Reflections on A-Z Challenge 2015

Auntie Goose here – whew! Am I ever glad the challenge is over! That was quite a haul, wasn’t it? But I did enjoy myself although I can’t decide which was more fun or harder – writing the rhymes or illustrating them. Both required equal amounts of time – and, now that I think about it, writing was definitely the harder part while illustrating them was easier and more fun. But I did enjoy doing both – so much so that I am already looking forward to 2016 and have already decided on what to do! No hints, sorry!

The main thing I learned is to PLAN AHEAD! I did write all the rhymes during February and March and prepared the illustrations as well. Because all of my illustrations are done in MSWord, I prepare by creating separate documents for each rhyme and doing preliminary cartoons (or sketches) so when it came time to illustrate I could just ‘go for it’. The challenge illustrations were planned to be simple and quick with little of the detail I normally like to put in (go HERE is you want to see detail!). All of that detail takes lots and lots of time and I want the illustrations to take no more than 3-4 hours and most of them I kept to around 2-3 hours each. After each illustration is done, I password protect it from alterations in MSW, save it as a pdf and the convert it to jpeg and then – voilah! It is ready for posting! (I know I can post it as a Word document but I go ahead and jpeg it because if I decide to publish it through Blurb, it needs to be a jpeg file and as long as I’m fooling with the document I might as well go ahead and save myself some time later on.) Enough about me…

The only thing I regret is not getting around to checking out other blogs – there were so many to choose from! I kept up with (Jennifer Nichole Wells) and (George’s Guinea Pig World) but I already follow so many blogs and read a fair few on a daily basis that I just didn’t and don’t have the time.

To all the kind folks who visited me during the challenge, thank you so much for your visits, your likes and comments. I very much appreciate them and regret that I did not return the favor as often as I wished I could. I hope to visit some of you during the 2015 Road Trip!

And because I can’t leave you without something other than my own ramblings – here’s a little rhyme I cooked up because Simon over at Library of Cats just read and reviewed Fahrenheit 451 and I just had to add my own voice to the rabble!

Love and Feathers, Auntie Goose