Claire Gillian

If it’s (A for) April, it must be Blogging A to Z Challenge month!

Indeed it is. So, what do I have in store for this year’s challenge, my second foray? Hmm…how about something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. Sounds more like a wedding than a challenge, but a challenge it is…to go the distance, blogging for 26 days, one post for each letter of the alphabet over the entire month of April.

Something old and something new? Last year I released my debut novel, The P.U.R.E., on April 16th and used many of the daily posts to take readers on my blog tour with me. This year I’m releasing a sequel to that novel called Purely Relative. I’ll have more of publishing posts this year, but slightly different because the focus will on the perils and pearls of self-publishing! Yes, Purely Relative will be my debut into self-publishing, a venture that is both exciting and terrifying.

Something borrowed? How about a story, broken up into 200 word daily installments. Keeping it short, people, as that’s what most blog readers prefer. I’ve previously published this one in an (A is also for) anthology that maybe five people other than the contributing authors read. What a shame because my story was / is one I’m rather proud of. It’s under 5000 words in total and the publisher just closed its doors. Rights reverted back to me at the one year mark, so my A to Z serial will be a reprint of my story called “Clockwork Nessie”.

Something blue? Easy. Every day’s letter indicator is a watery blue animated gif. Watery because Clockwork Nessie takes place at the seashore and at a lake. Haha! (Shut up! I never claimed to be all that clever.)

So… I hope you’ll visit me over the course of the next thirty days, every day except Sundays, for the A to Z Challenge. I’ll most likely be posting snippets from Purely Relative on Sundays too for the Weekend Writing Warriors program.

Now that you’re done here, a comment or a “like” would be lovely, but certainly isn’t required or expected. I love just having you visit, as will any and all of the other challenge participants listed below. After today, I’m going to try to get a “random next stop suggestion” generator widget so I won’t be listing over 1500 participants every day! Whew!

Welcome to Weekend Writing Warriors! This is one of several successors to Six Sentence Sunday. I also post it as part of Snippet Sunday:

As mentioned before, I have a new release coming out around April 30th called Purely Relative (The P.U.R.E., #1.5). Weekly eights from that story between now and release date!

Over the last few weeks, I’ve shared Gayle’s angst prepping to meet Jon’s family for a Thanksgiving meal. Last week we read about her initial impressions upon arrival, including a not so nice remark she overheard. This week, everyone has finally settled down at the table for the meal. To give context for a few of the names and references in the snippet: Scott is Jon’s sister’s fiance, who has already pinged Gayle’s skeeve radar. Sophia is Jon’s ex-fiancee’s mother. Jon currently works for the FBI, though his family does not know. Got all that?

Scott insisted on delivering a long-winded prayer itemizing all we were thankful for, including friends, family, and new acquaintances. I peeped at him through my eyelashes and caught him watching me as he spoke. We repeated, “Amen” and started passing around the dishes.

All the food moved in a clockwise fashion, I discovered, when the corn I attempted to pass counter-clockwise smashed into the gravy boat Sophia held. The viscous sauce sloshed over the edge and onto her hand, then to the tablecloth. A large tan Rorschach blot took shape. It looked like an uncircumcised penis or the Washington Monument, one or the other. What did that say about me other than I was a G-man’s klutzy nympho?