Friday Feature: Something for readers, something for writers

Friday Features are weekly posts that give the basic facts about an event or item. They are not always, but often are, book-related. If you have anything that you think I might find interesting enough to feature, feel free to send me an email at jax @ eclecticbooklover.com.

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For Readers

Who: Young adult authors Brent Crawford, Hannah Harrington, April Henry, Kirsten Hubbard, Denise Jaden, Kody Keplinger, Jo Knowles, Lindsey Leavitt, Sarah Darer Littman, Michael Northrop, Sarah Ockler, Micol Ostow, Lisa Schroeder, Elizabeth Scott, Mindi Scott, Emily Wing Smith, Courtney Summers, Kristen Tracy, Melissa Walker, Sara Bennett Wealer, and Daisy Whitney.

What: The Contemps Challenge. Here's what they have to say about it:

Love to read contemporary fiction? Accept the Contemps Challenge and promise to read at least 18 of the 21 upcoming Contemps books between now and August 15, 2011. One lucky challenger will win the grand prize: ALL 21 of our books! That's like a whole bookshelf of books!

The books:

• Losing Faith by Denise Jaden
• The DUFF: Designated Ugly Fat Friend by Kody Keplinger
• Girl, Stolen by April Henry
• Freefall by Mindi Scott
• The Mockingbirds by Daisy Whitney
• Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler
• Fall For Anything by Courtney Summers
• Trapped by Michael Northrop
• Rival by Sara Bennett Wealer
• Sean Griswold's Head by Lindsey Leavitt
• Like Mandarin by Kirsten Hubbard
• Family by Micol Ostow
• Back When You Were Easier to Love by Emily Wing Smith
• Pearl by Jo Knowles
• Saving June by Hannah Harrington
• The Day Before by Lisa Schroeder
• Between Here and Forever by Elizabeth Scott
• Small Town Sinners by Melissa Walker
• The third book in the Carter series by Brent Crawford
• Sharks & Boys by Kristen Tracy
• Want to Go Private? by Sarah Darer Littman

When: Now until August 15, 2011

Where: You can visit the Contemps at http://www.thecontemps.com/ to find out more about them, their books and the challenge. As far as the reading - you can do that anywhere. I'm sure the challenge is open to everyone, however I couldn't find anything about whether or not the contest is open to international readers...

Why: Because contemporary YA is great. Some of the best YA that I've read this year falls in this genre (and some were even written by a few of these authors). With so much focus on paranormal YA lately, I think it's great to see these authors band together to promote their work and their genre. This is definitely one blogger that'll be participating in the challenge - partly because most of these are already on my wishlist, but mostly to support them.

For Writers

Who: Anne at Chronicles of a Newbie and Lesleysays

What: The 2nd Annual Complete Your Draft Challenge - a NaNoWriMo-esque challenge. In Anne's words:

Those who sign up as novelists must write at least 25k new words, which is half of what NaNoWriMo requires in a month. Those that sign up as poets must write at least 1k new words. Please feel free to contact me, as this is open to discussion based on your project!

There's a ton of prizes up for grabs for participants as well as ways to get extra entries.

When: September 1, 2010 - 23:59 local time on September 30, 2010

Where: All of the deets can be found here

Why: Because I've got some writing plans of my own I think this is a great motivator for me as well as other fledgling (or even published) authors out there.

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