A to Z Reflection

Blog Tour: Today I am over at Julie Flanders’ blog with a character interview for the detective from Ghost of Death. Check it out: Interview with Detective Avrianna Heavenborn

For anyone who is insecure I am sharing one of my favorite movie quotes from A League of Their Own:

“It's supposed to be hard. If it wasn't hard, everyone would do it. The hard is what makes it great.” –Jimmy Dougan (Tom Hanks)

Remember that whenever you struggle with writing, editing, publishing, marketing, or whenever you consider quitting, that not everyone is cut out to be a writer, but I believe you ARE! It may be hard, but it’s worth it!

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2015 A to Z Reflection:

My theme for this year's A to Z was...DISASTERS!

A: Avalanche

B: Blizzard and Blackout

C: Cyclone

D: Drought and Dust Storm
E: Earthquake
F: Flood

G: Gas Explosion
H: Hailstorm
I: Ice Storm and Iceberg
J. Judgment Day

K: Killings
L: Limnic Eruption and Lightning Storm
M: Mudslide
N: Nuclear Meltdown
O: Oil Spill

P: Plague
Q: Quasar Explosion
R: Rockfall
S: Solar Flare and Sinkhole
T: Tornado and Tsunami
U: Ultraviolet Radiation
V: Volcanic Eruption

W: Wildfire
X: eXtinction
Y: Ypres Battle and All Wars

Z: Zombie Apocalypse

I had a blast writing these posts and reading the comments because I learned so much. Many people shared their own personal stories and revealed what disasters scared them, which is why at the end of my “Z” post I asked my visitors to vote on the disaster they thought was the worst.

Ready for the answer?

*drum roll* 

WAR

Second Place: Nuclear Meltdown

Third Place: *Tie* Extinction and Plague

Fourth Place: Tsunami

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There were a ton of blogs and themes I enjoyed this year, but I picked ten of my favorites to highlight here.

 A to Z Blogs of Note:

1. J.H. Moncrieff shared spooky tales about all things that go bump in the night.

2. A Tarkabarka Holgy at Mopdog posted 26 ways to die in Medieval Hungary.

3. Melissa Sugar at Fiction Tool Box had an ongoing murder mystery.

4. Sharon Marie Himsl's theme was women inventors. 

5. David P. King revealed profiles and illustrations for his characters in Woven.

6. Elizabeth Mueller shared My Little Pony fan art.

7. S.L. Hennessey did movie smackdowns. We could vote between two movies.

8. AJ Lauer had an ongoing story that continued with the help of her commenters.

9. Natasha Duncan-Drake’s theme was deities and demons in fiction.

10. Patricia Lynne wrote flash fiction with odd words for each letter.

**There were so many I enjoyed visiting everyday and could mention a ton more, but I decided to keep it at ten.

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A to Z Tips:

1. Put a growing list with links at the end of each of your posts (like the one I included above) so interested readers can visit your older posts.

2. When you leave a comment at a blog of someone who isn’t familiar with you, add an embedded link to your blog. How? It’s easy. Here’s mine:

<a href="http://www.writewithfey.blogspot.com">Write with Fey</a>

All you have to do is replace my link and blog title with yours. Then copy and paste into the comment box.

3. Check your spam settings. A blog I was assigned to visit as co-co-host kept telling me my comments were going to the blogger’s spam. This was aggravating!

4. Share your new post on Google +. I went to countless Google + pages and couldn’t find that day's post.

5. Better yet, revert to a Blogger profile if you’re using Google +, so people who click on your avatar will be sent to your Blogger profile with your blog link in easy access. For more info on how to do this go HERE.

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During the Challenge, Betty at A Bench With A View mentioned to me how every time she went to a new blog, she’d see that I had already been there and asked me if I slept at all. Haha! I did sleep, but I’ll tell you how I did it:

1. I’d check my new post for the day and returned visits to everyone who commented before I dragged my butt out of bed.

2. Then I’d go to my previous day’s post and return visits to the people who commented while I was a sleep. (I always checked out their newest post.)

3. After that, I’d do my co-co-host duty and visit my five assigned blogs. 

4. Finally, I’d visit the blogs of those I follow. After the first few days of the Challenge, I quickly found the people who returned visits/comments and only visited those blogs for the rest of the Challenge. 

TIP: Always visit the people who visit you and leave a comment! Blogging is suppose to be interactive. 

5. All of this would take the whole morning. I’d check back in around 2:00pm or 3:00pm. If I got a comment from someone I hadn’t already visited, I hopped on over to their blog. I did this again around 7:00pm before I shut off the computer for the night.

6. Every day I’d repeat this process. 

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I found out Witch of Death is being published later than Ghost of Death, so I'm looking for June spots to help promote this story. 

QUESTIONS: Have you ever seen A League of Their Own? Are you surprised over the worst voted disasters? (Do you think another disaster should be in the top 5?) What did you like/dislike about the A to Z Challenge?