Special Feature - A to Z Challenge Veteran, Author Yvonne Lewis

Today I have the honor of featuring one of my dearest blogger buddies, someone I often refer to as my online mom – author and poet, Yvonne Lewis. I met Yvonne during the very first A to Z Challenge!

Tell us a little about your theme for this last Challenge:

My theme for the last Challenge "Blast From The Past" to me was special as it took me back to my formative years when Rock'Roll was just staring out and there were so many singers that went on to greater things. The songs are still being played today, it was a wonderful era to be a teenager.

Which movie was your favorite?

My favorite movie is "Somewhere In Time" starring Christopher Reeve and Jane Seymour, It was a real weepie and had some wonderful background music.

This was our third Challenge together. Do you remember anything from the first one?

What I remember from the first Challenge was I was first to sign up, it was fun and I made many friends yourself included. It was also the start of gaining many followers, up til then I only had a few.

You are a BIG fan of Daniel O Donnell. Confession time – how many times and places have you seen Daniel in concert?

Alex this next question is the granddaddy of them all. I have seen Daniel in concert in excess of 150 TIMES. Over a 14 yr period that is. I have seen him in S. Ireland, N. Ireland, England, and Scotland. In the US I have seen him at Branson MO, Las vegas, Palm Springs, Pasadena. Toronto, Wilkes Barre, Providence and Nashville TN.

You also met Challenge founder, Arlee Bird. What is he REALLY like?

What is Arlee Bird REALLY like? well Alex not to make Arlee blush, he is a real gentleman. He made both myself and brother most welcome in LA. It was the highlight of my vacation. As you imagine him to be in Blogsphere that is how Arlee is in person.

You are a master poet and the author of two books. When did you discover poetry as a writer?

I wrote my first poem in 1994 when my dog died, I didn't write again until 1998 when my first grandchild was born. Little did I think that from then on I'd be writing poetry 14yrs later. My mother passed away 10 days after my grandchild was born, three days later was told my husband had terminal brain cancer and he too was gone 2 months later. I found I could express my feelings into poetry and as the years have gone on have written much more lighter poems.


Yvonne is the author of two books and I asked her to describe her latest for you:

WRITTEN FROM THE HEART:

This book that I wrote

Was to let the readers see.

That after many years of heartache,

There's fun and laughter in me

.

Like going to the park,

And descend a slide

While my children and grandchildren

Conveniently disappear and hide.

The book also enlightens people

My blessings I do count.

There are many worse off than me,

That I do not doubt.

My love of traveling is evident to see,

Touring the U.S. and Spain.

So I can escape from

Britain's continual rain.

Also Daniel O Donnell concerts,

I really do enjoy.

I'd travel to the ends of the earth,

To see my "Danny Boy".

The "Blurb" of the book,

I'm proud of I confess.

For the final part was written

By fellow blogger Alex....no less.

I wrote this book in the first place,

To let the whole world see.

But most importantly

That my family would be proud of me.

I know some of you have already bought,

I'm so grateful for a start.

I think there's a poem for everyone,

In "Written From The Heart"

- Yvonne Lewis

Visit Yvonne at Welcome to My World of Poetry and purchase her book at Amazon

Co-host Ninja Captain Alex is the author of CassaStar and CassaFire and his blog can be found HERE

Guest Post, Rachel Morgan: The A to Z Challenge Helped Me Promote My Books

We're very happy to have Rachel back! She's a repeat guest poster, and you also probably remember her from her amazing stop motion and WINNING A-Z Promo video. Without further ado...

The A to Z Challenge Helped Me Promote My Books 

The great thing about the A to Z Challenge is that we always get to "meet" a whole lot of new people. So I thought ... wouldn't it be great if I could introduce all these new people to the series I'd just begun publishing? Well, I thought it was a great idea! But how to link my A to Z theme to my Creepy Hollow series ...

Well, by fiction, of course (I am, after all, a writer)! Violet, the main character in the series, is one of an elite force of faeries training to become a guardian. Guardians protect humans from dangerous fae creatures that find their way into the human realm. Sooooo, as a background to the Creepy Hollow series, I decided to do 26 flash fictions about 26 different assignments Vi's been on in the past, involving 26 different fae creatures.

And that's where my theme, An A to Z of Creepy Hollow Fae, came from. Some fae creatures were those that people recognize (like elf, goblin and kelpie) while others were completely made up (like canttilee, flimsickle and nascryl). It was fun (though a lot of work), people enjoyed the stories, and it lead to them clicking through to download copies of my books :-) In April I sold more than double the number of copies I sold in March. A coincidence, perhaps, but I like to think it was because I was sharing more of my story world every day with new readers.

The Creepy Hollow Series

Amazon | Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Book Trailer

Rachel's Links

Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads | Google+

Thank you, dear A to Z Challenge, for giving me the 

chance to share my story world with new readers 

:-)

If you're an author, what unique methods 
have you used to promote your books?

Please give us your feedback about the A to Z Video Contest.   See the post from Monday May 28th and leave your comments.

Feedback Needed Please!

Badge artwork by A to Z artist Ada Z

    This post brought to you by Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out:         

         Today I had originally planned to post about the negatives of the A to Z, but instead something else came to my attention which I wanted to get your opinions on before I continued with the Challenge evaluation.   I will discuss the bad next Monday.

Something else we'd like some feedback on:

        Here's a link that was brought to my attention through my Google Alerts for "Blogging from A to Z Video Challenge"    You might enjoy checking this out. I found it to be quite a surprise.   I've never seen a YouTube notice like this which includes not only all of the entries for the A to Z Video Contest, but also many links to blogs that have something to do with the A to Z April Challenge.  Check this out.   Your blog may have been included.   Have you seen something like this from YouTube before?

            So far in the Reflections or the evaluations posts I haven't read anything about the A to Z Video Contest.   I'll tell you more of my thoughts about the contest in a couple of weeks, but perhaps you can tell us yours in today's comments.   Did you pay much attention to the Video Contest?   Do you think it added value to the Challenge?   Were the video promos that were later linked to on Twitter, Facebook, and elsewhere effective in reaching those unaware of the Challenge?   

             Did you watch any of the videos?   If you missed them, you can find them at YouTube or at the A to Z Video Challenge.  How did you like this year's video entries?   What suggestions would you give to the entrants?

               Would you be interested in submitting a video for a future contest?  Would quality prizes such as gift cards, video related equipment, cash, or something else be a greater incentive to participate in a contest of this nature?

              What suggestions do you have concerning a video contest for the A to Z Challenge?   Are there other types of pre-April contests we might consider to bring more attention to the A to Z Challenge?

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Alphabet Soup - A Jumbled Jungle of J's

This post is brought to you by Nicole from The Madlab Post...

It’s time for Alphabet Soup - The Word Scramble Puzzle for A to Z Wizards!

Unscramble the following names of movie actors and actresses whose first name starts with letter J. The first commenter who has unscrambled all of them, or the most at best, wins this week’s Alphabet Soup game. Answers and the name of the winner will be posted here at the A to Z blog during next week’s “Friday Fun Time.” Word to the wise: Don’t let the spaces in these names fool you!

1

Jhcaknsooa Jus

2

otkeacaJnsn J

3

ernnnH fidoeuJs

4

nferCylonJen ine

5

tosifei nnAJrnne

6

errCJy mia

7

eeortJtl nuSelm

8

JrnOCo lelnry

9

NlckoncJiohas

10

kck acaBJl

Have an alphabetized weekend, everyone!

Need some extra blogging motivation? Sign up for the Monday Movie Meme, a weekly writing and memory activity that will have you thinking about movies in a whole new light. New topics are posted every Monday!

NICOLE
Read The Madlab Post.
Find/Follow/RT @MadlabPost on Twitter.

Beat that Bloggers' Block!

This post is brought to you by AZ co-host Damyanti, from Amlokiblogs.
--------------------------------------

April is long gone, and we've all moved on to new challenges.

One of the challenges I find on many A-Z participant blogs is bloggers' block--- after the burn-out of A-Z, many bloggers have found it difficult to get up and go again.

Here are a few ways to beat this:

1. Go blog-browsing: The more blogs you visit, whether via the Post A-Z Road Trip or otherwise, the more issues, problems, points of-view you'll come across. Some of them will trigger a response in you, and that could become your next blog post. Bonus: You'll have return-visits from the blogs you visited once your post is ready and published.

2. Dig up your old posts: That archive is good for something. You can re-post some of the posts you made long ago, which got you a good number of hits. Or, you could use them as an inspiration-- maybe you've learned more on the topic in the intervening period, or your point-of-view has changed. Bonus: When you link back to your own old posts, it helps search engines find you, giving you more hits.

3. Go wordless: A picture/ video really is worth a thousand words. You can also use them to jot down a few lines. 
Bonus: If you add titles and links to your pictures, this too would get picked up in a search-engine crawl.

4.  Avoid Whining: Sure, if you have a regular audience that loves you, you'll get a lot of mollycoddling when you make the occasional rant or whine. But tackling your block by repeatedly moaning about it would only turn off potential readers.
Bonus: When you avoid negatives, you make space for positives--- before you know it, you'll find your blogging vim back again.

5. Create Drafts: To quote yet another hackneyed proverb, prevention is better than cure. If you see an interesting picture, idea, issue--anything, in short, that could be of interest to your blog, copy it down in a blog draft. That way, when the lean times hit, you have a ready resource at hand to tide you over.
Bonus: When you have that many drafts sitting around, you might even be tempted to schedule posts in advance.

These are only a few tips to fight the dreaded block. I'm hoping the super-bloggers amongst you would add more advice in the comments. Now go beat that bloggers' block-- and get yourself a trigger finger instead!