This year was my 8th in the challenge!
All in all: I had fun, as usual. I'm very proud of my Fruit Folktales theme - I scheduled all the posts in advance, and I had a great time tracking down and researching stories.
Participation seemed to have dropped a little, but I still got about ten thousand views in one month, which is definitely nice. I did notice the phenomenon other participants are mentioning: there were less comments this year, and it seemed like less people went visiting around unless they were visited first (and too many never visited back). I really hope that activity will pick up again next year. Still, I had many, many lovely comments (12-15 per post on average), and I found some new and fascinating blogs!
My three most popular #FruitFolktales posts were (unexpectedly):
Eggplants versus Ghosts
Daterella
Perilous Persimmons
Some of my favorite blog themes this year:
Nancy Jardine's "Ancient Roman Scotland During the Flavian Era"
Story Crossroads' "Golden... All things that glimmer" (folktale theme)
Anne E. G. Nydam's "Fantastical Creatures" (check out the Kickstarter!)
Sarah Zama's "Berlin Cabaret"
Carrie-Anne Brownian's "Lesser known stars of the silent film era"
Nilanjana Bose's "Bengali history and music"
Thank you all for participating, visiting, and commenting! The fun of A to Z is in the community. I am looking forward to next year!
You did have a very fun theme! Cheers to another great year.
ReplyDeleteI must say your stories were the one's I most looked forward to and enjoyed every day. Sadly participation has dropped year on year particularly among short story writers such as us. Well done.
ReplyDeleteHere's what I thought...'
Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed my posts :) I was in the Mythology & Folklore section, since all my tales were folktales, and yes, it also had less people than usual. Hopefully next year will have more :)
DeleteI enjoyed your series of stories, they were fun & fascinating. I'm hoping I will have less personal life issues next year and who knows, maybe I will participate again.
ReplyDeleteDB McNicol, author
A to Z Reflections
My Author Page
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I liked the posts of yours I read during A2Z. Until just a few days ago, my WP was not meshing with Blogspot blogs, so when I commented, the comments just disappeared. Hoping this one works. One thing I didn't put in my reflections is that I like it when the commentors include a link like you do to your blog, so as soon as the comment is read you can go and check out the other person's blog.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely enjoyed your theme :-) Can't wait to see what you come up with next year!
ReplyDeleteRonel visiting with the A-Z Challenge Reflections: Reflecting on the A-Z Challenge 2019
you did a great job as always and i always learn so much from your challenges! will never look at fruit the same way ;)
ReplyDeleteJoy at The Joyous Living
I loved your theme, and as always the tales. And bonus goodness, I increased my consumption of fruits during the challenge as well. :-)
ReplyDeleteI found the amount of comments I received to be lower than previous years too, and strangely, this is the year I managed to leave the most comments so I really expected more. Still, I enjoyed the challenge as always :)
ReplyDeleteDebbie
I always love your folktale themes, but this one was a particularly fun focus. Thanks for the call-out. I'm honored! =)
ReplyDeleteI have loved every one of your Challenges I've read and this year was an extra fun theme. You've changed my whole approach to fruit! :)
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for the shout out, a singular honour! Makes me feel real special! And thank you for the hosting and the encouragement.
What you've said about participation I have noticed too, and it's been progressively decreasing since 2016/2017, which were my best years at the Challenge in terms of numbers. But...this doesn't affect my enjoyment of the A-Z, I totally love the writing, the research, the rigour, and last but not the least, the reading.
Such a great challenge, and I enjoyed a lot reading your folktales! As it's my first time participating, I don't know about more or less comments, but I noticed some bloggers comment back on their own blog, not returning the visit. Quite strange.
ReplyDeleteHi Tarkabarka, I noticed fewer comments, as well, but I assumed it was because I had a hard time keeping up due to a family crisis. As usual, your posts were some of my favorites. Who doesn't love a strange story involving fruit?
ReplyDeleteSince discovering your site some A-Z years ago, I've found your posts entertaining and invaluable on folklore, especially the connections. I admit that I only managed to visit the sites I follow - in most cases as most do A to Z.
ReplyDeleteAww! Thanks so much for the shoutout to my theme :-)
ReplyDeleteI have indeed noticed a drop in engagement this year, though I can't really talk because I did less of my work than in the previous year (it was due to fatigue for some very intense beginning of the year activity, but still...).
I'm trying to cath up with all the blogs I bookmarked this year, which were fewer than last years, by the way. Maybe it's just my impression, but I felt that lots of bloggers concentrated on themselves and their work, rather than reaching out to readers, trying to intercept what may be interesting for 'them'. But as I said, it might just be my impression.