A-Z Reflections Post
WORD FOR THIS POST:
Reflection (n): 3.a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration.
4.a thought occurring in consideration or meditation.
Before I go into the post, I need to answer a question that's been asked by some people lately. Yes, there will be a sequel to TWO HALVES. The novel is currently in its first stage of edits. Title: TWO EQUALSRelease date: TBA (most likely Fall, earlier if I'm lucky)I'm very excited about this one. Some pretty powerful stuff happens and when I wrote the ending, I cried. It was perfect and everything from the novel fit the way it should have. Following, a novella titled BENT. Those are all the details I can share for now :)
Now, the reflections post: it's pretty long, but I didn't mean it to be. Just got a little emotional:)
It's been a week since the A-Z Challenge ended, and at the same time it's been a week of quiet time for me on both my blog, as well as me visiting others. Why? Well, I needed a break and needed to finish my writing. I have many thoughts on the challenge, first one of course: "I can't believe I made it!" With 14 scheduled posts, I'd have to say it helped a lot. Afterwards, I tried to stay 2-3 days ahead which worked well until I got to letter J and K. Man, I had no clue what to write for those posts. O was also difficult, until I came up with Oooo Yes! You can click if you're interested;)
My original plan to comment a lot on new blogs and meet a lot of new people didn't work out as planned. My April turned out busier with writing than I expected and I had to give that a priority. I still commented and tried to meet new people, but heck, I have no clue how the hosts and co-hosts of the challenge did it. A BIG Thank You to the hosts and co-hosts! You guys were awesome! I'm still in awe of all of you. Your support, time and effort was clear online. You were everywhere. I mean it.
How could you make it better? I don't know. I do know blogging is reciprocal. The effort you put into others is the effort you'll receive, though sometimes even more. Making a genuine comment on someones blog feels good. You get to know them, and I like that. You guys did that!I don't want to comment, just to comment. Sometimes, I'll read a post and simply don't know what to say or don't have time to comment. It doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but I do appreciate reading the posts (yes, even the long ones) Many other bloggers I know have also done a great job of commenting back and interacting with new people. Wow! I'm amazed. But, having gone through the challenge made me realize something very important.
1. Why I blog? I blog because I like it. It's a personal venue of opinion and things that matter, not necessarily always on writing. I will begin to use that in my future posts.
2. I am a writer first, a blogger second.
3. The blogging community is extremely supportive (though I already knew that). The best part of the challenge was meeting new people, finding their interests and again, realizing how the internet connects us on all continents. I still cannot believe some of you live in Australia, Africa, India, Europe, UK (I could go on naming countries and continents, but I won't). To me, it feels you guys live right next door. If I needed a cup of sugar, I could scoot over and borrow some sugar, except you provide something much sweeter than sugar. Support, care, encouragement, laughter, hope, inspiration, friendship and adventure. And for that, I Thank You!
Reflection (n): 3.a fixing of the thoughts on something; careful consideration.
4.a thought occurring in consideration or meditation.
Before I go into the post, I need to answer a question that's been asked by some people lately. Yes, there will be a sequel to TWO HALVES. The novel is currently in its first stage of edits. Title: TWO EQUALSRelease date: TBA (most likely Fall, earlier if I'm lucky)I'm very excited about this one. Some pretty powerful stuff happens and when I wrote the ending, I cried. It was perfect and everything from the novel fit the way it should have. Following, a novella titled BENT. Those are all the details I can share for now :)
Now, the reflections post: it's pretty long, but I didn't mean it to be. Just got a little emotional:)
It's been a week since the A-Z Challenge ended, and at the same time it's been a week of quiet time for me on both my blog, as well as me visiting others. Why? Well, I needed a break and needed to finish my writing. I have many thoughts on the challenge, first one of course: "I can't believe I made it!" With 14 scheduled posts, I'd have to say it helped a lot. Afterwards, I tried to stay 2-3 days ahead which worked well until I got to letter J and K. Man, I had no clue what to write for those posts. O was also difficult, until I came up with Oooo Yes! You can click if you're interested;)
My original plan to comment a lot on new blogs and meet a lot of new people didn't work out as planned. My April turned out busier with writing than I expected and I had to give that a priority. I still commented and tried to meet new people, but heck, I have no clue how the hosts and co-hosts of the challenge did it. A BIG Thank You to the hosts and co-hosts! You guys were awesome! I'm still in awe of all of you. Your support, time and effort was clear online. You were everywhere. I mean it.
How could you make it better? I don't know. I do know blogging is reciprocal. The effort you put into others is the effort you'll receive, though sometimes even more. Making a genuine comment on someones blog feels good. You get to know them, and I like that. You guys did that!I don't want to comment, just to comment. Sometimes, I'll read a post and simply don't know what to say or don't have time to comment. It doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it, but I do appreciate reading the posts (yes, even the long ones) Many other bloggers I know have also done a great job of commenting back and interacting with new people. Wow! I'm amazed. But, having gone through the challenge made me realize something very important.
1. Why I blog? I blog because I like it. It's a personal venue of opinion and things that matter, not necessarily always on writing. I will begin to use that in my future posts.
2. I am a writer first, a blogger second.
3. The blogging community is extremely supportive (though I already knew that). The best part of the challenge was meeting new people, finding their interests and again, realizing how the internet connects us on all continents. I still cannot believe some of you live in Australia, Africa, India, Europe, UK (I could go on naming countries and continents, but I won't). To me, it feels you guys live right next door. If I needed a cup of sugar, I could scoot over and borrow some sugar, except you provide something much sweeter than sugar. Support, care, encouragement, laughter, hope, inspiration, friendship and adventure. And for that, I Thank You!
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