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Every day I’m Shufflin’ - An A-to-Z Challenge Theme Reveal
Monday, March 23, 2015 at 9:00AM 
“Freddy vs. Jason” scratch art by Scott Dyer, whose latest work includes Mystery Box sculptures made with single playing cards from theory11’s collaboration with STAR TREK INTO DARKNESS director J.J. Abrams. Today is the day where I join hundreds of bloggers who are letting our readers in on what we have in store for the 2015 April A-to-Z Challenge.
Having previously gone with a theme for three consecutive years and also winging it once before, I’m aware of the advantages as well as the drawbacks to both sides of the “theme or no theme?” coin.
Since then, I’ve made a wish, threw that coin in the magical fountain of nonconformity, and here is what washed up on nearby shores:
A Mixed Bag of Tricks
My editorial calendar for April basically consists of me pulling rabbits out of hats while blogging through the alphabet. In other words, my theme is to not have a theme at all and just write about subjects that I would normally post here anyway. While the title of this theme is inspired in part by the randomness of subjects I’ll be writing about, it also serves as a nod to the card shuffling wizards at theory11 who demonstrate that great art can even change the way you eat Oreo cookies.
It still helps to have a sense of direction, even with no theme. Keeping this in mind, my upcoming A-Z posts are prompted by blogging ideas from Sara Lancaster at No. 2 Pen. Needless to say, I think my handful of years participating in this blog hop makes me pretty well versed in the overall A-to-Z blogging experience. Thus, I do not take the benefits of having a theme for granted. To that end, I’m using the best of both worlds so my blogging can still go according to plan, without me having to do too much of any planning at all…if that makes any sense.
You can expect to read about a myriad of topics including: unorthodox parenting advice, Rocky Balboa, poetry, being a superhero, hacking your movie theater experience, random acts of kindness and switching careers.
Some of my A-to-Z Challenge posts will be lengthy while others come in shorter than a paragraph or two. Most are on the verge of being medium sized blog posts. One thing to count on is they will all be related, in one way or another, to the hypnotic world of motion pictures. I plan to enjoy this versatile ride through the alphabet and I hope you do the same, whether that’s here or on your own blog.
Today as the A-to-Z community discloses our top-secret blogging strategies for April, I’m also happy to announce the release of theory11’s vintage Contraband book lamp!
The Contraband book lamp with a hidden safe is available at theory11.Made with an Edison light bulb, two 50 year-old books and an antique power switch, this functional lamp is full of surprises. Individually handcrafted by illusion engineer Ryan Edwards, the lamp slides open to reveal a wooden storage compartment, filled with four decks of Contraband playing cards.
theory11 also indicates that the deck contains secret imagery hidden within the interior design of its gold and black foil tuck case.
“There isn’t a set of playing cards with this degree of detail and execution,” says Acquire Magazine.
Who do YOU think would win in a street fight, Freddy or Jason?
How much progress have YOU made in YOUR blogging plans for April?
What was the most recent card game YOU played?
Reader Comments (31)
Enjoy the challenge! I love the lamp.
Haha, what a mix :D I like it!
@TarkabarkaHolgy from
Multicolored Diary - Epics from A to Z
MopDog - The crazy thing about Hungarians...
I've tried about a dozen times to cut and paste the url to my actual blog post, both here and in the url option and no cut and paste is working? So, just left the generic post vs the post where the reveal post is actually posted. Something doesn't seem to be working. Like you I've used themes and not in other years, depending in part on which blog I used. I think I prefer no theme, but am using one this year because of the blog I'm using. Best of luck in April
Freddy would win, he has magical powers...
I am ready for April... I think, the hardest thing is comments and responding to comments
card game, I played "find the queen"...
Jeremy [Retro]
AtoZ Challenge Co-Host [2015]
There's no earthly way of knowing.
Which direction we are going!
HOLLYWOOD NUTS!
Okay a surprise every day. Freddy wins. And the last card game I played was Blackjack at the kitchen table with my sons and husband. Still not quite done with my posts.
I'm sure you'll pull off well whatever you do here because you are such a superb writer. What you are planning sounds like a pretty good time to me.
I'm going with Freddy because I like him the best.
Still working on April.
I play solitaire on the computer, but haven't played an actual card game in I don't know how long.
Sometimes no theme is the best theme at all. You never know, somebody could end up finding a common thread between them and you'll discover there was a subtle theme all along ;)
Miscellany should be interesting. I'll never know what to expect. Look forward to the surprises.
Sounds like you have a general idea of where you're going.
Need to get my posts together. Still at work on that.
I'm a scaredy cat when it comes to horror movies and their characters so I'll choose door C where they both destroy each other without involving any other life being taken lol!!
I'm doing a group blog A to Z challenge. We've pretty much got our letters ready, set and go at Untethered Realms
As for the last card game I played, I think it was Spades, and I do not claim any kind of wins or losses since multiple sips of buttery nipples were involved :-)
That's a great idea. I need to try that sometime--just free form it!
Freddy who? Flintstone? I like your no theme theme. It's very you!
Freddy vs. Jason? Jason.
I like the mixed bag of tricks!
It's going to make each day extra special!
Heather
All the best :) Looking forward to the right mix of everything then :)
Oh, man! I bought into the idea that "no theme, no participating in the Great and Powerful Theme Reveal"! I've been had. ;)
I like your plan. Sounds like a fun way to tie it all together yet celebrate randomness. This is my second year A-Zing and last year I didn't do a theme, which I rather enjoyed. But this year I decided to theme and see which I like better. One thing for sure: your plan will provide many surprises for readers. I look forward to being surprised!
Michele at Angels Bark
Mary,
Having gone through some stressful times during previous challenges, I do hope to enjoy this year's blog hop. Glad you love the book lamp as much as I do. Thanks for visiting!
Csenge,
Yep somebody has to mix it up...might as well be me, lol. Thanks for coming by to find out my theme for this year's challenge! :)
sandy,
The only thing I can guess right now is that maybe the URL field in the comment form only accepts up to a certain maximum amount of letters/characters or something like that. It's odd though. I'll look into it. Rest assured that your main URL went through fine though, so I was able to go to your blog :)
Sounds like you and I are in the same boat when it comes to using themes and not using them. Your comment reminds me that our blogs tend to determine whether we do a theme or go the random route. Also thanks for your best luck wishes for April. I sure do need it!
Jeremy,
It's always great to see you around my neck of the blogging woods! Magic sure does provide an advantage over one's opponent. I agree with what you said about responding to comments being the hardest thing. I'm no where near finished writing my A-to-Z posts, which means right now and this very moment I'm sacrificing one thing for another...the blog posts versus responding to comments. It is hard to juggle, man. I'm not familiar with the card game "find the queen." How do you play that???
Susan,
Yes pretty much a daily surprise is how I'm rolling this year. Blackjack has always seemed like a casino game for high rolling players, so it's nice to find out it can be played at the kitchen table...makes it sound more fun in an environment where there's less pressure to win. Ha! We're in the same club of not being done with our A-to-Z posts. Thanks for your comment!
Arlee,
Thank you for the bout of confidence in my being able to pull this thing off. I sure hope I make it! Freddy has my vote in the battle too. I do still like Jason because he's one of the coolest movie villains. Sounds like a lot of us still have some work to do on our April blog posts. I don't know if that means we should be relieved or scared! LOL. Playing Solitare on the computer is so much different than playing with real cards. I've done both and prefer the latter because you can move them around quicker than on screen.
Sabina,
Now that you mention it yeah it will be interesting to find if there is a common thread between the "no theme" blog posts for April. Themes, though great, can also be a bit restrictive so I think I like the versatility that my mixture provides this year. Thanks for visiting to read about my theme reveal and for joining in on the discussion!
C. Lee McKenzie,
That's what I was going for and since I still have a few letters to fill in, that means I don't know what to expect either. We're going to be surprised together, lol. Thank you for your comment.
J.L. Campbell,
General idea yes....now the only thing left is to write these posts out! I have outlines and notes done for most of them but still need to fill in the blanks. Going by your comment, I know you understand :)
Angela,
Believe it or not I usually run away from horror movies too, lol, but Freddy and Jason are classics...can't pass up on those! Door C sounds like a good solution. Why does Untethered Realms sound familiar to me??? I think I've come across that blog a few times. The group blogging thing is genius! It gets you off the hook for doing all 26 letters and instead other people can share the writing load. Would you believe the first (and only, I think) time I drank a buttery nipple was at a film festival?! Spades is a cool game that I always wished I could play but never learned how to despite watching my cousins battle each other in it, on many a day growing up :)
Stephanie,
Thanks. Free forming can be a relief because you don't have to commit to one topic or form of writing. So yeah try it. You might like it. Thanks for your comment.
Pam,
You're kidding me right?! I'd expect a librarian to know all about Freddy. Ha! ;)
Glad you like my theme and I must say your mention of the Flinstones has me hoping somebody has a neat cartoon theme in the works for this year's A-Z. Thanks for visiting and for your comment!
Heather,
Thanks for the extra special perspective on my mixed bag of tricks theme for the challenge. It's great to know the theme is going over well with my team and participants. So far Jason is lucky to have you on his side because you're the only one who went in his direction...or better yet make that two, if Stormy agrees with you ;)
Shashank,
Thank you for stopping by to learn about my mixed-up theme for the challenge and I hope you enjoy what you read when April rolls around. All the best to you as well!
Holly,
Yes woman! This is how we do it. 2015 is officially the year of winging it :)
Michelle,
Cheers to you for doing the challenge for a second year in a row! It's good to get a feel for whether having a theme or going without one works best for your blogging activities, so I'm glad you're trying out the flipside of this theming coin. You never know until you do it. Thanks for visiting to read about my mixed theme for the challenge and also for joining the discussion in the comments! :)
- Nicole
The Madlab Post
Haven't played a card game in awhile, but play lots of Word with Friends on Facebook :) Got all my A/Z posts done but one, just have to get a picture for it and write it.
I admire you "winging" it without a theme per se. This is my 3rd challenge; 1st year was without a theme and posts not written beforehand. It was much more relaxing last year with a theme and posts done before April :)
have a great time with the challenge!
betty
A mixed bag! Cool.
So you do have a theme... kinda! Looking forward to it. Cool lamp.
After reading your post, I wondered why didn't I think of this before. Mixed Bag sounds such fun. Will surely try it out next year. You have inspired me. Looking forward to reading your posts :)
I could use one or more of those lamps. Very cool!
See ya on the A to Z trail!
I think a mixed bag is great! I decided to choose a specific theme mainly because a) it's my first A to Z Challenge, and b) I'm traveling in April, so I figured I could get more done ahead of time with a theme. Since I'm more of a mixed bag kind of person, though, we'll see if I shift things around once we actually get started.
I don't know who those people are--I don't watch TV at all or movies much. As for the other questions, I have all my posts written and the last card game I played was cribbage. Looking forward to April!
Back when we used to do the challenge we had a carefully crf=afted theme, but it was too hard not to interrupt for other posts which we would try and tie into the challenge. When they announce Avengers how can you ignore it to talk about Ant-Man? So, that "cheating" (as some called it) along with the complaint that we had an "unfair" advantage since there were two of us made us decide to drop out from future challenges. That said, it's the challenge that got us on a regular schedule and moved us from an occasional blog to a daily blog which has been invaluable. It has it's good and bad points but I love your theme.