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Monday, October 12, 2015

Themes That Rocked the Challenge - Saraallie and the Wizarding World of Harry Potter

Today’s feature will be fun for many of you! Saraallie did a Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme with lots of pictures.


Your theme was a tour of Universal Studios Wizarding World of Harry Potter – what made you chose that theme?

If I answer in short I'd just say, "because Harry Potter!!" But let me explain. My sister, The Abbie (from Abbie's Adventure Diaries) and I are crazy Potterheads! Our annual family vacations have been to Orlando, Florida since the last few years. It's our own private little world where the two of us completely forget everything and have the time of our lives. It's our most favorite place in the world, basically. So when I had to think of a theme for the A to Z Blogging Challenge the first thing that came to my mind was Harry Potter! Abbie did the same theme too.
We'd taken three trips to the park and each year I'd come back home and say to myself, "Hmm, I totally have to blog about my experience!" Somehow though, each time I ended up not being able to. This was just the perfect excuse to motivate myself. Oh and of course add Harry Potter to anything and it automatically becomes awesome!

Just how overwhelming was Weasley’s Wizard Wheezes shop?

Oh dear, that place is insanely awesome! You step inside the Diagon Alley side of the Wizarding World and the first thing your eyes see is the giant Weasley head propped on top of the shop. It stirs up instant excitement. I felt like somebody had switched something on inside my stomach. Even before you step inside to be totally overwhelmed with everything, a funky purplish wall outside is the perfect background for pictures. I took some beautiful shots right there. Finally when I stepped inside with Abbie it was beyond belief real! I couldn't understand what to look at first, which product to pick up and examine, which one to take pictures of, which one to take pictures with, what to buy, what not to buy and leave it for the next time we visit ... That shop is literally everything I had imagined reading the Harry Potter books and seeing the movies. It put me in a state of fantasy! And as if all of that wasn't enough, there's an actual adoption experience you can enjoy if you decide to take a Pygmy Puff home. I adopted a Pygmy Puff for my baby niece Gubby (the nickname I use for her), named it Gubby too, and was told not to feed it sugar or it'll 'bounce off the walls and be all hyper'. So cool!

What was the most amazing effect or setting you saw?

No doubt, the mighty dragon on top of Gringotts Bank! It's one fiery beast, really. I think there isn't a single person in the park who isn't craning their neck up to get a good look at it. It breathes fire after roaring angrily every few minutes and when that happens the park becomes slightly quiet because every single person has their cameras pointed up and ready to take a video or a picture. I think I had pretty good pictures the first time I saw the dragon breathe fire, even then I still had some camera or the other ready every single time.
The magic entrance to Platform Nine and Three Quarters came real close to being the coolest effect too but I have a biased love for that dragon in my heart! Hey, that's one gorgeous beast, it's not my fault!

Where is the best place to eat?

The park has two sides, Diagon Alley and Hogsmeade Village. There are two restaurants, one on each side. Diagon Alley has the newly opened Leaky Cauldron and Hogsmeade has The Three Broomsticks. They both have the same menu and are the perfect spots for someone wanting to add magic to their eating experience. Personally though, I prefer The Three Broomsticks over Leaky Cauldron. I thought it was bigger and had much more cool effects to see while we ate. Like if you look up at the ceiling in The Three Broomsticks you can see shadows of somebody cleaning around. The seating is more suitable for families or if you want a private corner, like I did with Abbie. Over at Leaky Cauldron they have the long joint tables (like The Great Hall does in the movies!) so chances are somebody you don't know will be seated beside you, unless you're lucky like us and find one of the side tables that are more private. I suggest the Fish and Chips (oh my God, so tasty!) and the Sticky Toffee Pudding. That pudding is a killer! We also tried the Fishermen’s Pie and it was deliciousness served in a bowl.
Whatever happens though, always save space for ice cream because the flavors at Florean Fortescue's Ice Cream Parlour will make you fall in love! The Salted Caramel Blondie flavor was our favorite. (I am drooling just thinking about it!)

What was the coolest thing you found in Zonkos?

Zonkos was such a cool shop, but sadly when the park expanded they closed it down. The shop front is still there but when you step inside it’s an extended part of Honeydukes. I’m not much of a prankster so I didn’t have my eyes set on the brilliant pranking products they had. For me the coolest product at the old Zonkos were the You No Poo bottles. The constipation sensation that’s gripping the nation! Abbie and I had a good laugh examining those bottles. It’s basically candy but exactly the way they were in the movies. The new Zonkos has a gorgeous bakery section as part of the extended Honeydukes shop. The treats in the glass showcases are so mouthwatering. If we weren’t so full with ice creams we would have definitely tried something. I mustn’t forget the Chocolate Frogs. I’ve bought three and unfortunately gotten Helga Hufflepuff’s wizard card each time. I kept one, Abbie kept the second one, and we kept the third one for our scrapbook. It is seriously delicious premium chocolate, the box is beautiful too, and the cards are collectibles that every fan needs.

What did you see that you wanted to come home with but didn’t? What’s the coolest purchase you did make?

The fire breathing dragon! Yes, imagine what it would have looked like on the roof of my house. Oh and the Hogwarts Express! I’d have the coolest transport arrangements. Sadly, they can’t let me have those regardless of how crazy of a Potterhead I am. I found a lot of awesome Potter merchandise there though. Something I almost bought was Hedwig. I’ve already brought home Fawkes the Phoenix and Buckbeak the Hippogriff. Hedwig has always been my favorite and the plush toys there are so adorable. The single reason that’s kept me from bringing Hedwig home is that it’s a puppet which means it’s empty from inside instead of being fat and fluffy like the other plush toys.
My coolest purchase has got to be my wand. Abbie and I didn’t buy wands the first two times we were there but when we visited the third time we had decided at home that it was time we got our wands. I looked up wands belonging to all the main characters. Harry, Ron, Hermione, and etc. all had cool wands but I still needed something with the wow factor. Today, I am the proud owner of a very gorgeous, classic, and super cool Voldemort’s wand. Yes, I chose Voldemort’s! He is one of the most important characters after all. He’s got to be my favorite villain too. His wand was bone-y and unique. It stood out to me instantly, I fell in love, there was a connection, and soon a long black box with Ollivander’s embossed in silver alphabets was in my hands. Abbie bought Narcissa Malfoy’s wand for how beautifully black and silver it was. I guess we both inclined towards the villains.

What advice would you give to someone who intends to visit the park?

Book a longer visit because the parks are overloaded with people, the lines for each ride are very long (120 minutes waiting time kind of long!), and if you have fewer days you’ll end up missing a lot of the details that add to the magic. Make sure you ride the Forbidden Journey (if you’re comfortable!) because it is one of the best rides I’ve ever been on in all my life (and I’ve been to a lot of parks and rides). We stayed at Cabana Bay the last time we went, which is a sort of on site hotel with shuttle service to and from, and it was a great decision. Abbie and I used to go to the parks early in the morning, come back to our hotel for lunch and a little rest, and then headed back once the sun had cooled down a little bit. It helped us enjoy our visit to the max because we weren’t tired and sulky. It also is great if you get a park to park ticket because the Hogwarts Express experience is different both ways and you can enjoy both sides of the park easily if you have one.

What theme are you considering next year? Going to another theme park?

I actually have been thinking a lot about my theme for next year. I’ve had so much fun doing the A to Z this year that I’m definitely going to do it again. I don’t think I’m visiting another theme park (or that any theme park could be as cool as this one!) but hopefully, and I am crossing my fingers here very tightly, we’ll get to visit the Wizarding World of Harry Potter again before next April.
As for my theme, so far I’ve come up with two ideas. Let me show off a little bit here and tell you I’m keeping it a secret! One of the ideas is more nostalgic and the other is more a showcase of talent. I’m not sure if I’ll settle down with one of these or come up with a totally different one. Let’s see. What I do know is that I am really very excited!

Hope you get to go back!


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

Wednesday, October 7, 2015

Mario Packs for Cuban Research Excursion

Mario has his passport and a ticket. He's decided to travel to Cuba to soak up some colonial atmosphere, so he can "encourage" me to branch out in my settings for stories. 

This Road Trip is going to involve a couple of planes, but once on the ground, Mario's cruising in his Mariomobile. 

The Mariomobile. Did you notice it's pink?

He's listed Finca Vigia as one of his first stops. It's about 12Ks outside of Havana and used to be Hemmingway's hideout. He wrote For Whom the Bell Tolls and Old Man and Sea here. 



Hemmingway at Finca Vigia, Reading!



Trinidad

He's going to take a camera, so I'll have pictures to refer to while writing the next For Whom the Bell Tolls. Have you been to or wanted to go to Cuba? Any place(s) you'd like to go to soak up settings? Would travel be a theme you'd consider for April 2016?

Monday, October 5, 2015

The A-Z Process

Since I'm a procrastinator, I still haven't settled on my theme for the 2016 Challenge. Not good (although I still have time). There are just so many good themes that I'm running off in a different direction every time a shiny new idea hits. The thing is though, no matter what I decide on, I basically take the same approach to the month's blogging.

Read – I do copious amounts of reading whenever I'm embarking on a new adventure. It's a way to steep myself in my subject matter and get a good feel for it.

Research – This aspect is the fun part. Of course, this can mean information overload which makes it difficult for me to settle my mind and sit down with the aim of putting it all together. Balance is key here, since I sometimes get so carried away with research, I find it hard to move past this phase.

Write – This is where the action comes in—knitting all the useful bits together into cohesive articles that will be of interest and help people who stop by to read each day.

Revise – When all the research and writing are done, I take a bit of time to re-read what I've prepared to make sure I'm on point with the data I'm sharing.


What else do you do when you're preparing your articles for the Challenge?



J.L. Campbell writes fiction and non-fiction and blogs at http://www.joylcampbell.com

Friday, October 2, 2015

Five Fairy Tale Blogs to Follow

Do you like fairy tales?
Do you like blogs?
Do you ever wonder how fairy- and folktales can be combined with the blogging sphere and made intriguing to regular readers?

In honor of our ever-expanding Mythology and Storytelling categories during A to Z, as well as all the people who blog about fairy- and folktale-related topics in April (and all through the year), here is a list of 5 fairy tale blogs to keep an eye on!


Breezes from Wonderland
Maria Tatar's forum on Storytelling, Folklore, and Children's Literature. For those of you who don't know who this amazing lady is: She is the chair of the Folklore and Mythology program at Harvard. If you are interested in fairy tales at all, you have probably seen her work. If not, here is your chance!

The SurLaLune Fairy Tales Blog
Once again, if you are online and you like fairy tales, this is a place you probably are (or should be) familiar with. The blog is a great and up-to-date source of book reviews, fairy tale-related news, and... stories, obviously.

Once Upon a Blog
The Fairy Tale News Blog is exactly what it sounds like: It brings you the latest hot news items about age-old stories, be it about books, movies, TV shows, or other pop culture events. Regularly updated and full of interesting stuff at the crossroads of fairy tales and modern media.

Storytelling + Research = LoiS
Professional storyteller and story researcher Lois Sprengnether Keel shares her experiences and her work. The best part of the blog is Keeping the Public in the Public Domain - she regularly posts folk- and fairy tales that are in the public domain, making them readily available to everyone.

Fairy Tale Fandom
Adam Hoffman's regularly updated and amazingly organized blog on fairy tale-related topics: Actual stories, book reviews, media news, etc. Well thought-out posts, and a whole treasure trove of new things to be a fan of.


Thursday, October 1, 2015

Weekend Follies Star Trek Style Featuring Sulu




















My name is Stephen Tremp and I’m a writer of speculative fiction. I blog at Breakthrough Blogs

My fourth novel, Salem’s Daughters, is now officially available for download, although I'm not officially kicking things off until Monday October 1st. To download a copy today for $2.99 Click Here

Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Crazy Signs Along the AtoZ Roadtrip


You can't drive very long without passing a sign, right? Well, here are some that I'd love to see if for no other reason than it helps to make the trip fun.


Since I just had the pleasure of driving in Ireland, this sign spoke to me. 


What to do is the question.


Now this is my kind of sign.

Which of these is your favorite? 

Friday, September 25, 2015

Get your feeds under control with Feedly

If you've been doing the A to Z Challenge for any length of time (like, say, at least a year), you've probably discovered a lot of new blogs that you'd like to subscribe to and follow forever. To do that, you need a feed reader (you might also hear it called a "news aggregator"), one that can cope with both Wordpress and Blogger and keep you up-to-date with all your blogging buddies.

Both Wordpress and Blogger have feed readers, and there are a lot of other ones out there. My particular favorite is Feedly. It's been around since 2006, but it became really popular when Google announced they were shutting down Google Reader in 2013.



I used Google Reader, and deciding to shut it down turned out to be a blessing in disguise for me. I thought Reader's display was a little too busy. With Feedly, you can specify how much white space there is in the display, the font, color of the sidebar, your favorite sharing and/or saving service(s), and whether you want to see your articles as a list, as individual cards, or as full articles. You can navigate through your list with the mouse or with the keyboard. Best of all, it's free. (There is a Pro license, that includes saving to OneNote or Evernote, sharing to LinkedIn, Hootsuite, and Buffer, enhanced search capabilities, and "shared collections," as well as faster support and article delivery, that sells for $65 a year; so far, I haven't found a need for it, particularly with tools like IFTTT.)

A shot of my Feedly home screen. I use a "comfortable" density, supplying plenty of white space, and a "magazine" format, presenting my list with a preview of the articles.

Feedly has a plugin for both Firefox and Chrome (maybe other browsers) that makes it easy to subscribe to blogs. When you go to a blog's main page, a Feedly icon will appear either in the address bar or in the lower right-hand corner of the screen. When you click the icon, Feedly launches, showing you the feed from that blog. You can then choose whether to add the blog, and to which user-defined category to add it to.

Screen shot showing the Feedly icon

If you're currently using a feed reader and want to try Feedly, Feedly will accept your OPML file so you don't have to add all the blogs by hand.

I don't want to get too deep into the product (sorry, I was a software trainer for fifteen years), so I'll stop there. Anyway, if you're in the market for a new feed reader, give Feedly a try. I think you'll like it!

John Holton
The Sound of One Hand Typing
The Sound of One Hand Typing FM

Wednesday, September 23, 2015

A Semi-Wordless Wednesday: Traffic Signs to Follow on the A-Z Road Trip

Exit 1252 takes you to Skating Buffalo park, where you'll find nerdy high school students, dissect movies that grow on you years later and highlight a metaphor for prayer.

Exit 1283 is the way to Keith's Ramblings university with a campus full of fish and chips, Alzheimer's and beautiful nurses.

Exit 1284 leads into Crazy Doll Lady town where the locals are chatting about dolls, finding clothes that are the right fit and a resin casting experiment with polymer clay charms.

Exit 1287 heads toward My Life with Photographs retreat to bypass the sick days and important deadlines in lieu of gorgeous Fall colors in Alaska.


The A-to-Z Challenge Road Trip is hosted by Nicole Ayers and C. Lee McKenzie who’s dashboard buddy Mario sends his best to all of you fellow travelers!

Monday, September 21, 2015

A-Z Creativity

In keeping with Heather's post about the 2016 Blogging From A-Z Challenge, I'm beginning to turn over ideas in my mind as to what I want to write about for next year's event. I haven't settled on what I want to do yet, but you can be sure I'll be putting more thought into it as I want to do something unique (as do we all, right?).

Over the years, a few enterprising and industrious writers have compiled their April posts and published same, mostly in fiction format. Now, it that's not being creative, I don't know what is.

I've had ambitions of doing the same for years, but haven't done anything about those posts. Most of the material relates to writing and would help others in some way, but as they say, 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. I still haven't removed the material from my blog, but I do have them in individual files.

Do you have anything special you're turning over in your mind? If so, have you started plotting yet? I don't know about you, but I've got my thinking cap on.


Have fun planning when you get there!

Friday, September 18, 2015

28 weeks until the 2016 Challenge. Have you thought about your A to Z posts yet?


It seems like a long time from now, doesn't it?

More than half a year. 28 weeks. 195 days.

But, how many of us said we wished we'd been MORE prepared for the A to Z Challenge?

Admit it. Almost all of us.

So, why not start thinking about it now?

With 28 weeks ahead of us, we have plenty of time to plan.
Now, what to plan?

There are so many things.

These categories might get your blog ideas flowing.

ANIMALS: (AN)
ART: (AR)
BOOKS/REVIEWS: (BO)
CRAFTS: (CR)
CULINARY: (CU)
EDUCATION: (ED)
FASHION: (FA)
FILM/MOVIES: (FM)
GAMING: (GA)
GARDENING: (GR)
HISTORY: (HI)
HUMOR: (HU)
LIFESTYLE: (LI )

MEMOIR: (ME)
MUSIC: (MU)
MYTHOLOGY: (MY)
PERSONAL: (PR)
PHOTOGRAPHY: (PH)
POLITICS: (PO)
SCIENCE: (SC)
SOCIAL MEDIA: (SO)
SPORTS: (SP)
TRAVEL: (TR)
WRITING/STORYTELLING: (WR)
ADULT CONTENT: (AC)



If this list doesn't do it for you, then maybe you could start your own list.

What do you like to do?
What do you like to talk about? Read about?
What are your favorite things about where you live?
What subjects are you interested in?
What do you want others to know about you?
Why do gnomes wear hats?

You get the idea!


It's never too early to start thinking about your A to Z posts.



Heather M. Gardner
The Waiting is the Hardest Part

Thursday, September 17, 2015

Return of the Weekend Follies Star Trek Style



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My name is Stephen Tremp and I’m a writer of speculative fiction. My fourth novel, Salem’s Daughters, is set for release October 1st. To pre-order a copy for $2.99 Click Here

Wednesday, September 16, 2015

Don't Be A Stranger

What a wild ride it is to be part of this group. There is so much energy but that energy is needed. I have my own blog and am part of the IWSG admin but I still wasn't prepared last year when I volunteered to be part of this group. There is so much that goes on behind the scenes.

The administrators of the Challenge have soooo much enthusiasm and creativity. They constantly brainstorm on ways to make the challenge better every year. From the outside, it may seem like the majority of the work in done during the craziness of the challenge in April, but there's actually a lot of things going on all year long.

It has been such a privilege to be part of this but I am stepping down as an administrator this year. I'll still be helping out as someone's minion next April and I would never miss participating in the challenge but I will be leaving all that behind the scenes work to the other wonderful people of the Challenge. Thanks to Arlee Bird for starting this endeavor and for letting me be part of it. Thanks to Alex J. Cavanaugh for asking me to step up last year. With a lot of regret, I'm stepping back this year but not out.

As an experienced A to Z'er, I'm already thinking about my theme for next year. I expect to be able to visit even more blogs than I did last year since I won't be administering anything but myself. I'll still be promoting and encouraging everyone to participate and keeping going to the end.

Finishing the Challenge is a terrific, fulfilling accomplishment. So, I'll be seeing you all in April. In the meantime, I hope you'll visit me at my personal blog, Susan Says.