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Tuesday, March 18, 2014

HAVING TROUBLE WITH YOUR A to Z THEME?

 
Having trouble with selecting your theme for this year's A to Z Challenge?
 
Welcome to the club.
 
CHANGE was going to be my theme --
 
but over a month in the turbulent world of Publishing,  the topics on which I wrote might very well have CHANGED!
 
I thought about doing what I did last year and go from Z to A just to mix things up and not be predictable.
 
But some emails from last year were full of snark about that route.
 
Then, there are those troublesome letters: Z, Q, V, X, U, and of course, the ever-annoying "I." 
 
I mean don't you hate it when a blogger's every post is about "I" or in other words: ME, ME, ME?
 
All of which scuttled my other idea for a theme:
 
The MUSIC to be found in my various novels and interesting facts about the songs or the artists singing them.
 
ADIEMUS is not only the name of the tune Victor hums in a crucial scene in END OF DAYS, it is the actual name of the group doing it.

And there are several odd facts about that tune and its composer.

BILLIE Holiday sings the tune Samuel links to Meilori --

and being a sentimentalist, I included tragic facts of her death in my book, CREOLE KNIGHTS, linking them to Rind.

Jesse COOK is influencial in several scenes in END OF DAYS, and fascinationg facts about his Gypsy life make for interesting reading and appropriate to be one of Victor's favorite artists.

Irony, angst, and hints on how to incorporate music into your novels were to be found from post to post.

But in the end, it smacked of making April one looooooong infomercial for my novels. 

Boring to most and more than a little shabby.  (Not that my book sales couldn't use a boost!)

So what to do? 

The posts have to be short (since the number of participants are more than the population of most 3rd World Nations.)

My demands:
They have to be fun.  They have to be different.  And they have to trigger thought.

So what will be my theme?  I have an idea. 

And if I thought last year's emails were full of snark and criticism, this year's theme will birth even worse.

So what did you think of my discarded ideas?

Are you having similar problems?  Let me know.  We can moan together.

And come this April 1st, you can visit and go: "OMG! He must be out of his mind!"

8 comments:

  1. I've got my theme, Roland. I'm working on prescheduling, and gathering data. The last time, I only prepped half of the posts. So I had to scramble at the end.

    Hope you can find something you like for the A to Z. Good luck!

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  2. D.G.:
    Glad to hear it. I may just bow out. I'm in that kind of mood right now.

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  3. I've been working on my theme since last year. How would I top it? Think I found a way. Now all the posts are written and just need to be scheduled the night previous.
    Out to stir up some trouble again this year, Roland?

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  4. I am going to be watching from the sidelines again this year. And next...
    However, I am pretty certain that I will be amused, educated, entertained and awed.
    So congratulations to all those bloggers with infinitely more initiative, energy and inspiration than I can muster.
    And sometimes a bit of snark is a good thing.

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  5. Alex:
    Me? Stir up trouble? I, the narrator of Victor Standish's adventures? Yep.

    Ouch! Alice just kicked me.

    I only have the first seven done. But hopefully by the time April Fool's Day comes around, I will have them all done.

    Elephant's Child:
    I will be looking for you. And Victor Standish, the Clown Prince of Snark, agrees with you about that bit of snark! :-)

    I am a bit hesitant to see if I can pull this new idea off. Hibbs promises to still love me. Ratatoskr is not so sure!

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  6. Ouch! I'm afraid I wrote about me, me, me in the past three years. And I have discarded a whole lot of themes this time around. It got so bad I decided to forget about themes and just come up with some headers and see if they fit a theme. I have a basic idea, so we will see what happens.

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  7. Inger:
    Never you! Sorry. I meant BUY ME! BUY ME! Sometimes I am afraid that my friends visiting get tired of me promoting my books.

    Besides, you write of your life's journey which has been a fascinating one ... and you write of Samson -- Hibbs is always interested in hearing about him! :-)

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  8. Hi Roland .. looking forward to reading yours; I too decided last year what to do - I still have to start but I did put the reveal up .. except the commenters threw a few wobblies at me .. I thought I might get away with short, short, short - but seems like they want info and history ... to meld HISS .. history, info and short, short!

    Cheers and see you around .. Hilary

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