Blogging from A to Z April Challenge: H

fter a break of four years, from 2018 to 2021,

I’m doing the Blogging from A to Z April Challenge again this year!

In 2017, I collated all my blog posts up till then

In 2016, I focused on JRR Tolkien and the Inklings

In 2015, I featured books I’d read based on a reading challenge

In 2014, I didn’t have a theme!

In 2013, I collated all my Twitter favourites up till then
(it was a LOT easier to organize Twitter back then)

 In 2012, I listed all my favourite books

Then, in 2022, I focused on fellow authors and bloggers, covering all the guest posts, blog hops, cover reveals, interviews, and more, that I’ve featured over the years.

This year I’m going to focus on writing by me and my family!

Please share links to your own stories and crafts in the comments!

 

This year's A to Z Team is:

Arlee Bird (founder)
👨 he/him @
Tossing it Out

J Lenni Dorner (captain)
👨 he/him or 🧑🏽 they/them @
Blog of Author J Lenni Dorner

Zalka Csenge Virág
👩 she/her @
The Multicolored Diary

John Holton @
The Sound of One Hand Typing

Jayden R Vincente (spreadsheets)
👩 she/her @
J R Vincente Erotica Writer

*Anonymous* (graphics)
🥔 @
*.com

 

Thank you to the team!

 

Also, each day will feature a new chapter from my new story, Goldenheart, a love story set in Montreal. There will be photos!

 

And now...

is for...

Houseparties!

We have held writers' houseparties in any number of locations, including Cherry Hill (at which my character had an out-of-time affair with Lord Rochester), Constantinople (the ninth party). Here are the locations of the first nine parties; the following one was held at The Mall at the End of Time.

At this point, you're going, "but what is a houseparty?"

Once upon a time, I wrote a guest post on Kait Nolan's blog, describing the mayhem of a writers' houseparty. Later, I summarised the definition here on the blog and updated the description a little too:

Houseparties are a great way to thrust your characters out of their familiar worlds and learn things about them that you may not have known before. Writing for a houseparty is just like writing your first draft – fast paced and fluid, with no second guessing; anything goes at a houseparty, from magic to skipping between time periods, to anachronistic events and language, to romantic interludes...

Party number 11 was held at Madcap Mansion. After that, Night at the Museum was number 12, and for number 13, we were in San Francisco! It was beautiful and magical; here are some fun details about all the hijinks we got up to. I can't believe that was already six years ago.

All of those parties were held on the compuserve books and writers community -- and then compuserve folded. Before we migrated to thelitforum.com, we held The Grand Finale houseparty!

But the tradition continued. In the new location, our first houseparty was on RMS Titanic.

There've been a few other, less formal events scattered here and there, all full to the brim with fun.

What a ride it's been!

Do you write collaboratively with other authors (or artists)?

Have you ever written someone else's characters?