D: Delegate

Are you doing everything yourself? Lots of us have a little OCD about keeping everything within our own realms of control. But to stay sane, you need to delegate a little bit.

Someone else can do the dishes tonight. How about having someone pitch in to do the laundry. The kids can exercise by walking the dog and taking out the trash.

How about that day job? Lunch at your desk? For this month, how about letting someone else volunteer for the extra workload.

Speaking of volunteering, don't get swamped by taking on too much at school events or with your child's sports teams. They can live without you for a month, Or pass out the responsibilities. Delegate others to do all those little time-consuming chores that you usually take care of.

A few things I delegated this month so far:
Husband took care of washing my car.
Son #3 was assigned to cleaning up the fallen branches out of the backyard. (dozens after this winter)
Son #2 bought pizza for dinner for everyone Wednesday night.
Husband did grocery shopping from my list.

As a co-host I have extra responsibilities but even those are delegated somewhat with the use of my Dragon Soldiers, the best delegates of all.

Laura Clipson, L. Diane Wolfe, Sabina Leybold, Ann Bennett, and Shantala are my Dragon Delegates and I couldn't keep up without them.

Have you delegated some responsibilities during April? What are you doing to make it all workable for you? Any chores you can delegate to someone else?

Dragon Soldiers

Hello A to Z challenge accepting people. My name is Susan Gourley and I'm thrilled to be part of the team here at A to Z. This is my first year as an administrator and my fourth year participating in the challenge. I served as a minion to Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh last year so I'm confident I'll handle the responsibilities involved in my position this year.

I write romance as Susan Kelley and have 12 books published by a small press, two of them bestsellers. I'm also published in high fantasy though that's a story for another day. I'm a member of the Pennwriters Board and am busy helping plan the annual conference. I also am a long time member of RWA and one of the administrators of the IWSG blog. My personal blog is Susan Says where I post every MWF except in April. Enough about me.

One of the reasons I'm confident I will be successful as an A to Z show runner is the great squad of Dragon Soldiers who will be helping me.

Please check out these fellow bloggers and drool with envy at their really cool Dragon Badges. We could use one or more recruits if you'd like one of those badges to enhance your blog sidebar.

Laura Clipson found at My Baffling Brain, a blog I've followed for a while now.

L.Diane Wolfe a veteran of the challenge and also an IWSG blog administrator.

Sabina Leybold whose blog, Victim to Charm is full of variety.

Shanatala at Shanayatales who shares the most interesting book reviews.

Ann Bennett who is a new friend to me and so graciously enlisted into the Dragons.

With an all female team, maybe we should have been called Amazon Warriors instead of Dragon Soldiers. But we would welcome any gentlemen into our midst should one step up. One thing I love about our team is our  diversity. Writers, teachers, public speakers, photographers and all of us with a wide variety of interests.

And that brings me to today's piece of advice for the Challenge. It might be tempting to use the category tags to select blogs that are the same as your own. But one of the great ideas behind the challenge is to meet bloggers from all worlds of fun, entertainment and weirdness. Visit outside your category and you'll find some fun and interesting posts.

Have you met my soldiers yet? Care to help us out? Will you visit outside your category? See a glimpse of spring yet?

Thankful Today

Black Friday is finding me at home just as it has for the past decade. No crowd fighting, traffic jams or parking lot cursing for me. This day is more restful for me than the actual day of Thanksgiving. With six children in our family, we have a good-sized gathering at our house. I make everything. I get help with cleanup  but mostly the day is massive work for me. But today, I'm not fixing any meals. Good turkey sandwiches for breakfast, lunch and dinner while mom rests.

I'm sure I'll be working on some writing projects but I wanted to take a moment to share what I'm thankful beyond just my wonderful family and comfortable home.

*I'm part of wonderful writing groups both online and local. I can find the answer to almost any question I have about this business and I learn from them.

*Beyond questions, these groups offer endless moral support.

*With the world in shambles in many ways, I'm glad I can search out facts from a variety of sources online and form my won opinions. I always suspect bias when I read or watch traditional media like newspapers and TV.

*Along the same lines, I'm thankful that where I live the government never tries to shut down or block twitter or other social media expressions.

*And I'm thrilled with the invention of online shopping. I'll probably get more Christmas shopping down from my office than most of those people standing in long lines at stores. And now that my children are grown, I don't have to search out any 'toy of the season' like I did when my boys were into The Power Rangers all those years ago.

*I'm absurdly grateful when readers take the time to review my books.

Hopefully, you have today as a holiday after yesterday's indulgence. Or if you're not from the USA, I hope you know that we're thankful to have friends across the globe.

Anything besides family, home and hearth, you're thankful for today? Do any digital shopping today or did you venture out into the malls of bedlam? Any special online support you're grateful to have?

Susan Gourley writes epic fantasy and also romance as Susan Kelley. She's the author of the bestselling Recon Marines Series and The Warriors of Gaviron Series. Her blog is Susan Says.

Why Show Up?

I'm amazed every year during November when so many writers take on the challenge of NaNoWriMo. Challenge is the correct word as they attempt to write a novel in a month. Reading their tortured posts and updates on social media makes me wince in sympathy. 50,000 words in one month is hard work and some do it year after year. I gave some tips on succeeding at NaNo on Monday.

In April, thousands of bloggers will sign up for the A to Z Blogging Challenge. 2015 will be my fourth year and I couldn't be more excited. But honestly, after that first year I wasn't sure I would ever take it on again. It's work. But then my blogger friends were doing in, some of them running it, and I took the plunge again. I had learned some things the first year and the second year there was as much fun as there was work. I met so many wonderful bloggers outside the novel writing community and learned from them. My third year, I served as a Minion to Alex J. Cavanaugh and gained another perspective on the massive effort that is A to Z and appreciation for the people who started it and keep it running.

Some things I learned is that blogging isn't just about book promotion or 'building my platform.' And participating in the A to Z blog isn't just about growing my blog readership. It's about being part of a community. A welcoming community who offer understanding, advice and opportunities.

I blog three times per week at my personal blog, Susan Says, and take turns on the IWSG blog as well as occasionally at The Susquehanna Writers blog. And now you'll see me on this blog once or twice per month, one of those wonderful opportunities I mentioned. Like those taking on the work involved in NaNoWriMo, there are good reasons to show up and keep at it. Whatever your motivations for blogging, joining hops, posting regularly and being part of a community, you have to show up and work at it. I'm thrilled to show up here and be part of this team.

Why do you show up to blog on a regular basis? Are there days when it feels more like work than fun? Has blogging become easier for you with experience?

Susan Gourley writes science fiction romance and epic fantasy. She blogs at Susan Says, has a Facebook page and Tweets as Susan Kelley. This is her first post as a new member of the A to Z team.