Autumn is well and truly here, and the countdown to SciFiMonth continues! This will be our tenth year of celebrating all things science fictional through November, and Lisa and I are as disorganised as usual busy brewing up tea, giveaways, read-alongs and our now-traditional SciFiMonth challenge. A prompt a day to keep the tribbles away? Something like that…
The SciFiMonth Challenge is an SFnal-themed prompt for each day through November to inspire blog posts, Twitter threads, TikToks, book photos on Instagram or Litsy or whatever else you choose to make of them. Our guiding principle for SciFiMonth is to keep it casual and keep it fun – you can ‘take the Challenge’ and try to answer every prompt, but if you just pick a couple of prompts to respond to during November, that’s cool too.
Similarly, there’s no fixed expectation of what form a response to a prompt might take. It could be a picture or review of a book or movie that fits the topic; a list of recommendations; a discussion post; unexpected cake (just because nobody has ever responded with songs or interpretative dance doesn’t mean we aren’t open to your wildest interpretations. If you feel prompted to respond with recipes or crochet patterns, we are here for it).
This year’s prompts
As ever, we’re sharing the prompts early so you have plenty of time to make a plan. So without further ado…
| Day | Prompt |
|---|---|
| November 1 | Set your course (your SciFiMonth TBR) |
| November 2 | Previously, on SciFiMonth (books you read or discovered in SciFiMonths past) |
| November 3 | Even better together |
| November 4 | Celebrate a subgenre: Space opera |
| November 5 | Good things come to those who… wait |
| November 6 | Unreliable narrator |
| November 7 | Cover art: space craft |
| November 8 | Top Ten Tuesday: turn back time |
| November 9 | Hot off the press (new releases) |
| November 10 | Not as we know it (alt history or multiverses) |
| November 11 | Gone but not forgotten (authors, actors / film makers, characters we miss) |
| November 12 | Celebrate a subgenre: Afrofuturism |
| November 13 | #ShelfieSunday |
| November 14 | Cover art: puny human |
| November 15 | Top Ten Tuesday: to boldly go (independent, small press or self-published books) |
| November 16 | Current read |
| November 17 | Don’t leave me hanging (cliffhangers) |
| November 18 | Celebrate a subgenre: military SF (or tales featuring military characters if you don’t read milSF) |
| November 19 | Perfect voice (1st / 2nd / 3rd person vs omniscient – or heck, stories with singing) |
| November 20 | Book rainbow OR Books of a single hue |
| November 21 | Cover art: typographic |
| November 22 | Top Ten Tuesday: one small stop (novellas / short stories) |
| November 23 | Can’t wait to read (upcoming releases) |
| November 24 | Exquisite sufficiency (perfect one shot or satisfying series finale) |
| November 25 | Celebrate a subgenre: apocalyptic |
| November 26 | #StackSaturday |
| November 27 | Home sweet home (your SF comfort zone – fave author, tropes, subgenre…) |
| November 28 | Cover art: out of this world (alien, weird or what the hell) |
| November 29 | Top Ten Tuesday: can’t stop the signal (favourite SF blog/gers) |
| November 30 | Pass it on (favourite SciFiMonth read) |
Check out the supporting notes if you need further suggestions on what direction to take a prompt in, but the prompts are here to inspire not proscribe – go with your gut.
What else will be going on?
As always, we’re looking forward to a month of reviews, discussions, recommendations, opinions and nonsense as we share our enthusiasm for all things science fictional. Lisa will be sharing plans for our SciFiMonth read-along very soon so keep an eye on Dear Geek Place for updates.
If you’d like to join us for 30 days of SFnal shenanigans in November, you’re very welcome – just sign up to call yourself a member of this year’s crew. Want a taste of what to expect? Dip into the archives of our previous missions.
Giveaway
In honour of SciFiMonth’s tenth birthday, we have an amazing sign-up giveaway bundle of recent SF releases courtesy of our friends at Rebellion Publishing:
- The Immortality Thief – Taran Hunt
- Under Fortunate Stars – Ren Hutchings
- The Chosen Twelve – James Breakwell
- Someone In Time – edited by Jonathan Strahan
To enter the giveaway, you must sign up for SciFiMonth and make a SciFiMonth post by November 5th (add a link to your post to the master schedule so we know you have posted).
If you’re on the crew and would like to boost the SciFiMonth signal on your own channels, you’re welcome to use our banners and buttons. Please do not make any changes (except to resize) and always credit the artist.
ARTWORK by Simon Fetscher
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