To my subscribers and peers, returning to support my reading groups: hello and thank you! I started as a blogger and cherish this place where we write articles about topics that matter, exert our creativity, and play. The Goodreads community became important to me as well. We welcome a number of them into the blogging world: hi guys!!!!
Join by adding yourself the linky buttons of your choice. Never, have I been asked to explain as often as this month how to use a “linky button”. But basic questions signify the influx of new people discovering what WordPress offers; a happy event! Rather than chase all over WordPress and Goodreads, be sure to return and read my reply where you posted it. I respond to comments and questions I have seen, within two days.
The key is to re-read instructions.
They are all there, on every question asked. Click, experiment, task from a clearer perspective. All that the sign-up buttons request, is a name and a website URL. If you don’t have a blog for making a post; create a Goodreads shelf for each group theme you join, as your website URL.
Our headquarters is one of the menus atop this blog: a handy place for our related pages and activities. https://cmriedel.wordpress.com/headquarters-2019/
Veteran challenge participants value this: we avoid finishing reviews and websites in busy November and December, by running from Feburary 1, 2019 to January 31, 2020! Your book lists may span the calendar year but I felt long ago, that the best way to accommodate reading right up to New Year’s Eve, is to let us breathe. Tally things in January, when we have much more time.
I draw our prize in December to avoid Canada Post’s annual rise in postage costs. The festitivities that come with my four themes have no qualification except membership. They are for seeing how much you read; not decreeing how many that should be. I solely ask that you please comment somewhere or e-mail before December, stating entry into the draw. Some participation fizzles, others do not want a second-hand book or alternate goodies. I want to award our annual prize to folks who are keen on it and still playing.
Please sign-up if you intend to play. When I see that we have ample guests in my four groups, I will deliver on games, trivia, and fun that I have had in mind for years. I will stick to one prize representing my whole quartet at the end of this year. When we reach ten people in each, I can return to a draw per group and ask authors for sponsorship of festivities throughout a year. For now, they are for fun. Knowing how many guests there are, lets me know that these are worthwhile as well.
I write a notepad or word document to keep track of each group. This is an organized place to paste all website links connected with my themes: the sign-up page with information, the review page with instructions, the URL to our blog post or Goodreads shelf, and our list of books that fit. See mine under each of our 2019 logos. Planning how many suitable books I have here at home, starts my fun!
Because we start in February and are following the calendar year, many of us have finished and reviewed several books. Paste your review links with each title. It is easy to copy and paste them into buttons. Notepad and word documents are great for seeing if your book choices match my other themes. Sign-up for these any time.
A useful chat among comment boxes, is hard to find titles. Many of us are fond of trading paperbacks we have on-hand, for books we seek! There are swapping resources for Britain and the USA but we Canadians need people willing to trade with us by mail. Currency, postage, and prices differ but exchanging books evens out wonderfully.
The review pages are open! After joining a group, add reviews answering that theme! Please read the instructions on each of them. By written description and by example, I explain the forumula for writing our entries. One thing longtime guests have not done is chat in the comment boxes. Say hi and tell us how you are; personally or in books.
Please subscribe to my blog to guarantee catching information, news, and activities. Or watch for updates here, which I mirror in my Goodreads group. I am not repeating those years, when I put a lot of effort into entertainment that people did not see. It is of course voluntary. You may spend the year adding reviews but an occasional comment to news and discussions is appreciated.
Stay tuned for an activity I will post shortly. It will be open to everyone: my blog-readers, Goodreads friends, and people who see it! You do not need to be a challenge member, if I don’t specify this.
One riddle for members of any of my groups is already on, a tradition of ours every year: the “My Kind Of Mystery” logo! While I am doing one year-end draw, it makes sense that every member, in the mystery theme or not, may solve this logo. Being a game-player, here in one of my RIEDEL Fascination themes, is enough. You win a second entry in the year-end draw.
The first clue is already visible: do you recognize the book cover out of which I made the 2019 logo? I will let that sit, lest anyone know it right away. I will gradually add clues until people solve the title, author, and year. Guesses are unlimited. Send them by e-mail (RIEDELFascination(at)Gmail(dot)com) so that answers aren’t given away.
A positive new category in “Gentle Spectrums” is for our dear 8 year-old, Conan. He has been missing since July 2017: travelling in response to unusual confinement that week. There are a lot of places a strong, people and forest smart cat can be, in a year and a half. Ron & I have a very good feeling that this spring of 2019, we are finally going to get this son of ours home. Please add your healing, protecting, positive energy to this prayer and to anything your life requires.
Reading is entertaining but also a balm for us. My answer to what reading themes are and why I love them, is that they make sport of a solitary hobby. Here is a way that it is communal, self-competitive, and fun. May 2019 be a wonderful, “Hope And Triumph” for all! Yours truly, Carolyn and family.
Carolyn, baby Love, baby Conan (top), baby Petal (bottom), baby Angel.
