I love vampires so this challenge sounded perfect to me. To sign up click here.

Fangtastic Fiction Challenge

Despite what some might think, there is more to vampire fiction than Dracula, Interview With The Vampire and Twilight, and so, with a little help from Pam @ Bookalicio.us, I am hosting a vampire reading challenge!

Oh, and do forgive the puns.

Challenge Levels/Goals

The base challenge here (“Newly Turned”) is to read four books, one from each of the four categories below: classic, horror, romance and young adult. If a book can fit into two categories (or more), simply pick one category and then read another.

Once you have completed that, you can go wild with what books you read for your challenge list, so long as they have vampires in some form as a prominent part. For every additional four books you read, you go up a level. Where the base challenge is the equivalent of the first stages of a vampire, think of each four books as a century added onto their existence.

How old can you go?

First Blood

This is the category for vampire tales that were written prior to 1900. Examples of such books would be:

• Dracula – Bram Stoker
• Carmilla – Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

Things That Go Bite In The Night

This is the category for works firmly entrenched in the horror genre. Examples of such books would be:

• Salem’s Lot – Steven King
• Let The Right One In – John Ajvide Lindqvist

Kiss Of The Vampire

This is the category for all books that have romance as one of its main genres/focusses. Examples of such books would be:

• Dead Until Dark (etc) – Charlaine Harris
• Jessica’s Guide To Dating On The Dark Side – Beth Fantaskey

High School Is Hell

This is the category for all vampire books that fit in the young adult category. Examples of such books would be:

• The Vampire Diaries – L.J. Smith
• The Morganville Vampires – Rachel Caine

Bonus Challenge/Activity: Screams On Screen

As a bonus challenge/activity, why not take in vampires on the large and small screens as well? Keep track of how many movies or TV seasons you watch, whether it’s Buffy, True Blood or The Vampire Diaries on your TV, or Lost Boys, Underworld or any film adaptation of a vampire novel, and see how many you can total up during the year!

Other Information

This challenge runs the entire length of 2010, so from January 1 to December 31.

Along the way (most likely quarterly), Pam and I will be running mini-contests and challenges. We will be scrounging up some prizes for this, but if you are an author/publisher/other kind person and would like to sponsor a prize of some sort, please do contact me.