In April, that just ended yesterday, I participated in the A to Z blogging challenge in which for 26 of the 30 days of April I prepared a blog post on a topic beginning with a different letter of the alphabet. I decided to cover Paleocene mammals. I did this in part to refresh my memory of my dissertation that I wrote so many years ago, which focused on Paleocene mammals, and also to share some parts (actually the vast majority) of my dissertation that may never be published. It was fun.
Here are some thoughts on the nature of the A to Z challenge itself:
1) I do like it as a blog hop and an opportunity to meet other bloggers. I’ve made some new blogging friends and I plan to participate again next year (though probably not with fossil mammals).
2) I tried my best to visit the blogs of other participants. Those that I read were fun and interesting. It was always a little disappointing to come to a blog that had quit part-way. I’m glad that the administrators and their minions worked hard to clear such blogs from the list.
3) I really do wish there was a way to make categories work better. I wanted to make a point of visiting all the science blogs, but they were hard to find. There were maybe seven of the ~1500 (or whatever) blogs participating. I found them, visited them once, then lost them again. Sigh.
4) Speaking of categories, it seems as though the vast majority (or maybe just the plurality) were either about authors or were a series of book reviews. This makes sense, because bloggers tend to be writers and readers. The blogs that really stood out to me were the ones *not* specifically about writing. I wish those were easier to find.
So far as my own experience blogging about Paleocene mammals:
1) There are a lot of Paleocene mammals and very little about them on-line. I like to think that my little posts were actually a positive contribution to the science. (And feedback I’ve gotten from other professionals suggests this is true.)
2) Though I don’t plan to do mammals again for A to Z next year, I think I will continue with the occasional post on Paleocene mammalian genera. My paleontologist friends liked them, as did many of my non-science readers.
3) In fact, I may begin to visit museums and build up a photographic database for these genera and try to create an on-line field guide to help future paleontologists get started. You see, one problem with Paleocene mammals is that they’re mostly known only from teeth, so they don’t often find themselves in picture books with glossy pages.
All in all it was a good experience. I’m looking forward to doing it again. I already know what my theme will be next year. It’ll be a good one… and off the beaten path.
Penny Higgins - Storyteller • Artist • Scientist 
I liked the paleo-mammal posts. You don’t see things like that very often. Besides learning about the creatures themselves, it was interesting to learn about the techniques pros use to identifyy and classify them.
I think it’d be neat if you could write a Peterson’s field guide to prehistoric mammals, although there’s probably not enough of a market for to justify publishing one. Would you even want there to be a market that large? That would imply a bunch of amateur paleontologists are out hacking away at the countryside, possibly damaging valuable fossils.
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I actually know authors working on a field guide to prehistoric mammals. They’ve admitted to me that the Paleocene gets short shrift because most of the fossils are just teeth. So there is a market, albeit small, for a field guide for Paleocene mammals. I’ll probably get on that.
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I didn’t find you during the challenge but I agree about the categories and it being difficult to find topics other than writing.
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So pleased you enjoyed the challenge and congrats on completing it.
Yvonne.
A TO Z AMBASSADOR.
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I also agree with the fact that it’s hard to find blogs that aren’t writing about writing. Not that they are a bad thing, but I do like a little more variety.
I think I saw your posts way back at the beginning, and then lost you because I didn’t bookmark you. Won’t make that same mistake twice! Congrats on finishing the A to Z.
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Congratulations on making it all the way through the month while participating in two blogging challenges simultaneously! I learned a lot about Paleocene mammals from your posts. I don’t know if I could get through mollusks A-Z on consecutive days, and there are a lot more of them!
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I loved it that they finally provided a way to categorize the blogs, too, but I also wish more people had utilized it. Maybe next year there will be a better way! Congrats on finishing the Challenge!!
Happy reading and writing! from Laura Marcella @ Wavy Lines
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Very COOL recap!! I can’t wait to see what your theme is for next year. This years theme was awesome! Course I can’t pronounce most of them…. but I sure learned a lot.
Connie
Peanut Butter and Whine
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Glad you liked it! Looking forward to next year!
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I actually noticed a whole heap of blogs that weren’t about writing, but I did go to a lot that had snippets of writing, sometimes poetry, and book reviews as well. There were a few music themes too, which I loved to see.
I saw a few sciencey ones but mostly because they were bloggers I already read.
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Congratulations, Penny, on joining the A-Z and completing it!
I have come here by way of the Reflection list – my starting point in the reading department. Time is not something I have enough of, particularly during April, so I do much of my visiting afterwards.
I am looking forward to perusing your site and reading your A-Z submissions.
Cheers, Jenny @ PEARSON REPORT
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Thank you for the suggestions! It sounds like this got you back to a subject you loved. I’ve done similar for the last two years (posting about things of personal interest). I have no idea about next year’s theme, though.
Shannon at The Warrior Muse
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