The A to Z Challenge

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I first heard of the A to Z Challenge two years ago through a couple of blogs I came across via Twitter. Rosalind Adam is Writing in the Rain was covering the A-Z of the 60s and Anne Mackle at Is Anyone there? was doing the same for the 70s. Woohoo! Those are my eras and I loved the posts. Then I got to thinking about the thousands of photographs in our loft and the thousands more digital images on the PC which never get looked at. I always meant this blog to be retrospective as well as being a current travel diary, but somehow that’s never worked out. Could the A to Z Challenge be the stimulus?

Yes it could! Last year, I got as far as making a list but never got round to writing anything, but this year I’ve done it – I’ve even got it all scheduled in advance. Every day in April, except Sundays, I will be working my way through the alphabet of places I’ve been. I’ve only set two rules:

  1. I mustn’t repeat myself – every post must be something I’ve not written about before.
  2. I can write about any geographical unit smaller than a country. So U for USA would be cheating, but A for Arizona would not.

Surprisingly, difficult letters held no terrors for me. I had no bother with Q, X or Z but some of the letters you would expect to be easier proved tricky. I have delved into the loft and overheated my scanner. Mind you, the advantage of using prints is that I always labelled them neatly on the back, whereas no such organisation has been done for the digital pictures. That actually made the posts based on older material quicker to do, despite the scanning. The rest sent me to diaries, guide books and, as a last resort, Google, to work out exactly what I was looking at. It’s been a wonderful exercise in nostalgia, but I don’t think I can do it again – I’ll only get away with X once!

So publication starts on April 1st – when A is NOT for Arizona. Please come back to find out!

A to Z Challenge 2014, Awards and Challenges

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  1. What a great theme for the challenge!! I’m loving your posts! I’m really enjoying “meeting” other bloggers in this challenge! Looking forward to reading more! 🙂

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  3. Hello Anabel! I am one of your mates and will be in the trenches along with you, albeit, much less prepared, because that’s how I roll. I got as far as declaring a theme; “HUMOR AND HUMORIST”. A broad one, but at least I have some wiggle room. Last year was my first year doing the challenge, and this year I am part of co-host DamyantiG’s team who did the Theme Reveal, #teamDamyantiG and my theme is nowhere near elaborate nor creative as anyone else’s I’ve run across. But, that’s okay, as I usually manage to pull something out of one of my hats! I believe the primary goal is to have fun and I had a terrific time last year! We do hold chats, Thursdays, #AZchat at 8 pm, EDT, if you would care to join and meet new people, there, as well, we’d love to have you! Mary aka Viola Fury @ViolaFury http://www.homelesschroniclesintampa.blogspot.com
    A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal BlogFest – Sign Up Now #atozchallenge #atozrevea

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    • I knew if I didn’t write them in advance I would never do it! April is a very busy month for me. Also, there are not many words in them….

      Look forward to your tasty travel posts.

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  5. Wow, this is a true challenge. Wish I knew a little before to be prepared for it!! Now it seems too daunting to pursue, but maybe next year. I will look forward to your rendition of the A-Z 🙂

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