I did my A to Z blogs from my books, both characters and background information. For characters I introduced them quickly, said what point of time they were talking from since their situations changed drastically through the books, and let them talk. The format of background information varied according to what I was talking about. Bold type indicated that more information had been or would be available in another A to Z post. All of these blogs were scheduled to go live just after midnight Alaska time.

4:30:13

That’s my back yard, showing the raised beds and the snow stake, as of April 30 this year. We ought to have grass showing by now! Instead it’s still snowing.

Well, I did it – though in a way I feel like I cheated. Before I signed up for the challenge I checked the name lists and the glossaries for my books, Homecoming and Tourist Trap. Between them, I confirmed I had every letter of the alphabet but “Q.” That had to be query letter. (No, I didn’t name Zhaim and Xazhar with the A to Z Challenge in mind, though they certainly came in handy.)

Then I started pre-writing and scheduling posts as soon as I signed up. Letting my characters do the talking whenever possible helped, though I did have to double check hair and eye color on some of them for the introductions. Wish I had some pictures, but I’m not a very good artist any more, and the coloring of my characters is odd enough that I couldn’t use photos of real people without a lot of digital correction. But with the prewriting and scheduling, plus the fact that I normally post 5 days a week, the only real problem was that I was taking 6 adult learning classes in April, and I was supposed to be working on edits for the first book of an upcoming trilogy. Next month! (Though I have my 50th Harvard reunion the second half of May.)

What did I get out of it? I sampled over 400 new blogs (some of which had no recent posts) and found several new blogs to follow. I picked up some new followers myself. I hope I introduced some new people to my books. I trust I did not lose anyone by blogging ten or more times a week in order to keep up with some of my regular features!

Would I do it again? I’m already thinking of how I can use some of the new characters in the trilogy, though I might have to reuse Zhaim and Xazhar. But they’ll both change quite a lot between the two books I have written and the trilogy, so I can guarantee it won’t be a repeat.

Besides, it gave me something to do indoors through one of the coldest, snowiest Aprils I remember.

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