April is thankfully over. Not that I didn’t enjoy it, but it was quite exhausting. (Just like every year, right?)

Let’s start with my blog posts.

A My Languishing TBR: A

B My Languishing TBR: B

C My Languishing TBR: C

D My Languishing TBR: D

E My Languishing TBR: E 

F My Languishing TBR: F

G My Languishing TBR: G

H My Languishing TBR: H

I My Languishing TBR: I

J My Languishing TBR: J

K My Languishing TBR: K

L My Languishing TBR: L

M My Languishing TBR: M

N My Languishing TBR: N

O My Languishing TBR: O

P My Languishing TBR: P

Q My Languishing TBR: Q

R My Languishing TBR: R

S My Languishing TBR: S

T My Languishing TBR: T

U My Languishing TBR: U

V My Languishing TBR: V

W My Languishing TBR: W

X My Languishing TBR: X

Y My Languishing TBR: Y

Z My Languishing TBR: Z

Thankfully I had access to library systems or I’d never have been able to do this. (I did buy some of the books, specifically the ones I’d like to re-read.)

A Ammit the Devourer

B Bast the Protector

C Cavorting Cupid

D Dionysus: God of Revels

E Everlasting Life

F The Lovely and Enchanting Freyja

G Goddess of Love: Aphrodite

H The Chosen One: Horus

I Isis: Goddess of Healing, Protection and Magic

J Jaded Loki

K Kitsune: The Fox Faery

L Love in Folklore

M Mab: Queen of Nightmares

N Nature God: Pan

O Osiris: The First King of Egypt

P Poseidon the Petulant

Q Queen of the Underworld: Hel

R Ra: King of the Gods

S Set: Lord of Chaos and Disorder

T Thor: A Man’s Man

U Unconscionable Apollo

V Vain Faery Godmother

W Wise Baba Yaga

X Xochipilli: God of Fun and Flowers

Y The Honourable Yue-Lao

Z Zeus: The Sleaziest of them All

I’m glad I got some of the posts done before April, as they were a lot more involved than I had originally thought. Some still need their Nutshell by Ronel and Origin of the Fae pieces, but they were as complete as I could make them.

My top commenters in April 2025 (10 comments or more):

• Susanne Matthews
• Samantha Bryant
• Anne EG Nydam
• Sonia Lal

My favourite blogs from April 2025:

Some old favourites, and a couple of new ones:

• Get Lost in Literature (Book Reviews)
• Balancing Act (Music)
• Living the Dream (Writerly Musings)
• Temenos of the Blessing Light (Word of the Day)

Likes:

I liked the diversity of posts I read this year — especially the ones focused on joy.

Dislikes:

I can’t really think of anything, perhaps because I was so overwhelmed by everything (life, work, blogging, and more) this month that I didn’t really make time to feel much of anything, much less focus on anything I disliked from what others did during the challenge.

How I approached this year’s A-Z

I think I need to dial back how many books I attempt to read for April next year. It feels like I’ve barely ended one book before starting another. It’s not a bad thing, but it does cause some anxiety. Usually, I can tell you exactly what I thought about a book just by hearing the title, but now I have to be reminded of what the book’s about (the blurb) and that’s a bit disconcerting.

Also, finishing up a book series (editing, audio, formatting, releasing) and launching it at the same time as doing a double A-Z is absolute madness. Though I did manage my calendar well, I think I should have added a bit more breathing room for eventualities. I was already feeling the pressure in January…

The influx of AI generated images made it harder to find quality images to use with my posts. There were so many images that had extra or missing body parts, it was a bit scary to scroll through. And this includes image sites where one usually find artists who want to sell what they show…

I got flu mid-March, the kind that keeps you in bed and in need of lots of fluids and cuddling, so it was a bit difficult to get around to do all the things. Not to mention the internet being its delightful self (not working when I can actually keep a coherent thought) due to load shedding. Though I had a lot of posts done before March, a quarter of them weren’t, so I had to write and publish as April went along. As anyone who has done this challenge before knows, it’s best to have your posts scheduled before the month begins. I had to move E to a Sunday because I was behind on reading and reviewing books and finishing blog posts. And the Challenge had only begun… Some posts only got half their reviews done before they went live, and I added the reviews later as I read the books. Not what I wanted to do, but at least it got done before the month was done (though there are a few still outstanding).

Not having as much time or energy as I had hoped for, I only visited a couple of blogs of people I know (either from previous A-Z’s or other ways) and visited back those who had commented on my blog. I didn’t really go out to find new blogs, though I did check out those marked as book reviews (I just can’t help myself). I didn’t visit those who merely “liked” a post… the point of this challenge is to visit and comment, even if it’s only to say “hi”. I tried out a couple of blogs during week two and tried to catch up on blogs I liked during the second weekend.

As I opened blogs randomly on the masterlist, I just clicked the exit button whenever a site’s layout confused me, everything was in italics or the colour scheme wanted to induce an acid trip. #sorrynotsorry

During April, my site was a bit slow due to load shedding (rolling blackouts) which affects the servers my site is hosted on. I know, it’s just a couple of seconds and in some cases the page had to be reloaded, but I found it irritating. I hope it didn’t affect visitors too much… C’est la vie. We even experienced a solar flare that knocked out the internet across the country for hours, meaning my site was offline for over six hours on the sixteenth/seventeenth. Fun times.

Verdict

Probably not my best attempt at the A-Z in years… I’ll have to rethink things going forward.

So, that was this April’s A to Z Challenge. I look forward to hear what you liked about my posts, what you disliked and what you would like to see in the future. What was your favourite part of blogging during April? Any favourite themes or blogs?