Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy discussion

I know it's only the middle of September, but I thought I'd ask you all what you wanted to be put into next year's challenges. And which ones you'd like to NOT be included (cough, cough)Picture Cover Challenge
So, any suggests for new ones, golden oldies we haven't done in a while, ones from this year?

Oh, and do you all want to continue the challenges?

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "I know it's only the middle of September, but I thought I'd ask you all what you wanted to be put into next year's challenges. And which ones you'd like to NOT be included (cough, cough)Picture Cov..."

lol!!
I don't think the picture one was all bad, just some of the sections.
;-)
A little tweaking, and it could be good.

2 books with a single female figure on it - This one works for Paranormal and Urban Fantasy
2 books with a single male figure on it - This one also works for Paranormal and Urban Fantasy
2 books with a couple on it - As does this on
2 books with nothing human related on them—this means no body parts, no clothes etc. - Personally this one wasn't to hard, if it is kept at two books.
2 books with clothes/shoes/purses/hats only - However this one was a problem.
Maybe eliminate the last one and make the single male & female figure sections 3 books.
:-D

Lets see some of the ones I liked over the last few years....

~ The Cover color (always a good one)
~ Alphabet (title, MC names)
~ 10 different Series
~ The Power of Three challenge
~ Paranormal Creatures October from 2014 (I liked better than 2015) April 2016 I might have changed the wording but it worked.
~ The God and Goddesses, from November 2014 or the one from February 2015 & 2016
~ January, Feb and March 2014, too long to post but they were all fun and different, a crazy mix of things that related to each month (but wasn't the biggest fan of "Always a Bridesmaid and..." June 2016)
~ Read with Friends challenge March 2016


....Not sure how well I am going to like October & November's challenges yet.

I like the classics,

Read with friends
Monster challenge (should be Halloween month though not like this year)
Cover hunt
10 different series
Power of three
Alphabet challenge

There are a few more that I enjoyed to.

I forgot to mention the TBR cleanup, which is a must and the Colour challenge is always fun and farely easy.

A few older ones that sound good are: Feb 2015- reading books ties to the 10 different gods and goddesses

Nov 2015- have I read this one before which plays so well of the similar names books of this genre seem to have

Jan 2015- books ties to the different holidays for this month

Late to the party as I have only participated in the last 3 months.

I really enjoyed the power of 3 and this month's listopia challenge - lots of scope for everyone.

10 books in a month is a bit many for me personally however I like being able to pick and choose among the 10 choices so I am fine with that.

I agree with Alison and her comments about the cover hunt.

Always a fan of initial challenges (title, author, series) as once again they provide a lot of scope as so many of us are reading for other groups as well so there can sometimes be a book that satisfies both.

I like the Always a bridesmaid challenge and would be happy if you brought it back.

October 2016 challenge was a little confusing so I'm not sure i'd be keen to see if back in it's current form.

I'm wondering if a scavenger hunt concept might work for this challenge?

Ooohh, a scavenger hunt. That sounds interesting, but I'll have to think about how to hand it. Any suggestions?

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Ooohh, a scavenger hunt. That sounds interesting, but I'll have to think about how to hand it. Any suggestions?"

That could be interresting, have to think on it.

I'm thinking that for the scavenger hunt, we need to use secondary characters, odd weapons (for UF) and settings. Anyone else have any ideas?

hum....
I am sorry, I forgot about looking into this, I will try and do that in the next week.

A simple way would be a list such as spell, mask, knife, candlestick, etc but have a restriction of only one or perhaps two items per book.

If we wanted to stick to the 10 books a month format, how would we make that work without it being too hard or restrictive?

Seems to me it might work, but at the moment my brain isn't seeing how.

True as you wouldn't know some things were in a book until after you had read it. My idea would probably work best as a 3 month or longer challenge maybe.

ok thinking again...

Loriidae wrote: "True as you wouldn't know some things were in a book until after you had read it. My idea would probably work best as a 3 month or longer challenge maybe.

ok thinking again..."

It might if it was a find this word or this other word, or image on the cover.
Or if it was done in four or five groups, with 2 or 3 books per and each group had a few words or images that related to a theme.

You could always do a different twist on the scavenger hunt and pick 1 book from 10 different challenges in a specific year. It would be something different and everyone could easily select their books

Danielle wrote: "You could always do a different twist on the scavenger hunt and pick 1 book from 10 different challenges in a specific year. It would be something different and everyone could easily select their b..."

Interesting idea.
So we could pick 10 different months from the same calendar year, and do one book that fits a category from that month?
If so, that would be a twist, and could be easy for most of us.

That's what I was thinking. Of you do it later in the year it has the bonus of people looking at previous challenges and they might come up with some good challenges for the next year

Call it the time warp challenge

Personally, I can see that working for maybe November, as December is normally a clean up your TBR list/pile.
Also, I love the name.
We will have to wait and see what Ann thinks
:-)

I was thinking November, you need something easy for December and October is normally a Halloween theme

Hum Danielle, I like the idea of a "time warp" challenge. . .

Which brings up another idea--what about a REAL time warp one, where you have to read a book originally published in say 1977, 1980, 1982, etc. Any interest in an idea like that? Very few people seem to read the older books any more (unless they are found and pounced upon because of a current series) so I thought that might be interesting.

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "Hum Danielle, I like the idea of a "time warp" challenge. . .

Which brings up another idea--what about a REAL time warp one, where you have to read a book originally published in say 1977, 1980, ..."

Ok, that is another twist.
I am all for reading some of the older books, BUT I am a bit trepidatious about having to find 10 of them. Especially with Paranormal not having been as big a genre until, what was it the 90's?
SO, how about a half-and-half Time Warp?
4-6 books from past decades. Early 00's, late 90's, early 90's, late 80's, early 80's, 70's, 60's, 50's, etc...
And the other 4-6 picked from different months from the same calendar year of past challenges that are not being repeated in 2017.

Actually, with us now being in 2016, going into 2017 the time periods could start with 2005-2010.

But the earliest I can think of in Paranormal is Interview with the Vampire and it was 1976. Although I guess there is all the Sci-Fi or Fantasy books and the classics like Dracula, Frankenstein, The Picture of Dorian Gray, etc....

That's sounds pretty good as long as we don't go back to far, split the decades in half into 5 year periods and we should be able to manage 2 from each as you on,y need to go back to 1990

I was thinking 1 book from 1050 to 1980'
1 book from 1981-1990
2 books from 1991-2000
2 books from 2001-2005
2books from 2006-2010
2 books from 2011-2016

That way, with the "oldest" you could go with any classic that you wanted to (Frankenstein, 2001: A Space Odyssey, 20000 Leagues Under the Sea Have Space Suit—Will Travel, Witch World or whatever.

Then we would get into more "modern" stuff, but that first one could really put you guys out there searching for something different. :o) (And yes, I am aware that that date is really far back, but some of the classics like Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene: A Selection could be counted into this genre. As could several of William Shakespeare's works.

What do you guys think about that idea?

Ann aka Iftcan wrote: "I was thinking 1 book from 1050 to 1980'
1 book from 1981-1990
2 books from 1991-2000
2 books from 2001-2005
2books from 2006-2010
2 books from 2011-2016

That way, with the "oldest" you could go w..."

Remind me what exactly the rules are for reading outside of the Paranormal Romance & Urban Fantasy Genres.
I know that Steampunk counts, but as that is a very recent genre, so will not help with this possible challenge.
What about Science Fiction in general? or Fantasy? Because from what I have been looking up may of the books by by Jules Verne, Robert Louis Stevenson, H.G. Wells, Oscar Wilde, etc.... are not classified as MP for Paranormal or Urban Fantasy, but only as Science Fiction and or Fantasy.
Is it two outside of the PNR & UF Genre a month?

For that particular challenge, the categories would be expanded to add sci-fi and fantasy. Since prior to about 2000 or so, there was only those 2 categories. And several decades before that, there was sci-fi only, unless you were talking about fairy tales.

But the "usual" rule is 2 books from outside of PNR/UF. The UF part covers things like the Sookie Stackhouse novels, the Psychic Eye novels, time travel novels (even the ones labeled as "romance" aren't true PN, so they go under UF) and a lot of more modern sci-fi novels that also have a strong element of romance without actually being romance. As a long time (40+ years) of reading books that are currently categorized sometimes as PNR or UF and other times are not categorized as them, it can get confusing, so the genre rules are somewhat loosely enforced by myself for these challenges.

Does that help Alison?

Thanks, I couldn't remember if it was two or three books a month outside of the PNR/UF.
:-)

I think you and I are of a similar mindset on the books. I am no spring chicken, and totally remember when half of these genres were not around.
I think the idea of the challenge sounds good. Especially if the genre is expanded like you said above.
:-)

So do you have a tentative list for next year? How many month are covered?

2017 Monthly Challenges

January

Alphabet challenge: One of the main characters must have a first or last name starting with the designated letter OR the author’s name can start with the letter. The only one I’m worried about is the XYZ letter set, so with that one, any of the secondary character can have that for a name. (And if they are named Alexander, but are usually called Zander that’s OK too.)
Ab
Cd
Ef
Ghi
Jkl
Mno
Pqr
St
uvw
Xyz



February

The month of love. Since everyone seemed to like the “Goddesses of Love” from last year, that’s what we are doing again.

1. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty. In the story of the Trojan War, the Trojan Paris awarded Aphrodite the Apple of Discord after judging her to be the most beautiful of the goddesses. She then sided with the Trojans throughout the war: Read a book where a war or battle takes place, or a book where main characters fight over a love interest.

2. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, procreation, and war. When the love of her life, the farm god Tammuz, died, she followed him to the Underworld: Read a book involving demons or a book where at least part of the story takes place in an underground realm.

3. Inanna was the oldest of the love goddess of the Mesopotamian region. She was a Sumerian goddess of love and war. Although she is regarded as a virgin, Inanna is a goddess responsible for sexual love, procreation, and fertility: Read a book where a wedding takes place, or where someone is having a baby, or a book where one of the characters is a virgin.

4. Ashtart or Astarte is a Semitic goddess of sexual love, maternity and fertility. She is also a war goddess and is associated with leopards or lions. Sometimes she is two-horned: Read a book about shifters.

5. Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. She was originally an Italic goddess of vegetation and patron of gardens: Read a book involving any woodland creatures, Fairies, Elves, Fae, Dryads, Satyrs, Gnomes, Nymphs, etc.

6. Hathor is an Egyptian goddess who sometimes wears a sun disk with horns on her head: Read a book where a main character has powers similar to the sun, some sort of fire power or pyrokinetics, dragon shifter, fire demon, etc.

7. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of magic: Read a book where a main character is some kind of magic user, spellcaster, sorcerer, or mage.

8. Freya was a beautiful Vanir Norse goddess of love, magic, and divination, who was called upon for help in matters of love: Read a book where a character has the power of divination or foretelling the future or a book where at least part of the story involves time traveling to another time or place.

9. Nügua was primarily a Chinese creator goddess, but after she populated the earth, she taught mankind how to procreate, so she wouldn't have to do it for them: Read a book where at least one character is of Asian descent, or a book where there’s some sort of Asian martial arts fighting, or a book where part of the story takes place in an Asian named place or city.

10. Tlazolteotl is the Aztec goddess of fertility, sex, childbirth and love. She appears in four forms that correspond to the phases of the moon: Read a book where at least one main character is a werewolf.


March


April

May

June

July

August

September

October
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. This month is dedicated to our favourite monsters.

Werewolves 2 books featuring our favourite shapeshifter
Witches/warlocks/wizards 2 books featuring magic users. If you find a book featuring a necromancer, go for it, after all what’s a world with no zombies, right?
Vampires We are only reading 2 books for this one, simply because there are so many books offered, and we all know that vampires are #1 on the hit parade, so they don’t have to work as hard.
Shapeshifters other than werewolves 2 books for them, after all, we do need to admire those other animals out there.
Fae of whatever form 2 books featuring the fae—good, bad or ho hum, get those books with pixies, elves, brownies, drow or dwarves off the shelves and give them a good dusting. Those household sprites need to be admired and the High Fae need to be feared.

November

December

Clean up the TBR pile. Read 10 books that have been sitting on your TBR pile. Bonus points if the book has been on the pile for more than 5 years (mine is so big, I have books that I’m sure have been there longer than that.)




That's what I've decided on so far. So, more suggestions folks

hum....
ok, I will continue to think.

When you post Decembers challenge, you should put a link to this thread so maybe you can get feedback from hopefully more than half a dozen people.
:-)

Remember the weather sayings for the spring months (in the northern hemisphere)?

"March blows in like a lion and out like a lamb."

"April showers bring May flowers."

For March or April, why not books with weather related words in the title or weather related subject matter?

That could be cool for a spring month Celia, especially if it was some sort of mash-up of words in the title, picture on the cover.... Maybe even weather related elemental powers.

Alison (Lady Coffin) wrote: "Maybe even weather related elemental powers."

That was what I was thinking in particular, but was afraid to narrow the criteria too much. On the other hand, when I searched for weather-related titles, etc., I found quite a few matching stories in UF and PNR. Could be fun!

Celia wrote: "Alison (Lady Coffin) wrote: "Maybe even weather related elemental powers."

That was what I was thinking in particular, but was afraid to narrow the criteria too much. On the other hand, when I..."

It seems from what I have noticed in my books searching the last few years, and from people's comments in the threads, for these, it is better to break it up, and not have it be just one thing.
I personally found more Science Fiction and Fantasy than PNR & UF.
But I will be excited because hopefully a lot of people will pick up the Weather Warden series I personally love and I think is way under read.
Ill Wind (Weather Warden #1) by Rachel Caine

Am I understanding correctly that to join these monthly challenges, 10 books fitting the criteria must be read each month? Is there maybe an "easy" level for those who can't read 10 books fitting the monthly category? Possibly reading 1-5?

Randi wrote: "Am I understanding correctly that to join these monthly challenges, 10 books fitting the criteria must be read each month? Is there maybe an "easy" level for those who can't read 10 books fitting t..."

Sure, why not.
:-)
Not to step on Ann's toes, but you can choose to participate and read whatever amount works for you. It is just set up so that the "standard" is a 10 books challenge. As it is just a personal goal, you can choose a lower number of books as many of us do on months that we are not able to get as many read.

Currently, this thread is just discussing what past challenges we have liked and would like to do again, and coming up with ideas for next year's challenges.
:-)

Randi--the basic purpose of the challenges is to get you to (hopefully) read a few books that are outside of your comfort zone throughout the year. How many books you actually read is up to you. Some of us work horrifically long hours, some a "normal" schedule, and some are retired for one reason or another (health, age, etc) and have lots of time for reading.

Just decide what is comfortable for YOU. And thank your lucky stars that we stopped at 10 in 2010. Until then we'd been going up a book each year to match the year. We actually started this in I think it was 2006 or so, and you had to read 6 books that year, 7 in 2007 etc. But in 2010 it was decided that keeping that up would be impossible, so we just froze the number at 10.

And I'll put that link in, thanks for suggesting it.

Totally!
:-)

Alison (Lady Coffin) wrote: "Celia wrote: "Alison (Lady Coffin) wrote: ...Weather Warden...

I've not read that one yet. So many books, so little time.

Speaking of, I'm glad to hear the challenge can be fewer books for those of us with less time to read. Or, in my case, other books that have to be read.

Ok, here's a really, really corny one: Pets. Or maybe monsters as villains. Creature feature?

I'm pretty sure the weather one will be my best idea, which probably isn't saying much. :)

Maybe it could be combined with a "Read with Friends" Like was done in March, but instead of all 10 books being ones we each find, maybe a few of them could be suggestions from other readers.
I personally would not want to have to read 10 books in a month that were picked for me. That could be very frustrating if they were not to my tastes.

When we do the "Read with friends" one, WE pick the books from those that are in our friends libraries (both read and tbr) so that we are almost always sure that we'll find something we like.

And I like the weather suggestion. That's an easy one to assign. So that'll be going into the list.

Challenges I've always liked:

Reading with Friends
10 Different Series
Clearing the TBR
Alphabet Challenge (character name)

What about a challenge based on TV shows or Movies? Could be the books they are based on (or books in the series) which could include Sci fi and Fantasy (e.g. Sookie, Bitten, Star Wars, etc). So much is being adapted now there'd be a lot to choose from. Or you do could 5 that have been adapted and 5 you think should be.

I like the idea of the time warp challenge - its a cut down version of the lifetime of books challenge in another group.

I used to regularly have a go at the challenges - but think I got a bit burnt out by PNR and UF, have tried to get back into them though. I struggle as well with the 10 per month (I remember the good old days when it was 8 per month, couldn't manage that either), but if it helps get books out of the house I'll give it a try. Can't bring myself to set a lower target.

Challenges I would like to see again:
Reading with Friends
Alphabet Challenge
Colour Challenge
Series Challenge

I wouldn't mind seeing the Cover Hunt Challenge again, but I agree that it was difficult to find books with only clothes/shoes on them that I really wanted to read.

I really like Charlotte's idea of a challenge based on books that have been or you would like to see adapted for movies/TV shows.

Ok, here's the list thus far:

2017 Monthly Challenges

January

Alphabet challenge: One of the main characters must have a first or last name starting with the designated letter OR the author’s name can start with the letter. The only one I’m worried about is the XYZ letter set, so with that one, any of the secondary character can have that for a name. (And if they are named Alexander, but are usually called Zander that’s OK too.)
Ab
Cd
Ef
Ghi
Jkl
Mno
Pqr
St
uvw
Xyz



February

The month of love. Since everyone seemed to like the “Goddesses of Love” from last year, that’s what we are doing again.

1. Aphrodite was the Greek goddess of love and beauty. In the story of the Trojan War, the Trojan Paris awarded Aphrodite the Apple of Discord after judging her to be the most beautiful of the goddesses. She then sided with the Trojans throughout the war: Read a book where a war or battle takes place, or a book where main characters fight over a love interest.

2. Ishtar, the Babylonian goddess of love, procreation, and war. When the love of her life, the farm god Tammuz, died, she followed him to the Underworld: Read a book involving demons or a book where at least part of the story takes place in an underground realm.

3. Inanna was the oldest of the love goddess of the Mesopotamian region. She was a Sumerian goddess of love and war. Although she is regarded as a virgin, Inanna is a goddess responsible for sexual love, procreation, and fertility: Read a book where a wedding takes place, or where someone is having a baby, or a book where one of the characters is a virgin.

4. Ashtart or Astarte is a Semitic goddess of sexual love, maternity and fertility. She is also a war goddess and is associated with leopards or lions. Sometimes she is two-horned: Read a book about shifters.

5. Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. She was originally an Italic goddess of vegetation and patron of gardens: Read a book involving any woodland creatures, Fairies, Elves, Fae, Dryads, Satyrs, Gnomes, Nymphs, etc.

6. Hathor is an Egyptian goddess who sometimes wears a sun disk with horns on her head: Read a book where a main character has powers similar to the sun, some sort of fire power or pyrokinetics, dragon shifter, fire demon, etc.

7. Isis is the Egyptian goddess of magic: Read a book where a main character is some kind of magic user, spellcaster, sorcerer, or mage.

8. Freya was a beautiful Vanir Norse goddess of love, magic, and divination, who was called upon for help in matters of love: Read a book where a character has the power of divination or foretelling the future or a book where at least part of the story involves time traveling to another time or place.

9. Nügua was primarily a Chinese creator goddess, but after she populated the earth, she taught mankind how to procreate, so she wouldn't have to do it for them: Read a book where at least one character is of Asian descent, or a book where there’s some sort of Asian martial arts fighting, or a book where part of the story takes place in an Asian named place or city.

10. Tlazolteotl is the Aztec goddess of fertility, sex, childbirth and love. She appears in four forms that correspond to the phases of the moon: Read a book where at least one main character is a werewolf.


March

This is our weather one, as suggested by Alison (Lady Coffin).
Each of the books that we read must meet ONE (or more, if you can find any that do) of the following rules: the cover has pictures of the flowers for that time (examples are tulips for spring, roses for summer, aster’s or mums for fall and poinsettias for winter) or a picture FROM that season—swimsuits, snowmen, etc., the title has the season in it, either the h or H is named (first or last) for the season, the AUTHOR’s name is the season or, the entire book is set in that particular season. In the event that you are using the COVER, please link a picture of the cover for your edition.
3 books for Spring
3 books for Summer
2 books for Fall (although we will also accept Autumn as a name/title)
2 books for Winter


April
“Let’s do the Time Warp Again” to quote the song from Rocky Horror
1 book from 1050 to 1980
1 book from 1981 to 1990
2 books from 1991 to 2000
2 books from 2001 to 2005
2 books from 2006 to 2010
2 books from 2011 to 2016

For the earlier years, sci-fi, horror and/or fantasy are all good. So, go for those wonderful oldies. Frankenstein, Dracula, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, From the Earth to the Moon, Witch World, Have Space Suit, Will Travel. Any and all are welcome.

May

June

July

Since it’s too hot to move in most of the Northern Hemisphere (and too cold in the Southern) lets go for something simple. SSSOOOOO

It’s COLOUR TIME—remember that you have to link your cover for this one. And it’s one book per colour.
Red
Black
Pink
Yellow
Orange
Green
Purple
Silver/grey
White
Blue

August

September
10 books from 10 different series. 1 book per series. Any book in the series. And if your favourite author has 3 series and you want to do 1 book per series—go for it, show your love for that author. However—this does NOT include spun off series or interlocking series. Examples of this are Patricia Briggs Mercy Thompson and Alpha and Omega Series as interconnecting, and Tanya Huff’s Vicki Nelson and Tony Foster series as spin-off examples.
October
Lions and tigers and bears, oh my. This month is dedicated to our favourite monsters.

Werewolves 2 books featuring our favourite shapeshifter
Witches/warlocks/wizards 2 books featuring magic users. If you find a book featuring a necromancer, go for it, after all what’s a world with no zombies, right?
Vampires We are only reading 2 books for this one, simply because there are so many books offered, and we all know that vampires are #1 on the hit parade, so they don’t have to work as hard.
Shapeshifters other than werewolves 2 books for them, after all, we do need to admire those other animals out there.
Fae of whatever form 2 books featuring the fae—good, bad or ho hum, get those books with pixies, elves, brownies, drow or dwarves off the shelves and give them a good dusting. Those household sprites need to be admired and the High Fae need to be feared.

November

December

Clean up the TBR pile. Read 10 books that have been sitting on your TBR pile. Bonus points if the book has been on the pile for more than 5 years (mine is so big, I have books that I’m sure have been there longer than that.)

Sounds good to me so far, hope that seasonal one works out. Fingers crossed.

...and these months still need challenges.
~ May
~ June
~ August
~ November

How about the read with a Friend for one of those, a bunch of people have mentioned liking it.
and a few have mentioned the The Power of Three challenge
Not sure about the other two months.

I vote for "Read with friends" challenge.

An idea for June, maybe?

Wedding Bells Are Ringing

COMMITMENT: 2 books where weddings/engagement to be married take place (Not just falling in love, but a commitment is made)

TOSS HIS CLOTHES IN THE LIT FIREPLACE: 2 books where a character cheats OR misunderstanding where a character *thinks* their significant other has someone on the side; or unrequited love, either real or perceived. Or, divorce, break-up.

PERFECT FIT?: 2 books where an interspecies romance occurs

HONEYMOON: 2 books where characters travel to/are in a honeymoon-type/exotic location

BROKEN HEART: 2 books where significant other dies, or is thought to be dead, or forever lost, captured, kidnapped, or even married to another.

I like that idea Randi, so, here it is.

June

I liked Randi’s idea for June. So, with a few slight modifications, here is June’s challenge.
WEDDING BELLS ARE RINGING
Commitment—2 books where weddings happen (she had suggested weddings or engagements, but I like the idea of just the weddings for this one.)
Toss his clothes in the lit fireplace 2 books where the MC was cheated on and went on to either find a new love OR to find out that someone else had been trying to sabotage his/her relationship and they get back together with the love interest
Perfect fit 2 books where an interspecies (werewolf/vampire, human/vampire, human/werewolf, werewolf/werewhatever) romance occurs.
Honeymoon 2 books where the two mcs are on their honeymoon (original or second/third/fifteenth)
Broken Heart 2 books where the SO dies/disappears for one reason or another, only to turn up again for that hea we all love. With this one, the SO has to be thought dead or totally removed from the MC’s life for whatever reason.