I’m late.

I’m late.

For a very important date.

A to Z Challenge Reflections

In no particular order, because what I really want to be doing is standing on my patio with my arms up to my elbows in potting soil and fertilizer, and by that I mean working on my current story.

I’m a writer conflicted.

And I’m a gardener conflicted.

In no particular order.

Novice.

This was my first A to Z Challenge, and I made the decision to get on board with it about two weeks before A to Z actually began. I was under the influence of one Diana Beebe, writer and experienced A to Z challenger. She hangs out at Mermaids Don’t Do Windows.

So.

The only theme I went with was alphabet play, with a side of humor. It was a race to the finish, and sometimes I wanted to pull my hair, or the G-Man’s hair, or the G-Pup’s hair. My only goal was to mix it up with length of posts, always try to have something of visual interest, try not to bore you to death, and not lose my blogging mind keep calm and A to Z on.

It was the same for you, right?

The Good

It was a blast! I had the best cheering section ever. I met new bloggers/writers. The number of visitors went up. The number of page views went up, up. The number of blog followers went up, up, up, as did the number of commenters. And that’s how we do stats over here, because we hates ’em. Not as much as radishes, but…

I read a lot of interesting blogs on a variety of topics, and found new bloggers to follow. I managed to respond to every comment left.

Boom!

The Bad

My level of frustration. It was a tight schedule. Very tight. Only on occasion did I have time to pound out two blogs on a given day. Mostly, I was flying by the seat of my pants. A pantser in writing terms. I tried to visit ten A to Z challengers a day. Most of the time, I met that goal. But that really falls short of the some 1700 participants. Commenting was challenging. I tried to comment on each blog post I read, but that became impossible, mostly because the mechanics of leaving a comment at some blogs was difficult. I admit that I am spoiled by WordPress and their easy commenting ways, and their Like button. Commenting and following needs to be as easy as possible. Just sayin’.

The Ugly

There really was no ugly except that there are a bunch of new blog followers that I haven’t gotten around to visiting yet. That’s pretty ugly. If you’re one of them — Thank You So Much — my sincere apologies, and I will be around to visit you very soon.

Next Year

If a challenger in 2016, I would…

Establish a theme within the theme. Mebbe.

Write A to Z in advance of the challenge, so that I could spend the month visiting as many challengers as possible.

Get back to all new blog followers posthaste.

Thank You…

To the A to Z Challenge Organizers and Captains of Industry who organized and visited and encouraged challengers right to the finish line and beyond. You kept me going.

To all my fellow challengers who visited and commented and followed. You kept me going.

To the cheering section — you rocked it! And kept me going.

To my regular readers, thanks for supporting this pause in my regularly scheduled program. Such good sports are you!

The end.

Here be Hump Day.

Let’s just spotlight dance right over it with The Reflections.

(Just Like) Romeo & Juliet. 1964

Elen

Note: An A to Z Challenge category has been created in the menu bar just below the header. All A to Z posts can be easily found there. Cheers!