Challenge 2020 Reading Challenge

I think it has to be a no for using individual stories from drabbles as otherwise you could do all of it in a few short weeks on one author’s work. If you want to fulfil one of the criteria with a collection then that’s fine.

 

Edit: misread, never mind.

 

Okay, just wanted to check first. Thank you!

 

All good! It's a fair question.

 

All right, I'll give this a try. Maybe if I post here it'll give me incentive to finish....

Fanfic Treasure Hunt​

1. A fic by your favourite* author: "Sparks," by Findswoman. [Like many folks here, I have several favorite authors, but Findswoman is one of them and I haven't read this one yet, so....] A young Lasat female discovers her connection to the Ashla (the Force) during her summer work detail.

2. A fic with two or more authors: The Galactic Correspondent, by Chyntuck, WarmNyota_SweetAyesha, Kahara, Skygawker, Goodwood, Ewok Poet, SabyneAmberle, and Viridian-Maiden. The events of The Phantom Menace as reported by a variety of news sources -- and "news" sources -- including official government news feeds, a fashion and gossip channel, a tabloid, a Jedi Temple newsletter, and a Gungan holo vid series. It unfortunately appears to be abandoned. [ I'm sorry I missed this when it was updating live. TPM is still one of my favorite SW movies, and I have a journalism background.]

3. A short story/one shot: "Terrarium Takeover." A charming look at Padawan Qui-Gon Jinn's attempt to bring the Living Force into his shared quarters. His master, Dooku, has misgivings.

4. An old favourite*: Less an old favorite than an ancient one .... "Old Friends, Long Gone," by FernWithy. After the Battle of Endor, Leia and Luke meet an old friend of their parents, who recalls the young people Darth Vader and Padmé Naberrie had been. [This was originally posted on the Fanfic boards, but much of it was lost when the forums migrated, so I've linked to the Fanfic Archive copy. I particularly remember this one because it was one of the few stories at the time that treated Jar Jar Binks respectfully. It’s often difficult to find pro-Gungan stories.]

5. A fic starring a Twi'lek or non-human character: "Hondo Ohnaka and the Quest for the Aurodium Quadduck," by Raissa Baiard. Galaxy-renowned pirate (at least in his own mind) Hondo Ohnaka regales Ezra Bridger and Zeb Orrlelois with the (very, very tall) tale of his search for a legendary treasure.

6. A challenge winner. Found two for this one:
“Why I Hate the Jedi,” by LilyHobbitJedi. Palpatine expresses his feelings about the Jedi in poetry. An amusing piece by an author who has never written poetry before.

“Hiraeth,” by TheRynJedi. Exploring the “longing for a place you cannot return to or never existed,” this short but thoughtful piece includes four musical videos embedded in the text to convey the title’s meaning. The fic is carried entirely by OCs, with both the concept and the emotions reaching across cultures.

7. A fic recommended to you by someone else: The Nar Kreetan Job, by Mia Mesharad. Hidden treasure, a heist, plot twists and excellent characterization as the author's OC Ezgi Deshra tries to keep her client (and herself) alive when an attempted theft goes wrong.

8. A fic with exactly four words in the title: Always a Bigger Fish, by devilinthedetails. Qui-Gon Jinn and his padawan Obi-Wan Kenobi are assigned the oversight of a voting recount on the planet Arieli, where they must collect viewpoints and evidence from different political factions and organizations. A Star Wars version of current events right here at home. [I want to formally request the Jedi oversee the November elections in the US. Who should I contact?]

9. An intimidating fic you have avoided: Something in Kylo Ren’s Shoe: a Millicent the Cat Story, by Gizkaspice. Cat lovers of the GFFA unite! If you ever wondered how much better the SW Sequel Trilogy movies would be if cats ran battle fleets, the humans served as support staff, and Kylo Ren's mom called in the middle of a First Order staff meeting to tell him she's sending him clean underwear because a kitten tipped her off, than this fic's for you!

10. A fic with OCs as the main characters: "The Life and Times of the Dancing Gamorrean," by Chyntuck. Zane the Gamorrean escapes Jabba the Hutt's palace, joins the Rebellion, defeats an Empire Star Destroyer, and becomes a hero -- all by accident.

11. A fic by a new^ author: "Leatherface," by rktho. A Weequay girl, longing to be considered beautiful, steals a skin-cleansing cream. When her beauty regimen goes wrong, however, she finds surprising kindness from the people around her.

12. A fic you’ve been meaning to try: Our Love of Constellations, by Mira_Jade. A series of shorts and drabbles about various characters in the GFFA. There's something here for almost everyone.

13. A fic that is outside your favourite time period/show: Let the Dice Fall Where They May, by GreyBard. Captain Phasma plots a new course for the First Order, Lando Calrissian and Maz Kanata team up to save a planet, and Leia Organa chooses to negotiate an agreement. [I must confess I'm not a huge fan of the sequel trilogy -- I've read too many of the books and graphic novels of the EU/Legends line of Star Wars -- but Maz is a favorite character and the writing on this is quite good.]

14. A fic with a great first line: “Master Grover Teaches Perspective,” by Sith-I-5. The first line in question: “It’s all fun and games, until someone drops a heavy ferracrete column on a pair of your Jedi.”

15. A fic whose main character is an OC: Welcome to Mandalore, by Mia Mesharad. From grand hotels to little market squares, and art museums to silver-leaved forests, tour the fascinating planet of Mandalore. Meet metal smiths, inn keepers, sweets sellers, and ship engineers. All courtesy of Ezgi Deshra, your native guide.

16. A fic whose title catches your attention: "Tookas in a Box," by Shira A'dola. Imperial Admiral Firmus Piett's youngest daughter brings home a box of kittens -- right in the middle of a fancy party. [Piett. Tookas. What's not to love?]

17. A fic that started in the month of your birthday: [Thought this would be among the more difficult prompts, but I've found several fics, two of which I'll list here -- they're both short -- and a couple others I'm saving for other prompts] "The Claws of Father Cold," by Gaarastar58. Set in the early life of Chirrut Imwe and Baze Malbus, who despite struggling to survive on the cold streets of Jedha City, are still drawn to helping one another.

"Shaking Things up a Bit," by TheRynJedi. Zeb and Ezra play a practical joke involving a helmet and really large bug.

18. A fic you meant to read in 2019: Shaman, Traveler, Oracle: Journal of an Exile of Lesan, by Findswoman. After Shulma Trilasha Orrelios survives the destruction of Lesan, her travels take her to unexpected places, the company of new friends, and greater knowledge of her own unique abilities.

19. A fic with love, kiss or hug in the title The Gods Who Love the Sky, by GregMcP. [I kind of dreaded this prompt, as I don't generally like romance stories, so finding this fic was, well, I won't say a god-send, but....] A family of rodent-like beings find a trio of "stone" objects that appear to be gods, and a mysterious "cave" nearby. The entire scene changes dramatically when an alien comes searching for Republic relics and evidence, and stumbles upon a trio of battle droids. The cast is entirely OCs, but the Star Wars feel is definitely there. (But no romance.)

20. A fic that states a relationship in the title: "The Witch and the Jedi," by Kablob. After Ahsoka Tano walks away from the Jedi Order, she joins forces with Asajj Ventriss to track down kyber crystals for new lightsabers for each of them. In the course of the search, each woman learns something about herself and her relationships from the past.

 

Always a pleasure, Findswoman. Wasn't sure how well I'd do with this challenge, but I'm making steady progress, and finding some good stuff!

 

I have been so remiss in not keeping up with my own challenge!

It is, however, my very belated pleasure to congratulate @Seldes_Katne for finishing the challenge and being first! Excellent work and I'm glad you found lots of amazing stories.

 

Just checked back and mine is complete now. (https://boards.theforce.net/threads/2020-reading-challenge.50053032/#post-56398920)

 

Realised I've been terrible at my own challenge. There are lots of pics that I read that I didn't record which is shabby work on my part.

A massive, albeit belated congratulations to @Kahara and @Findswoman for finishing!

 

I would be interested in doing this again as well. My library has a couple of reading challenges for this year for our patrons -- I would be willing to send some suggested categories if needed.

 

@Findswoman and @Seldes_Katne - the mods have given the go ahead for this to happen again this year.

So the question is -

What categories should we keep?
What categories should we discard?
What categories should we add?

 

Most of the categories are fine -- I managed to track down fics that fit all of the descriptions last year, so even if you just ran the same list and changed the date on #18, it would be okay. However, I have a few suggestions, which you may use or not, as you please:

• Change #1 to "a fic by one of your favorite authors," since several people noted the difficulty of choosing just one favorite author.
• Tweak or combine #10 or/and #15, as they are both about OCs as main characters.
• Perhaps switch #8 to "fic with exactly five words in the title" just to make it different from last year's prompt.
• I've looked at a couple of the Reading Challenges we did at my library, and both included "Read a book of poetry." There's not a lot of poetry on the boards (unfortunately -- maybe we could do something to encourage more), but I was thinking song lyrics are a form of poetry, so perhaps add a "songfic" category. And we have a "songfic" tag, so it shouldn't be too difficult to find one.
• A fic with a color in the title
• A fic with fewer than five reviews. I liked the idea of supporting new authors (#11) on last year's list. Which brings me to

Prompts I particularly liked from last year's list:

• Fic featuring a non-human character
• Fic outside your usual time period
• To my surprise: #19, with "love, hug or kiss" in the title (I'm not a romance fan, but I did find one with "Love" and it turned out to be one of the most unique fics I've ever read. It wasn't a romance, either.)
• Short story or one-shot -- this should be fairly easy to find, read and review.

One of the things that pops up on the Goodreads site is suggestion lists for specific types of books (usually in response to a specific reading challenge). I'm not sure if you want to have something like that or not. Participants could offer a list of fics they found that would fit prompt #7 (for example), but are not going to use themselves.

Perhaps open something like that up during the last three months of the challenge, so people have time to find things on their own, but can get help if they're stumped. When I was doing my list last year, I would copy and paste the link of several stories that fit the prompt (if I found more than one). Then I would choose one to read, list, and review. The rest would get assigned to another prompt if they fit it, or be deleted if I didn't decide to read them just for my own interest.