Your host:

• Welcome! I am a mystery enthusiast and pleased to serve as your host for this challenge. This one is a bit different from most challenges, as reading more books may not necessarily improve your score - in fact, it can decrease it! This leads to a "whack-a-mole" effect, where you can actually rise in the scoring by doing nothing while other gunslingers lower their own scores! This calls for some strategy in choosing your targets and shots. To make it even more complicated (i.e., fun), incomplete targets from previous years are carried forward to the current year.
• Here is my personal web page and my Mystillery blog. You can email me at rickmills9@gmail.com - Rick Mills

Instructions:

1. No advance signup needed. Just jump right in.
2. Shoot (read) book #1
3. 
4. Repeat. Or start another target. Once you complete a target (6 by one author), you carve a notch on your gun.
5. Please note the Shooting Gallery does not update in real time. Your submission generates an email to the host, who will post the data. Generally, you should see your submission posted within 24 hours. If you do not see it, click the REFRESH button on your web browser to reload the page.

Scoring:

Scoring is a bit convoluted but follow along and you will be fine:

• Targets: Each author you choose becomes a target. Feel free to set up empty (unread) targets, as empty targets have no effect on your score.
• Notches: You carve one notch on your gun for completing six shots (books) by one author. That is the goal of the challenge.
• Shots: You are credited with one shot every time you complete a book and submit the form.
• Target Completion Percentage (TCP): This is where it starts to get interesting. Similar to a baseball batting average, it is the ratio of notches achieved to the number of shots taken to get there. The formula is (notches/shots)*6. Shots which complete a target will increase your TCP. However, shots which do not complete a target will decrease your TCP. Your TCP will remain at zero until you carve your first notch.
• Perfect: A perfect TCP is 1.000 or any multiple, since all those zeros look pretty cool.
• Bonus: The goal of the challenge is to just complete six books by one author. That will give you a 1.000 TCP and you can call it done. However, most gunslingers choose to go above and beyond, and to reward this effort, a bonus of 0.100 is added for every notch carved beyond the first one.
• Score: The overall score is the TCP plus any bonus points, and that is how the Shooting Gallery results are sorted.

Rules:

1. The challenge runs from January 1 - December 31, 2022.
2. Genres: You get to decide what is a 'mystery'. Traditional murder mysteries, thrillers, police procedurals, young adult, short stories, true crime, romances, all are welcome.
3. Formats: Print books, audio books, radio dramatizations, or e-books may be used.
4. Each completed target earns you a notch on your gun.
5. Once you have completed a target, you can target the same author again for additional notches.
6. You can target different authors simultaneously or consecutively.
7. Re-reads count for the same target, if in different years.
8. Pseudonyms count as the same author.
9. Continuations of a series character by a subsequent author count as the same author.
10. Writing reviews is optional. If you supply a link to your blog or Goodreads review, the title of your submission will link to it.
11. Bloggers are welcome to copy any images from this challenge.
12. Honorary Badges: The challege offers two honorary badges, based upon your score. You keep your badges even if your score subsequently drops below the threshold.
    • Sharpshooter: Your score has achieved 1.000, even if it subsequently falls below that level.
    • Booksniper: Your score has achieved 2.000, even if it subsequently falls below that level.

January 1 2023 Rollover:

• Completed Targets: All completed targets will be removed.
• Partially Completed Targets: Any empty or partially completed targets will be rolled over (carried forward) into 2023 as is, so you just pick up where you left off.
• DNR's: At the hospital it means Do Not Resuscitate. Here it amounts to the same thing: Do Not Rollover. If you have any partially completed targets which you do not want to work on any more, send an email to me and let me know which ones. I will flag them with their DNR death sentence and they will not carry forward to 2023. Good riddance.
• Empty Targets: Already planning your authors for next year? Feel free to set up empty targets for them as reminders. Just send an email to your host (rickmills9@gmail.com) and list the authors. Empty targets have no effect on scores, so feel free to load them up.
• Rereads: Remember, rereads count if done in different years. So - for example - if you only have three books by an author, and you read them all this year, you can reread the same three next year to complete that target.

Archive:

• 2019 Six Shooter Challenge
• 2020 Six Shooter Challenge
• 2021 Six Shooter Challenge
• The Missing Challenge Reader Case

Search:

• The title/author search engine function is only indexed on the first day of each month. Any submissions you make cannot be found by the search engine until the next first day of the next month passes.
• The search engine is provided free by a third-party service, in exchange for displaying a banner ad on the results page. The content of the banner ad is determined by the provider, not by your host.
• While we use this search engine as a title/author search, it actually searches every word on this site; so you can use other terms or names as well.

Messaging:

To contact your host, email me at rickmills9@gmail.com

If you wish to contact another challenger, first try the Goodreads message system:

1. Click on the Goodreads icon on the challenger's line on the main page. This brings you to their Goodreads profile.
2. Click the MORE button (with the down arrow)
3. Click MESSAGE. This - hopefully - brings up a message form. Just fill it out!
4. If the challenger does not have Goodreads, or is not accepting Goodreads messages, send an email to me (rickmills9@gmail.com) indicating who you wish to message. I will inquire of that challenger.

Privacy:

• Your name You can choose how you wish your name to appear. If you wish to change it, just let me know.
• Your image You can choose your icon image. Initially, this is set to a publicly available image if I can find one (Google account, Goodreads profile, etc.) If you do not wish your image to appear, a generic icon may be used. Just email it to me. Keep in mind they are tiny (50 px wide).
• Your location is optional.
• Your preferred pronouns will be used if provided.
• Your email address is never posted, and is not shared with other challengers unless you specifically allow.

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Back to the challenge page • Revised Dec 7 2022