Today, those of us who participated in the Blogging A to Z Challenge have been asked to reflect back on the challenge and offer our thoughts. I’ll bullet point the highlights and lowlights for me.

The Good

I never missed a day, always went live at 12:01 AM
Blogging every day exposed me to a huge number of new blog visitors
I visited many blogs I probably never would have otherwise visited–blogs on genealogy, the 80’s, children’s books, short story and poetry authors, writing and reading enthusiasts, knitting and quilting, wine-tasting, etc.
Never satisfied with my own blog, I loved looking at the artistic and functional aspects of others’ blogs. Those credits bloggers often have at the bottom of their blog pages? I click on those and visit the design geniuses behind them.
Many of my visitors subscribed to my blog, something I never pushed but was extremely thankful for.
The challenge coincided with my debut novel’s release so I was able to marry info about the book and its release with the challenge in what I hope wasn’t too obnoxious a manner (see cons section for the flip side of this).
The discipline of regular posting was reinforced.
My blog traffic was off the charts–more than double the traffic than in my previous highest month.
I met some wonderful new bloggers!!
WordPress’s (and Blogger’s) ability to schedule posts is awesome!
That widget that sent visitors to a new, random blog next was a fantastic idea…too bad WordPress dot com doesn’t allow javascript widgets or I’d have had one too.
Several bloggers really impressed me with their master plans for the month, posts that followed a uniform theme, vs. my hodge-podge approach.

The Less Good / Not Good

I was on vacation or out of town on business for a week and a half of April on two separate trips. I prepped ahead of time where I could but sometimes it was pretty hectic writing and prepping against a looming deadline.
I had manuscript edits unexpectedly arrive in my inbox, and they commanded time I’d have rather spent visiting blogs.
I did not visit nearly as many blogs as I’d have hoped or what was suggested.
Many of my blog posts were piggybacks of blog tour stops, basically reroutes of my traffic to others’ blogs.
I was sad whenever I clicked on a few links in the first few days only to find no A to Z posts at all. I guess they changed their minds about participating.
Sometimes the current day’s A to Z post was difficult to find on very busy blogs. (Suggest a separate A to Z blog page / tab with an index to the posts.)
Commenting on Blogger (vs. WordPress) posts has always challenging for this WordPress gal, and unfortunately, most of the A to Z’ers had Blogger blogs. I finally gave up and commented using my google account and a dummy Blogger blog I set up. This made commenting easier (Re-Captcha / Captcha issues aside which is a whole ‘nother gripe) but made linking back to my blog very indirect. Many I visited and read but didn’t bother commenting because of the hassle of it.
I wished there had been some sort of index categorizing the blogs. I’d hit one and think, “Oh, I think I’ll revisit that one again.” Only I never subscribed or wrote down the name. I usually only remembered the nature of the post I read and liked. I’d have sought out a few that were different from what I was used to reading if there had been some sort of guide like when we first signed up.
Because my debut novel released during the A to Z window (April 16th), I feel in my heart like I was a very selfish blogger, though in my head I know I did the best I could with the hours I had. I really did try to at least pay a return visit to all my visitors.
I wished I’d visited the A to Z Challenge blog more often than I did to read more about the goings on of the whole.

Would I do the Blogging A to Z Challenge again and more specifically, next year?

ABSOLUTELY!!!

Thank you to everyone who visited me either by landing here or via subscription (RSS or email or Networked blogs).

Since You Asked by Dawn Sticklen
A to Z reflections #atozchallenge (notesinabook.wordpress.com)
A to Z reflections (randomsays.com)
A to Z: Reflections Post from The Other Side blog (timbrannan.blogspot.com)

I’ve got giveaways today! Two of them. Well, I’m doing one and Reviews by Molly is doing one. For efficiency’s sake, let’s start with the giveaway I’m sponsoring on my blog, then at the end of this post, I’ll give you a link to head on over to Molly’s site. Easy peasy.

Giveaway of Tidal Whispers ARC e-book:

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED

Congratulations to Becky Doughty!! who was lucky commenter #2 as selected by random.org. I didn’t count Julie Reece since she’s a contributing author and already has a copy of the ARC.

We’re almost to the release date for Tidal Whispers, an ocean-themed anthology from J. Taylor Publishing featuring stories from Jocelyn Adams, Julie Reece, Kelly Said and yours truly. That means we’re pining for early readers and reviewers, and therefore have some advanced reader copies (ARCs) to give away. Each of us has an ARC to give to a lucky commenter, so I highly recommend you pay a visit to each blog to increase your chances.

The Story Blurbs:

Heart’s Desire by Julie Reece
After a terrible accident, Tessa returns to her family beach house to heal. She doesn’t expect to see her first summer crush from seven years before. Cameron, though, reappears and ignites a relationship that’s far more intense than ever before. The only problem? Summer is once again coming to an end, and this time, Tessa will have to decide whether to choose life with Cameron or to never see him again.

The Sweetest Song by Claire Gillian
Under Poseidon’s rule, Circe is the most destructive siren in the Pacific ocean, her songs luring ships and their crew to their watery graves. Not Otis, the best halibut fisherman in the Alaskan waters. His ship, the Calypso, has avoided disaster each time Circe set her sights on him.

Given one last chance to deliver Otis to Davy Jones’ locker, Circe takes to land to waylay the handsome captain. Instead, it may be Otis himself who hooks the Siren.

Pearl of Pau’maa by Kelly Said
Should Miki choose to wed the local wealthy boy she doesn’t love, her stomach will stop grumbling. Her soul, however, will suffocate. With one last opportunity before she must concede, she sneaks off for a final dive to her hidden crate at the bottom of the seabed. What waits for her is more than a captured lobster. It’s a treasure she cannot claim without great sacrifice or true love.

The Undergarden by Jocelyn Adams
Nixie, a water sprite, lives a solitary existence as she struggles to understand the strange world beyond her waters. When she meets one of the pink ones, a curious boy named Wyatt, their friendship blooms into a love that can exist only upon the sands that divide his solid ground from her underwater paradise. Some love, though, once born, cannot be undone, even in the face of death.

Sounds great, eh? If you’re on Goodreads, you might wanna click this:

Just sayin’.

To Enter:

All you have to do is leave a comment telling me what sea creature, mythical or not, would you love to read about in a story. Be sure to include your email somewhere in your entry, either in form you complete or within the body of the comment.

The entry period will run until midnight Pacific time on May 12th. I’ll randomly select a winner on May 13th. J Taylor will take care of sending out the ARC which is in ebook format, NOT print.