Science Fiction, Fantasy & Horror Forums

This one is just too much fun so we're doing it again.  Besides, Tor.com has lots of new FREE shorts every year.  I think we can do much better than last year's totals too so help spread the word!

Personally I did not do so well last year with any of my challenges so I'm hoping to do better this year.  I'm in on the Conjuror level for 24 shorts and I think I'll try to make a real effort to read one short every week.  If I can establish a routine then I may be able to bump up a level later in the year.  And of course I'm going to split 50/50 on guys and gals which will help me with my WoGF too.  Fingers crossed!

What's your plan?

I was wondering if we should make this a general Short Fiction Challenge this year, since there is now a bunch of short fiction on the site from other venues, such as Lightspeed, Clarkesworld, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, Uncanny Magazine, Sci Fiction, Subterranean Press Magazine, etc.

I could put together a set of links to all the free fic publishers, if you're interested.

I did consider that but I like this as a Tor specific challenge.  There's certainly room for a Clarkesworld or Lightspeed challenge etc. as well or just a generic free short fiction challenge.

The only thing that has stopped me from making those other ones is that they don't generally have cover art to go with the stories so the display would be a sea of generic S covers without author or title to relieve the tedium.  That's not to say that it can't be done now but it would not look good at all and would be basically useless for seeing what other people are reading for their challenges.

My hope was to have the new site up and running by now which has a vastly improved display for short fiction that would make those reading challenges work much better.  But alas, real life keeps getting in the way.  When we do get that out to live I'll be making several new short fiction challenges.  Right now i'm biding my time and hoping we can have those going mid year which is a good time to stir the pot with a couple new challenges to offer.