Ready, set, blog! (reflective) - blog challenges ahead

Did you ever get a "little set in your ways"?
Is it time to push your writing muscles a bit?
A blog challenge may be just what you need!

With over 150 book recommendations, BooksYALove heads into its 12th month with a wow, as I participate in the A to Z Blog Challenge in April.

Rather than just posting 3 books a week, I will be posting on 26 of April's 30 days according to the Challenge's alphabetical schedule, starting with A on Sunday, April 1 (no fooling).

Naturally, trying to align the alphabet with the stack of great YA books that I want to recommend isn't as easy as I'd hoped. Using book titles would be simple - if I had some that began with X or didn't have multiple titles that all start with the same letter. Ditto for authors' names, last or first. So, there will be a few entries that get shoehorned into a letter slot because of their subject or a major character.

But why do a blog challenge in the first place? You've heard that it takes 30 days to acquire a new habit, so a month-long challenge with a set framework and some coaching will make your success more likely, as will being accountable to the challenge organizers and fellow bloggers as we exercise our blog-writing 'muscles' and encourage each other.

On April 30th, my blog's first birthday, I'll take another deep breath and plunge into the full 31-day Wordcount Blogathon, with a big thank-you to its host Michelle Rafter. Yep, I finally began blogging so that I could participate in the 2011 Wordcount Blogathon. Lots of excellent advice, a forum to share our posts, guest post exchange - you should sign up for the 2012 version, too! It's free, you won't get any sales pitches, and your blogging muscles will get great exercise. Sign-ups will begin soon, so I'll remind you!

Ready, set, April!
**kmm
(photograph of lichen on oak branch (c)2012 H.B. Massingill Jr. - thanks, Dad!)