Labour of Love

In more ways than one, this Challenge is a labour of love—not only for Arlee Bird, the conceptualizer behind this phenomenal blogging extravaganza—but for all you wonderful participants.

It takes discipline and dedication to create 26 posts for a month, as most of us don't blog that often. Many of us do research, if we select a theme, to ensure we have all the facts we need before we write a word and then there's the editing and fine-tuning.

Others will spend hours going through pictures and various sites to be able to pull everything together for a well-organized and attention-grabbing line-up.

Hearty congratulations to all of us who have made it this far. Blogging from A-Z is no mean feat and we all deserve a pat on the back for the labour or love we've undertaken this month.  

Keep it Going with the #AtoZChallenge !

Today, Misha Gericke from D's Company shares her experience with you about the A to Z Blogging challenge.

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When you signed up for the A to Z Challenge, I bet you thought it was a good idea.

But now, we’re starting to get to the point where the start-out adrenaline fades away and the month is starting to look long. Especially when you didn’t plan and schedule posts ahead. (I know the feeling. Until this year, I only ever planned the topics for my A to Z posts and wrote the posts on the day they were due.)

Except for last year, I won every time. For two blogs. But last year doesn’t count for me. (It’s my guest post, my rules.)

Here’s the thing, every year, I’d hit a point where I just got tired of the whole blogging thing. And I still won. How?

Simple.

I didn’t give up. Sometimes, I ended up having to write two posts on one day. Or to write on Sundays to make up for a skipped week-day. Whatever it took. Eventually I caught up, and it made the win all the sweeter.

So don’t give up when you lag behind. Keep going. It gets easier when the end is in sight.

What are you doing to keep going this year? Any tips?

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If you’d like to see what Misha’s up to at the moment, you can find her on these social networks:  Tumblr | Twitter | Google Plus | Writing Blog

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Follow the A to Z Blogging team on our Facebook Page!
Email address is contactatozteam at gmail dot com
Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge and Twitter id is @AprilA2Z. 
 
We’re still holding Twitter chats on Thursdays at the tag #azchat at 9.00 PM EDT. Please follow the Twitter and Facebook handles, and the hashtags in order to keep up with the conversation.

#atozchallenge Blog Envy (i.e. Jealousy)

As you visit blogs during the A to Z Challenge and later, you're bound to notice that some bloggers have a lot more readers and get a lot more comments than you do. If you're new at the blogging game, this is to be expected; some of you started your blog because you heard about this challenge and you learned that you have to have a blog to participate. But let's say you've been blogging for a few years, and you notice that some blogs that came online when you did are brimming with comments and "like"s while you still get maybe half a dozen comments a couple of times a week and no comments more often than not.

Jealous? Upset that they're getting all the attention and comments and you aren't?

It's understandable. You spend hours writing blog posts that will change other people's lives, and they don't seem to care, while someone else is writing about their dog and getting hundreds of people to comment every time they drop an entry onto the world of blog readers. It's hard not to be jealous of success like that.

But that's what I'm going to tell you: don't be jealous of other bloggers' success. Their success isn't your failure.

When you find a successful blog, try to figure out what it is that makes it so successful, and adapt it to your blogging. Become a part of that blog's community and interact with the blogger and the other readers. Since most members of a blog's community are also bloggers, go visit their blogs. Become part of their communities. Make sure they know where to find you.

Remember, blogging is a conversation between friends. This is true whether you're writing a blog for a business or just writing a blog to talk about you dog. Mom always used to say that if you want friends, you need to be a friend. Don't look at other bloggers as your rivals, look at them as your friends. Soon, they'll return the favor.

You have a couple of thousand opportunities to make friends with the A to Z Challenge. That list you got on will be around for a while, so why not take advantage of it?

John Holton
The Sound of One Hand Typing
The Sound of One Hand Typing FM

I'm Falling Behind! #atozchallenge

I’m Falling Behind!

Is that you right now? Don’t panic!

Falling behind on posts? Fortunately, they’re short. Set aside thirty minutes and write and schedule two or three. Then you’ll be ahead.

Falling behind visiting other blogs? Set aside Sundays to visit new ones. Just do what you can.

Falling behind on returning comments? If you’re commenting on blogs who are not returning yours, just skip those for now. Focus on your visitors.

Yes, it is a Challenge! But we are doing it to have fun as well. And make new friends. We might have to stretch a bit, but we can accomplish all that and enjoy ourselves in the process.


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

#atozchallenge Hello! Howdy! How Are Ya?

The great Yogi Berra was known for his unique way of twisting the English language. He knew exactly what he was talking about, but sometimes it came out in an unintentionally funny manner. One of my favorite quotes of his is this:

You should always go to other people's funerals, otherwise they won't go to yours.

What he meant to say was that if you want people to care about you, you should show them that you care about them. Or, to put it in blogging terms, if you want people to read your blog, you should show that you want to read theirs.

That's the purpose of the A to Z Challenge, after all: to open your blog up to a wider audience, to hold a dialogue with other bloggers and non-bloggers. Nothing can be more disheartening than writing a fantastic blog post and not getting any feedback from anyone. Likewise, nothing feels worse than leaving a comment on someone's blog and having the blogger ignore the comment completely.

The Golden Rule applies here: Do unto others as you would like them to do unto you. If you want people to come visit your blog, go visit theirs, and be sure to leave a comment when you go. If you want people to reply to your blog comments, be sure and reply to the comments people leave for you.

It isn't always easy, I know. There will be days when you fall behind in keeping up with comments, and life happens when you're busy making other plans. But you should make the best effort you can to reply to comments, and to visit the blogs of people who visit yours.

"Okay, John," I hear you say. "There are hundreds of bloggers signed up for the A to Z Challenge; how am I going to get to all of them?"

I'll tell you right up front, you won't. You can't. At least not in the thirty days of April. I'm sure, if you didn't sleep and did nothing all day but visit blogs, you might be able to do it, but you have a life, too, and it's not good for you to spend that much time sitting in front of a computer. So, don't try.

Instead, resolve to visit a few blogs every day. Say ten. Take the list of blogs and visit the five bloggers before you and the five after you. So, if you're number 789 on the list, visit 784 through 788 and 790 through 794, as well as all the bloggers who have left you comments. If you have more time on your hands, visit the ten before and after you. Or, you could do what I did one year and visit ten blogs each day whose numbers were chosen by Random.org. Visit them, read what they have to say, and leave them a comment, even one that just says "Hi! I'm stopping by from the A to Z Challenge. I enjoyed your post!"

And, just so you know, the list of blogs that participated in the challenge will be around at least through the end of the year. That gives you eight months to get through the entire list. More on that later.

John Holton
The Sound of One Hand Typing
The Sound of One Hand Typing FM


**editor's note: Check out our Helpers page, that lists all the awesome bloggers donating their time to make the Challenge run well! We hope you'll visit and tell them you appreciate their work! ~AJ **

Tackling the Challenge with Gusto!

So the Challenge is lots of fun and excitement for those who enjoy this business of blogging.

One of the best things about the Challenge is meeting new people and finding cool blogs that are super-interesting. However, the only way people will know you've visited is if you leave comments on their blogs. That not only says that we've dropped in, but that we were engaged enough to introduce ourselves.

There's no better way of fueling the gusto to continue visiting participants than to charge through a section of the list each day.

You'll find that by leaving meaningful comments, other bloggers will gravitate to your blog. So it pays to put your energy into crafting creative posts and making as many visits as you can, so you can power through the Challenge with gusto!

Are we having FUN yet? #atozchallenge

Your first full week of A to Z is concluding!

Are you having FUN?

This challenge, first and foremost, is supposed to be an enjoyable experience. While it is designed to challenge you, your focus, writing skills, and your blogging resolve, all of that is moot if you are not having at least some amount of fun with it.

A to Z fun can take many forms. Here is how you can achieve them:

1. Getting appreciative comments on your blog
Sure, "Good post!" is also a sign of appreciation, but everybody loves to get more detailed, personal comments. People reciprocate: The better comments you leave, the more likely they will visit you back and show their appreciation for your work. Everyone likes being complimented.

2. Finding new blog treasures
Visit at least a small amount of new blogs every day. Work your way down the list (even if it's at the pace of a snail). You will find treasures - people, blogs, and themes you love. Make sure to bookmark of Follow them, so you can come back later for more.

3. Making new blog friendships
Blog friendships can last beyond A to Z, and they are the best outcome of the challenge. Nurture them, build them. Connect with your new blog friends through other media - follow them on Twitter, friend them on Facebook, whatever. Enjoy getting to know all the wonderful people out there who share your interests.

4. Participating in the community
Join us for the #azchat Twitter chats! Talk to others about the challenge. Make yourself at home in the A to Z community.

Excellent start to the #atozchallenge Everyone!

Here we are, five days in - how are you all doing?

I think we're off to an Excellent start!

How many of you just made the

wee-ooh-wee-ooh noise after reading this?

Part of what I love about the Challenge is all the Encouragement everyone gives one another. Whether to help folks keep going, or even when they just leave a comment to say 'Hey I liked your post!' Whether you are visiting one other person per day or one hundred, us co-host types love the Energy, Empathy, and Entropy.  Keep it up, team :)

~co-host AJ Lauer's theme this year is a choose-your-own-adventure that relies upon visitor comments to be successful! Stop by and join the story!

Discipline in Blogging for #AtoZChallenge!

 For the alphabet D, Samantha Redstreake Geary from D's Company (I was tempted to make this D for Damyanti, but asked Samantha instead, who I clearly see is no better at Discipline than me!) offers her tongue-in-cheek take.

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Today, I’m dishing out a big helping of “D” with a side of irony, considering I rarely choose Discipline at the all-you-can-do buffet. Let’s be honest. Discipline is the kale on the salad bar of life. You know it’s good for you, but you’ve only so much room and so little time, and that treasure trove of desserts is whispering sweet nothings like there’s no tomorrow. And then, when tomorrow rears its ugly head at the crack of dawn, you’ll look back on those empty calorie hours with a pounding regret hangover and think to yourself, I should’ve had the kale.

Rinse and repeat.

What IF, one day, while grazing in the pasture of possibility, you decided to give the questionable green leaves a shot. This time, you ignore the sugar-laden distractions, seize the salad tongs, and load up on vitamin-infused productivity. When tomorrow comes, self-reproach is replaced with satisfaction. And before too long, you’ll feel so fulfilled you won’t give that syrupy stack of procrastination a second glance because kale is where it’s at.

Recap

Kale = Discipline

Eat your kale EVERY DAY, and you’ll be well on your way to achieving your aspirations and one step closer to becoming an organic, shade grown, fair trade, bird sanctuary badass!

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Which is to say, now that you're in the A to Z Challenge, stick with your blogging discipline, even though on some days it feels like chewing on steamed Kale!

On a more serious note, D is for Determination, Drive and Daring. You'll need all of it while you dish out posts on the remaining 22 days of April!

Can I Do It? #atozchallenge

Can I Do It?

Yes you can!

You are capable, creative, and crafty.

You can conquer the A to Z Challenge.

You are in control.

Struggling to keep up with posting? Take an extra hour this week to get ahead.

Struggling with commenting? Again, set aside an extra hour to catch up.

Wondering if it will all be worth it? Yes, it will!

My very first Challenge in 2010, I signed up last minute. I had no idea what to post and scrambled every day to find something to fit the letter. By the end of that very first Challenge, I managed to post every day, my following had tripled, and I made some really good blogging buddies. It set me up for that fall when my first book came out, CassaStar.

So, whatever you are trying to accomplish with the Challenge, know this – you can do it. You can beat the Challenge!


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

Day 2 and the Party is Just Starting to Heat Up! #AtoZChallenge

Welcome to Letter B! B is the best letter because it's the beginning of some very great words like 

BOOK! And that's what I, as your Challenge Librarian will be bringing you. Books, books, and more books! I've got a book for everyone!

Breakdown by Jonathan Kellerman

Brotherhood in Death 

Both are murder mystery books to get your heart racing.

Brookly, by Colm Toibin

A lovely little book about a young woman who travels from Ireland to New York City in search of a better life. 

Being Mortal by Atul Gawande

A discussion by a surgeon on why and how medicine can improve lives.

Book Thief by Markus Zusak

A little girl, books, and the Holocaust. 

So there you have it. Something for everyone! After you've visited all the blogs and made new friends, take a moment to celebrate by (eating cake) and settling down with a good book. You've had a busy two days. 

Rest up, the next letter isn't until Monday.

Away We Go! #atozchallenge

     
         Are we ready!  

         Can you keep up the enthusiasm throughout the entire month?

          The opening day of the Blogging from A to Z Challenge is always the biggest one.  There's lots of blog action and optimism heading out of the starting gate.   It's important to pace yourself over the next few weeks.   As the cliche goes, this is not a sprint it's a marathon.

          Those who have prepared posts ahead of time will be in pretty good shape for the month, but if you don't have your posts finished the race is not lost.  Now what you have on your hands is the essence of what a Challenge is all about.

          No matter how you've approached the A to Z Challenge, it can be done and done with great success.  Personally my first time around I started without posts prepared ahead of the game as well as in later Challenges with the entire month's posts completed before starting day.  It's a matter of willingness to finish and the fortitude to get it done.

         Do you have what it takes to succeed this April?   I think you do, but the bottom line is that you have to believe that you've got it and then show the rest of us that you can do it.

         Forget about discouragement and fear of failure.  This is a Challenge.  Overcoming the negatives of your thinking is the point of staying in the game to the very end.   Not getting the visits and comments that you'd like to have means that you need to get out to visit and comment on other sites.   Like any job, if you don't do the necessary work, you don't get your payday.

          This April the A to Z Challenge is your second job and for some maybe even your full time job.  If you're working to make your blog great then you should work as hard as you can to be successful.  If you're here to have fun then that's fine as well--we emphasize the fun factor of A to Z.

          However you approach this Challenge, in the end you get as much as you put into it.  You can finish and you can finish big if you set your mind to that aim.

          The A to Z Team is rooting for you and we're here to help you.   Stay focused on that finish line.  You'll be glad you met the Challenge and you'll be a better blogger in doing it.

          Let's go A to Z Bloggers!

How to Add Your Social Media Buttons to Your #AtoZChallenge Posts

Today's tip is from An Unconventional Alliance Team Member Rajlakshmi who blogs at A Twinkle Eyed Traveller. 

I know you all are super busy writing, scheduling, bookmarking and drinking coffee in tons and gallons, so I will keep it really short and crisp.

Since A to Z April Challenge is a great opportunity to connect with bloggers around the world, here's few more tips to help you increase your social media visibility and highlight your talents.
1) Pinterest Pin It Button on Image - The Pin It button appears on the image when you hover your mouse over it. This makes it extremely easy for readers to share your beautiful captures on Pinterest. Check out the steps provided in this tutorial (http://www.bloggersentral.com/2012/11/pinterest-pin-it-button-on-image-hover.html).

2) Instagram Widget - If you are an Instagram addict like me then you gotta have this on your blog. Simple to configure and easy to use. Check here - How to Add Instagram Widget (http://helplogger.blogspot.com.au/2014/09/how-to-add-instagram-widget-in-blogger.html)

3) Facebook Page Like Box-  This can either be added as a widget on the sidebar or it could appear as a pop up when your site loads. Click here for widget - http://helplogger.blogspot.com.au/2012/03/how-to-add-facebook-likefan-box-to.html and here for Page load - http://theblogwidgets.com/2013/08/facebook-popup-widget-with-lightbox.html

Best of luck for the challenge!!

May the the force be with you. 

#atozchallenge -- Comments! Get your comments here!

 

The Challenge starts on Friday. We hope you're all prepared, but it's okay if you're winging it, too.

Just remember, the Challenge is here to push you, so if you're feeling pushed, we're doing our jobs. 


In my humble opinion, there are 3 key elements to the Challenge.

*Daily blog posts.

*Responding to comments received on daily blog posts. Optional, but recommended.

*Visiting and commenting on other participants daily blog posts. Optional, but highly recommended.

 
Let's face it, we can't force any of you to respond to comments, or to visit others to comment, but it is part of the Challenge guidelines and the Challenge fun.

Leaving comments on a stranger's blog can be intimidating, but let's put it in perspective.

Bloggers are people just like us and they like to get comments on their blog posts just like us!

Not every comment has to be a full paragraph, re-stating the post's premise, and quoting the author.

Leave a quick remark. Like a sticky-note. Just enough to get your point across. Something you wouldn't mind receiving on your blog.

When you do comment, think about leaving a signature so they know where you're coming from, like your name and your blog title. Something you can cut & paste quickly onto the end of your comments.

You can make a hyperlink signature as well. HERE is the latest A to Z blog post on how to create one.

Remember, the Challenge isn't just about the destination, but the journey. This is your blogging community. Make the most of it.


Heather M. Gardner

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Co-host
The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Ninja Minions Attack!

Just who are the Ninja Minions? Only the most awesome bunch of bloggers in the world. They will be assisting me in April, helping this Ninja keep his sanity. 


What makes a Ninja Minion? Stealth. Know-how. Top blogging skills. And sheer awesomeness. 



Let me introduce you to this cool team of Ninja Minion Masters. If you’re not following them, you should!

Master of travel and New Zealand, Rhonda Albom

Master of introspection and honesty, Nicola Burggraf

Master of poetry and truth, Nilanjana Bose

Master of her writing and IWSG admin, Susan Gourley

Master of mystery and book blogger extraordinaire, Mason Canyon

Master of freelance writing and middle grade mayhem, Stephanie Faris

Master of mysteries and flash fiction, Yolanda Renee

Master of deep thoughts and contemplation, Ann Bennett

Master of snark and other-worldly writing, Patricia Lynne

Master of innovation and writing entrepreneurship, Melanie Schulz

Master of book events and youthful writing, Donna McDine

Master of music and rants, JA Scott

Now you see them – now you don’t! Because they are Ninja Minions…

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

The Joyful Brigade Hits the Road

It's almost time for us to hit the ground running with the Challenge. I'm happy to be a co-host for the second year running and I'll be ably assisted by the seasoned bloggers listed below. Meet the Joyful Brigade and say howdy!

Keith Channing is retired and lives in the middle of France with his wife and two dogs, where he mostly makes up and writes lies for the sheer pleasure of doing it. Some of them even rhyme. Many of these lies, both of the rhyming and non-rhyming types, end up on his blog, as do some of the photographs he's taken from time to time.

Contact Links:
Fuller bio is at https://about.me/keithchanning
https://www.twitter.com/keithchanning
https://plus.google.com/108165500792647138091
http://keithchanning.tumblr.com/

Bish Denham was raised in the Virgin Islands where her family has been living for over a hundred years. She worked for 23 years with abused, neglected, and emotionally disturbed children before retiring. Bish has been writing off and on most of her life, but it's only been within the few years that she's taken the plunge to self-publish. She now has two books out in the world: A collection of ten stories about the Caribbean trickster Anansi, called Anansi and Company: Retold Jamaican Tales and a novel about a vain young lizard who believes he has a destiny called A Lizard's Tail. She's currently working on a Caribbean ghost story and has been blogging 9 years. This will be her 7th A to Z Challenge.

Contact Links:
http://bish-randomthoughts.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BishDenham.Author/
https://twitter.com/BishDenham

Betty Dmochowski Wooton has been blogging for close to 10 years under a lot of different names, but finally settled into her niche, A Bench with a View, about 4 years ago. She blogs about a variety of subjects and tries not to blog more than once a week so she can save time to check out and read lots of other blogs. This will be her 4th A/Z Challenge. In real life when she's  not blogging or reading blogs she's a medical transcriptionist. She has been married for 35 years and was recently blessed with a grandson born right after Valentine's Day 2016.

Contact Links:
http://viewsfrombenches.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/betty.wooton
https://www.facebook.com/walkhumblywithMyGod

Jen Garrett writes for, about, and around children all day. But sometimes she finds time to do the dishes at her home in Northern California. She also finds time to blog, participate in SCBWI, facilitate The Writers Bloc at her local library, query agents, and read mountains of books. How? We don’t know.


Contact Links:
lexicalcreations.weebly.com
Twitter handle @lexicalcreation
Facebook Lexical Creations and https://www.facebook.com/thewritersblocinplacerville/

Sheena-Kay Graham is a writer, Christian, proud Jamaican, Harry Potter fan, Divergent lover, Dauntless Faction, Book Obsessed. She blogs about her life, books, book reviews, her upcoming novels, and sometimes random fun, plus the movies she sees at the cinema.

Contact Links:
http://queendsheena.blogspot.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SheenakayGrahamAuthor/
https://twitter.com/queendsheena
Laura Hernandez is the mother of four children and grandmother of three with another two arriving this summer. She is engaged to a retired military man and currently resides in Missouri. Her hobbies include reading, DIY projects and arts & crafts. She's always had a passion for books so wasn't surprised when she eventually started a blog. 

Those first few blog posts only had a picture of the book she read and a sentence or two for a review. Since then, reviewing books has afforded her opportunities that she never knew existed and Laura is very thankful for the many book-addicted friends she's been able to make.

Contact Links:
The Voluptuous Book Diva - http://voluptuousbookdiva.blogspot.com http://facebook.com/voluptuousbdiva
http://yabkd.blogspot.com and on Facebook http://facebook.com/yareeds
Twitter @VoluptuousBDiva 
Instagram @volptuousbookdiva

Michelle Wallace is a writer-in-the-making, on an adventure, a never-ending journey. Her many titles include writer, blogger, flash fiction junkie, wannabe poetess, educator. She looks forward to meeting and interacting with many different writers/poets/bloggers from many different places, as she believes that this potpourri of characters will enrich her life in one way or another, helping to mould and shape her writing experiences. Therein lies the success story~it lies in the actual journey!

Contact Links:
http://www.writer-in-transit.co.za/
Facebook link: https://www.facebook.com/michelle.wallace.author
Twitter link: @mishy1727 Goodreads link: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/14191973-michelle

And then there's me, J.L. Campbell. I'm plenty happy to have this great group of bloggers to help make the Challenge fun and easy. I live in Jamaica and write sweet romance, romantic suspense, women's fiction, new and young adult novels.

Contact Links: www.joylcampbell.com
https://www.facebook.com/jcampbellchambers
https://twitter.com/JL_Campbell
https://www.pinterest.com/thewriterssuite/

Thanks so much for stopping in, I hope you're looking forward to the Challenge as much as we are. Feel free to visit these bloggers and get acquainted.

Introducing Holton's Heroes!

The other co-hosts have introduced their team of assistants (a/k/a "minions"), so I guess I should introduce mine as well.

I asked each of them to write something about themselves, so here's what they had to say...

Dcrelief was born and raised in North Carolina has been blogging since 2006; celebrating ten years April 2016! Currently she maintains three blogs: dcrelief - Remove the Rose Colored Glasses, dcrelief - Battle of the bands (where I first met her), and An Artful Blogger (joke blog). Dixie is an artist, and paints and sketches portraits and landscapes, depending on a client's request, in acrylic, pastel, or charcoal. She does crafting and sewing, specializing in costume design or repair, shabby chic creations, and doll clothes.

Kimberley Cooper (Kim) is married, mid-fifties in age, and lives in the UK, sandwiched between the sea and the South Downs. She works part-time for a local charity and supports her father, who is in his eighties and frail. She's had a couple of short stories published in anthologies, which gives her the confidence to self publish, both short stories, a novella and a novel. There's a second novel on the go, 60,000 words through so far. She loves to read blogs, both on writing and those which give an insight into how other people live their lives.

Laura Roberts is a four-time A to Z Challenge participant (2016 marks #5!), and has published three of her April blog post collections as books. She is also a five-time NaNoWriMo winner and a 3-Day Novelist, and you can read more of her work -- or submit to her annual "Everything I Need to Know About Love I Learned From Pop Songs" anthology -- at Buttontapper.com.

Erica is a veteran with the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. She's been writing short stories and plays since 3rd grade and fell out of it in college. I started this blog to get back into writing. She tells us, "My writing style is rather dark and macabre. In my own opinion my writing style is very Edgar Allan Poe-ish/H.P. Lovecraft-ish." She's "super excited to be a part of the Holton’s Hero team. Every year I’ve participated in the challenge and have come across some pretty fantastic blogs and developed a few awesome virtual relationships. I’m looking forward to cheering ya’ll on and giving you virtual high fives. And I can’t wait to read your posts, get to know you and maybe, just maybe develop a blogger-to-blogger relationship. Sounds kinda creepy huh?"

Elizabeth Los says "My favorite fictional character: Sherlock Holmes - I'd sit next to the library shelves in the Summer and read for hours. My favorite movie is The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951). I play piano, flute and trumpet. I love Beethoven, Mozart, Rachmaninoff, but enjoy film scores by Zimmer, Doyle, Goldmith, Horner, Elfman, Morricone, etc, etc. I could listen for hours and still not get enough. :) Oh, and I write. I've published one novel and a few short stories. I'm currently working on a five book young adult series."

Linda G. Hill says she's first a mother of three wonderful boys, second, a novelist and blogger. She says "I write. I observe. And then I write some more. People and their behaviour fascinate me endlessly. I read. A lot. I love to learn." Linda runs a number of blog hops that I participate in, including Stream of Consciousness Saturday and One-Liner Wednesday.

Shan Jeniah Burton lives a passionately playful life filled with lovely chaos, intertwined with her chef husband and two endlessly fascinating homeschooled children who keep outgrowing their clothes. She is particularly fond of words and dreams, imagery and photography, travel, nature, history, music, and fictional people with green blood and pointed ears. I met her through A Round of Words in 80 Days.

Sneha Sasikumar proudly says she has three beautiful places in India to be called as home: one, the emerald Andaman and Nicobar Islands where she is born and brought up, two the Luscious Kerala which is where her ancestral roots are, and finally the Happening and cool Bangalore where she is settled for the past six years. Techie by profession, dancer by birth, Blogger and doodler by choice and in love with her three tattoos. Sneha lives life on her own terms and is always up to learn new things in life. She follows her heart but doesn't forget to carry the brains along :) When life throws lemons at her she turns it into a lemonade!!!

Michele Truhlik is a writer, blogger and small business entrepreneur. Previously an owner of an advertising agency and a bar, she currently has a dog-sitting business and a jewelry business and is much happier being out of the corporate world. She is also following her calling and is an Animal Chaplain and will be officially credentialed and ordained in 2017. She has been rescuing and adopting greyhounds since 1999 and has been owned by 8 greyhounds.

I'm very honored and grateful to have a group of assistants this talented, decicated, and easy to work with, and hope you'll visit their blogs and get to know them.

A to Z tips - Keeping track of the blogs you visit during the #atozchallenge

Half the fun is the blogging.
The other half is the visiting.

It is basic A to Z etiquette to visit back the people that have visited you and left comments on your blog. In addition, we also recommend visiting a couple of people from the sign-up list every day, to promote blogging friendships and to support each other's work.

But even if you only visit 5 new blogs a day, keeping track of all of them can become daunting. Since the list numbers change over the course of the challenge as inactive blogs and broken links are deleted, simply visiting by number is not always the best way to go.

Here are some other things you can try. I have done them before and they worked for me, but you'll have to try to see which one works for you best:

1. Bookmark your favorites
Create a new folder in your Bookmarks on your browser, and bookmark any blogs you came across that you definitely want to visit again.
(I usually just clicked "Open all bookmarks", got my morning coffee and cereal while the browser loaded them, and then leisurely clicked through them every morning)

2. Follow / sign up
Even better: Sign up for the blog itself! Bloggers love to see their follower numbers go up during A to Z - they tell us that people didn't just walk by, they want to stay to read more. If you see a blog that you definitely want to keep reading, during A to Z and beyond, make sure to click Follow (if they have a Followers gadget), or sign-up for email notifications.

3. Feedly
If you want to take blog-following to a more organized level, create yourself a Feedly account. You can add any blog to it (Wordpress, Blogger or otherwise), organize them by themes, and it will put all of their new posts into one newsfeed you can easily look through.
WARNING: Feedly allows you to read blog posts without actually going to the blog site. Make sure you go to the actual blog and leave a comment there. It's only polite. 

Important reminder: Make sure to visit blogs that are below you on the list. If everyone starts at the top, people towards the end will get a lot less much deserved attention.

A to Z Tips - Creating a signature for the #atozchallenge

Here is a tidbit that you might find useful come April.

Visiting blogs and commenting on them is a huge part of the A to Z experience. And so is visiting back! If you want to make sure that people whose blog you commented on can find you and visit you back easily, it is very useful to have a hyperlink signature at the end of your comment.
Here is how that works:

Fill out this template with your own information:

[Your name or Twitter handle] from

<a href="yourblogaddress">Name of Your Blog</a>

You can add more lines if you have more blogs.
For example, my signature looks like this on code:

@TarkabarkaHolgy from

<a href="http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com">The Multicolored Diary</a>

<a href="http://hungarykum.blogspot.com">MopDog</a>

And looks like this when you see it at the end of my comments:

@TarkabarkaHolgy from
The Multicolored Diary
MopDog

IMPORTANT: SAVE YOUR SIGNATURE somewhere where you can easily find it and copy-paste it. Me, I have it saved under Drafts in my Gmail box. Every time I go visiting, I just Copy the code, and then Paste it at the end of my comments.

Also: Some commenting formats, like Disqus, don't read HTML. In those cases, just copy and paste your blog URL. The important thing is to leave an address so people you visited and easily visit you back, without having to sift through your G+ profile or your Blogger lists.

Where to Find Images for your #atozchallenge Posts

If you're like me, you LOVE having beautiful images in your blog posts. The addition of a carefully chosen photo can enhance the understanding of your words or add a funny context to make your blog post even more enticing.

“And what is the use of a book," thought Alice, "without pictures or conversation?” 

And since I'm a book reviewer, photos and pictures come easy to me. I can simply download the cover of a book and slap it into my post. It's free to use to promote the author's book. 

See? Easy, peasy, lemon squeezy!

The next easiest way to incorporate photos into your blog is to take them yourself. I'm not a photographer and if I add a photo, it's usually one of my pooch.

Sometimes Bailey cooperates and sometimes he couldn't be bothered with my good-boy treats. So what's a blogger to do when in need of a photo and you lack the resources (or skills) for photos for your blog posts?

You turn to Google. To be sure, copyright infringement is a real thing so you can't go around downloading photos and images and adding them to your posts. You must use copyright-free images. There are plenty of websites around and because I'm a librarian, I've done the research for you! 

You can start with Wikipedia. They maintain a list of public domain resources that are free.

The Library of Congress also maintains resources. Theirs are more historically oriented and take some digging. 

Viintage.com offers stunning beautiful images of old posters and other, well, vintage type images.  I used the word image alot in that sentence did i?  

One of my favorites is morguefile.com which contans photos of just about everything. Some are random photos taken by regular people and some are quite good.  

I just downloaded this beautiful image from pixabay.com 

I could go on but I suspect you're getting the idea. Go to the list at Wikipedia (see above) and check out their resources.

Have fun finding resources! 

There are no bad pictures; that's just how your face looks sometimes.” 

― Abraham Lincoln