Reflections

What a month!

I mean, seriously, what a month!

I had a full list of topic to blog about and all set to get ahead. In fact I had two challenges to work on, A to Z and NaPoWriMo. I was excited about the possibilities. Oh, course those and the theatrical productions that I am currently involved in, and a increasingly busy work load at the Evil Day Job soon made the month of April a challenge.

At first it was a random assortment of topics, but then I thought about writing and authors and books.But there were a few letters that I got hung up on, like Q and K and X. Like in improv, when you play 60 second alphabet you usually use X is for Xylophone, Z for Zoinks, and K for Karl. The A to Z challenege was no different coming up with topics for the difficult letters. But I had something special for this past month. What I had was a fantastic support system that lend a hand to helping gather ideas. Q is for Quietly, N is for Neil Gaiman, Z is for Zombie Prom, but X is always something like Xanadu, which only a few seem to know was mentioned in a poem once and a REALLY cheesy roller disco musical with Olivia Newton-John and Gene Kelly.

Anyway....

So I wrote about books, authors, music, poetry, and I wrote poems. Sometimes I used the daily letter to lead me to a topic that I would use for the daily NaPoWriMo poem. My friend, Jesi was doing the same things, although she started out writing combining the two challenges. It was the best idea and I will most likely do the same thing next year (for the WHOLE month). Streamlining blog posts is definitely a  good thing, especially if you are going to have a busy month, also, pre-planning of list of topics couldn't hurt. I may have not used everything on my original list, but it was nice to have a list to work off of.

But there was something else, something magical that happened during A to Z and NaPoWriMo as well. In the middle of writing and tweeting with my fellow writing and poets, I found a trio of amazing people. These three, what I have dubbed the Poets Three (or the Four Musketeers as Jesi calls us), became my closest poetic confidants and patient audience. Sometimes I doubted myself and Jesi would say something sweet or talk about something that we both remember fondly from our youth, or Rod and Lizzi would burst into random silliness and then I was laughing. They would rally around me offering support; and I would rally around any of them about their poetry or anything that was on their minds.

See, I met Jesi and Rod during OctPoWriMo last year and Lizzi during this year's NaPoWriMo. They are my friends and to quote Gonzo the Great, they are "There's not a word yet for old friends who just met." From Texas to Canada to England to New York, thanks for find each other Aramis, Athos, D'Artagnen, from Porthos. And I hope we always stay ALL FOR ONE!! Okay, let's break out the tissues now!! :-)

A to Z Challenge taught me that within the vast world out there, filled with everything from Apricots to Zebras and that amazing and zany things can happen out there. I love you guys and thank you!!

Here come OcPoWriMo...and Dear Readers, I will see you on the other side!