http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/p/2022-badge-graphics.html
I plan to have my #AtoZChallenge 2022 theme as
speculative fiction from a dreamer.
What I feel would really put this over the top is if I could get some prompts from you, my blog visitors.A name, a setting, a scenario -- anything that could be dreamed up and used in speculative fiction.
Please leave it in the comments (or send me a DM on Twitter @JLenniDorner).
Before March 25, please! Thanks to everyone who helps.
Before March 25, please! Thanks to everyone who helps.
(And if you use Twitter, leave me your handle so I can give you a shoutout when your prompt is used.)
There is a scene in the second Existence book that I've deleted and put back and deleted again. I wrote it long ago. Then it happened. Like, actually happened. So I tried to rewrite it, but then it didn't work in the story. I left it as it was, but then another year went by, and it felt like I took from the headlines and wrote something in poor taste. Which isn't true because, as I said, I wrote the scene before it came true. (Granted, it probably didn't come true because of my character. There is logical science.)
There was also a scene in Fractions of Existence, the first book in the series, that came true. But the book was published a few months beforehand. And only a handful of people know that it happened, so it isn't as big of a deal. (Though you could have knocked me over with a feather when a scroll on social media showed a picture of the scene from my head.)
Please also visit: The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club on Goodreads.
Happening at OperationAwesome6.blogspot.com
Please share that with a retweet. Thanks!
And there are 5 days left on this signed book giveaway: https://operationawesome6.blogspot.com/2022/02/christine-herbert-answers-13questions.html
You'll notice this year that we've added pronouns as an option. Not only to avoid people being misgendered (Me! This happens to me online. Doesn't happen offline, though my hair is now long enough to strangle a person... just ask my Snookums. 😍😄), but also to encourage the normalcy of stating pronouns. If only certain groups offer pronouns, then it becomes exclusive instead of inclusive. Of course, it will remain OPTIONAL, because no one is ever required to share their pronoun preference with anyone.
- J Lenni Dorner (team captain) 👨 he/him or 🧑🏽 they/them
- J Lenni Dorner (team captain) 👨 he/him or 🧑🏽 they/them
Shout-out to Alex and the awesome co-hosts for today: Janet Alcorn, Pat Garcia, Natalie Aguirre, and Shannon Lawrence!
March 2 question - Have you ever been conflicted about writing a story or adding a scene to a story? How did you decide to write it or not?
There is a scene in the second Existence book that I've deleted and put back and deleted again. I wrote it long ago. Then it happened. Like, actually happened. So I tried to rewrite it, but then it didn't work in the story. I left it as it was, but then another year went by, and it felt like I took from the headlines and wrote something in poor taste. Which isn't true because, as I said, I wrote the scene before it came true. (Granted, it probably didn't come true because of my character. There is logical science.)
There was also a scene in Fractions of Existence, the first book in the series, that came true. But the book was published a few months beforehand. And only a handful of people know that it happened, so it isn't as big of a deal. (Though you could have knocked me over with a feather when a scroll on social media showed a picture of the scene from my head.)
Please also visit: The Insecure Writer's Support Group Book Club on Goodreads.
Happening at OperationAwesome6.blogspot.com#query #querycontest #romance #romancenovel #RomanceBooks
— Operation Awesome (@OpAwesome6) March 2, 2022
Your chance for agent feedback on your novel's query letter.
March 2022
This week only - Entry Form! https://t.co/Fx3NzkLaaf#PassOrPages this round is for FRIENDS OR ENEMIES TO LOVERS ROMANCE pic.twitter.com/TBUQ6pc9OZ
Please share that with a retweet. Thanks!
And there are 5 days left on this signed book giveaway: https://operationawesome6.blogspot.com/2022/02/christine-herbert-answers-13questions.html
It sounds like you were really conflicted to keep putting a scene in and out and thinking about it for so long. Sounds like you've got a great theme for the A-Z challenge.
ReplyDeleteThat's a great theme! My stories almost always start out from a dream!
ReplyDeleteMy current book: I dreamed I was chased through a mansion by machines
How one of my WIPs came to be: I dreamed I was sneaking out of a tower with my sisters and walking through a golden field
That's wild the scene really happened.
ReplyDeleteFor the Challenge, any scene with a wormhole is always cool.
Basically every episode of "Sliders"? 😉
DeleteThat's a long time to think about whether or not to keep a scene! Must've been a good one.
ReplyDeleteSounds like a great theme for the A-Z challenge. Maybe you could have time/space travelers arrive on a planet that has been settled by space pioneers or an alien race.
I love your theme! I'm planning to do the A-Z Challenge too. My favorite fantasy/sci fi element is time travel, so if you can use that, go for it!
ReplyDeleteAh! A to Z. I didn't participate last year, but I've participated in several other years. Maybe I'll have to throw my hat back in that ring this year. @samanthabwriter from
ReplyDeleteBalancing Act
Do it, do it, do it...
DeleteI'm still on the fence about doing AtoZ. I really want to, but not sure I can do it justice this year! Looks like you have a great idea going! What if another species on Earth suddenly got the upper hand?
ReplyDeleteInteresting theme. Can't wait to read what you put together. Did you ever finish the story about Anna? I think that was what you did the first time I started following you in the A to Z.
ReplyDeleteI crack it back open every few months. There has always been something missing from that book. I haven't quite put my finger on it yet.
DeleteTraveling through a wormhole in space and time to discover another species now rules the Earth.
ReplyDelete(But not Planet of the Apes.)
Great theme, JLenni. I'd have to think about prompts for spec fic as I don't write it. I'll try to get some/one to you on twitter. @DeniseCCovey is my handle.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog
ReplyDeleteGreat blog
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteBusy month ahead for you! May you enjoy every moment. I love to read mysteries and romantic suspense. And rom-com. When I was a teenager, I used to read sci-fi by the box, but I don't remember reading much sci-fi/rom-com. How about an alien who's on the run from an overlord race prepared to take over earth and who falls in love with a baker who just happens to be working undercover for the Dept of Homeland Security?
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely considering the April challenge! One idea is a storm system that isn't exactly weather?
ReplyDeleteI'm definitely considering the April challenge! How about, time travel as a prompt?
ReplyDeleteGreat theme for your AtoZ challenge. A prompt? How about 'Implants'? Memory implants, for example. Or vitamin implants.
ReplyDeleteIt feels weird when something you write about, something you're sure came straight from your imagination, suddenly happens in real life. It happened to me once, after my first novel was published.
How about something under water for your setting?
ReplyDeleteHappy theme reveal! :) I am excited to see the speculative fiction you come up with. For a prompt, how about tardigrade? I love tardigrades.
ReplyDeleteThe Multicolored Diary
I love speculative fiction. I just finished writing my first fantasy novel; publishes in June.
ReplyDeleteIf I was suggesting a prompt I would say shapeshifting. Kind of vague I guess, but there is so much there to work with.
Can't wait to see your April 1 post!
Yeah, I'm putting my Faerie Tales series on hold because of the pandemic: some of the stuff in the later books just seem in bad taste, even if I've written it in the decade preceding the mess we're in now.
ReplyDeleteFor a prompt, how about when the electricity isn't working, something crucial for the protagonist isn't working but something they never thought they needed, does? This can work in different ways: the power is out, and the hero can't spell, but they find they can suddenly do physical things, like fighting, they never could before.
Nice theme! I've never read speculative fiction as far as I'm aware, but it sounds interesting. For this reason, I'm going with a single-word/name prompt (it's both a word and can be a girl's name): Jade. Okay, I just read The Multicolored Diary's theme reveal, so that may be why I think of this prompt, LOL. Anyway, it does have a dreamy feel to it in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteYou are adding speculation to fiction. Challenging other to come with prompts. In my native language Telugu, it happens in poetry. People give some words, the poets have to come with poems having those words.
ReplyDeleteTheme revealed. A to Z - Activities, Competencies, Education and Training of Engineering Supervisors
Biggles here, using my Mummy's blogspot thingy.
ReplyDeleteI don't really understand your theme, J, but I'm sure it's good. I generally dream of things like grass, and running through fields. Sometimes that turns into a nightmare with eagles after me, or the grass turns black and tries to catch me.
Um, I'm a he. I hate people calling me 'it'.
Good luck with your A to Z... and all the work you do for it.
Biggles
I love that the A to Z team added pronouns as an option to encourage stating pronouns and asking for pronouns. I've added my pronouns (she/her) to all of my social media profiles and now make sure to check other people's bios for theirs. :)
ReplyDeleteA lot of social media has pronouns and options now. It felt like it was time for us to be inclusive too. (Plus, maybe I'll get less people thinking I'm a "she/her.")
DeleteI'd love to see what you'd do with, An alien society (or character) that travels only within mind-space dimensions. I wrote a book that included that and was told it's not speculative because only brains are science, but since it's a dimension (dimensional theory) and there's at least some scientific research that points to inexplicable brain functions (i.e. potential for mind), I think it's fair game to use mind-space for a place in Speculative Fiction. What do you think?
ReplyDeleteI think the "Freaky Friday" trope would qualify. And those aren't science yet.
DeleteI think there is serendipity in the universe where inevitably our work can reflect something of real life but sometimes, strangely it can precipitate real events too.
ReplyDeleteReader prompts is a great theme for A-Z. I'll have to get my thinking cap on...
Nice theme! I´ll have to research a bit more about it. I have to admit I only thought fantasy was about dragons, Sci-Fi about spaceships. There´s so much to know. Thanks for the pronouns, I also have mine on my social media (I´m sorry to admit I was misgendering you, too).
ReplyDeleteI'm very curious as to why. Do I have some "energy" I'm giving off? Is it because the Native American tribe I come from is spelled "Lenni-Lenape"? (We didn't invent vowels, or even the alphabet the Europeans used when deciding how to write and spell our language in their ways.) I do have absurdly long hair at the moment, but you don't see that, so we can rule it out. Is it the handful of religious guidelines I follow? I'm just curious. Not upset or angry or anything. Just curious.
DeleteHihi, my son can relate about the long hair confusion, but in my case it was even more simple. I just misread once "J Lenni" as Jenni, and that was my undoing... I just hope I don´t deserve a scalping or adding extra alphabet words to my challenge as a punishment.
DeleteThe Lenni-Lenape people aren't really known for scalping. Certainly not a practice anyone from my line ever passed on to me. We are known as the Grandfathers and the Original People, most recognized by other tribes for wisdom and leadership. (Quite a few versions of our laws helped the Founding Fathers to create the Bill of Rights. Philadelphia was, after all, originally part of our territory.)
DeleteBut ooohhh... extra posts... 🙏🏽tent fingers...
Get you to write a post featuring the number Zero. 0
Or I could be nice since at least you didn't actually change my name to Jenni. (Two others online have done that.)
Even with the hair that strangled my Snookums in bed the other night (and still my spouse doesn't want me to cut it!), the misgendering doesn't happen to me in real life. At least, not that I know of?
Ohh, the idea of writing that Zero post is thrilling! thanks for the suggestion, we're still figuring the words for the challenge.
DeleteAnd don't worry, I've been extra careful to spell the name out loud, something I do with difficult words to write them correctly (stupid brain fog)
I love how my daughter rolls her hair around her eyes as a mask, I can't do that, I'm so jealous of her wild mane.
Excellent theme.
ReplyDelete