A-Z: Reflections on My First Blog Hop

I've just completed The Blogging from A-Z Challenge for 2013. This was my first blog hop and I made it – from my very first post "A" is for Art all the way through to "Z" is for Zodiac.

What a great experience!

"A" is for Art

Now I know how a well-run blog hop works. For me, writing the posts was the easy part. The technical aspects were more of a challenge, but before the event even started the organizers offered helpful tips to ready the setup of my blog to facilitate comments and add new followers. I learned how to make a hyperlink signature. And IT Foodie showed me how to add a Pinterest widget to my blog. (Click on the BOOKS & MOVIES tab at the top right to see the results.)

I also learned a lot of new things in researching my topics, for example that the Pulteney Bridge in Bath ("B" is for Bridge) was the actual location for the filming of Javert's suicide in the movie Les Miserables, and what the heck the giant red lips in Les Baux-de-Provence ("C" is for Chair) were all about.

"C" is for Chair

The exercise forced me to think outside the box, which was a lot of fun and will come in handy for future posts. And I think my post with the most page views, "G" is for Garden, may have been a reflection of the frustration many gardeners are feeling with the lousy spring all across North America this year. (By the way, it's snowing right now with more on the way.)

"G" is for Garden

I also discovered some great new travel blogs, like Destination Unknown and Wander One Day, and an excellent new source of colourful Aussie-isms at Tropical Territory which will come in handy with my writing. And I discovered many friendly, supportive bloggers who were generous with their comments, like Thelma at WidowSphere: A Circle of Hope who included Destination: Fiction among her 26 favourite blogs during A-Z. It's a wonderful thing to receive such positive feedback.

So I should pay forward some positive feedback to the organizers of A-Z 2013. Planning the blog hop must have been an enormous undertaking but they carried it off with great success. Would I recommend it to other bloggers? Definitely.

Arles

And now it's time for me to return to my regular posts on my travels in France last summer, with An Olive Farm and Les Baux de Provence. I hope to see you again!