I write stuff for kids...and muse on writing, children's books, and the publishing industry in general

Monday, May 2, 2011

Taking pride in ourselves (one of those warm and fuzzy posts!) and my thoughts on the A-Z Challenge

Our lives are so busy, I think we sometimes forget to spend a little time taking pride in ourselves and in those around us. With a new month beginning (Happy May everyone!) I thought I'd share with you some of the things I'm proud of this week.
  • I'm proud of my eleven-month-old daughter, who took her first steps the other day.
  • I'm proud of myself for (successfully) rewriting a segment of html code after the codewriter made a number of mistakes. Six months ago I would have panicked and simply done without the blog changes I needed to make.
  • I'm proud of myself for completing the A-Z Challenge. A post a day (almost) - not an easy task to undertake. Now I just need to catch up with all you lovely people who left comments (*grins*).
  • I'm proud of my critique partner, who took me to task for a less-than-satisfactory rewrite of my query letter. I'm also proud of myself, for taking what she said on board and diving back into the query water to swim in a whole new direction.

How about you: What are you proud of this week?

My thoughts on the A-Z Challenge:

I really enjoyed taking part in the Challenge, and met so many fantabulous people. I'll be stalking many of them regularly from now on *grins*! I can definitely see the advantage of planning and preparing ahead. I decided to go with a themed A-Z series for this Challenge (My A-Z of Writing Tips), and will be doing the same next year - much easier to collect my thoughts when I have an overarching topic already planned.

A suggestion: I wonder if it might be possible to have different linky-lists depending on what type of blog you have. Then we can connect with people we want to meet the most (writers in my case), and photographers (for example) can connect with other photographers. Just a thought :)

How about you: What was your Challenge experience?





37 comments:

Pearson Report said...

Way to go Rachael!

Those are wonderful things to be proud of.
Isn't if fun watching those first few steps little children take - so sweet, so unstable, yet so eager.

I've enjoyed connecting with you Rachael, let's keep it going!

Since you are on my "reading list" I will be checking in often.

Happy Thoughts and Happy May!

Cheers, Jenny

C R Ward said...

Wonderful things to be proud of. :-)

I have an award for you HERE

Grandpa said...

Watching toddlers learn to walk is exciting - I know, I have been through that many times!

We enjoyed all your posts Rach, and learned a number of things from them. Thank you for that.

I'm proud of my bountiful harvests with some very complimentary remarks from customers about their quality.

Above all I'm proud to have completed the A-Z Challenge, reconnect with old friends and made new ones.

Grandpa
Life on The Farm

Sophia said...

Congrats on making it through the A-Z Challenge. You should also be proud of another successful crusade, no?
- Sophia.

Mary@GigglesandGuns said...

Thanks, Rach, for all you do.
I'm proud that I passed on y yard work to spend six hours in the outdoors with my great grandson.
I finished A to Z with only one glitch.
I stood up to someone who has been bullying me for years.
Here's to a happy May.

MaryV

Cally Jackson said...

How exciting, the first steps of your bub. What a wonderful moment :-)

I'm proud of spending the time over the long week to see 15 members of my and my husband's families over the Labour Day long weekend, at three individual get-togethers. Family is so important, but making time to catch up can be difficult when all I want to do is edit my manuscript!

And I'm also proud of brainstorming my first blogfest - look out for a post about this on Wednesday! :-)

Deana said...

We really need these don't we. So cool your little one is walking...well, now the fun really starts right:)

Anonymous said...

I'm really proud of the US Navy Seals today! And I'm proud that I'm almost done with another manuscript. Lots to be happy (and proud) about today.

Zan Marie said...

Wow! What a list!
I'm proud of my 100th post and 200th follower. And that I was able to create my very own blogfest. ; )

Crystal said...

Way to go Rach! Woot! And how cute that your took her first steps. Yay!!!

I'm proud of myself for keeping up with the blogging and writing, and for putting myself out there writing-wise and dating-wise.

I'm also proud of myself for volunteering as a dog walker at the Toronto Humane Society.

:-)

Bluestocking said...

I'm impressed with all A to Z challenge participants. It was a huge effort. That's why I didn't do it :) Congrats!

Carol Riggs said...

How great that your daughter took her first steps! Very cool. It was exciting when my daughters did that (a loooong time ago). Also impressive is your coding fix. I've only slightly dabbled; I usually leave that techy stuff for my hubbs.

Rah for finishing (and hosting!) the A-Z; no small accomplishment there, and also for your query doggedness. Go, you!

I'm proud that I have nabbed an agent, after 10 years of writing. Woo! Added bonuses: she's a super agent, and she belongs to THE top notch agency in juvenile lit. Double and triple woo! Hard to settle down to do my revisions. LOL

Jordan said...

Great list. The first steps one is my fave—my youngest will be 11 months on Thursday!

I'm proud that I asked my husband for help last night, and that I'm not pushing myself to do something completely insane (edit an entire novel in a week as I prepare for a conference)!

Laura Josephsen said...

Awww, how wonderful that your daughter took her first steps. I remember well my kids' first steps; it's such a special thing. ^_^

Congrats on finishing the challenge and on all of your other accomplishments!

Suze said...

Congratulations on your daughter's first steps- big moment!

Vicki Tremper said...

Omigosh, I love that photo in this post! What gorgeous sparkling eyes!

I'm proud that despite fighting motivation problems and migraines, I'm still on track to finish my revision within the deadline I set for myself.

E. M. Prokop said...

Great things to be proud of Rach! That's wonderful...
I finished the A-Z Challenge too...I did enjoy it and learned quite a bit..it was at times a welcome distraction from reality, and at other times a magnet towards reality..I think I'll miss it..I need to come up with some other theme thingy now, just to keep up the writing!
Congrats on all your list of 'proud' moments!

Coreene Callahan said...

Awesome things to be proud of. . .especially your beautiful daughter.

So, what am I proud of? The fact I've gotten up for 32 days straight at 4:45 a.m. to write. I got a heck of a lot done this month on my WIP. Onward and Upward. I'm shooting for another straight month of writing!

Maria Cisneros Toth Blog said...

A baby's first steps are so exciting! :-)

Getting my blog started has been like taking baby steps. Having fun learning the cyber ropes. Also, happy to finish my historical fiction MG. And grateful for finding two jobs especially in this economy.

Very thankful! :-)

Alleged Author said...

Query letters can suck my big toe. :P Here's to champagne wishes and caviar dreams in your pursuit of a wonderful query! You can definitely do it!

Anonymous said...

ahhh lovely!
I was so amazed and inspired by all the people who joined in with the A-Z - well done!

S.A. Larsenッ said...

You have some wonderful things to be thankful for!!

I'm proud and thankful that I've taken sound advice from agents and am rewriting my YA novel. I'm in the second Act and loving it more than the first time I wrote the story. :)

Anonymous said...

Congrats--you've got a lot to be proud of. Good luck with querying! We'll be searching for agents together, it looks like.

Lisa Potts said...

I'm proud to have been a member of both the Crusades and plan to be back for the third.

Thanks for all that you do, Rach!

Colene Murphy said...

You know, that is wonderful advice. Hurray for baby steps and awesome learning to code (I still glaze over at a lot of that...) and necessary rewrites! Good luck on your query!

Lisa Gail Green said...

YAY!!! Those are all things to be proud of! Especially #1. :D I give you kudos for the A-Z challenge. It was just too much for me to undertake.

Julie Hedlund said...

Hurray for your daughter's first steps. Such sweet days...

I'm proud that I finally have the house on the market after LOTS of preparation.

I'm proud that I dove back into my writing the second I was finished working on the house.

Unknown said...

Oh, your little girl taking her first steps must be SO CUTE! (Did you get a video?! Someone in my parents house is a video of my little sister taking her first steps 19 or so years ago...)

I'm proud of myself for figuring out how to map multiple links onto a single image. Yay for html! (which also terrified me not even a year ago!)

San said...

This week I'm proud to have begun a new direction...last week was not my best week. :) ...in fact, the A to Z was the best part about it, seriously :)

I just stopped by to see your reflections, Rach and say THANK YOU - MORE hugs, YAY!!!

You are so sweet and I do love your style :)

Congrats on those first steps too, how amazing is THAT?!!!!!!!!

Nas said...

What wonderful things to be proud of. A cute baby taking the very first steps...sigh...mine all grown up now!

All the best!

J.L. Campbell said...

Hi, Rach,

Yours is the second blog today on which I've seen this suggestion. It would certainly be easier to keep in touch with those bloggers who have the same interests.

Hope the query comes up shiny and sleek and yeah, I'd be proud of my little one too. I got a big one (9 y/o) that I'm proud of.

Denise Covey said...

It is great to stop and think about what we are proud of, and way to go, little first steps. How lovely. What about the challenge? You should be proud of bringing all those bloggers together!

The A-Z idea of different themes is good, but I enjoyed random hits on different types of posts. It doesn't all have to be about writing techniques. I loved doing my travel posts, which is also a form of very lucrative writing.

Further to that, Francine Howarth and I have begun a Romance Writers Group now that the challenge is over (and really the groups didn't hook up much.) I'll give you the link in case you'd like to check it out.

Denise<3

Join the new Romantic Friday Writers Group.

Arlee Bird said...

Good things to be proud of. Rach, thanks for being such an active part of this Challenge. Whew! It was quite the Challenge! Prewritten posts is a good idea.

The separate lists have been suggested by many and was something that became evident to me when the Linky list started going past several hundred. I started thinking about how you had categorized types of writers in the Crusade and realized how useful that idea would have been Especially when all of the RPG folks started signing up!

I am studying this and coming up with some ideas to evaluate on a May 30th post.

Thanks for joining us and congratulations on making it to the end.


Don't forget to pick up your Winner's Badge at my site.
Lee
Tossing It Out

alberta ross said...

one of the things I found with this challenge is how many blogs I found totaly outside writing which I thought were great and am going to follow - how much I found i enjoyed other subects - having blogs them under topics may help but I would hate to think we lost that casual grazing which spreads our minds sideways

Persian Poetess said...

Congrats on your little one kissing crawling goodbye :D! I cannot tell you how many hours I spent trying to catch up on your A-Zs. I really wish I could have road with you on the journey week by week. It seems though, that you are not short on both enjoyable...and helpful blog posts! So of course I'm going to stick around ;).

Mojo said...

The Bible tells us Pride is a sin - however, I think that refers specifically to pride in what we are, rather than pride in what we do. We bear the responsibility for our choices, so it is entirely appropriate to celebrate them when they work out well.

I'm proud that, belatedly, I'm managing to get round and comment other A-to-Zedders - and I'm delighted that I have something to look forward to in August now...

Tina said...

Congrats on making it to Z! It was definitely a challenge. Shannon @ The Warrior Muse and I are joining forces in another challenge. We're going to visit and comment at each of the participants, starting with the reflections post. We hope you'll join us!
Tina @ Life is Good

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