And what is the question? This:

Are you planning to formally and officially register for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge, pick a theme, and participate? Why or why not?

Or, are you planning to informally and unofficially participate in this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge on an ad hoc basis?

Or, are you going to skip the A to Z Challenge altogether?

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Boy, that’s some multi-part question. Let me start by saying this: I have never participated in the challenge, I’m not planning (officially or unofficially) to participate, whether regularly or on an ad hoc basis, but nor am I going to skip the challenge altogether.

The last bit doesn’t make sense, does it?

It does if you’re me. I like to see how people respond to things like this. Sometimes, it shows a characteristic of a person I can use when creating stories. It’s about the way people think.

Writers tend to spend a lot of time alone and out of circulation. It’s a common ailment. So I need to keep a watch on how people communicate. These challenges and calls for responses give me an insight into many different aspects of personality.

And, apart from all that, I did my own A-Z challenge for a series of short story ideas. You may have seen some of them on here at some stage (now pulled down and packed off to far-flung locations).

Do you remember any of these?

And Another Accent

Idea: He’s from the east coast – how would you know? – they talk funny, don’t even know what bonking is – and it ain’t sex!

Black-Butt Blocky

Idea: Sold for cheap – dryland forest; the old man, tent – teaches him how to make beauty from the wood.

Cockatoos, Cocks & Coppers

Idea: Bird traps; who to get help from? Who can he trust? Why her?

Dingoes, Dixies and Donga’s

Genre – Australiana, outback, contemporary, exercises, military, indigenous

Idea: A donga is a weapon. It’s a temp accomm. Bldg. It’s both.

Emus, Eggs, Expedient

Idea: the thief gets what he deserves, and it aint eggs!

Footy, Ferals, and Fools

Idea: It might be new in the city, but not out here!

Gold Gully Gulches

Idea: I really do know where Lassiter’s reef is, but …

Horses, Hitches, and Hobnails

Idea: the outback greys, get the two mares, steal the best stallion – is it a game? Or payback?

Indirect Inner Idiocy

Idea: How to direct city touro’s, int’l money pots, to the right spots!

Ju-Jube Jollies

Idea: The wild food walks

Kick-Arse Koalas & Kangaroos

Idea: Kick-Arse Koala’s and Kanga’s

Love, Loss and Levitation

Genre: contemporary, Australian

Idea: The loss of love brings on hallucinations – or was it always possible?

Meditation, Magic, and Murder

Idea: The calm outer belies the internal storm

Nelly No Noggin

Idea: Her ideas are so wild, so out-there, no one believes. Right?

Ozzie Outback Opuscle

Idea: The original idea, the real outback, the new boundary.

Pommies, Pansy’s & Piss-heads

Idea: How to cross the Nullabor three times in one day.

Quandongs, Qualms & Quibbles

Idea: The quake that cut the town in 2 – haves and have-nots, but this time, it’s access to the food, not the dosh!

Robbers, Roos & Roses

Idea: She feeds the big roos to keep them out of her roses, and when she’s robbed, bashed, and about to be abducted, what happens? Who’s there to save her?

Sand, Surf, and Sunburn

Idea: the big risks of summer, sun, and bare-assed boobies

Two-up, Twiddlers & Twerking

Idea: Why do we do it? Anzac Day, two-up, drunks and dancing

Ultra-voilet Undoes Undies

Idea: A new invention – no-clean undies!?!

Vagabonds, Vagaries & Valetudenarians

Idea: Who’s the sickest, ugliest, most useless piece of shit this side of that stump?

Valetudenarians = hypochondriac.

Wallabies, Wombats, & Wagtails

contemporary Australiana

Country town, opportunity to make it big with the mining boom in the region.

Xylography, Xantho, Xeri

Idea: Xylography = wood carving. Xeri = dry.

Making a mark for the followers to find – will they?

Yams, Yobbos (or Yabbies?) and yakka

Idea: Digging the dam.

Zero, Zip, Zilch

Idea: At the end of it all, what do we have?

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Notice something? They’re all Australian! That’s why it’s the Aussie (Ozzie) Outback Opuscle. But having done it once, that’s it, and I’m not doing it again – whether formally, informally, regularly, or ad hoc.

The above must be a recent image because there’s a lot more green than I’ve ever seen before. A lot more.