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Saturday, March 30, 2019

Much Belated Theme Reveal: #AtoZChallenge 2019!

I have been wrestling with ideas for this year. A couple of years ago I did an unofficial A to Z on Australian crime, based on my children’s book Crime Time: Australians Behaving Badly, as I had the information to hand. My next, and first official one, was on spies and spying, also based on a book I had written. That one went over very well. I got a lot of comments and made some new friends on line. Last year, when I did the theme of Aussie children’s writers, was a bit of a flop, though I still got some lovely people commenting and made some new friends. Most of the problem was that the official web site made it a lot harder to find web sites of interest - you had to look them up on their spreadsheet. I may be in a minority here, but I went cross-eyed trying to find stuff I’d enjoy in that spreadsheet and I was probably not the only one. Or maybe it’s just that not many people are interested in Australian children’s writers.

This year I will be writing about another subject that I love and hope many others do: science fiction and fantasy authors and their worlds. I know others have done this, including at least one online friend of mine, but there are so many, plenty to share! I will, if possible, stick to authors whose books I have read and enjoyed. I’m including the worlds as a sneaky way to use letters I might not otherwise find, eg X - I don’t know any authors with surnames starting with X, but there is certainly a world with a name beginning with X, Xanth. I might slip in some favourite films and TV shows. Watch out!

Cover of ASIM 60, art by Eleanor Clarke









6 comments:

AJ Blythe said...

Sounds like a fun topic, Sue. I enjoyed your A to Z last year.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Thanks, AJ! Looking forward to yours also.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Well done Sue - I don't like the strictures that have been put in place for the A-Z ... loved it in its early days - and it was much more friendly. So good for you .. I'll be looking in - but not doing it. I don't know whether there are any Xaviers ... a name and the X-men - do they fit?! I'm off ... but enjoy - cheers Hilary

Sue Bursztynski said...

Thanks, Hilary! Well, I’ve signed up and will give it another go. If it doesn’t work out this year I will consider doing another unofficial A to Z next time. I did email them about my problems with the spreadsheet and ask some questions, but got no reply. Another thing: I will comment on any blog that interests me, but won’t visit again until they return my visit. Last year there were several bloggers who never responded to my visits.

Oh, yes, I remember Xavier(I mean, Patrick Stewart, right? Yum!) and X-Men, though I’ve only seen two of the movies and never read the comics. A lot of my friends were great fans of the comics when it was coming out. Good idea, I might consider it!

Brian Joseph said...

I love science fiction. I would love to learn more about Australian science fiction. It would be neat if you could find an author whose last name started with an “X”. I look forward to your post on this.

Sue Bursztynski said...

Hi Brian! My first post will be about Australian SF publishing. Quite a lot of it is published by small press, because the big publishers tend to prefer Fat Fantasy Trilogies. I won’t be writing ONLY about Australian authors, as I’ve posted about many of my favourites already, but will include several, yes.