For a list of all my A-Z posts click the A-Z 2024 Menu Button at top or go back in time with 2020 – 2023…
I already began the process of reflection on my 2024 A-Z Challenge in my X is for eXigesis post – that being my way around the lack of an X commodity so I will cover slightly different ground here. To my mind, there would be no point in setting out on the journey which is A- Z, if I were to pick a theme about which I was so well versed that there was nothing to be learned by me too! If that were the case then I doubt whether the writing would be as compelling as I hope it has been for each of the years I have participated -five now… I like to learn new things and I feel that my excitement informs the writing. For example, I learned at school, about the theft of rubber plants that broke the Brasilian monopoly on Rubber and I had read a book called “Genocide” about the Belgian atrocities in the Congo, but somehow it all came together in a more insightful way in my “R” post – and those insights into the history of empires, geo-politics, and the drivers of economics were repeated time after time with the story of different commodities.
Talking of “well versed” – I made it a double challenge this year by writing a poem – also with an alphabetically matching form following a plunge into poetry after the 2023 A-Z which saw a lot of poets visiting my site and I have certainly had my poetic mind stretched by this exercise. I feel I can understand what it might be like to be a Poet Laureate and to have to deliver poems on demand on unlikely or difficult sources of inspiration – Royal Weddings, Openings and Deaths… Many poets online write to all sorts of prompts every day (and I know some who write to several each day) but if the muse don’t move you – you don’t have to do it – this poetic challenge on the other hand, was determined by the intersection of the commodity and the poetry form of the day and so included a Haiku about Heating Oil, an Ideogramme about Investment and a Pylon Poem poem about Palladium!
Each year since my 2020 pantsing it debut in A-Z (I only discovered it on April 1st) I have vowed to have all my posts pre-prepared and this year I was halfway there at the start of the month and had the last post finished two days ahead of time with only finishing touches like links to other posts to be done the night before – but one thing I simply forgot to do this year, was to use the daily letters at the top of the page which is a shame because Ronel did an excellent job of creating them and indeed all the graphics this year – I will do better next year and I see that the graphic for the 2025 Theme Reveal is already designed! So yes I will be back – all being well, and I already have a theme planned for 2025…
I enjoyed the visits of the team who were supportive as always and of course it was a joy to visit and be visited by others on the Challenge and I will be reviewing them and others I intend to visit now that the madness of April is over – in Roadtrip posts. One thing that surprises me (each year) is how few people Comment and take the chance of posting the link to their daily post, on the official April Blogging from A to Z Challenge #AtoZChallenge daily post – after all – is this not the perfect gathering place at which to check in and start your daily promotion. I start each morning by promoting my post both at the official site and on my Facebook page (which then shows up on Instagram). I’m not sure that they bring in many visits but then the best and most enjoyable method of self-promotion is via visiting and commenting on the blogs of fellow travellers…
Favourite comment: “I think you’ve got the weirdest theme out there for this A to Z. Congrats. This is brilliant. And I’m rolling my eyes at the poem.” by Liz A of lawsofgravity.blogspot.com on Soybeans and a Solage.
Lastly, I like to illustrate my posts copiously, either with photos gleaned from the web or generated by my prompts in Midjourney – so here is a small selection of my favourite Midjourney pictures from this year.
And here it is – the reward for all that effort…
Congratulations! You really did have a unique double topic and the AI illustrations have me interested in AI for the first time. I used to have a signature, but when it stopped working a few challenges ago, I just forget to put a link. I will have to remedy that next year.
Thanks Kristin – do try Mid journey – I wrote about AI last year and there is button at the top of the blog – it’s a fair introduction…
My first attempt at the A to Z Challenge, like yours was last minute. I discovered the challenge towards the end of March 2013. By the end of April I had a few posts prepared in advance. My blog was very new then and had very few followers and very few posts. Like Topsy it has grown!
Thank you for all your comments. I’ve included a link for any visitors here, who may be interested. (I posted a link of the A to Z Challenge’s Facebook page as a regular thing rather than on the official blog.)
https://suestrifles.wordpress.com/2024/05/02/reflections-post-2024-atozchallenge/
Next year I will definitely use their Facebook to publicise…
I love the combination of poetry and products – when two things you don’t think will ever Venn together Venn together, the overlapping curve can be especially beautiful.
Well put Erin!
Your blog is one I just found via the reflections link page. You are so brave – I can’t believe how you tackled this. I’ll be going back and checking out your entries later today. Congratulations on completing the challenge!
https://dbmcnicol.com/a-afterthought/
It was an interesting theme, combining the two. I appreciate your “copious” use of images! If a blog is just a big block of text, there is little chance I’ll get through it. Or even start.
Congratulations on completion!
Thank you Lisa – I just looked back at my last years posts and they were so much shorter than I remember but this years are really long and I think many people would agree with you and not venture in without the pictures…
You choose a very interesting double theme. I enjoyed reading your posts.
Thank you Sadje
*Ducks head* I only meant it was a very creative theme… Anyway, congrats on making it to the end. And now back to the blogging trenches of the rest of the year.
Truly – I loved it – it made my day…
Congratulations! Waiting for your theme revea for 2025. This was the first year I participated and I was just learning as I went theough the challenge every day. Hopefully would do a better job visiting others next year.
The more you can get written ahead of time, the more time you have for visiting other people – I did better than previous years having half pre-written but now that I know what I am going to do next year, I will start writing soon. As to what it is – you’ll just have to wait till next years Theme Reveal – no spoilers…
Thank you for visiting and commenting on my blog. Your poetry was fun.
Thank you too Jamie…
Your posts were so intense, intellectual and informative they all should have been listed under the Letter I. I could have spent a week reading and pondering each one.
Thanks Karen, I don’t blog regularly in the rest of the year – only when the feeling moves me but for the month of April, I pour everything into writing pieces which I hope satisfy on several levels and comments like yours are much appreciated…
I loved your theme! Amusing, educational, and literary! =D
And congratulations for completing another trip around the alphabet.
Thank you Anne – you too…
Having read these reflections I am off to visit your posts.
Congrats on finishing the challenge. I enjoyed the posts I read. And thanks for your support of the graphics I made 🙂
Ronel visiting for Reflections for A to Z Blogging Challenge 2024
Thanks Ronel – I wish I had remembered to use your lovely initial letters…
Congrats on completing the 2024 A to Z. I agree with your comments about people not commenting. I’m curious about this too. In general terms I wonder why people don’t interact, somehow, when it’s so easy. There are always way more views/visits than their are likes/comments. For me, I use social media to promote myself and my work – not always in obvious ways but simply by getting involved as a human interacting with other humans. Anyway…on we go!
Thanks for visiting – one thing though is that you don’t seem to have a comments section on your blog – there is a contact form but I couldn’t find comments as such. An interesting book and I will come back and read more of it. I saw a mention of paperbark trees – after visiting Australia in 1968, my mother started making paperbark+ collage landscape pictures and a relative in W.A. used to send parcels of bark until it was made illegal…