Reflections on the 2022 #AtoZ Challenge
Hey, it's over! For two months each year, I blog every day. November is reserved for the annual "Book-a-Day Giveaway" event here, where I feature local authors and offer up books and gift cards, and April brings the annual "Blogging from A to Z Challenge," in which I have participated for - I believe - 12 years now.
This year I had my theme picked out months ahead of time. That's usually the case for me, as I am the ultimate planner. It just works better if I have the theme, if I know I can cover all the letters, and I have pre-written and pre-scheduled my posts. Because I had a new novel out (October 2021) that is set in 1981, I looked into the possibility of featuring songs from 1981 as my theme. And it worked! What a variety of music - from classic rock (The Stones, The Who, George Harrison, John Lennon) to country crossovers (Eddie Rabbit, Rosanne Cash, Juice Newton) to new wave and punk (Blondie, Adam Ant) to fading disco and folk (Air Supply, Olivia Newton-John), there was truly a wide range of songs. If you missed out, you can start here: https://wordpress.com/post/marthareynoldswrites.com/9561
March and April are always busy months for me. This year I traveled to Portugal and Spain with my sister in March, and I chair and edit the annual anthology produced by the Association of Rhode Island Authors. It didn't leave me with much time to visit other blogs, but I tried to find a few new ones. And, as always, I'm very grateful for the folks who took the time to visit my posts and like/comment. But having participated in this challenge for so long now, I no longer worry about whether people stop by.
So. on we go. I'm back to posting book reviews on Tuesdays (focusing mainly on my fellow Rhode Island authors) and I'm back to working on a new book, with the hopes of publishing later in the year. So stay tuned for that! And congratulations to all the bloggers who completed the challenge this year!
