#3 WEP GET TOGETHER - APRIL 2024 - IT'S THE A - Z CHALLENGE!

 Hi WEPpers and friends!

Already time for out third Get Together. Life is flashing by! Hit us with your news, writerly or personal. We'd love to hear from you.

And from now on, we're moving to bi-monthly posts. See you in June!

Seeing it's April, all long-term bloggers know it's time for the A - Z Challenge, currently captioned by our very own JLenni Dorner. I've asked JLenni to give us the rundown on the 2024 challenge. Here's what he sent me:

The ONLY way to officially sign-up for the 2024 April Blogging from A to Z Challenge is by filling out the Google form on the website from now until April 7. More information is available on the site.

The point of the #AtoZChallenge is both to test yourself to create 26 posts using and inspired by the letter of the day on Mondays thru Saturdays in April, as well as to "hop" to as many other blogs in the challenge and leave comments on the A to Z posts found there. This grows our blogging community and creates connections.

If you're looking to increase your blog traffic, grow the blogging community, and maybe learn something or enjoy a fun story, please consider joining us.

The A to Z team is focusing the http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com blog on blogging positivity and blogging your best life/blog.

~*~

Now moving onto what the WEP team have been up to:

Hello, writers! This is Nila with you.

Just logging in here cheers me up. Gosh, I can't believe a quarter of 2024 is already over! - can you? March is cusp season - always a good time to take stock. 

The good bits first -  I've already spent 3 weeks of these 12 weeks travelling. Including  places I've never been to before, both in and out of India. So that takes care of 'go someplace new, learn something new' - my non-resolution for every new year for decades now. 

Migratory birds at a river island in the Ganges at Kanpur.

An important industrial city in North India. First settlement

here goes back to the 13th century. Alexander MacRoberts 

set up the first textile mill here in late 19th century. Kanpur

was also a major centre in the 1857 Indian Uprising and the 

place of the infamous 'Cawnpore Massacre.'

Now for the bad and the ugly - I came back from Lucknow early this month and caught some ghastly virus which gleefully attached itself to the operated eye and scared the bejeezus out of me. Long story short, it was a serious setback so I'm still running round to the eye surgeons' and dealing with a tsunami of eyedrops and blurry vision and limited screen time. No end in sight, pardon another bad pun. 

Not sure if I will be able to make the A-Z this year, though I can't imagine not doing it either. Maybe I'll do a shadow version like I did in 2022,  flying blind and joining in as and when able.

Therefore, all that I blithely said about returning in March with supersharp vision and a different, deeper perspective, well...hah! the gods heard and they fell off their celestial seats laughing. I should have known better...Maybe the inner eye is a tad keener, who knows? certainly not me - but for sure the outer has a long way to go still. Patience has never been my strong suite and it seems to be at a particularly low ebb right now. 

However, as the proverb goes - a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. One step at a time. One day at a time. I'll get there, unlikely sooner, so...later. 

Meanwhile, you guys keep well, keep writing and keep in touch! 

~*~

Hello everyone! Renee here.

Happy Spring / Fall, everyone. Here we’re seeing more of the sun, fewer gray days and all those lovely flowers are wonderful. The pollen, though, I could live without, but it’s part of the process, isn’t it? So, if you see me out and about, I’ll be wearing a face mask. I’ve found it does wonders for keeping the sneezes away, and I’m all for that. Tax season is almost over, too, and I’m thrilled, except that I haven’t done my own yet. This is odd, as I normally have it done by the end of February. Talk about not being on the ball this year.

I’ve done little to no writing this month, which greatly bothers me, but I hope to make up for that in the months after the tax season.

To end my short post, I’ll leave you with this quote: 

“Believe in yourself, and your dreams will dance towards you!”

Photo by Frames For Your Heart on Unsplash

~*~

Hi all! Denise here. My month ...:

Well, yippee, we are finally having some autumn weather after a very rough, hot summer which never seemed to end. But it's raining non-stop, so we're all looking forward to bright, sunny weather again!

One thing I haven't mentioned, is that I'm going all out brushing up on my French via Duolingo since last July. It's fun. Takes time though.

Of course the cooler weather helps with writing and I've grabbed every chance I can to print out my complete ms of Angelique's Paris Cookery School (102,000+ words) and self-edit, try to cut etc. Will be ready for Renee soon. (UPDATE - down to 101, 300+)

As my ms nears completion, my mind is on marketing. Due to family situations, I've completely neglected marketing, and any published writer knows without a large fan base, any book relies on marketing to be noticed amongst Amazon's 23 million books available to buy. 

Marketing changes all the time. I'm ready to give up on Amazon marketing for everything except for those free days as it changes constantly and is so confusing. I follow a lot of excellent Facebook marketing groups and I'm writing down ideas as they come to light. That way, I'm up to the minute. My plan is to market from release date. See how that goes. I'm such a plod when it comes to writing speed, it may be months yet.

I just bought a book on Social Media marketing, which is where the action is these days:

Let's face it, if writing is your business you need all the help you can get!

And the time has come to go to my cover artist who illustrated my Paris Dreams cover. I'm going to hire her for new covers for my paranormal series (which were created by Fiverr) and for my two new novels. I enjoy this aspect of self-publishing even though it takes so many run-throughs to get it right. 

I'm hoping for something more like this ABOVE for my vampire series, although I'm going with different colored roses. I thought readers would be interested in the Renaissance/medieval theme so that is what my covers represent, but even though I have had millions of 'impressions' on Amazon ads, no click throughs on covers like this which I liked:

 

Ah, self-publishing means try, try, try again until you hit it!

Any luck with marketing?

Any suggestions?

~*~

Hi everyone! Jemi here 😊

It's almost spring here in Northern Ontario! We were down to no snow in February/early March, but then winter returned. We'll see if April can get things smoothed out.

In book news, the No Fail Heroes series is almost here. Book #1, No Good Deed, releases on April 16th. If you like small-town romances with suspense, this one might be for you. The dog Piper rescues is on of my favourite characters ever. Oreo is a total charmer. Barnes and Noble selected No Good Deed as a Top Indie Favorite!

With a surname like his, Troy Phail has learned to do whatever it takes to succeed, but growing his town is out of his experience. He hires an urban planner for two weeks to help him. The sweet and sexy planner turns out to be brilliant—and exactly the kind of woman Troy has dreamed about. When danger from her past threatens, Troy will do anything to keep her safe. Failure is not an option.

If you'd like to read the prequel to the series, sign up for my newsletter to read No Chance In Hell. Happy April, everyone!

~*~

Hello everyone! Sonia here.

It's summer time in Delhi and the mercury is rising. I am busy packing the house, because I am moving to a new Indian state and city. It will be much warmer than Delhi and am I ready to brave it out! But I'm looking forward to the move. The city of Jodhpur is quieter and slow compared to the capital, and I think it might work for my writing.

On the writing front, I have few submission-ready poems and a short story, that I've been slowly working on over the last two months and I am going to squeeze some time into my busy schedule to submit them. I am glad that I could discipline myself to write a little on most days in March, and hope it continues to be like this for the rest of the year. 

If you'd like to listen to me recite a poem, I have one on the blog by Edgar A. Guest titled, It Couldn't Be Done. I'm sure you'll come back inspired. Here's a picture from last month, a stubborn story of resilience that finds a mention in this post.

Enjoy the sunny April days, until we meet next time. 

~*~

Hello everyone! Olga here.

No news here. I haven't even been writing anything, except one article for my newspaper. 

As to the A - Z post, Not sure. I can't come up with anything from the letters JLenni gave us. Plus the theme of blogging. If anyone comes up with anything, I might be able to expand. Otherwise, I'll pass. 

UPDATE: Have had an aha moment. Inspiration hit! Will do the A - Z post JLenni asked for.

Can't wait to read your news in the post, ladies.

~*~

That's it for most of the team this month. Looking forward to your posts. 

Denise for:

See you in June!