A to Z Challenge 2014 - Ghosts - A Summary & Resource Links from My Posts, plus Reflections

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So that's it, the A to Z April Challenge is over for another year! Congratulations to everyone who survived! :D And thank you to all those who organised this great blog hop!

I don't know about anyone else, but it's been a month that has been a mixture of a whirlwind and a marathon. I've really enjoyed visiting a huge selection of blogs this year, and I've listed some of my favourites below. And it has also been brilliant fun talking to the visitors to my blog, hearing their own ghost stories and talking about the weird happenings the length and breadth of Great Britain.

I've been recommending authors and linking to books and movies throughout my posts, and some folks were interested in going back over my posts to find those references. I've made lists below of my resource materials for anyone who wants to check them out. Plus, if you didn't get a chance to read The Burning Web, my own ghost story exclusively written for the A to Z, during the month, then I've listed out the parts below if you want to check it out now :).

Reflections

Well, as I already mentioned, I think the A to Z is both a time for preparation and a time for frantic activity. April is a long month when visiting lots of blogs, so I pre-scheduled about half of my posts with the rest all planned out, I started planning in Feb. This meant I could pace myself and have a few days off of writing blog posts and just concentrate on hopping round the blogs.

The suggestion to start from under my name in the blog list and doing 5 to 10 blogs a day worked really well, although towards the end I was sometimes less than 5 as fatigue set in, but then at the beginning I sometimes hopped to more than 10, so I think it evened out. I ended up with a spreadsheet of blogs I was visiting regularly, sometimes every day, sometimes with a couple of days gap in between, but ones from both the mini supernatural hop and the main list that I really enjoyed (all of those are listed below). I would not have managed all the visits without the spreadsheet, it helped me remember the places I enjoyed the most.

I tried to leave a comment on every blog I visited, an encouraging comment about the post I had read, since I found it a little difficult to engage with comments on my blog that didn't actually mention the content of the post in some way. :)

Finally, I didn't keep my posts to 100 words, which was an A to Z suggestion, but I did split the content down into four sections, each of which, apart from the serialised fiction, I kept fairly short and I linked to each section at the top of the post, so if anyone wanted to ignore one or more sections, they could jump to the one they wanted to read. I thought this was a satisfactory compromise. :)

My Favourite Blogs from A To Z 2014
So, I followed the advice from the A to Z team, which was to start from my own link in the A to Z list and work my way down five to ten blogs a day, and I found some great blogs that way, ones which I would not have thought about reading. Plus a bunch of us during the theme reveal this year, also discovered we were all doing supernatural themes, so we got together and made a mini list of our own to keep track of each other. The list below is made up of all the folks I found myself going back to over the month, who were engaging, interesting and just generally great to talk to :). (this list is in no particular order, just folks I made note of as I found them and I'm sorry if I missed you out, I visited so many great blogs this month that I couldn't keep track of them all)

• Patricia Lynne, Independent YA Author, introduced me to a swathe of new words by embedding them in some fun, spicy short fic.
• Author, Lexa Cain, has been entertaining us with the tales from haunted locations, something, naturally, I really enjoyed!
• The eclectic mixture of content over at Herding Cats & Burning Soup has kept me laughing, or going 'oo, yum', all month :).
• D Biswas at Amloki Blogs has been sharing useful tips on writing, with quotes from famous authors.
• My Baffling Brain, written by Laura Clipson, has been posting about a subject I've long been interested in, Egyptology.
• I couldn't make this list without mentioning my sis. Tasha, who has been entertaining me with info about vampires (another subject close to my heart), and a great vampire fiction over on her blog,  Tasha's Thinkings
• It was Timothy Brannan and Tasha who came up with the idea of the mini Supernatural A to Z, and Tim's been talking about witches this month, I learnt quite a lot - this is a useful resource for writers and gamers alike. His blog is called, The Other Side
• Dianne Riggins over at A Creative Mind shared some supernatural monsters with us.
• Anna Tan has had me hooked all month with her fey-based part-work fiction of humans venturing into the fairy kingdom.
• Making Believe is author and illustrator, Dianne Lynne Gardner's blog, and she's been introducing folks from fairytales and literature.
• Sara C Snider has also regaled us this month with fairytale characters and their stories, I hadn't heard of them all.
• Mina Burrows picked a subject close to my heart, monsters, talking about them in movies from the golden age of cinema.
• Julia Matthews has been talking about all things occult, from the Tree of Life to the magical properties of numbers.
• Who doesn't love zombies? Well, author, Jolie du Pre has been sharing her special love for them over at her blog, Precious Monsters
• Stacy Claflin has been introducing us to different aspects of her Transformed series, vampires, witches and intrigue :) 
• The Multicolored Diary blog belongs to Zalka Csenge Virág and has been great his month as I learned all about lots of different folktales related to different colours.
• Tracy Lynn Tobin over on No Page Left Blank has been talking about her favourite characters from page and screen, some I'd heard of, others not.
• It has been brilliant fun over at the Spirit Called blog all month, because we've been trying to guess the film from particular quotes. I haven't been very good at it, I have to say ;P
• Lady Jai over at Write Backwards has been inspiring me this month by writing about the positives in herself.
• The Shellshank Redemption is a blog belonging to Madeline Mora-Summonte and she's been writing us short, sharp little fics.
• Author, S D Neeve, has been talking about the Mysterious Islands of Alphabet Cove, where creatures and children are matched together for adventures and learning.
• If you want some useful hints and tips about world building, check out Rebekah Loper' blog
• Another story that has kept me reading all month is from Katie Doyle in her blog, Writing, Reading & Life - a story of a young witch who will risk everything to save her brother.
• Laura Marcella over at Wavy Lines has had another fun guessing game all month, this time books and authors - the hints have been really tricky sometimes :)
• Tara Tyler Talks has been sharing some writerly tips and some fun stuff too!
• Ida Chiavaro on her blog, Reflex Reactions, has been talking frankly about the greatest loves of her life, some personified, some more abstract :)
• Michelle Stanley has been doing some delightful spinoffs to classic fairytales this month. 
• Charlotte Comley on her blog, Aiming For A Publishing Deal, has some great checklists for writers when both creating and editing their work.
• Chris Votey made my brain ache some days, since he's being teaching us about literary terms and concepts and, yes, I learnt something :)
• Mee-eep has been writing some wonderful cute and feel good fics over her journal this month.
• Carrie Anne Brownian has been taking us on a tour of locations she uses in her books and she has some beautiful photos of different cities in her posts.
• Charis has also been entertaining with her spicy flash fics and drabbles.
• Inger over at Desery Canyon Living has been talking about good things, inspirational and friendly :)
• Elizabeth Darkley has been giving some writerly advice on her blog.
• Author, L G Keltner, has been impressing me with her drabbles this month as well.
• Karen Jones Gowen over at Coming Down the Mountain: Expat Writer Living Abroad has been talking about her life in Guatemala, fascinating!
• Fairytales are the order of the day over at Pensuasion and author S L Hennessy
• Write With Fey, where author, Chrys Fey, talks about writing.
• Shelley Munro has been telling me about New Zealand, its wildlife, landmarks and folk lore as well.
• Hilary Melton-Butcher over at Positive Letters has been talking about the coast and I've learnt some stuff about my country's own coastline I didn't know.
• I came late to Stephanie Faris' blog during the challenge, but her posts are well worth a read too.

As I said above, this is a list of the blogs I went back to regularly this month, if I missed you off, I'm sorry, but if I commented on your blog, it was because I liked what you have to say :).

The Burning Web
So I wrote a story especially for my theme and serialised in each post. If anyone is interested, I'm turning it into a full eBook at the moment, editing, tweaking since it doesn't need to fit into 26 parts now, and developing a front cover. :) The links for each part are below if you want to read it.

Tris, an ex-police officer, is haunted by the moment he shot an Asian boy, Abdi, during a night of terrible rioting in London. He has been tried and found innocent of the boy's manslaughter, but that is not the only life-changing event he undergoes. Recovering from a stroke caused by the stress of his situation, Tris and his husband, Xander, have chosen to take Tris' settlement from the police and create a new life in the country at Berwick House, a Victorian Gothic mansion. Only Tris begins to discover that they are not alone in the old house and his illness has given him eyes to see their companions.

Part 01

Part 02

Part 03

Part 04

Part 05

Part 06

Part 07

Part 08

Part 09

Part 10

Part 11

Part 12

Part 13

Part 14

Part 15

Part 16

Part 17

Part 18

Part 19

Part 20

Part 21

Part 22

Part 23

Part 24

Part 25

Part 26

Books & Other Reference Material From My Posts

I recommended a lot of authors this month and also I used a lot of reference books to collect the information about the haunted places I talked about, plus there's plenty of information out of the web and I've recommended some movies as well, so here is a list of all those sources:

Reference Books

• The Good Ghost Guide by John Brooks
• Scottish Ghosts by Lily Seafield
• Aidan Chambers' Book of Ghosts & Hauntings
• Haunts & Hauntings (Editor Russel Beach)
• Haunted London by Richard Jones
• Ghosts & Witches of The Cotswolds by J A Brooks
• The Haunted Pub Guide by Guy Lyon Playfair
• This Haunted Isle by Peter Underwood
• Strange Tales of the South West by Ronnie Hoyle
• Welsh Ghostly Encounters by Jane Pugh
• Haunted Castles & Houses of Scotland by Martin Coventry
• West Country Hauntings by Peter Underwood
• Ghosts of Cornwall by Peter Underwood
• Ghosts of Kent by Peter Underwood
• The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends, from Spring-heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys by Westwood & Simpson

Fiction (physical books)

• 7th Armada Ghost Book edited by Mary Danby
• 8th Armada Ghost Book edited by Mary Danby
• 9th Armada Ghost Book edited by Mary Danby
• 4th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories
• 10th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories
• 12th Fontana Book of Great Ghost Stories
• the Fifth Ghost Book edited by Rosemary Timperley
• The Mist In The Mirror - Susan Hill

Fiction (eBooks and online reading)

• A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens (FREE)
• Short Stories by Gertrude Atherton (FREE)
• The Ghost Story Megapack
• The Second Ghost Story Megapack
• The Third Ghost Story Megapack
• Ghost Stories of an Antiquary - M R James (FREE)
• The Hound of the Bakervilles - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
• The Listeners - Walter de la Mare (FREE) 
• Hauntings and Horrors: The Collected Ghost Stories of E. F. Benson
• The Moonstone - Wilkie Collins (FREE)
• The Haunted House - Charles Dickens & Others (FREE)
• The Haunted Hotel & Other Stories (Tales of Mystery & The Supernatural) - Wilkie Collins 
• No.5 Branch Line: the Engineer - Amelia B Edwards (FREE)
• The Phantom Coach - Amelia B Edwards (FREE)
• The Mass of Shadows - Anatole France (FREE)
• The Old Nurse's Story - Elizabeth Gaskell (FREE)
• Dolly: A Ghost Story - Susan Hill
• The Phantom Rickshaw and Other Ghost Stories - Rudyard Kipling (FREE)
• At The End of The Passage - Rudyard Kipling (FREE)
• Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte (FREE)
• The Woman In Black - Susan Hill
• J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 1 (FREE)
• J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 2 (FREE)
• J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 3 (FREE)
• J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 4 (FREE)
• J. S. Le Fanu's Ghostly Tales, Volume 5 (FREE)
• The House by the Church Yard - Sheridan le Fanu (FREE)
• Carmilla - Sheridan le Fanu (FREE)
• Three Ghost Stories - Charles Dickens (FREE)
• Grim Tales - E Nesbit (FREE)
• When I Was Dead & Other Stories - Vincent O'Sullivan
• Stories by Edgar Allan Poe (FREE)
• The Roll-Call Of The Reef - Arthur Quiller-Couch (FREE)
• It - Stephen King
• Works by Bram Stoker (FREE)
• A Ghost Story - Mark Twain (FREE)
• The House of Nightmare - Edward Lucas White (FREE)
• The Best Ghost Stories 1800-1849: A Classic Ghost Anthology (Best Short Stories 1800-1849)
• The Haunted and the Haunters; Or, The House and the Brain - Edward Bulwer Lytton (FREE)
• The Withered Arm - Thomas Hardy (FREE)
• Reality or Delusion? - Mrs Henry Wood (FREE)
• The Tapestried Chamber - Sir Walter Scott (FREE)

Reference Sites

• Burton Agnes Hall
• Harry Price Website
• Hairy Hands Ghost
• Islay
• M R James
• Jamaica Inn
• Rudyard Kipling
• Knebworth House
• Sheridan le Fanu
• Glamis Castle
• Castle Rushen
• Mother Leakey
• Millennium Dome
• Pluckley
• Raynham Hall
• The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall
• Muncaster Castle
• Tower of London
• Peter Underwood
• Owlpen Manor
• Vernham Dean
• Wittersham
• York
• York Ghosts Paranormal Database
• Zennor

Movies

• The Lady In White
• Ju-on: The Grudge
• Dark Water
• The Woman In Black
• Ghostwatch
• Evil Dead
• Poltergeist
• The Amityville Horror
• Ghost Stories for Christmas
• The Sixth Sense
• Haunted
• Rose Red
• The Mummy
• The Woman In Black: Angels of Death

A few of us discovered that we all had supernatural themes for the AtoZ so we got together and did a mini list. If you also have a supernatural theme (ghosts, monsters, witches, spells etc), please feel free to add yourself to the list.

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Sophie's Thoughts & Fumbles A to Z Challenge 2014 Posts

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