Saturday, August 22, 2009

The Historical Novel Title Game

Okay, I have a lot of duplicate historical novels on hand and no room on my shelves. They need to find good homes, so I thought I'd share the wealth.

To do this, I've come up with a little game that will not only test your historical fiction knowledge but hopefully be fun to participate in, too.

This is the grid you'll have to work with:
Your mission is to find as many historical novel titles as you can.

The rules:

(1) The words have to be used in the order given (left to right).

(2) You don't have to use something from every column, as long as the words are in the correct order. For example, if there were historical novels called The Italian Bastard or The Shoe Garden (as far as I know, neither exists), they would count.

(3) Forthcoming titles count. Out-of-print titles count. As long as it's a historical novel that will be or has been published, it counts.

(4) You need to provide both the titles and the authors. (Hint: there are some titles that work for more than one author.)

(5) If you're an author who discovers title possibilities within the grid, you're more than welcome to use them for your next book!

The prizes:


There are 20 books in the pile above. All are unread and in pristine shape, a mix of new books, ARCs, and older titles I've had sitting around for a while. Most were published in summer 2009.

The person who sends the longest list of titles, per the rules above, will win 6 books or his/her choice from the pile. The second-place winner will get to choose 5 books from what remains, the third-place winner will get 4 books... after that, randomly selected entrants will get to choose two apiece from the remaining books until they're all gone.

How to enter:

Email your completed lists to me at readingthepast@hotmail.com with the subject "Title Game." The deadline is Friday, September 4th. One entry per person. International entrants welcome. Please don't leave your contest entries in the comments; if you do, your fellow readers will see your answers and will have every right to use them :)

I'll post the top 3 winners' names and their lists on Saturday, September 5th, and I'll be in touch about the prizes shortly thereafter.

Good luck and happy hunting!

12 comments:

  1. Well darn there goes my night.
    GEEZ thanks for the challenge.

    BUT.. you have the BINGO AWARD here at The Burton Review to do with as you would like, I just wanted you to know it was there & that I appreciate your blog posts.

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  2. I am definitely going to participate in this!

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  3. Oh good, I'm glad I'll have some participants!

    I don't have an answer key, exactly, but had some titles in mind when I put it together. I'll be curious to see how many people find them, as well as whether you all come up with titles I never thought of.

    And thank you so much, Marie!! I really appreciate it!

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  4. Love the contest idea! (Now if we could only invent titles using the grid.)

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  5. Oh this sounds like fun! I'll give it a go!

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  6. Anonymous1:42 PM

    ALETHEA is out of print!!

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  7. Yes, Alethea is out of print... it's one of the older, unread titles I mentioned that's been sitting around for a while on my shelves. It's in excellent condition, and I thought someone else might like it.

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  8. I am having so much fun with this challege! Thanks for thinking of it.

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  9. What a great idea!

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  10. I'm going to try this, we will see how well it goes. I'm kind of new to the genre so I may not come up with too many.

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  11. I sent mine in! How fun, thanks for thinking this up!

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