Your host:

• Welcome! I am a mystery enthusiast and pleased to serve as your host for this challenge. 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 in.
2. Shoot (read) book #1
3. 
4. Repeat until you have read 6 books by one author. Once you complete 6, you get a notch on your gun.
5. TCP scoring: Your Target Completion Percentage (TCP) is Notches/Shots*6. You can see this scoring guide (PDF).
6. 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.

Setting up targets:

• Just submit your first book, and that will set up the target for that author.
• To help plan your shooting, you can set up empty targets for authors. To do this, just submit the form and leave the title field blank. Or if you have a bunch, just email the list to me.
• Empty targets have no effect on scoring, so feel free to hang a bunch up!

Rules:

1. The challenge runs from January 1 - December 31, 2025.
2. Genres: Fiction only. You get to decide what is a 'mystery'. Traditional murder mysteries, thrillers, police procedurals, young adult, short stories, 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 and real names count toward the same target.
   • For those authors who write under multiple names, targets will be listed under the real name (if known); and a cross-reference line added for the pseudonym.
   • This convention would not apply for authors who write under only the pseudonym and not their real name (e.g., Ellery Queen is listed as Ellery Queen)
   • Pseudo's can be confusing, so I will try to organize it in the clearest manner.
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. Short Stories are welcome in all Mystillery challenges. In this Six Shooter challenge, it is to your advantage to submit them separately, in order to earn more shots toward your targets.
13. Omnibus (multiple full length stories bound in one book): In this Six Shooter challenge, it is to your advantage to submit the stories separately, in order to earn more shots toward your targets.
14. Honorary Badges: The challege offers three 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.
    • Ammonuensis: Your score has achieved 3.000, even if it subsequently falls below that level.

January 1 2025 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 2025 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 2025. 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
• 2022 Six Shooter Challenge
• 2023 Six Shooter Challenge
• 2024 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 to us 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.

Goodreads Discussion Group:

• If you are on Goodreads, you may wish to join the Mystillery discussion group, which is a companion to the challenges. There is a separate discussion group for each Mystillery challenge, an Announcement board, and a virtual coffee shop. A shortcut icon appears at the top right of each challenge home page.

Private Messaging:

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 if they wish to message with you.

Privacy:

• Your name You can choose how you wish your name to appear. If you wish to change it, just let me know.
• Your preferred pronouns will be honored if provided.
• 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 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 May 27 2024 (fixed image links)