The #AtoZChallenge Way of Lasting #Blogging Relationships

Today I welcome Guilie Castillo Oriard to talk about making lasting relationships during the month of April, when we all do some A to Z Challenge Blogging!

Take it away, +Guilie  !

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Join the A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal!

If you’re reading this, you probably know exactly how many days—hours, even—are left before April 1^st. You can’t wait. I know. I’m like that, too.

Or was. Until I realized it’s not about April. April is only the opportunity—which I have squandered. Repeatedly.

Believing the A-to-Z Challenge is about April is like believing a play is about opening night. It’s your goal, what you’re working towards—operating word being working. Plenty to do before then. An actor shows up on opening night without having gone to a single rehearsal… Well.

The Challenge is only the beginning. The rules may require a post a day, but there’s a reason for all that frenzy. It’s about relationships. If we create them right, they will last way beyond April.

The Plan:

1 Write my posts ahead of time—as should you, and if you ask why then I give you a hearty hug of welcome, because it must be your first A-to-Z.

2 Start building my A-to-Z network now. With 2,000 blogs in the Challenge, I won’t be able to visit them all even overdosing on caffeine. But if I begin to engage with like-minded bloggers, that means I’m free during April for pure blog-hopping and commenting. Which leads nicely to the next point.

   But first: how does one achieve this engaging?

•         visit the main A-to-Z blog and the hosts (in the sidebar to the right), and the Team of Assistants. Check out the people that leave interesting comments

•  visit as many of the blogs on the list as you can, before April. 5 new blogs a day will still take you to about 200 blogs!

•         sign  up for the #A2ZReveal hop

•         join the A-to-Z communities on Facebook and G+

•         follow @AprilA2Z on Twitter and start your own Twitter list of A-to-Z participants

3 Never again leave a generic copy-paste comment. Do we really think no one notices? The people we visit also visit others, and see our comment there is—gasp!—identical to what we wrote on their site. That really plants the seed for enduring connections.

No need to write a Tolstoy novel to make a comment thoughtful. It’s like speed dating. You can go through the checklist in your hand without even looking at the other person, or you can meet their eyes and try, for the three minutes you have together, to find out what makes them special.

4 Include a working link to my blog on every comment. Nothing more frustrating than trying to connect with someone whose link takes me on a merry chase around the web. Here’s how to create a link that never fails:

 

Thanks Vidya Sury for this blogging trick!

Go on, try the linky signature in the comments below. Chocolate chip cookies to successful signatures!

5 Read up on these awesome tips by Alex J Cavanaugh, on how to make commenting easy!For some extra tips, visit Richa Singh's A to Z Challenge tips.

 Relationships make the world, especially the blogging world, go round. Go forth and conquer April, A-to-Z-ers! And if you want to build some great blog relationships rightaway, consider joining the team of AZ assistants. Express your interest in the comments below to get signed up!

Do you have a strategy for making comments? Which bloggers do you visit most, and why?

What Would YOU Like to Know About Your #atozchallenge Co-Hosts?

You may have noticed that we've already had some of the co-hosts introduce themselves to you. We like to do this each year so that you have an idea of who we are, what we do, and so that you can find out some just plain fun or silly facts about us.

In the past, we used a question/answer format where each co-host chose from a list of questions as a basis for how they wrote their “About Me” posts. We're doing it a little differently this year. We are – gasp – free-styling it! Everyone is doing his or her own thing.

For example, since Jeremy was literally laid up with his ankle, we wrote his for him. (In case you were wondering, all million or so of you who left such nice comments, he was really touched by the tremendous support you showed him. As a Team, we are very grateful and say THANK YOU.) Heather's buddy Stormy the Weather Gnome introduced her.

There are still some of us who like the question/answer format and that's where you come in. YOU get to ask the questions! Just as a sample, here are some from the past:

"When writing, do you prefer to compose your first-draft by hand, on your computer, or using Morse Code?" (Mina Lobo)

"If you could sing any song with the artist who wrote/performed it, what would it be and with whom?" (Tracy Bermeo-A2Z Mommy)

"What's more important, space exploration, or under-sea exploration?" (Matt Conlon)

"Name an item that you have too much of." (Nicole)

"Favorite childhood memory" (Tina)

We currently have 34 questions. We are greedy. We want more. We want fresh questions!

We have a great chance for that since we have so many new to the A-Z Challenge participants! As co-hosts, we just love it that more and more people are hearing about this Challenge and joining! But wait! It gets better. This year we have many people who aren't just new to our April adventure, but also new to blogging! Brave people who aren't afraid to say, “Yeah, sure, I'll try that!

We're also just as excited that so many are returning. We have bloggers who are doing this for the 4^th and 5^th time. In case you haven't heard – this is year 5. It's fun to wander around the list meeting people (you are doing that, right?) and seeing the “A-Z Survivor” badges which you get when you're done. I think they're kinda like gold medals...

So hit us with your best questions. Anything goes. Not saying that a co-host will be brave enough to answer your outrageous question...but there's always the chance. (Honestly, it will most likely be me since I'm NOT the shy one in the group...)

~Tina, for the A to Z Team

Our other favorite Blog Hops!

If you are like us co-hosts, you may be looking at your calendar thinking, "What am I supposed to do with the next 39 days until the April A-Z Challenge starts?" Well, it is just your lucky day because we have some suggestions! Here are some of the co-hosts' favorite ongoing blog-hops. We do hope you'll stop by and join in the fun.

A-Z Theme Reveal Blogfest!
In its second year, the A-Z Theme Reveal Blogfest is a "hop within a hop" - an opportunity to join with other A-Z'ers to share what your theme for the month will be (if you have one, which you totally don't have to do. We <3 pantsers too!). This year the big day is March 21st! Hope to see you there!

Insecure Writer's Support Group
This is a great group of people, sponsored by Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, whose goal is to help one another, "rock the neurotic writing world." Known as IWSG, this hop happens the first Wednesday of every month. If you've ever worried if you're the only writer who feels nervous, insecure, insufficient, or just plain weird, this is the group that will tell you that you are NOT alone. And they'll tell you in funny, insightful and wonderfully supportive ways.

Blog Blitz
Hosted by the incredibly kind and talented (and previous A-Z co-host!) DL Hammons, the Blog Blitz is an opportunity to show lucky bloggers some love, in a BIG way. Periodically DL will select a member or two of the team and email everyone their website, and then we ALL show up and leave comment love on that person's most recent post, on the same day. It's a great way to meet new bloggers, and who knows? You might get selected and have your day in the sun! (Co-host AJ was selected last April and can verify - it's quite the rush!)

Here are a couple of smaller, weekly hops that we think are pretty rad:

• For all you movie buffs, co-host Nicole hosts the Monday Movie Meme.
• On Fridays you can join VikLit in Celebrating the Small Things.
• And if you want to take Saturday as a bit of a rest day, join Cate for Six Word Saturday.

And if you're really searching for something to do, several of the co-hosts are not only great bloggers, but also have books published!

• Alex recently had some exciting success with his book CassaFire, but make sure to check out CassaStar and CassaStorm, too!
• MJ has two collections of her flash fiction, FlashTyme volume I and volume II. She also wrote Beyond Our Words, reflections on Catholic prayers, and The Merciful Victory of the Cross, which is reflections on the Stations of the Cross.
• AJ wrote an interactive fiction book (think Choose Your Own Adventure) called Armageddon: Pick Your Plot, which pits you against apocalyptic events from fire hurricanes to nanobots to alien invasions.
• Jeremy has several art books including Retro-Zombie: Art & Words, which is both a coloring book and poetry compilation. So cool!
• Stephen has published the first two books in his Breakthrough Trilogy: Breakthrough and Opening. Check them out before the final book, Escalation, comes out on March 10th!

What are your favorite blog hops? We know some of our participants are authors and artists, too - take this opportunity to share a link to your work!

Just How Old Is Our Earth and Universe, 3.8 billion or 6,000 Years???

The Debate Continues: On February 4, Bill Nye (The Science Guy) debated creationist Ken Ham for two and a half hours regarding a number of topics that many followers of science and the Bible struggle to reconcile.

 

The age of the Earth and the universe is one subject that causes no end of frustration for both sides. Did our space time continuum come into existence 13.8 billion years ago, or six thousand years ago? This is a very important question, and in many instances vital (necessary for life) when it comes to where we spend eternity.

 

Science uses a myriad of physical evidence to conclude the universe we live in is 13.8 years old, give or take a few years. Reference

 

Those who promote it is 6,000 years old use the geneologies of man going back to Adam from the Bible to date the Earth. They also conclude the six days of creation are literal twenty-four hour periods. Dinosaurs and cavemen and everything that left behind a fossil also lived during the past 6,000 years. Herein lies the prolonged contention.

 

They will also state it was the Great Flood during Noah’s time that caused the physical features like the Grand Canyon and such. But even a flood of this magnitude cannot cause the extreme features our Earth exhibits. Perhaps some. But it cannot come close to explaining what would take hundreds of millions of years to make.

 

The Answer Is Quite Simple: The time between the verses of Genesis 1:1 and 1:2 holds the key. Some people call this the Gap Theory. I’ve heard both sides of the argument in great detail. Let them argue.

 

No one knows how much time transpired between these verses. It could be one day. Or it could be 13.8 billion years.

 

Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

 

Genesis 1:2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

 

Genesis 1:3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

 

Important Note: God did not create everything we see around us during the "Six Days of Creation" detailed in Genesis chapter one. He created everything that makes up everything during Genesis 1:1. He simply spoke into being what we read in the following verses and this is what we see and experience every day. The stuff that makes up the stuff in our universe already existed. He simply spoke it into an orderly fashion for us to live in 6,000 years ago. Everything else, including dinosaurs, cavemen, and Pangaea occurred between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2.

 

Science and the Bible have had a long standing feud. Lots of people were killed because they took a stance different from what the established Church at the time held. Example: for centuries people held an Aristotelian geocentric view of our universe, mainly that the Earth was the center of our universe and everything including our sun revolved around it.

 

Galileo: When Galileo championed a heliocentrism view (the sun being the center and Earth revolved around it) he was persecuted by the Catholic Church. Simply because he used science to stand up to long held Church tradition.

 

The same can be said today. Many who hold to a centuries old tradition of a 6,000 year old universe will draw a line in the sand. I’ve even been told I can’t be saved if I do not accept the 6,000 year theory. Huhn???

 

Why Does It Matter? I have heard far too many people state they would love to believe the Bible and its message of salvation. But, because of the 6,000 year tradition they know is false, they simply cannot regard the Bible as truth. They see an error here, and conclude the Bible may be a good book, but cannot be taken literally.



Meet the Author. No, not Dean Koontz. Me.

 

The result is many people die in their sins and spend an eternity separated from God. How many when it is all said and done? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Millions? Why? Because of the 6,000 day theory that the Bible does not teach. Man does. Tradition does. But the Bible does not.

 

So you can see why I am passionate about this topic. Science and the Bible can co-exist just fine, thank you very much.

 

To see the debate CLICK HERE

 

Action and Modern Day Sci-fi writer Stephen Tremp is the author of the Breakthrough: The Adventures of Chase Manhattan trilogy. His third book Escalation is the final installment in the series and is set for release March 10, 2014.

 

Escalation is an epic clash where science and the supernatural take center stage for mankind’s destiny. The setting is global and the adrenaline-charged action is non-stop. You can visit Stephen at Breakthrough Blogs.

#atozchallenge -- Stormy the Weather Gnome introduces Heather M. Gardner

This is Stormy the Weather Gnome coming to you from the wild snowy tundra, otherwise known as Heather's front yard.

Heather is annoyingly shy so when the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge hosts mentioned she should write an 'About Me' post she got all flummoxed. Maybe even a little Hasenpfeffered.

So, I thought I would help her out cause, I ROCK, and that's just the kind of Gnome I am!

Heather is old and kind of wrinkly. She lives in a small town in New York with her family and a bunch of really frightening cats (they tried to eat the gorilla glue holding my feet together!)

Heather always wanted to be a rock star, and although she doesn't sound bad singing in the shower, she can't pull it off in front of real people.

Heather works part-time for the local volunteer fire department where she also joined the Auxiliary. She makes a general nuisance of herself around town as much as possible. You know the kind, always organizing events and begging for blood and money from the community. Literally. 

Heather has published her first contemporary romantic suspense book, Maguire's Corner. She is currently editing her second book in the series and hopes to have it published soon (or so she keeps telling me).

You can find Heather all over the inter-web.

Blog: The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Facebook: Heather M. Gardner, Author

Twitter: @hmgardner

Email: hgardner28@gmail.com

So, that's Heather in a nutshell, although what she's doing hanging out in a nutshell I have no idea.

She's a pretty cool chick but if you want to laugh your little resin butt off then come to her blog during the A to Z Challenge to check ME out!

I'll be taking over for the whole month of April.

I guarantee, you won't ever be the same after I get done with you.