Many Thanks...and Some Good News

Good Morning!

First of all, I would like to thank each of you who wrote telling me how much you have loved A Novel Challenge and how sad you were to see it go away. I am so appreciative of your kind words.

Now the good news...

Brianna of The Book Vixen has convinced me that to delete this blog with all its resources would be a shame and she has agreed to assume full ownership of it while creating a team of bloggers to help her. I was not aware that I could transfer ownership and still be able to remove myself - but apparently it is possible. So we are moving forward.

Please visit THIS POST on Brianna's blog to learn more about how you can become involved. There is a nifty form to complete to let Brianna know your interest.

With that said, Brianna has now been added to our Administrative team here and will be making some changes in the near future. Please watch for posts in the coming months as ownership is transferred, new team members are added and format is updated. I have every confidence that A Novel Challenge will remain a wonderful resource for our community with all of your support.

Thank you again!!

A Difficult Decision...

...but one I have decided to make.

I started A Novel Challenge way back in April 2007 - shortly after I discovered the wonderful world of book blogs and reading challenges. I wanted to give readers one place to find all the reading challenges in the blog-o-sphere. Eventually, I was to add not only reading challenges, but reading events to the blog. Never did I imagine how this blog would grow and how popular it would become (there are currently 1200 posts here). The book blogging world has proven to be a rich community for creativity! And for that, I am immensely grateful to those readers who, over the years, have been faithful visitors to A Novel Challenge.

In January 2009, I invited Teddy of So Many Precious Books, So Little Time to come on board and help me with the administration of the blog. Her enthusiasm and assistance has been incredibly appreciated. Without Teddy, this announcement would have come much sooner.

After more than four years, I have decided to let A Novel Challenge go. Over the last two years, I have been involved less and less in reading challenges, and found myself wanting to spend more time focused on my primary blog, Caribousmom, rather than dividing my time between specialized blogs, like this one. I have found there are just not enough hours in the day, and sometimes tough decisions need to be made to restore sanity! Teddy has also found herself very busy with her new virtual book tour company. I had thought to simply ask someone to take over the blog - but, I really do not want to continue to be connected to it ... I would rather make a clean break.

There are many challenges which run through the end of December - so I will be keeping A Novel Challenge blog up through that time. Content will be deleted on January 1st, 2012. I will not be adding any new challenges or events from today onward.

If anyone would like to continue providing links to reading challenges and events on a different site, please consider teaming up. You are more than welcome to leave comments here and hopefully connect with other readers who may be interested in continuing this idea. Trust me, one person doing it all is really not possible! If another site is developed - I will be happy to announce it here and give people a link to it. In fact, I would consider deleting the content here, but keeping one post which would redirect people to the new site through June 2012. I am very congnizant of the fact that this blog is a community service...and I certainly would support any efforts to continue that service elsewhere.

Once again - many thanks to all of you who have encouraged me from the beginning and who have continued to support A Novel Challenge with your patronage.

My Most Sincere Apologies

Today I realized that almost 30 of your comments had been shuffled into a "moderation" folder here...and Google failed to notify me that there were comments to be moderated. Many of these comments were to let us know you had a challenge going - and because we didn't see the comment, we failed to post your challenge.

I am so sorry about that! I hopefully have now corrected the problem. Those challenges which are still going will be posted soon...for those I missed, please give us another chance!

You May Have Noticed...

...that I have been a little absent from this blog over the last couple of months. Thanks to Teddy, the blog has stayed current.

My life has been an emotional roller coaster since December when my sister was diagnosed with colon cancer. She had surgery and I was back on the East coast for nearly the entire month of January to be with her and her kids. We had a bit of a scare when it was thought that the cancer had metastasized to her liver...and so my energy was really with my sister for the last few months. Luckily, they are now thinking that the mysterious spots on my sister's liver are not the cancer, but an autoimmune type inflammatory condition.

Between my sister and work, and then my trip to NYC for the BEA and Book Blogger Convention, I have been pretty overwhelmed with keeping up this site. I hope now things are settling down a bit and I'll be able to post more frequently.

Thanks for your patience and understanding!

3 Perpetual Challenges Canceled

This is announcement that the following perpetual challenges (hosted by Caribousmom) have been canceled due to lack of participation:

5 Under 35 Challenge
The Costa Book Award Project
The National Book Award Reading Challenge

A Tardy Thank-You...

...to Katy at A Few More Pages for recognizing A Novel Challenge for the One Lovely Blog Award way back in October!

I am always so honored to have this blog recognized...when I started A Novel Challenge I had no idea if it was a concept which would work. The loyal readers, and addicted challenge-aholics have made this blog a success beyond my wildest imagination.

Thanks, Katy - please accept my apology for waiting so long to acknowledge your kindness!

A Request...or two

This time of year is very hectic for this blog - many challenges begin on January 1st, many end on December 31st...and then there are the huge amounts of challenges and events centered around the holidays. Don't get me wrong - I'm not complaining (I love the enthusiasm!!).

BUT....

Teddy and I find it a huge challenge to keep up with the volume of work on this blog at this time of the year. We want to get all your challenges and events posted in a timely manner (preferably BEFORE they start!)...and so I have two teeny requests.

1. Please try to alert us to your challenge or event as soon as you have a post about it posted...there is a place on this blog to give us a link to your challenge or event...and that is the best way to let us know what is happening! We try really hard to respond to these links within a week or less of receiving them.
   
2. Many readers are unaware of A Novel Challenge blog...and so we don't learn about their challenges unless we happen upon them through our feed readers...or someone let's us know by dropping us a link. If you know about a challenge which is NOT on this blog, please don't hesitate to let know ... even if you are not the person hosting it!

A HUGE thank you to all of the readers of A Novel Challenge blog...for your creativity in developing challenges and events, for your enthusiasm (and addiction) to reading challenges, and for your loyalty to this blog. It has been exciting for me to watch this realm of the book blogging community grow over the last couple of years!

My Apologies...

I have been sick as a dog since Tuesday night, so there are several new challenges I have not yet posted to this blog. My apologies to those people who have given me links to their challenges and not yet had them posted. I'm feeling a wee bit better today, and I hope to get everything up on the blog by the end of the weekend. Thanks for your patience!! Flu season is a bummer.

Honored with Awards

From time to time, A Novel Challenge gets honored with an award ... I am not always so good at posting these (I'll admit to being mostly overwhelmed of late), so today I wanted to share with you some of the more recent awards that have come our way.

The True Fairy Tale Award

Tina at Tutu's Two Cents passed on the True Fairy Tale Award and wrote:

A Novel Challenge is the place to go for a sprinkling of encouragement to start a new book challenge. Whenever you're feeling a bit blase about reading check out Wendy's latest- she's always coming up with new ones.

Thank you, Tina! I also want to thank Teddy for helping me in this never-ending quest to find all the reading challenges out there!!

Heart of the Dragon Award

J. Kaye at J. Kaye's Book Blog recently acknowledged A Novel Challenge for The Heart of the Dragon Award which goes to bloggers "who inspire you." J. Kaye wrote:

A Novel Challenge and Win-a-Book are two blogs who help the blogging community, but don't get enough recognition in my opinion.

Thank you so much, J. Kaye! And I totally agree with your nomination of Win-A-Book as well!!

Another Award...

A belated thank you to the lovely Molly at My Cozy Book Nook for awarding A Novel Challenge blog with the Enchanted Blog Award.

The blog has to show only one characteristic, caring.

Molly writes:

I would like to share this award with the following bloggers because their dedication to the blogging community is clearly evident [...]

And in the comments here, she added:

I just can't tell you how much of a resource this blog has been to me. That is why I wanted to give you the "enchanted" award -- for all the hard work you do and the valuable service you provide.

Molly - it is my pleasure and also now Teddy's, to share reading challenges with our fellow bloggers...and we value your patronage here!! Thank you so much for this recognition.

For those of you who have not yet visited Molly's blog, I hope you'll stop by soon and say hello to her!

Heartfelt Award...

Many thanks to J. Kaye at J. Kayes Book Blog for recognizing A Novel Challenge for this award which is given to blogs that give you a warm, fuzzy feeling when you visit them. J. Kaye wrote:

[A Novel Challenge] has been instrumental in enabling me to sign up for the maximum amount of book challenges possible for 2009. Love all the work Wendy and Teddy Rose have done.

Always happy to enable other readers, J. Kaye! Thank you for being a faithful visitor of this blog!

Comment Verification Activated

...My apologies to my readers that I have been forced to activate comment verification due to one particular, very persistent spammer. I hate to do this, but I am left with no choice.

Thanks for your understanding.

An Award....

Thanks very much to Kristina at Kristina's Favorites for bestowing the Sisterhood Award on Teddy and I for our work here at A Novel Challenge Blog.

The award recognizes blogs which "show great attitude and/or gratitude!" and Kristina writes:

Teddy Rose and Wendy at A Novel Challenge - For all of their hard work and amazing efforts at keeping us posted and up-to-date on all the challenges ongoing and upcoming! Thank you =0

I know that both Teddy and I are happy to keep enabling all of you to join endless challenges and add books to your TBR piles!

Romantic Times Book Reviews FEATURE

Thanks to Marcia at The Printed Page who gave me a heads up, I discovered that this blog was featured in the March edition of Romantic Times Book Reviews on page 22 under their regular feature: WebBrowser (I could not find it on-line, it seemed to be only in the print edition of the magazine). They also highlighted the 9 Books for 2009 Challenge being hosted by Isabel at Books and Other Stuff.

Woo hoo!

Awards...

This blog has been honored twice in the last week or so.

Thank you to J. Kaye from J. Kaye's Book Blog for recognizing A Novel Challenge for the Well Worth Watching Blog Award! J. Kaye writes:

This is for all those blogs you cannot wait to read every day, that you look forward to seeing updates on and that have inspired you in your own blogging. There are no rules for this one, but feel free to pass it on to whomever you feel deserves it!

Thank you to Jenn at Should Be Reading for awarding A Novel Challenge the Kreative Blogger Award! Jenn calls this blog the "most organized" and writes that it:

[...] helps us all keep track of what challenges & events are taking place in the blog-o-sphere, and where to find them!

Welcome Teddy to A Novel Challenge Blog

Please join me in welcoming Teddy of So Many Precious Books, So Little Time who has graciously agreed to assist me with the maintenance of this extremely busy blog!

I never imagined when I started A Novel Challenge how it would take off. I have discovered there is no one more obsessive then a reader who loves reading challenges. This December/January I was simply overwhelmed with new challenges pouring into my mailbox. I regret that I was unable to keep up and post new challenges within 24 hours (as I like to do). So, I asked Teddy to join me in the madness...and she happily agreed.

I hope that by adding Teddy to the blog, we will be able to post challenges in a more timely manner...and four eyes out in the blog-0-sphere has to be better than two when looking for new challenges to tempt you.

Thank you, Teddy!!