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| Badge artwork by Ada Z from collagepodge.com |
There's a certain sadness as well as a relief when the party's over. Yes, this April A to Z party is now finished, but the Challenges haven't ended yet. We have a few more things that we'd like for you to do. Don't worry--it will be fun and painless. Certainly not the stress of the daily April postings.
Most of you are probably aware of the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge Reflections Post that we have scheduled for next Monday May 7th. Some may still not be aware of what this is all about. Let me explain what's going to happen with this May 7th post and thereafter.
May 7th -- A to Z Reflections Post
This is your time to tell us about your A to Z experience. Share your pleasures, your pains, your setbacks, your gains. Who did you meet along the way that you found to be especially helpful or inspiring? Did you have a favorite blog post? Or a favorite series? Which blogs did you discover during April that you will be returning to in the future?
Express your gratitude or vent your frustrations. If you'd do this again, let us know why. If you hated it. tell us why. We want you to tell your A to Z story to the rest of us and tell it in the way that suits you best. Like the Challenge itself, this Reflection post is your creative outpouring. Be it prose, verse, song, video, or images, you can express yourself in anyway that you like.
And guess what: You don't have to have finished the Challenge or even entered the Challenge to be eligible to submit a Reflections post. Didn't finish or never got started? Let us know what happened and tell us how you feel about that. If you were an observer who followed some of the A to Z blog posts and even commented on a regular basis, give us your thoughts about the Challenge. I know of a few of you that I could name, but you know who you are. Your thoughts are important as well.
You can put up your Reflections post anytime between now and Saturday May 12th. The Linky list will be made available on May 7th. Please add the link that goes directly to your Reflections post and not your general blog link. This list will be up for a while and since there could be a large number of links on the list it may take a while for readers to get through it and we don't want visitors to have to be searching for your Reflections post.
Evaluations Posts
On the last three Mondays of May, I will be putting up posts evaluating this year's Challenge. I did this last year and it provided us tremendous insight. Even though all ideas received last year were not implemented in this year's Challenge, some remain under consideration for future Challenges.
This year I will once again be drawing upon what you have to say in your Reflections, what some have requested in direct emails, and observations made by the A to Z Team. I will be looking at the good parts of the Challenge and the bad parts that might need to be changed. Then on Monday May 28th I will wrap things up with some conclusions and final thoughts about the Challenge.
We hope you can join us for these days to add your thoughts and help us out.
Post Challenge Challenge
For those who would like to stay active in this A to Z community until the end of the year, A to Z Team members Shannon Lawrence and Tina Downey will be reviving last year's popular Post Challenge Challenge. More details will soon be appearing on the A to Z Blog as will a sign up list.
We Want You!
There's lot's of open space on the A to Z Blog in the coming months--after all we A to Z Team members can't do it all and you'd probably get sick of hearing from us if we did. We are inviting you to come and post something in this space. Anything that would be of interest to the A to Z community is welcomed. If you are interested in submitting something please contact one of the A to Z Team members. Contact information is in the tab at the top of the page.
We look forward to your participation in all of these above mentioned events. Thanks for Blogging from A to Z.
The A to Z Blog will be taking a break for a few days. Come back on Monday May 7th for the Reflections Post sign up list.
