A to Z Challenge: A Review

First, I want to give a bit shout-out to all those who are involved in the running of the A to Z Blogging Challenge. It’s got to take a lot of time and dedication to keep track of so many participants, making sure that non-participants are removed from the list, and ensuring that participants get the attention they deserve. Kudos!

Second, a double-huge shout-out to all my fellow participants who made it (sometimes kicking and screaming) to the end of the challenge. Some of those letters were pretty difficult, but you did it! You rock! 😀

Third, a triple-huge shout-out to all those who stopped by my blog during April and commented on my posts. I had some great conversations this month, met some cool new friends, and gained a number of new followers. I hope you all stick close by, because it’s been a blast, and I’ve been truly happy to meet you all. 🙂

The challenge has been a great deal of fun, and I got a lot of great comments on my 26 posts, so as part of this review I present a list of links to each of my posts in case anyone missed anything or is just dropping by now and would like to check a couple of them out.

Day 1: Ariel (the Little Mermaid)Day 2: Buffy Summers (the Vampire Slayer)
Day 3: Castiel (the Monster-Fighting Angel)
Day 4: Deadpool (the Lunatic Assassin)
Day 5: Eric Northman (the Viking Vampire)
Day 6: Freddy Krueger (the Nightmare Demon)
Day 7: Gau (the Wild Orphan)
Day 8: Han Solo (the Cocky Starpilot)
Day 9: Iron Man (the Smarmiest Avenger)
Day 10: James T. Kirk (the Star Fleet Captain)
Day 11: Kefka Palazzo (the Magitek Monster)
Day 12: Lisse (the Child of the Dystopian Future)
Day 13: Magus (the Lost Wizard)
Day 14: Neville Longbottom (the Heart of Gryffindor)
Day 15: Other-Mother (the Other World Evil)
Day 16: Peter Parker (the Spider-Man)
Day 17: Qui-Gon Jinn (the Jedi Knight)
Day 18: Ryuk (the Shinigami)
Day 19: Sherlock Holmes (the High-Functioning Sociopath)
Day 20: Tyrion Lannister (the Exceptionally Clever Imp)
Day 21: Usagi Tsukino (the Sailor Senshi)
Day 22: Victoria MacKinnon (the Lost Princess)
Day 23: Winchester Brothers (the Monster Hunters)
Day 24: Xander Harris (the Lovable Sidekick)
Day 25: Yuki Miaka (the Girl from Other World)
Day 26: Zelda (the Hyrulian Princess)

In case you somehow missed it, my theme for the challenge was “Fictional Characters”. Each one of these characters, even the ones chosen out of duress of very difficult letters, holds a special place in my heart for one reason or another. The TV shows, movies, comics, cartoons, and video games mentioned were overwhelmingly a great part of my childhood, and in some cases an incredible part of my adulthood. If you’ve got the time, check some of them out. You totally won’t be disappointed.

And finally, before I sign off, I wanted to share with you a couple of the blogs that I’ve come across during this particular challenge. I came into contact with so many awesome fellow bloggers this past month that it’s impossible to mention them all, but these are a couple of the ones I fully plan to keep tabs on even now that the challenge is over.

A Scenic Route – Kirsten is a fellow writer who blogs about her “journey into noveldom”. This month she wrote a wonderful series of posts with the theme “Backstage at the Blog”, in which she gave some wonderful tips, hints, and ideas for fellow bloggers, in addition to sharing info about her own blogging journey.

Sophie’s Thoughts and Fumbles – Sophie is a writer of many genres who uses her blog as a place to talk about reading, writing, all the topics in between, and whatever else she so desires. She is also the brains behind the mini-challenge that a few of us participated in in addition to the A to Z challenge: the Supernatural A to Z Challenge. She wrote about ghosts and ghoulies this month, and while I didn’t often comment on her posts because my WordPress reader doesn’t make it easy for me to deal with other blogging websites, I still thoroughly enjoyed reading about all the creepy creatures that she posted.

Alex Hurst – Alex is one of my favorite new people because she is fun, bubbly, and friendly, and we apparently have a great deal in common. The fantasy writer spent the month talking about different aspects of writing and being a writer. Her post “J for Jargon” cracked me up because so many of the definitions she came up with were SO TRUE.

I would love to share some more blogs, and perhaps I will in the future, but this has been such a busy month that I simply do not have the time it would take to go through all the wonderful blogs I’ve found during this challenge. However, if you’re really, truly interested in finding some great new people to follow, check out the A to Z sign-up list and just start clicking. There are literally hundreds of wonderful blogs amongst that list.

And now, with all that aside, I must say adieu, and take a much-deserved nap. Cheers everyone! ❤

A to Z Challenge Day 14: Neville Longbottom (the Heart of Gryffindor)

Fair warning, if you’ve never read the Harry Potter novels, this post is going to contain HUGE SPOILERS because there is simply no way to talk about this character the way I want to talk about him without having HUGE ENORMOUS SPOILERS!!! You’ve been warned!

I know I’m not alone on this one: I think that Neville Longbottom was one of the best characters in the Harry Potter Universe. Take it right from the beginning: he was an insignificant kind of kid, clumsy and unspectacular in any way, and super easy to pick on. He was targeted by bullies and teachers alike. Despite that, he takes it upon himself to stand up to his friends and House-mates, to try and stop them from breaking rules. He fails, but the point is that he tried to do what was right, even if it meant possibly losing some of the only friends he had. He is the epitome of a loser, as far as most of his schoolmates are concerned, but he has nothing but heart.

Moving on through the story, Neville is regularly picked on for a number of reasons and continues being clumsy and forgetful and quite plainly pretty pathetic. It takes multiple books before he even starts to find his niche in the school, to catch on to something that he truly enjoys and is good at. He’s regularly tested in a number of ways, dealing with family issues, a pretty depressing past, and regular problems with school work and the bullies that still hang on like leeches. He’s the underdog that you can’t help but root for because he’s just this sweet thing who constantly has the world spitting on him. He perfectly describes so many of us: he’s not perfect by a long shot, and he’s just trying to find his place.

Eventually we wind up at the conclusion of the story arc, and Neville, of all people, has taken a lead role in the fight against evil. He risks life and limb to fight for his school, his friends, his family, and anyone else who requires protection. Eventually he stands up – alone, I might add – to the biggest, baddest bad guy of all, looks him in the face, and declares that they will not stop, they will not give in, and they will fight for what is right because it is right, and that it doesn’t matter whether they have the Chosen One anymore because good will triumph.

Tell me that’s not a hero right there.

Things You Might Not Know About Me

I was taking painfully-dumbass-looking selfies before it was cool…circa 1999

• I am an absolute terrible swimmer. When I try to swim, I sink, and when I try to dive, I float.
• In the third grade I went through a weird stage where I felt like I should have two middle names, so I kept adding “Marie” after the “Lynn” whenever I signed my school work.
• When I was a kid I was a huge wuss. The “Are You Afraid of the Dark” TV show scared the beejeezus out of me.
• I grew up on the Babysitters Club books by Ann M. Martin, and by the time I stopped reading them my parents had purchased well over a hundred and fifty of those books.
• All the books I used to read growing up are still in my parent’s attic. There must be well over three hundred of them up there.
• I am perfectly happy to lay in bed with my daughter all day and watch Teen Titans, not just because I love spending time with my daughter, but because I have an incredibly embarrassing love of Teen Titans.
• When I was a kid I truly believed that I had what it took to be a great actress.
• I was obsessed with anime for several years of my life, and if I’m perfectly honest there are still a few anime shows that I would happily sit down and binge-watch.
• The very first Star Trek thing of any kind that I ever saw was the 2009 remake with Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto (but I’ve since watched the entire original series, about half of The Next Generation, and most of the original movies).
• The very first Doctor Who show that I saw was the first of the newer episodes, staring Christopher Eccelston (but I’m now currently in the progress of going back and watching all the old episodes because OF COURSE I AM).
• Since my daughter developed a love for them, I began to develop an extreme hatred of stickers.
• I once lost two baby teeth within a month of each other because of those ridiculously sticky caramel chocolates that pop up around Christmas time.
• The Pottermore website totally sorted me into Gryffindor.
• People who refuse to retire simply because they don’t know what else to do with their lives frustrate me to no end because their inability to find a couple of hobbies keeps young people with thousands of dollars worth of student loans from getting a job.
• I project anger on myself on a daily basis for being unable to keep my sweet tooth under control.
• I own, like, seven pairs of shoes, and three of those are steel-toed work boots.
• Regardless of the impression it projects, I would rather wear a pair of jeans and a superhero t-shirt than bother to get dressed up in blouses and skirts and whatnot.
• I have no patience for make-up. I wear lipstick because my lips are pale and if I don’t I tend to look sick, and if it’s a special occasion I might add a bit of mascara.
• I’m not a fan of “fat shaming” OR “skinny shaming” because there are lots of reasons for people to be too fat or too skinny, but I honestly see no problem in shaming people who are obviously extremely unhealthy and refuse to even admit it.
• I would love to have a pet snake…just a little one.
• Even a simple post like this takes me a good hour to write because I only get half a sentence written at a time in between my daughter torturing me with the aforementioned stickers.