Thursday, December 31, 2009 By: Suzanne

Short Story Challenge


Well, I figure since I have been doing this blog for about a year and a half, it is now time for me to host my own challenge. Or more like, I simply want to! My favorite genre of books is Fantasy/Sci-Fi. This genre prides itself on its wonderful short stories. Most of the well known authors who write Fantasy and Sci-Fi started out writing short stories. This is where my challenge gets it's inspiration. The challenge will take place from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. There will be 3 levels for everyone to choose from but they should all be fairly easy to accomplish.

Gold: Read one collection of short stories, published in 2010, every month. It must not be published before Jan 1, 2010 or after Dec 31, 2010. Some collection are published early but have a later date. For example, February 2010 edition of Realms of Fantasy is already available, this is acceptable based on the date. (Told you I'd be easy)

Silver: Read one collection of short stories, published at any time, every month.

Bronze: Read one collection of short stories every quarter (Jan-Mar, Apr-Jun, Jul-Sept, Oct-Dec)

UPDATE! Wimpy level:  Read any amount of short stories and participate at anytime during this challenge.

Here are the guidelines:

1. You can join at anytime as long as you don't start reading the collection before Jan 1, 2010

2. If you join after January and want to participate in the Gold or Silver levels, you may post about more than 1 collection per month in order to catch up.

3. You can choose short stories from any genre, but they MUST be short stories and not novels. Here are some definitions to help:
Short stories tend to be less complex than novels. Usually a short story focuses on only one incident, has a single plot, a single setting, a small number of characters, and covers a short period of time.
A classic definition of a short story is that one should be able to read it in one sitting. 
In contemporary usage, the term short story most often refers to a work of fiction no longer than 20,000 words and no shorter than 1,000 (although I don't care if it's a short short). 
Novellas are acceptable as long as you are reviewing a collection and not just one. 


4. Your "collection" may be any type of publication that has more than one short story. It could be a book of  several authors, a book of one author's short stories, a monthly magazine specializing in short stories, an e-magazine specializing in short stories, etc. If you have questions, please feel free to leave a comment.


5. This challenge is for 2010 only. The last day to have all your stories read will be Dec 31, 2010. (There may be part 2 for 2011 if I get enough interest).

4. When you sign up in Mr.Linky use the DIRECT LINK to your post about the Short Story Challenge. If you just post the URL to your home page, it will be removed. No one wants to search an entire year's worth of post to find just one. If you don't have a blog, leave the URL blank and sign up in the comments section of this blog.

5. I will have a new Mr. Linky for each month end and for the year end wrap up. Please use January's for your January post, and February for February's post, etc.

HAVE FUN!!


10 comments:

Anonymous said...

I promised myself only 4 challenges to start the year, but let me see what I've got on my shelves waiting to be read.

Brooke from The Bluestocking Guide said...

Yay! A wimpy level! I love wimpy!!

Suzanne said...

hahaha! I added that by request and because I know I am so horrible at challenges myself! I figure if I'm hosting I HAVE to finish, right?

Simcha said...

This looks like an interesting challenge. My husband has actually been trying to get me to read one of the numerous scifi short story collections that we own, but I just haven't been motivated to do so. This challenge could be a good opportunity for me to tackle some of those short story books. I'll have to think about which level I want to commit to though.

Thanks for letting me know about this challenge!

Simcha

Anonymous said...

Okay, I am going to sign up for the Bronze level as long as they don't have to be a certain genre. I have at least 4 collections on my shelves already and need a reason to read them. I'll post about it tomorrow and sign up with Mr. Linky.

Jenners said...

I swore off joining any more challenges but your wimpy level makes it a possiblity ... I do have a collection of short stories coming to me that I know I want to read so I'll probably sign up soon! ARRRGHHH! I have no willpower!

Anonymous said...

Signing up for the Bronze level :)

Simcha said...

Hmm...I meant to sign up but I think I did this wrong. I didn't realize that you have to post about the challenge first, and there was already a URL so conveniently in place, though I see now that its that wrong one. Will come back and try this again once I post about my challenges.

Suzanne said...

Simcha, I show you as having signed up. I'll have another post at the end of the month for anyone that wants to post about what they read in January for this challenge. Welcome!

Carl V. Anderson said...

Tonya, I'll be 'officially' signing up for this soon. I'm going to update my New Years post with the challenges in it to include this one. I've finished my first short story collection for it and will post about that soon. Thanks for hosting.

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