Awesome Stuff and the Big Announcement!

Thanks again to everyone who participated in the Insecure Writer’s Support Group!There were some awesome posts, including this funny one from Mark and a touching and inspirational one from Youngblood. I’ve tried to visit as many as possible and I’ve also cleaned up the list a bit, eliminating those who aren’t participating.

I also had a very funny surprise visual review of CassaStar from Jesse at Not Worth Mentioning. Thanks dude, it was hilarious!

Saturday, January 7, I have a guest post with Laura B. Writer. She is a marketing consultant who critiques writer/author blogs during the week and conducts interviews on the weekends. So stop by and say hey on Saturday!

But today’s main event it the April 2012 A to Z Challenge!

First – what is the Challenge?

This amazing month long blogfest was created by Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out. If you subtract Sundays from April, you then have 26 days--one day for each letter of the alphabet. (This year April 1 is on a Sunday, so we will start on that day.) Using this premise, you start beginning April 1 with a topic themed on the letter A, then on April 2 another topic with the letter B, and so on until you finish on April 30 with the letter Z. This will be the third annual A to Z Challenge!

The purpose of the Challenge is to blog almost daily following the alphabet – and to make friends. Yes, many gain blog followers, but as those who’ve participated in the past will tell you, the real treasure lies in making new friends.

I was a last-minute entry to the first A to Z Challenge. I think Lee is still laughing at the comment I made when I decided to do it. There were about a hundred of us and I was randomly selecting entertainment stuff that began with the corresponding letter. (For Q, I posted about Q-Bert and the movie "Q" – lame!) But I made some great friends in the process, including the wonderful Yvonne Lewis and Ella.

Last year, Lee enlisted the help of several co-hosts and I was honored to be among those bloggers. Were we blown away when almost thirteen hundred participants signed up! (And for those of you who were overwhelmed last year, we have a plan for this year.) I had a theme this time and featured two blogger buddies each day whose blogs corresponded with the letter. It was an awesome month and I made a ton of new friends.

Now we are gearing up for the April 2012 A to Z Challenge and signups begin January 30. But today’s big announcement is the introduction of this year’s hosts:

Arlee Bird at Tossing it Out
Alex J. Cavanaugh
Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs
Jenny Pearson at Pearson Report
Matthew McNish at The QQQE
Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie
Tina Downey at Life is Good
DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude
Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse
Elizabeth Mueller
Damyanti Biswas at AmlokiBlogs
Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small

We are armed and ready!

To keep up with other announcement regarding the Challenge, please follow the A to Z Challenge Blog.

This is one of the most amazing challenge you will undertake and one of the most rewarding – join us!

Are you planning to participate? Were you a part of last year’s event? Did you make some new friends? What awesome things happened to you as a result of the Challenge? This Ninja would like to know…
And if you have a second, scroll to the bottom of my blog - I completely forgot my publisher was doing this!