May the 4th be with you!

Another A to Z is over, and I’m exhausted, as usual.  I haven’t done as many visits to other blogs as I’d like, and despite all my good intentions I didn’t finish my last three blog posts (W,X & Y) until April 20th.  Plenty of time, but…

I enjoyed my theme, Natural Phenomena – and it seems like I found a lot of folks who enjoyed it too.  One little thing that turned up in my inbox while this was going on (Linky Blog tip…) was about whether your blog was consistent in what it blogged about.  I wondered whether this was a possibility with the Challenge – that I head off on a theme that interests me but bears no relation to what I blog about for the rest of the year.  It’s an interesting thought, and comes back to the question ‘what is this blog for?’

If the answer is ‘to showcase me as a writer and keep people informed on my activities’ then I think blogging about things that interest me is fine, up to a point.  The point being whether they are likely to find their way into my writing.  So if I pick a theme (or contents of a more generic them like the NATO alphabet) that bears no relation to what I write about, maybe I should think again.  Fortunately, natural phenomena gave me so much scope to think about things I might incorporate into my books – for example, my timeline for Princelings includes this year’s eclipse – I don’t think it will feature in a book, but the timeline is there.  And of course, I couldn’t stop writing about Pete and the Swede as I went, which hopefully will introduce a few people to them before The Perihelix comes out later this year.  So maybe this year was a good approach, in keeping with my blog.

Maybe I should talk more about these things during the year.

I also plan to visit more blogs through the year on the Road Trip.  I said that last year, but maybe this year I’ll pop in a post about it every now and then.  After all, with so many lovely people out there, it would be a shame to miss them.  I remember one I wanted to reblog, I must go and find it again.

Thank you for visiting, and for staying with me during April.  I hope you’ll stay for a good while longer.

Meanwhile, it’s back, more or less, to my routine.  Monday: news/topics of interest, Wednesday: #IWSG/#Fi50/Reading Challenge updates and maybe also Road trip updates. Friday: Flash Fiction, Saturday: Book Review.  Sunday: occasional science features. And sometimes book blog tours and blasts on these or other days.  And giveaways – there’s the Goodreads Giveaway of White Water Landings featured top right; and on the Princelings website we are involved in the Mother Daughter Book Review Kindle Fire Kids Edition giveaway. I keep thinking I should cut down my blog posts, but I wouldn’t know what to drop.  So I’ll just carry on…

April in numbers:

26 posts, 425 daily visitors (not views), 1 book published in ebook, paperback and hardcover; 3 Princelings books set up in paperback; 1 tooth removed ; 4 minor deadlines missed, 3 books read and 1 abandoned.

Strangely, I had fewer visitors in April than average, but they spent longer here, viewing a number of posts each time – the average post views per visitor was up substantially.  That’s a change, but probably a good one.

The most-viewed post was The Coprolite Conundrum, followed by Quick Clay, Lyrid Meteor Shower and Fingal’s Cave.  Oddly, A for Aurora was the least visited of all the AtoZ posts in the month.  Maybe I’d already published B by the time a lot of western bloggers visited.

Thanks for visiting, and I hope to see you again.

Reflections on A to Z 2015
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28 thoughts on “Reflections on A to Z 2015

  • 4 May, 2015 at 9:14 am
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    Your A-Z theme was excellent. That it was a different theme to that you usually blog on didn’t matter, it just meant double the pleasure if you blogged on something else too.
    xxx Huge Hugs xxx

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:13 am
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      Thanks, David. Always good to know what my regular followers think – and your thoughts and support are always appreciated xxx

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:25 pm
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      Thanks, Noelle – yours too!

  • 4 May, 2015 at 2:35 pm
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    I get what you mean about the blogs regular content vs the theme they choice for the challenge. I had lots of disconnects with regard to that. Reviewing the linky certain blog titles jumped out as things I would be interested in, but when I got to their blog it was totally unrelated, which was sometimes annoying and made it more difficult to get to blogs or types of blogs you wanted to read. This year it seem more folks elected not to select a category, I didn’t myself, as I didn’t feel there was one that really represented the blog.

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:26 pm
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      That’s an interesting thought – maybe the organisers need that feedback. It does become difficult to choose a category if you’re not blogging about it.

  • 4 May, 2015 at 3:32 pm
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    Congrats on completing the challenge! I found it interesting to read about all of the various topics.

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:27 pm
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      Thanks, Mary 🙂 And thanks for reading them.

  • 4 May, 2015 at 3:33 pm
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    I posted blogs far off topic from my fiction writing–mathematics! A crazy idea, but it was fun and I did promote my writing along the way. Hopefully good writing promotes itself, no matter the topic.

    Some blogs did narrow their focus to their current writing project, but blogs with a wider range of subject matter were often more enjoyable.

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:28 pm
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      I loved your maths theme, and I’m looking forward to reading the posts I missed. I’m so glad you came here so I found your blog 🙂

      • 5 May, 2015 at 12:40 am
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        And now I have to go off and look at this one!

  • 4 May, 2015 at 3:40 pm
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    I focused on my blog’s usual theme of family history by focusing in on one surname. I’ve done the A to Z three times now and that is always my focus. That would be because that is what I am interested in more than anything else.

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:28 pm
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      A wise choice, I think!

  • 4 May, 2015 at 3:50 pm
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    I struggled with that question, too! I loved what you did, and with Pete and Lars showing up regularly it kept some connection to your writing, but you have a point about it not being what you do regularly (though one of your blogs has science bits pretty often–is that the Viridian System blog?).

    I still have to write my reflections post, as today was already committed to a blog tour.

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:30 pm
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      I started doing a Science Sunday – especially with the Rosetta landing and stuff like that, then it went on. I’m thinking of making that either more regular, or seeing if it will fit into a Wednesday post.
      But you’re right, I think with the sci fi angle, sci fact is a bona fide blog topic!

  • 4 May, 2015 at 3:50 pm
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    Oh, and yeah, I think your A post might have gotten less attention because of the time difference. By evening, when I am looking, you are already always a day ahead of me.

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:31 pm
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      And I generally got noitfication of your posts after I’d read them!

  • 4 May, 2015 at 7:13 pm
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    I enjoyed your post and thought it great how you tied Friday flash in each week. As for your question, I know more than a few writers whose theme had little to do with writing. I’m not sure if that affected their other readers, but I enjoyed the posts.

    ~Patricia Lynne aka Patricia Josephine~
    Member of C. Lee’s Muffin Commando Squad
    Story Dam
    Patricia Lynne, Indie Author

    • 4 May, 2015 at 10:33 pm
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      It’s interesting seeing what other writers write about in their A to Z. Maybe the point Sandy makes about categories applies – being a Writer blog doesn’t necessarily mean you’re writing about writing. I think your choice was brilliant – a word then using it in a short flash piece. 😀

  • 4 May, 2015 at 11:16 pm
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    The time difference thing really makes a difference. I often came across blogs that were a letter ahead of me or behind me. I think most of us didn’t get to all the blogs we intended to visit.

    • 5 May, 2015 at 10:23 am
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      In some ways I think that’s part of the A to Z’s charm – you discover people on the other side of the world from you who are already in Wednesday (I’m writing this on Tuesday!) One year there was a discussion on time of posts: if the eastern bloggers posted around their midday and the N American bloggers posted just after midnight, we’d have a better chance of seeing the same letters on the same day… but does it really matter after we’ve started?

  • 6 May, 2015 at 2:40 am
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    I am glad you had a good time with this year’s A to Z! 🙂 Congratulations on the visits, the followers and the book! 🙂

    @TarkabarkaHolgy from
    Multicolored Diary
    MopDog

    • 7 May, 2015 at 10:32 am
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      Thanks, Csenge – I hope you had a good time too!

  • 6 May, 2015 at 2:49 pm
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    Congrats on finishing! Sounds like you had a busy month. I don’t think it matters too much about the theme – if the writing style is good, people will come back, that said if I found a blog about knitting I wouldn’t read it during the Challenge even if it was the most awesome author… it’s an interesting one, hadn’t thought about it before. But not everyone is going to like the same things. I think it’s good there is something for everyone in the Challenge!

    • 7 May, 2015 at 10:33 am
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      I think you’re right, Nick. Thanks for visiting!

  • 15 May, 2015 at 5:45 am
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    Dropping in as I travel the world on the A to Z Road Trip! Congratulations on finishing.

    • 15 May, 2015 at 11:39 am
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      Thanks for visiting, Paula. I must get started on my road trip. See you on the road!

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