Themes That Rocked the Challenge - Elizabeth and My Little Pony Artwork

Today I welcome author and artist extraordinaire, Elizabeth Mueller! I’ve known her for many years and have seen her talented artwork. She really did something unique with it for this past Challenge.

Your theme was My Little Pony fan art – what made you choose that theme?

To be honest with you, I had already written 50% of the A to Z's posts (on writing) and scheduled them before April started. Being the hermit that I am, I had barely heard about a successful adult coloring book by a self-published artist, and I thought to myself, I can do that! I can draw just about anything, and people can color my art. Also, drawing takes less brain power and after having Babykins, my brain has been pretty mushy since.

Feeling a bit weird about where this was leading, because I typically keep my art low key, I asked my daughters what they thought about a My Little Pony fan art theme for the Challenge. I wanted to retest my skill in drawing horses (horses were my first drawing love). It turned out that they loved it, and volunteered to color them for me. You should've seen the amount of hours they dedicated!

How long did it take you to draw all those ponies?

Straight up? About three hours all squished together just to *draw* them. Not counting the coloring. Or researching A to Z worthy flower names. Or inventing the storyline. Or getting them printable worthy. (And the scheduling of the posts is a whole 'nother story.) Whew!

Which letter was the most difficult?

X was the most difficult! I searched each letter of the alphabet for flowers and then I'd comb down each one to see which sounded the best sounding name for the character. Xs didn't have much of a selection and we (yes, my daughters helped me, it was a labor of love!) had to do many searches on different sites.

Which flower was the easiest for visitors to guess?

There were many flower names that had a good number of correct guesses, but I'm thinking Zinnia won the race. I suppose that is a very popular flower.

Which flower was the most difficult for visitors to guess?

Adonis, Firethorn, and Knotweed are a tie--no one was able to guess those guys. Not very common flowers, are they?

You had a cool prize for those who made the most guesses, right or wrong – tell everyone about it.

As you said, my goal was to get as many friends to participate. Right or Wrong. It was a little party every day for us! I converted every one of the illustrations into coloring pages along with edited versions of the stories I had included in the blog posts. I did the illustration process backward: I pencil sketched them and then colored them for the Challenge before I had turned them into coloring pages. Turned out alright anyway, though.

What theme are you considering for next year?

That is something I'm still mulling over!

I bet it will be something good! Thanks again, Elizabeth.


Co-host Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh is the author of Amazon Best-Sellers CassaStar, CassaFire, CassaStorm, and Dragon of the Stars, and his blog can be found HERE

On The Cyber Road

I took some time to go on the Cyber Road today and scoped out some sites that I hadn't visited before. These are aimed at writers still seeking publication or who have already published and are now looking for help with becoming more than a tiny blip on the Reader Radar.

Writer's Edit.
http://www.writersedit.com/

Resources for Writers
Book Reviews
Writing Jobs Online
Opportunities for Writers: Writing Contests

Jane Friedman
Dedicated Link: https://janefriedman.com/2014/02/26/10-apps-help-stay-focused-writing/

This was a hoot! You can actually buy or get some "free" apps to help you as a writer.
Mark Twian, Victor Hugo, Will, you dudes missed out.

Evil Editor
http://evileditor.blogspot.com/

Want to see why you're not published? You might check out this site and offer up your tender prose to scrutiny.

Write To Done
http://writetodone.com/3-steps-to-driving-more-traffic-selling-more-books-or-products-via-linkedin/

I perused the site and found this article the most interesting. It's all about promoting yourself on LinkedIn--something I've neglected.


Have a great Cyber Road Trip! And Mario the Muse sends his best, but still likes "REAL" road trips the best.

Blogging memes for story-lovers

Hello there Blogging World! I hope you are keeping busy, even in the off months when there is no A to Z to turn your blog life into a crazy rush. But in case you were getting a little bit bored, I would like to introduce to you two memes that you might want to look into.

Especially if you like stories.

(We have had quite a few people participate in this year's Mythology and Storytelling sections in A to Z, which was amazing to see.)

Folklore Thursday
Folklore Thursday is a weekly meme, hosted on social media by The Witch, The Weird, and the Wonderful. People participating on Twitter and on their blogs post interesting tidbits of folklore - beliefs, customs, pictures of their favorite creatures, local legends, ghost stories, and fairy tales. Some tweets are book recommendations, and all the blogs are teeming with fairies, ghosts, Black Dogs, and all the creatures living on the other side of Reality.
If you are interested in folklore, legends, mythic fiction, fantasy, or any related topics, this is a treasure trove to dive into every week!
If you want to find out more, follow this link, or click on the #FolkloreThursday hashtag on Twitter! Hosted by @FolkloreThursday

Story Saturday
Story Saturday is also a weekly meme, started specifically for oral storytellers, and people interested in live storytelling. People use the #StorySat hashtag to talk about upcoming storytelling events, publish musings on life and work as a storyteller, and discuss stories that they are working with, or planning to tell. The hashtag was started by the #storytelling community to create a social media space where the term is used in its oral context - performance storytelling. Everyone is welcome to join who has an interest, or would like to learn more about the art form.

If you are interested in diving into the world of folklore and storytelling, check out these memes next time Thursday or Saturday rolls around.

Blog and Twitter away, story-lovers!