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.
- My Languishing TBR: A (The Author’s Guide to Murder)
- My Languishing TBR: B (Beyond the Wand: The Magic & Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard)
- My Languishing TBR: C (The Cottage)
- My Languishing TBR: D (Deathless)
- My Languishing TBR: E (Everyone Is Watching)
- My Languishing TBR: F (The Fair Chronicles)
- My Languishing TBR: G (Girls Who Burn)
- My Languishing TBR: H (The Hotel)
- My Languishing TBR: I (In the Garden of Monsters)
- My Languishing TBR: J (Journey to the Center of the Earth)
- My Languishing TBR: K (The Krampus and the Old, Dark Christmas & Krampusnacht)
- My Languishing TBR: L (The Last Unicorn)
- My Languishing TBR: M (Managing and Other Lies: A Queer Horror Collection)
- My Languishing TBR: N (Not Too Late)
- My Languishing TBR: O (One of Us Knows)
- My Languishing TBR: P (Property of the Rebel Librarian)
- My Languishing TBR: Q (Bridgertons series by Julia Quinn)
- My Languishing TBR: R (The Rose and the Serpent)
- My Languishing TBR: S (The Bewitching by Silvia Moreno-Garcia)
- My Languishing TBR: T (The Farmhouse)
- My Languishing TBR: U (The Unwedding)
- My Languishing TBR: V (The Villain Edit)
- My Languishing TBR: W (Low Water)
- My Languishing TBR: X (There Should Have Been Eight)
- My Languishing TBR: Y (Yiddish Folktales)
- My Languishing TBR: Z (Various self-help books.)
Thankfully I had access to library systems and ARCs from authors or I’d never have been able to do this.
- A: Things That Go Bump In The Night
- B: Brigit: Goddess of Spring
- C: Fierce Centaurs
- D: Deadly Druids
- E: Elves In All Their Forms
- F: Fun Fauns
- G: Gift Givers From All Over
- H: Giant Sentient Spider
- I: Fir Darrig: The Trickster in Red
- J: Tales of Spinners
- K: Koschei the Deathless
- L: Acheron: God and Infernal River of Woe
- M: Cocytus: God and Infernal River of Wailing
- N: Neutral Hermes
- O: Huldra: Seductress of the Forest
- P: Persephone: Goddess of Spring and the Underworld
- Q: Night Stealers
- R: Phlegethon: God and Infernal River of Fire
- S: Styx: Goddess and Infernal River of Hatred
- T: Tireless Hob
- U: Elf Damsel
- V: Gnomes: Diminutive Beings of Magic
- W: Sandman: Weaver of Dreams
- X: Strega: Immortal Witch
- Y: Yule Riders: A Ghostly Procession
- Z: Berserkers: Legendary Warriors
I’m glad I got the research parts of the posts done before April, as they were a lot more involved than I had originally thought. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the time or health to finish them all during the month. I’ll finish them, though, in batches through the year.
My top commenters in April 2026:
My favourite blogs from April 2026:
Likes:
The kindness and support of my regular visitors.
Dislikes:
I got my Substack account suspended for commenting on A-Z participants’ posts with the usual links. Turns out it isn’t blog hop friendly. I think people should be aware of this issue when commenting on blogs hosted on Substack before their accounts get inadvertently suspended. It’s not always clear when a blog is hosted on Substack, so it gets tricky. Also, some only allow paid subscribers to comment. What’s the point of joining a blog hop, in that case? Yes, I’m still peeved about something that happened in March, even though I did eventually get my account back.
Some WordPress sites wanted me to give my login credentials despite being logged in… Just, no.
I’ve seen that someone constantly criticises the images I’ve made for the A-Z Challenge… Most notably that they believe the colours, composition, etc. is off in terms of print. Here’s this year’s banner in black-and-white.
And, again, in colour.
The pertinent information is clear. The decorative elements are clear. Let’s find something else to whinge about… like my noisy neighbours. Or the Wild Hunt who hunts rats in the middle of the night. (I’m talking about my dogs and horses who team up… loudly.)
How I approached this year’s A-Z
I started planning my posts last June… I broke the folklore up into sets of four to focus on per month and it worked out well to get everything scheduled in skeleton drafts before April. Some things I still had to research, especially modern culture depictions that were quite difficult to find in some cases.
I was planning to write the nutshell and origin of fae parts at the start of April, and that went okay. Until a publishing bomb exploded and I had to work on saving my business. You can read more about that Wednesday with my IWSG post. I’ll have to play catch-up to get those parts done.
The internet was it’s usual broken signal, so I didn’t get to visit as many blogs or as regularly as I usually do. I appreciate everyone who had taken the time to visit my posts and comment.
I was terribly ill during April, being on bedrest for a week and a bit, meaning I couldn’t do the full-energy version I usually approach this challenge with. I did return visits, and I did visit a couple of new blogs during the challenge (though not everyone on the list as I wanted to). I didn’t even follow all the challenges which looked great from those I usually follow…
Verdict
I think I did okay. Once I’ve played catch-up on this year’s posts, I’ll see what I can get done for next year’s so I don’t fall behind when bombs fall around me…
Here’s my vlog for April (if you’re interested):
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?
No-one writes about the fae like Ronel Janse van Vuuren.
It was a great challenge. Congrats to you and the other organizers. See you online.
Thanks, Susanne. See ya 🙂
Wow, you had a heck of a time with one things and another. Leaves my weak commenting in the shade,… although as I found Ruth also saying, WordPress is being a pain in terms of who it lets comment, and where, and when it comes to substack I just give up.
I stopped responding on your TBR posts because it was just so repetitive – we have about four authors that we have every book listed, and so those come up most days. I did want to comment on some that I’ve read, but you can probably see my review of them on goodreads, anyway (although I am a little behind at times).
Getting your posts by email probably doesnt help as it doesnt do them justice. The Fae ones were hard to follow. But apart from that, I enjoyed them.
And I LOVE your graphics for this year; such a lovely combination of colours. I’d like the badges a bit bigger (easier to reduce than enlarge), but I do use the html for the letters to save image space 🙂
And advance warning of next years… brilliant 🙂 Thank you.
I don’t think I commented any during April, but I’m still trying to get around to visit everyone! I love the art! I am usually a rule follower, but I didn’t follow the guidelines for the reflection. I’m so sorry!
Congratulations on completing the challenge and I loved the artwork. Whoever it was who complained shame on them and if they think they can do better maybe they just should have signed up for it when the offer was out there…right. I don’t think I read any of your posts and shame on me for that, but I do appreciate the time that you took to come and visit my edge of the world. That means a lot. Thank you for all you do with the A-Z challenge…it’s a big job so a BIG THANK YOU for doing all you do. Looking forward to next year.
Cheers,
Barbie
Well I’m guilty of not commenting on your posts unfortunately yours is not a genre I’m drawn to with books – but still I should have left a comment when I did visit. Sorry you had such a rough time of it during April – the challenge is hard enough without extra obstacles. I think the graphics are good – I couldn’t do them so I definitely wouldn’t complain about them. Hope things are going a bit more smoothly now.