York

Tiffany's A to Z theme was books, books, and more books! Book reviews, TBR lists, recommendations! Lots and lots and lots of books are listed in this blog.

Mental Indegestion
Melanie Lee

Melanie's A to Z theme was a Haiku for every day in April! Also, look for her links to her stories from the 2012 and 2013 Challenges.



Thanks for visiting with us today!
Are you finding any great blogs on your trip?

Why Do You #Write ? #atozchallenge

A to Z Challenge participant Vidya Sury was part of #TeamDamyanti this year, and she did an excellent job of providing social media tips (A Must-Read Guide now that we're taking a relaxed Road Trip!) and a hundred other things that go into running the challenge.

Today she is the Featured Guest on this blog, and talks to us about her passion for writing.

~~~~~
I worship the written word and the spoken word. I owe my love for writing to my Mom and one of my Uncles, who always encouraged me to express myself on paper.

And of course, to all the people who enjoy what I write, inspiring me to continue to write.

Writing is more or less like breathing to me, and today, I am glad to say, it is my bread and butter. Okay, also flavored cheese, sometimes.

Writing is a wonderful outlet, liberating, opening up new perspectives and teaching tolerance. When I go back and read something I wrote years ago, I enjoy seeing how I have learned and grown, and changed. Sometimes, I am proud of what I wrote and sometimes, I feel like I could have done a better job of it.

One of my earliest writing exercises was diary-writing. My Mom always encouraged me to keep a journal. It improved my language, my vocabulary and my confidence. It also helped me learn better at school. Above all, it kept my mind well-ventilated, stress-free and positive. It improved my memory and fed my creativity.

I remember, each time we went on a trip, my Mom would make sure I had packed my notebook and pencils. Oh yes, not only did I write about the trip as it happened; I also sketched in those pages. Sometimes, sketching helped me get my thoughts on paper far quicker than words to describe the scene.
Another writing exercise that helped me grow as a writer was letter-writing. Ours was a large family that believed in keeping in touch with relatives who lived in various cities. Letter-writing was a weekly chore. On Thursdays, which was a school holiday, my Mom and I would settle down with a stack of post cards and postage covers. I would love writing the addresses on these covers. Then, she let me add a couple of lines to each letter. Eventually, I took over the letter-writing and felt so happy when they were lovingly acknowledged. Some of my family still have my letters and read them with pleasure.

My love for writing paid off during my school years and beyond, making me a better student and a better person in life. At work,  I was rewarded with the remark “excellent communication skills” on my performance report and not surprisingly, I made a career in sales, marketing and training, before I quit the corporate world to become a stay at home Mom.

Today, I am excited to have a regular outlet for my writing via my blogs. My reward is my community, meeting other fabulous writers and exploring different writing styles via writing challenges and blog hops. Most of all, I am filled with gratitude to know that I make a difference with my words in peoples’ lives, bringing me closer to wonderful human beings. 

Writing is like oxygen.

Most of all, I am especially grateful that today, it is my chosen profession. Thanks to my writing skills, I earn my bread, butter and jam as a freelance writer and blogger, helping businesses, professionals and individuals.
~~~~~~~


Vidya Sury is a professional copywriter, editor and blogger. In a previous life, she was a corporate powerhouse. She now works from home crafting connections between businesses and their target markets, but prefers to focus on collecting smiles, playing with her dust bunnies, showing her diabetes who's boss and celebrating the little things.

She loves coffee, people, cooking, reading, writing, photography and travel. Vidya blogs at Vidya Sury, Collecting Smiles , Coffee with Mi  and Your Medical Guide.

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What else did you do in April?

Today Jemima Pett, author of the Princelings of the East series, begins the first of her regular post features on the A to Z Challenge Blog.

If, like my friends, you took a bit of a break last week due to exhaustion, you may by now have forgotten everything else you did in April.  Judging by some of the Reflections posts, many people were like me - totally exhausted by keeping up the blog visiting!

The only thing I HAD to do in April were the chapter illustrations for my sixth book, Bravo Victor, which came out last week.  I thought it would be a nice relaxing thing to do in among all the blogging and visiting.  Then I got into last-minute mode - you know, when you don't have to do something yet, so you put it off?  I steeled myself and got most of them done over one weekend.  Not many writers do chapter illustrations, and sometimes I wish I hadn't started, but in the end I enjoy doing them, and I get great feedback from my readers.

Castle Marsh (c) J M Pett

They aren't great art!  More sort of scribbly sketches.  But my series is set in places I see clearly - the Princelings of the East come from Castle Marsh, which in my mind is in the UK's Norfolk Broads, somewhere between Hickling and Winterton.  It's a low lying area of reeds and cuttings filled with water, used by holiday makers who rent boats for a week to travel around and enjoy the sunshine.  We get a lot of sunshine in Norfolk!  This is Castle Marsh (the improved version, if you have the first versions of the first three books).

One I did for the new book is a view of the road from the dunes through the marsh to the castle, which captured the atmosphere I wanted exactly.

The Road to Castle Marsh (c) J M Pett

The frustrating thing about writing series is that although everyone is doing it (it seems), it gets harder to promote them as you go on.  I mean, if I see a book is part of a series, I want to start reading at the first one.  Sometimes you can enter halfway through without losing too much, but it always makes sense to go back and find out how the characters and their world arrived where they are.  I think it applies to all series, whether Suzanne Colliin's The Hunger Games, Lindsey Davies's Falco series, Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe books (I wish he hadn't done the prequels later), Harry Potter, or your favourite series.  You have to announce your new book so all your fans can leap on it (thank you!) but otherwise, the promotion effort goes into the first one or two, to attract new readers.  Is that true, do you think?

I met so many wonderful writers during this year's A to Z that I'm sure there are lots of experiences and opinions on this.  Readers, what do you think?  Have you jumped into the middle of a series? What's your favourite series, or do you prefer stand-alones? 

Jemima Pett, part of #TeamDamyanti for the 2014 A to Z Challenge
Jemima's blog http://jemimapett.com  
Follow on Twitter - @jemima_pett
The Princelings website: http://princelings.co.uk 
Facebook http://facebook.com/princelings