Just the prescription...for clearing your mind

Hello there! 

Join me, Jenny Pearson, co-host of the upcoming A to Z Challenge, for a relaxing walkabout!

Before we begin...I want to welcome any and all newcomers - are you looking for answers to your A to Z questions? Please visit our FAQ Tab - you are sure to find answers to all your questions there! If you’re still stumped visit our Contact Tab and fire off a question to us...we are here to help!

Now, about this walkabout…

Are you feeling topped up with all the information on the Who, What, Where, When, Why and How of this Challenge?

I hope so...because this post in NOT about any of that. It’s about sitting back, enjoying a little West Coast scenery and letting your mind clear as we start the countdown to when the FUN really begins - April 1st. 

In a matter of six days we will all be showcasing our thoughts, ideas, stories, pictures, and whatever else is hiding up our sleeves in the upcoming third annual A to Z Challenge.

To that end...I went for a walkabout and in the fresh, crisp air of a glorious day I was able to relax and clear my mind.

Come join me - it’s what the Challenge Doctor has prescribed.  (click on any picture to enlarge)

Pan Pacific Hotel, home to the Five Sails Restaurant. 

View of the North Shore, from behind our new Convention Centre.

2010 Olympic Cauldron

Downtown Vancouver & Granville Street entertainment.

Relaxing dinner and a peaceful evening sky.

Now, as a little after dinner wind down…

I’m please to announce all my posts are ready for the Challenge. I  would like to invite each of you to visit, during the Challenge, and enjoy what I have written, just for you.

In approximately 4,000 words, divided into 26 parts I have told a tragic tale, which will be posted in its entirety on May 1st. Each letter is featured extensively in its corresponding post. 

I had incredible fun with my choice for this year's Challenge...and, suffice it to say, I found it very challenging indeed! Hence the need for many wonderful walkabouts, like this one!

Now...we will have no more stressing, if you are new and have just signed up, the fun for you will be to enjoy the spontaneity of each day’s letter...remember, just have fun!

I am looking forward to visiting you!

Happy Blogging

 Jenny

PEARSON REPORT

#atozchallenge: Sunday Summary March 25, 2012

Challenge begins next Sunday!

Once again we want to give a big congratulations our video challenge winner Rachel Morgan you can see her video here and find links to the other videos as well.   If you haven't taken the time to watch the videos and congratulate the video creators for a job well done, I hope you'll do so.

The mentions are still being made.  Here are some that we found:

Zyogbv came to Earth in time to take part in the April Challenge.

Ellie seems to be wavering at Ellie's Blank Book but at least she waved.  She's trying to decide which of her blogs she should enter in the A to Z.  Ellie, you could of course enter them all.  And what do you know--the next day that's exactly what she did.  Oh what fun you're gonna have!

Colin D Smith will be changing things up a bit on his blog in April in order to accommodate the A to Z Challenge.  He's a first timer and we hope he'll find it a worthwhile blogging experience.

I guess Jackie at Jackie's Bookbytes is entitled to change her mind and that's what she did within one post.  Now we'll have to wait and see what she has in store for April.

Making plans ahead of time for the A to Z Challenge is first time A to Z-er Stacey Mitchell.  We wish her luck with April.

A to Z veteran Duncan Horne from Our Home Called Kuantan puts the A to Z Challenge into perspective and shows how easy it can be.

Want a cupcake?   How about a Cadenza?  Denise has "C" covered at her blog Cupcakes and Cadenzas and now she's busily at work on the rest of the alphabet.

The blog A Common Sea will be joining a sea of other bloggers for the big April splash.

This Challenge we'll have an opportunity to learn about Jamaica from Joy at The Character Depot as she pursues this theme by the letters.

Yadin Bromberg announced his A to Z theme this week.  He's already been learning from other bloggers and on his way to developing a very credible blog.

Miranda Hardy has got a theme and to answer her, uh, yeah, Miranda, we want to know how wacky you really are.   I like Miranda's theme--check it out.

The Left Wright Brain put out an encouraging word for the Challenge.

Hmm--have you ever thought of the A to Z Challenge being like a county fair?  That's the way Michelle Gregory imagines it on her blog Beautiful Chaos.  Good analogy, Michelle.

Lisa at Jezri's Nightmares is going to run in the April Challenge and has no plans of trying to hide.  She's put  her cards all on the table in her blog post where she reveals her theme of 'Monsters A t o Z".  Now that sounds like fun.

If you like television then you'll have to visit Stephanie Scott: A Girl and Her Diary during the Challenge, but why wait?  Stop by and say hello now.

A Daft Scots Lass is one you might want to watch--as in anything can happen.

Notes in a Book is going to use the Challenge as a means of blog revival.  This is a good way to do it.

Pam from 2 Encourage is back with us again for another year and we find that encouraging.

We'll have another blog summary next Saturday along with some last minute check up items.  But be sure to stop by here everyday.  Lot's of good info still to come.

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Guest Post from Hilary Melton-Butcher

     Today we have a creative diversion of ideas.  Just for fun here are some A to Z's from Hilary Melton-Butcher from Positive Letters, Inspirational Stories

Image via Wikipedia

The A, B, Cs of collectives nouns ...

Those wonder words that evoke disruptive thoughts in our minds such as  a murder of crows ...  here’s my list:

Aurora

Polar Bear

Aurora of Polar Bears

Bellowing of Bullfinches

Convocation of Eagles

Dole of Doves

Skylark

Exaltation of Larks

Flush of Ducks  

                  

Gang of Elks

Head of Curlews

Impalas

Impalas ... ah! A couple of ...

Journey of Giraffes

Kindle of Kittens

Leap of Snow Leopards

Murder of Crows

Nye of Pheasants

Obstruction of Dons

Parliament of Owls

Quiver of Cobras

Pochard

Rush of Pochards

Sedge of Cranes

Trip of Dotterels

Unkindness of Ravens

Vagary of Impediments

Worship of Writers

X for I don’t know what!

Yakkety yak ... a herd of

Zealish Zebras .. live in small harems, or larger herds

What else can you think of to help Lee in his build up for the A – Z April challenge ... any other collectives that amuse you? 

Cheers – Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

The Blogging From A to Z April Challenge starts next Sunday!  Are you ready?

Getting to Know Your Hosts - Alex

ABOUT ME

Name: Alex J. Cavanaugh
Blog: Alex J. Cavanaugh
Other Online Info: Twitter and Goodreads
Publications: CassaStar and CassaFire

10 GETTING TO KNOW YOU QUESTIONS

1. What is the most daring thing you've ever done?
Starting a blog! And launching the Insecure Writer’s Support Group. Really, I'm not much of a thrill seeker.

2. What is your favorite article of clothing?
T-shirts and lounge pants. Although I do look sharp in a suit!

3. What is your favorite monster?
Godzilla

4. If you had to dress up as your favorite literary character, who would it be?
Agent Pendergast – black suit, black shirt, black tie, and black shoes in a black Rolls Royce!

5. What is your favorite fairy tale, urban legend or nursery rhyme?
Crop circles – so fascinating.

6. What is a cause near and dear to your heart?
PETA – People for the Ethical Treatment of Arachnids (Don’t squish – catch and release!)

7. What's the strangest item you've used as a bookmark?
Do Sticky Notes count?

8. Do you have any nicknames? What are they and how did you earn them?
Ninja Captain Alex – and that was given to me by my blogger buddies!

9. Name one habit you want to change in yourself:
Is perfectionism a habit? Because sometimes I wish I could scale that back a bit.

10. Tell us something interesting or shocking about yourself:
Believe it or not, I never wanted to be an author!

SOME A-to-Z QUESTIONS

1. What was your favorite A-to-Z post from 2011?
Probably the first one of the Challenge, the Letter A Last year my theme was to feature blogger buddies and for A it was Chuck’s Apocalypse Now and RaShelle’s A No. 2 Pencil Stat.

2. What brought you to the A-to-Z originally? Tell us about your first A-to-Z:
I found the Challenge a few days before the first one began in 2010. I was struggling as a blogger and decided what the heck, I’d give it a try. I made fifty new blogger buddies that month and my blog was off and running!

3. Are you doing a theme?
Oh yes! Big surprise…

4. Are you writing & scheduling posts in advance?
Of course!

5. What is your favorite letter of the alphabet, and why? What letter do you like least?
Well, C is rather easy for me. (I wonder why?) X is probably the biggest challenge.




I hope you've enjoyed these questions and answers. Don't forget, you are welcome, even encouraged, to ask any additional questions you might have in the comments section. Or feel free to answer the questions yourself! We won't tell.

Nicole from Madlab Post with A to Z Survival Kit

        Nicole from The Madlab Post returns with part 2 of her survival tips for the A to Z.  She's talking about stuff bloggers should be doing Challenge or no Challenge.   You can let us know what you think in the comment section.


        
 Save your blog posts on an external CD-R or Drive

       Those of you who have a habit of writing your blog posts within the post editor should carefully consider either copying and pasting the text into a word processing document or writing the post in notepad or MS Word, etc. and then pasting what you wrote into the post editor. Doing so can prevent the annoying setback of losing everything that you just wrote when your computer crashes or when your internet browser freezes or when the blog page you are working on suddenly reloads itself because you mistakenly clicked on the reloading icon in the browser or hit a shortcut key to go open another web page by accident…silly, I know, but as the saying goes…shit happens.


       The key takeaway here is to do your best to minimize the risk of this same shit happening to you while you’re Blogging from A to Z. Have a way to access your 26 blog posts and any related media (photos, URL addresses to online references where you found information pertaining to your posts, documents with ideas or schedules for you’re A to Z blogging tasks, etc.) anytime and anywhere.

Reach out to Fellow Participants for Help

        Arlee, Alex and the other Blogging from A to Z hosts do a great job of helping Participants with navigating the challenge with ease and they probably answer dozens, if not hundreds of questions and requests during the challenge. The thing that many fellow bloggers may forget to remember or not realize is.....the hosts are blogging too and maintaining the backend of their own blogs while also managing the front-end and backend of the A to Z challenge, which is a LOT of work.

       I mentioned all of this to say....don't underestimate the abilities of your fellow bloggers and A to Z participants when it comes to seeking help with some aspect of the challenge that you don't understand, seeking morale support, troubleshooting or any other need that you may have that is related to the challenge.

      Doing so can give the hosts more room to focus on their main tasks at hand, which are making sure that the A to Z Challenge is operating as smoothly as possible.

Have Alternative Means to Access the Internet

        Last week, I woke up and found my internet access gone. This must be a mistake, I thought. After all, I paid the damn bill. After troubleshooting, checking plugs, restarting a modem, etc. I finally called my internet provider, who told me that there was a power outage in my area due to some problems with their equipment on their end. They expected to have the service restored in 48 hours…..a length of time that seemed like FOREVER to a multitasking, freelance writing, Netflix streaming, work-at-home Twitter-addict like me. Imagine if something like this happens to YOU during a time when you need internet access the most. This is why bloggers can benefit from having alternative sources of internet access, just like it is important to have a substitute blog.

      Get a public library card that allows you to sign up for time at a computer station within the library, find a friend or relative who will let you use their computer to publish your blog posts or visit a local coffee shop that offers free WiFi. Maintaining resources for internet access also helps you travel more without having to be stuck in front of a computer for 26 days. Right now, I know of at least two retail stores and a bank in my city that provides free WiFi. You know what this tells me? It tells me that I can perform many of my Blogging from A to Z duties while running errands outdoors….all in the comfort of a local Starbucks or Greyhound bus. So, if you lose internet access, wherever you normally get it, there is no need to fret. Just buy a latte’ and keep it moving!

Do YOU have what it takes to Survive the A to Z Blogging Challenge?


        Whew!  I have experience with some of these things that Nicole mentions here.  Which of the above tips have you tried if any?  Are there any other suggestions that you have to offer?


         Here's another one of the video's Nicole submitted to the A to Z Video Contest.  Prompts for the second half of the alphabet:

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