The Challenged Writers

January in review: A-Z Challenge

2012-02-01T10:09:00.000-08:00

Jackie: Well, January was a near bust for me. I've been sick since just after Christmas but just as I was starting to get some relief, I got another cold (I blame the second one on the kiddie :-p ) What all that whining amounts to is very little reading time. Most days, you'd find me on Twitter complaining to Melissa that a book was just way too heavy to hold, lol.

Anyway, here's what I read for the A-Z challenge this month:

Everneath by Brodi Ashton
The House of Silk by Anthony Horowitz
World War Z by Max Brooks

Melissa: Well, I know the feeling of being down with the colds. I think we were sending it back and forth through a virus on here. lol. It's definitely been a tough start to the new year. I've spent more of my time reading short stories with being up and down. And I have books I've read that will go towards this Challenge, but I'm holding them until I get the reviews up here in February, trying to spead the love more than one month. lol.

What I've got thus far for A-Z Challenge...

Addicted by S.A. Archer
Cybrosis by P.C. Haring
Foreshadow by S.A. Archer
Percepliquis by Michael J. Sullivan
Something Wikkid This Way Comes by Nicole Peeler

Well, here's to February being a great lettered month too. :)

January in review: YA (Spec-Fic) Reading Challenge

2012-02-01T10:08:00.000-08:00

Jackie: I probably have a ton of books on the shelf that fit this category, but as yet are still unread. So, what was my accomplishment for this challenge in January?

Everneath by Brodi Ashton

It's sad but true. I'm hoping to get a few more of these under my belt of the next few months.

Melissa: Eeep!! Okay, I think I'm slacking. I'm blaming it all on starting the new year sick, and it carrying through. Yes, that's my story and I'm stickin' to it. lol. Okay, I've been a bad person, no YA reads for me in January! But I do have a few lined up, if I can get to them, for February. Two, if not three to come.

The A-Z Reading Challenge 2012

2011-12-15T17:37:00.000-08:00

Hello all!

Melissa and I (Jackie) were trying to think of some interesting ways to challenge ourselves and our fellow readers for the New Year. We've come up with an alphabet challenge that should be fairly easy to complete, if you happen to read 26 or more books per year. Then again, there are always those elusive letters, like "Z" and "U", that might really make this "challenge" come alive. And to throw an additional wrench in the plans, books starting with "A" or "The" don't count for "a" and "t"

Here are the challenge levels:

Level 1 - The EZ-Peasy. 7 books (each TITLE starting with a different letter of the alphabet). This challenge level maybe a cake walk, and upon completion, you can read all the books that start with "The" you could possibly desire, including John Grisham's entire library ;)
Level 2 - Alphabet Soup. 13 books of varying letters but just like the soup, sometimes you only get so many letters in the bowl. It will still be an impressive feat!
Level 3 - The Varsity Jacket. 26 books. You'll read a book starting with every single letter! Once completed, a victory lap around the track can be performed in celebration!
Level 4 - The Vanna White. 52 books. Tackling each and every letter twice over this year, you'll prove your prowess is matched only by the letter master herself! We will be awed and humbled by your achievements :D

To join in, enter your blog info below. We will be posting monthly updates where you can link your alphabet themed reviews (setting up a post where you have links to all your reviews together would be a great way to keep track too :). Remember to keep checking back until the end of the year when we'll be giving away a gift certificate and a swag pack. We're looking forward to seeing all the great books listed!

We've created a handy-dandy button for you to remember where to link, also! Just copy the text in the box below and paste into an HTML window on your sidebar:

<center><br /> <a href="http://thechallengedwriters.blogspot.com/2011/12/a-z-reading-challenge-2012.html" target="_blank"><img border="0"  alt="The Challenged Writers YA Reading Challenge"  src="http://i930.photobucket.com/albums/ad147/jml266/atozchallenge2-1.jpg" /><br /> </a></center>

The YA Reading Challenge 2012

2011-12-15T17:23:00.000-08:00

A reading challenge I don't see around much is one that centers on Young Adult books. I have started to enjoy more and more YA reads, and there are so many more people out there who read nothing but YA books.

So why not create a challenge for it? Adding to that, Speculative Fiction has become a growing genre among Young Adult books. Speculative Fiction is Fantasy and Urban Fantasy, which then spreads out from there to many other different themes. Here’s a link to a site, if you are curious to see if your book falls in that genre: http://www.isfdb.org/cgi-bin/index.cgi

With that in mind I partnered up with a great blogging buddy, Jackie from The Novel Nation and a reviewer for Book Lovers Inc. We decided to work together to get and keep this challenge going for 2012!

We are very excited to do this and hope you are as well.

Rules:

~~Challengers will read YA Fantasy books (fantasy is very broad now-a-days) throughout 2012. You can read as many books of the genre as you’d like, and link here to share, but to complete the challenge you must read.

40 + books - YA Hunter

30-39 books - YA Master

20-29 books - YA Apprentice

10-19 books - YA Fledgling

~~Do a post announcing you are joining the YA Reading Challenge for 2012, with a link back here.

~~Add the Challenge Button to your side bar.
(You can copy the picture above or use the HTML code.)

<center><br /> <a href="http://thechallengedwriters.blogspot.com/2011/12/ya-reading-challenge-2012.html" target="_blank"><img border="0"  alt="The Challenged Writers YA Reading Challenge"  src="http://i1003.photobucket.com/albums/af156/MelHay_2009/fairy-reading-moon-angel-4.gif" /><br /> </a></center>

~~Add your blog link to the Linky below.

Readers can join the challenge anytime throughout the year.

You don’t need to pick your books ahead of time. I know there are amazing new books that will be coming out we aren’t even aware of yet that you might want to add to this list.

~~MUST FINISH THE YEAR!

Please read carefully! Yes, this is a requirement. At the end of the year you will HAVE to do a close out post, By January 10, 2012. We will have a linky set up here where you will HAVE to link that post up. This is required to be eligible for prizes. This way we can find you, and verify all required information.

On this post list the books with links to the reviews. If anyone wants to go back to the reviews, they can. Then you can mention the fun stuff:
Name the class of YA reader you are
What you seemed to sway towards in reading material; vampires, werewolves, witches, etc.

Prizes:

There will be a chance to win prizes at the end of the year. But you MUST follow all requirements above.
1 Person will win a $10 Book Gift Card
1 Person will win a swag pack

Now wanting to help shine light on these amazing books and bring viewers to learn about new books we have created categories. Categories in which you can come link your reviews and if someone wants to learn about some werewolf books they can go to that page, or vampires, or witches, and so on.

Creatures with Bite ~ Vampires and Werewolves
Dead and Resurrected ~ Ghosts and Zombies
Brews and Salves ~ Witches and Healers
Things with wings ~ Fairies and Angels
Swords and Magic ~ Fantasy