2013 RT Booklovers Convention Challenge Questions/Comments

[Mary X]

Do anthologies count if we read the whole book and only count it for 1 of the authors in the book?

[Dee]

just pointing out - you only have to read 5 books by a male author - not 10...

[Mary X]

It's 10 if you want to level 2. 5 for level 1 and then 5 more for level 2. I want to do level 3 and 4 if I can.

♥♥Level 2♥♥
♥Complete the criteria for Level 1
♥Additionally read 5 books by a female author and 5 books by a male author.
♥At least 5 of the books should be new to you authors

[Dee]

yes - but level 1 doesn't have to be specifically male - it is just any 10 authors - 5 new to you

level 2 - 5 female/5 male - of which 5 of those 10 combined need to be new to you - but we are looking at tweaking this

[Mary X]

Duh. I could have sworn last night that it said 5 male authors out of the 10 for level 1. Then 5 different male authors for level 2 since you can't duplicate an author.

Well no problem for me then. I will just save the male authors for level 2.

Sorry for the confusion.

[Dee]

no problem - but we are tweaking level 2 right now to make it sorta easier

[Mary X]

There's a boxed set of Jennifer Blake historicals as a freebie today for Kindle. She's one of the pioneer authors.

[Hina]

Thanks Dee & Fran for answering some questions!!

[Barbara ★]

Barbara ★ wrote: "♥♥♥Level 4♥♥♥
Read your way around the US States by reading a book that is set in, or by an author from each of the 50 states.

Do these authors have to attend the Booklovers Convention too?"

Hi Barbara, yes the authors have to be attending the convention. The convention has over 300+ authors attending so far and they are still adding to the list so the authors have to be out of the list of authors attending, but you can use setting of the book or where an authors is living/born in. I think it just requires planning so you are not overlapping authors since you can't have a repeat of an author."

I was asking because I'm already committed to another 50 states challenge and there is no way I can read 2 books for each state. I was hoping to use that list for this challenge but it's a no go so I'll just do the first three levels. Thanks!

[Hina]

Mary wrote: "Do anthologies count if we read the whole book and only count it for 1 of the authors in the book?"

Hi Mary, if the author's story meets the 100 page count in the anthology, you can use the story.

[Hina]

Attention All:

There has been some changes made to level 2:

Now it is 5 female authors and 5 male authors, but for 5 male authors, you can use:

5 male authors/use male sounding name/use initials as first name.

And out of the 10, 5 have to be new to you authors (as before).

[Mary X]

When you get a chance can you add me to the player list on the other thread. I'm post 35.

[Hina]

Mary wrote: "When you get a chance can you add me to the player list on the other thread. I'm post 35."

Hi Mary, I only updated till post 30 as of yesterday. Since I have been running in and out for something or the other today, I would be updating it tonight for all the players that signed up since.

[Juliet]

Another question...

For level 2, are we supposed to read only books by authors who are attending the RT Convention?

[Barbara ★]

Juliet wrote: "Another question...

For level 2, are we supposed to read only books by authors who are attending the RT Convention?"

Yes you need to read books by authors attending convention for all levels.

[Juliet]

Barbara ★ wrote: "Juliet wrote: "Another question...

For level 2, are we supposed to read only books by authors who are attending the RT Convention?"

Yes you need to read books by authors attending convention for ..."

I was trying to get some hints on what books to pick for the male author and I noticed some of the books picked are by authors who are not in the list of authors posted. Is there another list that I am missing then?

[Mary X]

I used the list on the other thread for this. She has posts with the authors. I couldn't get the linked list to load.

[Barbara ★]

Juliet wrote: "I was trying to get some hints on what books to pick for the male author and I noticed some of the books picked are by authors who are not in the list of authors posted. Is there another list that I am missing then? "

So far there are very few men attending the conference so the Mods changed the rules for Level 2. See post #61 above.

[Barbara ★]

Mary wrote: "I used the list on the other thread for this. She has posts with the authors. I couldn't get the linked list to load."

See posts 2,3,and 4 on the participants thread, all the authors are listed since the other thread takes so long to load. If you click on the link at the bottom of the post, the list is enlarged and you can easily read it.

[Mary X]

Yeah that's the lists I've been using.

Once it was pointed out that we only need 5 male authors not 10, that made it much easier for me. Although I still might opt to go with the rule change.

[Hina]

Hi all!! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!!


Thanks Barbara for answering questions, but I haven't gotten a chance to go online all day!

[Barbara ★]

No problem. Just trying to help.

[Hina]

Hi all,

I have been working on making the link to the pdf work without taking forever to download. Can someone try the 2013 RT Authors Attending link in message 1. I just want someone else's input that its uploading better.....or not.

[Dee]

it loaded in less than 10 secs for me - but I have high-speed cable

[Rebecca]

It loaded right away for me this time. The last time, a few days ago, took forever, and I finally gave up.

[Hina]

Thanks Dee and Rebecca!!


Yeah I wasn't sure that it was loading faster for me because its now in my downloaded history or not so I wanted others to try it. Cool it works!

[Juliet]

How about a Google spreadsheet to update the author list? It loads better than pdf.

[~KarenH~, Moderator]

Whatever you did Hina, it made a huge difference - the list loaded in less than a minute even on my cranky dial-up connection. Thanks!

[Hina]

Juliet wrote: "How about a Google spreadsheet to update the author list? It loads better than pdf."

Actually, it would be easy for me to do...I already have the authors on excel spreadsheet and I can put it up on google doc if it makes it easier for people. Let me know if more people are interested :)

Juliet, also if we don't have much of a need for the spreadsheet then I can just email it to you.

[Juliet]

Thanks Hina! I can help you put it up if you have no time to do it. I always use google spreadsheet to share information because it's very useful.

[Hina]

~KarenH~ wrote: "Whatever you did Hina, it made a huge difference - the list loaded in less than a minute even on my cranky dial-up connection. Thanks!"

I am glad, it had been bothering me all weekend, I just didn't get a chance to look into it till today.

[Makenzie]

I think the google spreadsheet is a great idea! Plus it's probably easier on you when it comes to updating the list as they add authors. EditGrid is the online spreadsheet I always use and has more formatting options than google.

But yeah...I like the idea. :) That could also just be my obsessive love of spreadsheets speaking out.

[Mary X]

It pops up immediately for me now too thanks!

[Hina]

Makenzie, I do have the authors in an excel file already because of the list getting updated. I will look into it tomorrow.

I am glad its working Mary! YAY!!

[Hina]

Hi All,

Something I noticed tonight in looking through the pioneers historical romance authors in level 3 is that Cynthia Wright has two profiles as far as I can tell. Her books are split between the two, if you guys are planning your reading, my suggestion would be to go through her website. I am going to see if I can combine the two authors, or get another librarian with more magical power and efficient way to do that.

[Hina]

Update:

For those going up to level 4, I added a list of US States into the message 1, so you can keep track of your books. I wanted to post a link that had all the setting broken down to states and countries and now I can't find it. I thought it would make it easier to look for the author on those list for the states. If someone knows what I am talking about, can you post it?

[Dee]

i'll take a look at cynthia wright and see if I can get her profiles combined

[Hina]

Dee wrote: "i'll take a look at cynthia wright and see if I can get her profiles combined"

Thanks...I never had to combine authors profile before and I am not even sure if only books were misplaced and there is actually another author with her name.

[Dee]

there were some duplicates of some of the books - but I had to ask Rivka to do it since one of her profiles is for a GR author

[Hina]

Thanks for looking it up!

[Mary X]

Last I looked Ann Charles was attending and she has 2 freebies on Kindle today:




and

(both also work for the Double Decker Alphabet Bus Challenge if anyone is doing that.)

[Hina]

Thanks Mary for letting us know!

[Hina]

Hina wrote: "Update:

For those going up to level 4, I added a list of US States into the message 1, so you can keep track of your books. I wanted to post a link that had all the setting broken down to states ..."

okay I did find the link I was looking for...and changed the states to the link they should correspond to. Let me know if I made mistakes on that. Not all romance book/authors are on their...this list is just compiled by the book information on what shows up as a setting so many books don't appear under the states,


For example: J.D. Robb's books are set in new york state, but they show up under the New York City, New York...which makes it a different link.

Since there would be a lot of work to gather all that information...I just provided the state overall only in the exception of Louisiana...because I couldn't find one except for New Orleans, LA.

This state list does not have to have the author attending on them, it just to help you search.

For those interested in looking for books through city and state like my example, the link is HERE. This is the list with all the information entered under setting in the books.

Any Questions/Comments??

[Fran, Moderator]

Thank you Hina for all of your hard work and fantastic hosting abilities!

And thanks to everyone posting the helpful ideas and freebies!

[Mary X]

If anyone is an Amazon Prime Kindle Owner: some of Laurin Wittig's highlander romances are in the lending library and she's on the list.

ETA: looking through the lending list because I haven't used my Dec borrow yet, so I will just list who I find for this challenge on the list.

Laurin Wittig
Tracy Brogan
Catherine Bybee
Theresa Ragan
Trish McCallan
Jennifer Saints (Jennifer St. Giles)
Ann Charles
Debra Holland
Barbara Longley

[Mary X]

Thank you Hina for that awesome link. I sometimes do the general 50 States challenges and this will come in handy.

[Mary X]

Question?? How do you get books and places added to that? Do you have to create shelves or be a librarian to add locations? And if I can add locations, would they automatically show up on that?

[Hina]

Mary wrote: "Question?? How do you get books and places added to that? Do you have to create shelves or be a librarian to add locations? And if I can add locations, would they automatically show up on that?"

If you are a librarian, you can add it under the edit details link under the book's and you can add city and state or both...the ones I like are the ones who already have put in the city, state and did another for just the state. So the book shows up two places. And yes if you edit that information, the book shows up on the link once the information is updated. I saw mine show up right away.

[Hina]

In addition to the links for the states, this year I have started to keep track of location of the book as well in my bookshelves, so you can check that out as well. It will help if anyone is interested in looking through books that have already been read/rated and/or recommendation for settings/authors etc.

Barbara is another source as well and I am sure she won't mind if I use this right now. ;) She keeps track of setting/location as well. If anyone else does, please let us know.

[Hina]

Fran wrote: "Thank you Hina for all of your hard work and fantastic hosting abilities!

And thanks to everyone posting the helpful ideas and freebies!"

Fran I am having too much fun with this and we haven't even started!