A big thank you to the wonderful hosts of The Big Reveal Bloghop, Mina Lobo and David Macaulay. What a great opportunity to reveal my theme for the 2013 A to Z Challenge. I also love to peek at other bloggers' themes and see what's coming for next month. This is a bloghop, so please visit the other participants.
Last year's challenge was a fantastic one. I received such a huge response about my story, I self-published it under the title FEARLESS. It's free to download if you haven't read it yet.
I've also gotten a lot of requests to do a sequel. As much fun as it was to write about Abby, Demetrius, and Tawa, I will not be writing any more stories about them at this time.
BUT the world of the Fearless (warriors who battle monsters spawned by children's imaginations) is awesome. There are many Fearless in the world who have their own stories.
This year for the challenge, I will be writing about another warrior. Her name is Danielle, and she's a little wilder than sweet Abby. Her guide Fenn is a straight laced fellow who doesn't tolerate any funny business. Except, being an inanimate object, he can't stop Danielle from doing what she wants. There are children that need to be saved, monsters galore, and a gorgeous single dad.
Last year, I posted the entire story. While readers loved it, I had one complaint: the posts were too long. One thing I greatly appreciated about some of the posts I read last year was that they were short. I could get through several blogs when the posts were 200 words or less. There were blogs that had longer posts that I thoroughly enjoyed, but there were also several clever and entertaining short posts.
I started writing Danielle's story. I meant for it to be shorter than FEARLESS, but it's not going to be. So I had to sit back and make a decision. Do I post the entire story and have posts near 1000 words long, or should I try something different with it?
I'm going to take a chance and go for shorter posts. I'll be posting snippets of 200 to 300 words from the story. I'll be giving you the tale from beginning to end, but just bits. I'm nervous about this decision. I don't want to let anyone down after last year's challenge, but I hope everyone will still love to read it. It will be a challenge in itself to pick out the right snippets to keep readers interested and give the full feeling of the story.
Good luck to everyone participating in this year's A to Z Challenge. I can't wait to see what you come up with!
You have less than one day left to enter The Harbinger blog tour giveaway for your chance to win the first four ebooks of the 13th Floor series!
I think people are still going to love reading the excerpts. It's going to be like a month long teaser! I need to go check out FEARLESS. :)
ReplyDeleteI look forward to learning more about this character. I too have been aiming for shorter posts for my A to Z pre-posts. Sometimes it's easy to get carried away with the writing though!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Elise. It will be a month full of snippets to tease your readers with.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great idea Christine. I will be following for sure!
ReplyDeletesounds great. you'll have the book, the A to Z will be a great teaser. I think is going to be great! I'll definitely follow because I'm interested to see your process - poems are easy for me but prose... I lave lots of ideas and I'm a fast writer, but I lose interst fast after connecting the dots and stop writing. this is what I try to change through A to Z and you going with snippets will help me even more!
ReplyDeleteVery cool! Can't wait to read it.
ReplyDeleteGreat idea, Christine! I'll be stopping by!
ReplyDeleteAwesome! Can't wait to read it. ☺
ReplyDeleteI love story time, I'm excited!!
ReplyDeleteThat's exciting. And, thanks in advance for making them shorter. Gives everyone a chance to visit more people. Good luck.
ReplyDeleteCool idea! We'll be stopping by! :D
ReplyDeleteAnd here I thought I had it difficult. I am really interested in reading your story. Being such a creative girl, I'm sure everything will be all right.
ReplyDeleteOoo! Very cool. I've been trying to keep my posts short as well. My second goal is to ask a question at the end of each post to encourage conversation.
ReplyDeleteInteresting A to Z choice, to actually get some writing done! Good luck with it, and I'll check in to read snippets.
ReplyDeleteAnother interesting and very specialized theme - thanks for taking part in the Big Reveal - David
ReplyDeleteOhhh good luck! That's amazing! I couldn't imagine posting an entire book on my blog...let alone snippets to keep it congruent!
ReplyDeleteThis is my first year with the A to Z challenge, even though I've watched it grow over the last 3 years. I'm also taking part in the Reveal. I'm trying to share some positivity with my #WriteMotivation friends on Twitter (and to help keep me positive in the process)
Hope to see you around :)
Jamie Dement (LadyJai)
http://writebackwards.we3dements.com
I am totally in...
ReplyDeleteJeremy [Retro] #66
AtoZ Challenge Co-Host
Oh No, Let's Go... Crazy
That's a good idea. I am looking forward to reading the snippets.
ReplyDeleteVery unique idea. Looking forward to it.
ReplyDeleteYou are so busy writing! I have no idea how you have time to do it all!
ReplyDeleteSounds like an interesting subject. I've gradually learnt the fine art of making shorter posts myself. My average post length used to be about 800-1500 words, and now most of my posts are under 1000. I think there might only be one A-Z post this year that's over 1000, and that's only barely over the mark, not 1600 words.
ReplyDeleteHi Christine .. I'd hoped to write very short - but mine will be about 200 words ...
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to yours and to reading your books .. cheers Hilary
Christine, I absolutely trust that you will pick just the right snippets to keep us hooked. In the A to Z, shorter is definitely better unless we all stop sleeping. :)
ReplyDeleteA2Z Mommy And What’s In between
I loved reading Fearless last year and know I will love this one too. Can't wait to read it! :)
ReplyDeleteThis sounds great! And I am totally checking out Fearless!
ReplyDeleteThank you, folks! I'm glad there's still excitement about the Fearless world. The posts are done and ready to go. Here's to a great April!
ReplyDeleteI see where you might be nervous, but think it's pretty smart to go w/shorter posts for A to Z. I'm trying to keep that in mind for myself for this year as well. Danielle's story sounds fun! (Especially w/the cute single dad; W00F!) ;-)
ReplyDeleteYou are always productive... busy writing...
ReplyDeleteI need to check out Fearless.
Sounds great to me! I'll read it! I just finished my posts today and I'm ready for April too. :)
ReplyDeleteLove your idea for the A-Z. Short posts is a good idea for the challenge.
ReplyDeleteI can see how short posts would be best.
ReplyDeleteAllison (Geek Banter)
Hi Christine. Thanks for your comment on my site. Thought I'd stop by and get to know you a little. I've been out of commission for about three weeks. First, a bad cold, second, I hurt my back bad enough to need the emergency room and chiropractic care for almost two weeks. I'm out of pain and almost back to normal. Anyway, that's why I didn't respond to you sooner. Looking forward to A to Z-ing it with everyone. Also looking forward to reading some of your work. Have a great week.
ReplyDeleteI'll be enjoying the excerpts.. can't wait to read them:)
ReplyDeleteSounds good and best of luck in April..I'll be looking forward to checking your posts out!
ReplyDeleteI also decided to go for much shorter posts this time. It will be a very interesting experiment to see how it goes with readers getting snippets of the story. Best of luck with it!
ReplyDeleteWow, this sounds wonderful. Looking forward to your posts
ReplyDeleteI can't wait to meet wild Danielle! Sounds like another fun year.
ReplyDeleteRhonda
Laugh-Quotes.com
Oh, what a fun and creative idea for the A-to-Z challenge! Can't wait to see these snippets. :D
ReplyDelete