Minions/helpers needed! #atozchallenge

As we announced over on the A-Z blog today, us co-host types are in need of a few good people to work behind the scenes to make the Challenge run well. I think I'd like 6 or 7 wHooligans to help me out. Here are some details:

• You'd get a super-awesome badge to put on your blog, identifying you as one of my people.
• We'll list your name as a helper on the A-Z blog - this is really great for traffic, as we get TONS of visitors over there leading up to and during the Challenge.
• I'd like to do a feature post on each of my wHooligans in the two weeks before the Challenge, so you get to benefit from my extra traffic too!

What you'd be doing:

• I'll have a list of participants' blogs to keep track of. Y'all would be my team to actively support those folks as well as make sure they're actually participating (they're not just an ad site, etc). 
• You'll need to participate in our private blog where we'll keep track of all the goings-on with our list.

That's pretty much it! Being an A-Z helper is super fun and a great way to make new blogging friends. I was on Tina's Terrific Team last year and it made the Challenge just that much more awesome! 

Leave a comment below if you are interested :)

A-Z Sign-ups are open!!

You guys! You guys, you guys, you guys, I'm so excited!
The April A-Z Challenge sign-up is open! The guidelines are included in the post below (make sure to read ALL the guidelines before signing up, please) but basically, we do a blog post every day in April except Sundays, with a topic going from A-Z. Last year I wrote character sketches and you can check out my posts from last year, starting on April 1st. Or take a read-through of the ever-popular Percy's Pick Your Plot Prequel, which was last year's entry for the letter P :)

This blog hop is one of my favorite things about blogging - meeting all the people, seeing all the random blogs, laughing at people's silly themes.. It's really a good time.

And! This year I am one of the official co-hosts of the Challenge! That means I'll be running around behind-the-scenes making everything work and helping to keep things fun. Have you done the Challenge before? Want to help out? I am looking for a team of 'minions' to help keep everyone encouraged throughout the month, and make sure the Challenge runs smoothly. If you're interested, comment on this post and we'll get you hooked up!

And now for the official details...

Please read and follow the sign-up instructions outlined below so you sign onto the list correctly!   

The brainchild of Arlee Bird, at Tossing it Out, the A to Z Challenge is posting every day in April except Sundays (we get those off for good behavior.) And since there are 26 days, that matches the 26 letters of the alphabet. On April 1, blog about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 is “B,” April 3 is “C,” and so on. You can use a theme for the month or go random – just as long as it matches the letter of the alphabet for the day.

We recommend short posts, turn off Word Verification, and visit five blogs (or more) a day beginning with the one after yours on the list.

To streamline legitimate blogs from advertisement blogs, the Co-Hosts will be visiting each blog on this list throughout the Challenge. Blogs on the list showing no activity once the Challenge starts will be removed.

There are categories for those looking for like-minded blogs. Select ONE category code and enter it after your blog’s title/name. The code applies to your blog, not your theme for the Challenge and is purely optional. However, if your blog has adult content, you MUST mark it (AC) or it will be removed from the list. Codes are as follows: 

1. WRITING: (WR) 
2. BOOKS: (BO) 
3. FILM: (FM) 
4. PHOTOGRAPHY: (PH) 
5. GARDENING: (GR) 
6. CRAFT: (CR) 
7. ART: (AR) 
8. MUSIC: (MU) 
9. CULINARY: (CU) 
10. LIFESTYLE: (LI ) 
11. FASHION: (FA) 
12. PERSONAL: (PR) 
13. SOCIAL MEDIA: (SO) 
14. GAMING: (GA) 
15. EDUCATION: (ED) 
16. POLITICS: (PO) 
17. HISTORY: (HI) 
18. SCIENCE: (SC) 
19. HUMOR: (HU) 
20. TRAVEL: (TR) 
21. MISCELLANEOUS: (MI) 
22. ADULT CONTENT: (AC) 

Be sure to grab the badge and display it in your sidebar so we know you are participating and link to the A to Z Blog. 

For more information we recommend you follow the A to Z Challenge Blog and the hosts:

Arlee Bird @ Tossing it Out http://tossingitout.blogspot.com/

Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh http://alexjcavanaugh.blogspot.com/

Author Stephen Tremp http://authorstephentremp.blogspot.com/

Tina @ Life is Good http://kmdlifeisgood.blogspot.com/

Damyanti@Amlokiblogs http://amloki.blogspot.com/

Jeremy @ Being Retro http://www.beingretro.com/

Nicole Ayers - The Madlab Post www.madlabpost.com

M. J. Joachim's Writing Tips http://mjjoachim.blogspot.com

Heather M. Gardner http://hmgardner.blogspot.com/

AJ @ Naturally Sweet http://frodofrog.blogspot.com

Pam @ An Unconventional Librarian http://unconventionallibrarian.com/

We also have a Facebook page,

email address is infoatoz2014@gmail.com,

and the Twitter hashtag is #AtoZChallenge.

Sign up below and join us for a month of alphabet fun!

Six word Saturday

Rough week, but all's clear! Thankful.

This post is part of the Six Word Saturday blog hop. Stop by showmyface.com to join the fun!

Ach. A cold.

Am trying to write through a cold, so haven't had many spare coherent sentences for the blogging world. I've lost almost a week to being tired and unproductive, so am going to have to turn it up to almost NaNoWriMo productivity levels to catch up and make our deadline in a couple weeks. Which I find I'm a bit excited about, really. I've missed the habit of an hour or more of writing every night (Ohh the lovely nights when 1,700 words happen in an hour! Woeful are the nights that it does not come that easily..) If I can average 1,700/day, I'll still finish ahead of time, which would be amazing. If not, well.. That's why we built in a little bit of buffer room. Which I really don't want to have to use. So I should probably go do that then.

...
okbye.

Six Word Saturday!

Digging out from under the holidays.

Oh man, y'all.. Laundry, putting away decorations, cleaning floors (Where did someone find mud??), trying to save the plant cuttings grandma gave me, cleaning up gift boxes from around the tree... I do love the holidays, but when one goes from one week with one family to another week with the other side of the family, I believe it should be required to take another full week off for recovery. Amiright? It's ok though, because we're getting it all done today to make room for tomorrow's six words: 

Taking a pregnant friend out snowshoeing.

She's 36 weeks and wants to go showshoeing! (obviously on a fairly easy trail, but STILL) This is the kind of stuff that happens in Colorado. It's a pretty cool state we live in :)

This post is part of the Six Word Saturday blog hop. Stop by showmyface.com to join the fun!

Insecure Writer's Support Group

As I mentioned on Sunday, one of my goals for this spring is to make more connections in the writing world. I think one of the better ways to do that is to make sure I'm connecting with folks in the blogging world, which I fell out of a bit at the end of last year. My summers are SO busy, and I just didn't have the energy to spend writing or reading in addition to my long work weeks. It took until about October to feel refreshed and by then I'd lost my habit of writing regularly. So I dove into NaNoWriMo (and won! yay!) and then didn't do any more blogging in December. Up and down, up and down.. Not so much with habits on the blogging front. Anyway, the hope is that I can get into a real habit, and one of the things I wanted to do to help that out was to join the Insecure Writer's Support Group - a bunch of lovely writers who help each other 'rock the neurotic writing world' haha

So here's a confession for my first IWSG post: I've wanted to join for quite a while, but never could quite make the commitment. You could say, 'well it's just the first Wednesday of each month - what's the big deal?' but here's the thing: I think it's like taking the first step in AA - you have to admit you have a problem before you can start getting better. So here I go: My name is AJ and I have a writing addiction. No, not an addiction, and as previously mentioned, not a habit either. I have a .. thing. I have a thing about writing. I love it and always have. I've gone through phases of calling myself a writer, and not calling myself one. But I suppose that since I've got a book published and another one in the works, I have to admit that I am a writer and own it too!

So this is me owning it, and waving hello to the other IWSG folks. I am looking forward to meeting all of you!