#Bloggers , you can Still sign up for the #atozchallenge !

Blogging from A to Z April Challenge

I’m hosting the A to Z April Blogging Challenge again this year, on Amlokiblogs. Daily (w)rite had participated in 2011 and I’ve entered it back again in 2013, and for the first time ever, I’ll be AZing on two blogs! Wish me luck.

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge basically requires 26 posts in 26 days based on 26 letters of the alphabet, one post beginning with each letter during the month of April, with Sundays off for good behavior.

If you haven’t signed up yet, you have till April 1 to join in the challenge, and then the epic journey would begin!

On April 1, blog about a topic that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 is “B,” April 3 is “C,” and so on. No posts on Sundays and we finish with Z on April 30.

You can use a theme for the month or go random – just as long as it matches the letter of the alphabet for the day. We recommend short posts – participants will be trying to visit as many as possible during the Challenge and will likely skip long posts.

Please turn off Word Verification! You won’t receive many comments or return visitors if it’s on. Check your settings, as it may be on without your knowledge. If you are really concerned about spam, set comments to no anonymous or blog owner approval.

Make it easy for people to follow you. Use Google Friends Connect, Feedburner or other RSS Feed, Linky Followers, Networked Blogs, etc., and be sure those widgets are located near the top of your sidebar. Time your posts well, so as to get a maximum audience.

Start with the blog after yours on list. We suggest visiting five blogs a day and you are welcome to visit more!

Make new friends. Visit those who visit you. Return the follows of blogs you enjoy.

Each host has a section of the list and will visit you several times during the month.

We also have minions (assistants) who will help us. It is our goal to make sure all blogs on the list are participating. Ad sites, non-participants, and bad links will be removed as we find them.

Visit the A to Z Blog for updates and daily words of encouragement.

Bottom line – have fun!

If you have any questions, please ask. You can still sign up, so if you’re not on the A to Z Blogging Challenge list, add your name on there, NOW!

I can no longer fit in small corner spaces … #atozchallenge fiction

Today,I’m guest posting at the A to Z Challenge Blog. Head over there  to drop a comment on my fiction piece there.

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Writing Challenge basically requires bloggers to put up 26 posts in 26 days based on 26 letters of the alphabet, one post beginning with each letter during the month of April, with Sundays off for good behavior.

As co-host, I’m asking you, my blogging audience, to help us hit 1000 sign-ups by March 1st, which is next Thursday. We have more than 700 sign-ups already, so about 300 more to go! If you haven’t signed up already, go do it now…and enjoy the ride this April at the  A-Z Blogging Challenge, April 2012!

Let’s Go for a Walk, You and I: #atozchallenge

Wishes tied on strings

Let us go for a walk, hand in hand, in this temple lined with tombs.

Tombs of the heartfelt desires of the rich and the famous, who lived and died noble, a thousand years ago. No poor man stepped here, because to light a lantern in this temple, you needed to have a family crest, and no poor man had a surname, leave alone a title.

They still light all these lanterns once a year, attracting long-dead desires like ghost moths to the flames, and greedy eyes eager for things beyond reach.

Tombs of the heartfelt desires

No one buys lanterns anymore, says the girl at the temple stall, they’re too expensive, cost millions of Yen. The clips in her held silver elements tinkle with each nod of her head. Buy one of these papers and tie it to the strings hanging from the branches of this tree, with your wishes. People believe they come true.

But next year, you say, the priests will sweep them away, tying new strings, for new wishes tied on new pieces of paper, to be swept away again. And look how bare the tree stands in winter.

But that has always been the poor man’s way, I say, and what difference between a lantern of metal or stone and a piece of paper? It is the weight of the wish that matters– these lanterns may not fly. Maybe this paper will.

We tie our wishes to the tree. We walk out of the red-colored temple gates, to be greeted by snowflakes. You smile at the white notes of blessings that flurry and fall, try to capture them on your tongue.

I feel light. We walk in the snow, hand in hand, burdened no longer by the weight of wishes.

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A to Z Blogging Challenge in April

This was a piece of fiction based on  picture prompts (from the Kasuga-Taisha Shrine in Nara, Japan)–something I hope to create on a daily basis during the month of April for the A to Z challenge, which basically requires 26 posts in 26 days based on 26 letters of the alphabet, one post beginning with each letter during the month of April, with Sundays off for good behavior.

So I’m asking you, my blogging audience, to challenge me with an interesting picture that you would like me to write on, and drop me story starters, each sentence/phrase beginning with a different letter (i.e. the first word of the starter must start with a different letter, from A to Z).  You can do this in the comments on this post. I’ll keep sending out this call till I have 26 pictures and 26 prompts that really challenge me!  The 26 posts will be featured on Amlokiblogs, my other writing blog.

Of course, when I post each prompt during April, I’ll link to you and explain why I chose it. You may also mail me the pictures and story prompts at atozstories at gmail dot com. You need not be participating in the A to Z Challenge to challenge me with either a story starter, or a picture, or both. The more the merrier! Last year I had asked for word prompts, and I got loads to choose from! This year, I’m taking it a step further.

Sign up for the challenge, (you know you want to!) and if you do, make sure you follow us on FaceBook and Twitter, and read The #atozchallenge Daily for updates!

I’m a Guest at Tossing it Out!

I seem to be getting out and about in blogiverse: 200 followers on Amlokiblogs, the Rule of Three Blogfest, and now, guest posting at Arlee Bird’s excellent blog where I discuss the A to Z Challenge, and the inevitable A to Z Stories of Life and Death!

Come chat with me there, guys!

Also, I’ve been up to my neck in THINGS TO DO, the topmost being: FINISH REVISING STORIES.

Ah, I know I’m shouting, but that’s is to get my own scatterbrained, wooly-headed attention.

What is the topmost thing on your Things To Do List? (Would make me feel feel better to know you guys have TTD lists too!Lol)

Now head over to Tossing it Out, and leave me a note, a pat in the back, anything you fancy

A to Z Stories of Life and Death

A to Z stories of Life and Death

So, here’s the book cover, designed by the super-talented Marcel Heijnen at www.chemistryteam.com. The image is by Jake Garn Photography .

The book should be out on all sorts of e-book retail outlets in the next few weeks, and then the great e-book experiment will begin in earnest. With this e-book, I don’t mean to thumb nose at traditional book publishers–quite the opposite.

I seek to learn the ropes of the fluid publishing market. I’ve been traditionally published, and hope to be considered for publication again. But in the meanwhile, I mean to explore the burgeoning new avenues of publishing.

The idea of the book was suggested by the kind and generous readers of my posts during the A to Z challenge, and to them, and all others who have supported me since, I owe a million thanks.

To those who helped bring about this book, and you know who you are, I cannot hope to ever repay the favor, but please know that I’m immensely grateful.

Of new beginnings and the A-Z ebook

Books, new beginnings

There are days when all you want to do is go back to bed. Having survived a slew of such days, with at least a few good (not entirely crap) pages of writing to show for it, I think I’m ready for the weekend.

Part of the curse of a freelance writer is you can’t afford to take a break–most of your breaks are enforced, one way or the other, and so most of them are not good. So I’ve been writing dopey little articles, and making a little money here and there, and hunkering down, waiting for this phase to pass, reading a lot, and taking walks in unlikely places. The weekend would be more of the same.

Happy to have made it ( my entry here)  to the Forties club at the Clarity of the Night Contest, and if you haven’t read any of the entries, head on over and read the winners. I’m amaze at the quality of writing, and learned a lot from the winning entries.

The A-Z challenge e-book I’m working on is now almost ready to be uploaded. It is titled A toZ stories of Life and Death. The cover is ready, and I hope to put it up this Monday.

Hope the new week would bring a new beginning, and to everyone who left such kind comments on my last post, Thank you!

A-Z challenge: Have I thanked you yet??

April has been the A-Z challenge month for me. I invested quite a bit of myself in it, and like I said in my yesterday’s Reflection post, I have the organizers to thank for giving my muse a huge boost.

But I also need  to thank some of the most consistent and kind commenters on my A-Z posts, without whom I would have fizzled out about halfway down the challenge. They provided extraordinary word-prompts for my flash pieces, and were unfailing in their generous support.

So, here goes, in no particular order:

Marian Allen : She sent me some lovely prompts, and made some super-awesome comments!

Petra Hefner : I loved her positive posts and her equally positive comments.

Nutschell: Another blogger whose posts made an impression on me, and who always left me exciting comments.

Nicole/MadlabPost :  Always patient and kind on twitter and on the blog. I’m so happy to have met a blog-friend like her.

Dafeenah: A genuine, emotional  writer, and a generous commenter.

Bornstoryteller: He wrote an entire story in the A-Z challenge. And I have seldom had a more encouraging and consistent commenter.

PencilGirl : Every blog should have a commenter like her, for the sheer number of smilies and the genuine warmth of feeling

Patricia : Her first A-Z post floored me, and we have been in touch on blog and twitter ever since.

Christina Majaski : She is a straightforward girl with an awesome blogging voice, which is why her admiring comments meant so much more.

Joy : I don’t know if Joy remembers, but we used to visit each other’s blog two years ago when this blog was new, and have now re-connected thru A-Z. She has been very very generous with both her prompts and comments.

Corinne O’Flynn : I found her via the #atozchallenge via twitter, and have loved interacting with her on the blog and twitter.

Claire Goverts : I used a great many of Claire’s prompts and can never thank her enough. She is ever so sweet on twitter too.

Anna Tan: She wrote fiction for the A-Z, and lovely to talk to, both on my blog and twitter.

Talli Roland: One firecracker of a woman, who is all fun and laughter, yet also a fount of support and kindness….a prolific commenter and a joy on twitter.

India Drummond: I don’t know how she coped with A-Z despite going on a blog tour and sundry other things in April, but she did. She even found time to comment on my posts.

Alex and Lee: I met them via A-Z, and remain in awe of how they took the time to stop by my blog. Often. Despite organizing the challenge. Amazing.

I’m sure I’m missing out others who I need to thank, but I’m racing this post close to midnight and hope to make up for my errors by next week….I’ll visit and personally thank as many people as I can.

A few non-A-Z bloggers who used to be my friends before and supported me through A-Z:

Gladys Hobson : When Gladys comments, it makes my day. She cheered me on through much of A-Z, and I love her for that.

Indigo: An amazing writer who edits as a profession, and one of my oldest blog-friends—one I’m proud to have. She read and commented on my A-Z posts when she wasn’t doing so well.

Bronxboy55: If you mean to read one new blog this year and stop, make it this one. Awesome writer, humanitarian, humorist. His comments made the difference between posting and not posting on A-Z a few times, just at the points I was about to give up.

Thanks to each and every one of the bloggers mentioned above, and to all the others who visited, and took the time to comment. I’m grateful.

As I said yesterday, I’m going to work on an e-book, a Kindle short  (if research confirms it is the best fit for such a small book) based on the flash pieces I did on the A-Z. I haven’t decided on a title yet, and need to edit, cull out and sort all the pieces  before I can call it a manuscript.

It would be an interesting experiment, because the manuscript would be very  short, and not very suitable for traditional publication.

We’ll see.

Hope to receive words of advice from any and all A-Zers who have followed my work through the challenge.

Signing off on my last official A-Z post, till next April! Happy blogging, everyone.

The A-Z Reflections Mega Post

When I signed up for the A-Z challenge , I was the 15th participant. I had no idea of how big it was last year, and certainly no forewarning of how mammoth it would become this year.

The one thing I knew, however, was that it would be tough.

Tough for a blogger like me, that is. I’ve never really posted everyday despite the name and intention of the this blog , Daily (w)rite.

Before I started the challenge I didn’t know I would do all fiction, maybe fiction a day or two somewhere, but not All the posts!

But on an impulse I decided to ask for prompts for the challenge, based on which I would write flash pieces, and once I got the first few prompts and had written the first few pieces,  I knew it had to be fiction. Throughout. I was having way too much fun, and I love a good challenge.

Thanks to the comments that flooded/trickled in each day, I managed to hang in there and now have 24 flash pieces (I combined two letters, twice). It did take a bit of courage, to write a new piece and send it out into the world each day, but it also gave me a lot of confidence.

I know most of the comments were kind for the sake of kindness, but even I can’t deny that some of the commenters on some of the posts seem to have really liked the stories, and meant every word of what they said.

I hope to do a collection of these, in an e-book format, and Arlee Bird  and a few others think it might be a good idea. I’ll cull some of the stories, which did not work, to my mind, and replace them with others I’ve written before or will write afresh.

As to visiting other blogs, I have to admit I did not visit all the blogs that participated. I knew I couldn’t do it and go on with my normal life, which is a little crazy at the moment, with a new home and a host of other things.

So I visited all the the posts at #atozchallenge on Twitter, created a Twitter newspaper of links. I visited, or tried my very best to visit, everyone who visited and commented. I visited others from the links on the comments they left on blogs I was already visiting.

After I discovered a few links on the main list at the host blogs and found they led nowhere or were not continuing with the challenge, I largely ignored the list, though I must have visited at least 30 blogs each day.

I’ll do a separate post for tomorrow, to especially thank all those who commented on my A-Z posts and to mention some of the A-Z posts/ blogs I really liked.

For today I want to thank the organisers:

Arlee Bird (Tossing It Out) ,

Jeffrey Beesler’s (World of the Scribe),

Alex J. Cavanaugh (Alex J. Cavanaugh) ,

Jen Daiker ( Unedited),

Candace Ganger (The Misadventures in Candyland) ,

Karen J Gowen  (Coming Down the Mountain) ,

Talli Roland ,

Stephen Tremp (Breakthrough Blogs )

The challenge increased the number of people who subscribe to my blog, the number of visits and commenters.

But the best thing it did was give me a shot in the arm, that I could produce fiction somewhat consistently, some of it  not half bad.

So, Thank You to all the organisers, and hope to take part in the A-Z again next year!

A-Z: Z is for Zone

Writing prompt: ZONE

Provided by:  Claire Goverts,
a fellow A-Z challenge participant, yet again. Please visit her excellent blog. Thanks Claire, this is the 3rd or 4th of your prompts I have used. All letters done, now looking forward to the May 2nd Mega Blog!

Genre: Fiction

——-

With sacred rites we burn her. The funeral pyre sings and crackles in the riverside air.

This is what we come to, this cliche of ashes and dust. Our body hears nothing, sees nothing, feels nothing, just lies there and burns, spreading into the air in specks, and soon there is nothing where there was a person.

I sit down on the ground, Indian squat style, knees bent to my chest, my feet planted on the ground and feel the muscles in my thighs strain and pull against my skin. My eyes tear up from the smoke, and the stench of burning flesh pushes into me, under the incense, the sandalwood and the clarified butter we have offered the fire.

This is what it is to be alive, this moment when I can breathe, swallow, clench, scream. My love is floating around me, I’m breathing her in as I inhale the smoke, taste her ashes on my tongue. She has left me and joined me in many strange ways at the same time: she was my wife, but now she has become the air around me, my zone.

I take a step, then another one, faster and faster, I’m alive, and she within me. There’s a dazing whirl in my eyes as I run.

———————-

I’m tweeting A to Z posts at #atozchallenge  There is also the A to Z Challenge Daily with links to Tweeted A-Z posts over the last 24 hours.

Thanks and shout-outs to organisers Arlee Bird (Tossing It Out) , Jeffrey Beesler’s (World of the Scribe),  Alex J. Cavanaugh (Alex J. Cavanaugh) , Jen Daiker ( Unedited), Candace Ganger (The Misadventures in Candyland) , Karen J Gowen  (Coming Down the Mountain) , Talli Roland ,  Stephen Tremp (Breakthrough Blogs )

A-Z: Y for Youth

Writing prompt: YOUTH

Provided by: Claire Goverts ,
a fellow A-Z challenge participant. Please visit her excellent blog!

Can’t believe I have one more post left to go…Z, and we’re done!

Genre: Fiction

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A to Z: Youth and Magnolia

The magnolia tree outside his apartment lit up his eyes as he wrote. He had to hurry, because they would be here soon. He had to write of his lost youth, of his encounter with the butcher, how he was spared, and became a butcher himself.

But first he had to take out the .45 bullets, the cold, sharp, dead things. Not his weapon of choice on the flowers he picked up, the boys who fell for the hush, the softness of his voice, never recognized him for who he was until too late.  Youth was stupid, that way. No grown man would have entered his car.

Knives had life, they hummed and sang with each spurt, but not the easiest things to use on your own throat. Things could get messy. He wanted a clean end and he knew how to shoot a .45 ACP from his days in the army.

The pistol readied, he sat down again to write, but the words would not come. He thought of the last boy, the one that almost got away, of how he lay under the earth, carved and peeled, so close to him.

He needed to decide how to end this.

He took one of the pale pink blossoms he had gathered that morning on his table. Magnolias should be red, he said, like blood, or youth. Not magnolia seeds. He began peeling the flower. The butcher had taught him this way of making up his mind.

I will be here when they come, he said, and tore a petal. I won’t be here, he said, and tore another.

He heard a bolt slip somewhere at the back, and knew they had found him. He wondered how he had missed the sound of cars pulling up.

The pale pink petals, having done their job, lay on the parquet around his feet.

He scribbled on the pad before him: Under the magnolia tree.

Let them find out the secret of the thriving posies that weighed the tree to the lawn.

As the door opened, he fired his shot, and a tiny red magnolia blossomed on his throat, where his voice had been.

——

I’m tweeting A to Z posts at #atozchallenge  There is also the A to Z Challenge Daily with links to Tweeted A-Z posts over the last 24 hours.

Thanks and shout-outs to organisers Arlee Bird (Tossing It Out) , Jeffrey Beesler’s (World of the Scribe),  Alex J. Cavanaugh (Alex J. Cavanaugh) , Jen Daiker ( Unedited), Candace Ganger (The Misadventures in Candyland) , Karen J Gowen  (Coming Down the Mountain) , Talli Roland ,  Stephen Tremp (Breakthrough Blogs )