naomi novik

Speculative Chic Round Up: Week 3

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

ancillary-mercy-by-ann-leckie-500x750Greetings, and welcome to week three of shameless self-promotion! Our third week at Speculative Chic  was SUPER BUSY, with three days in a row with two posts instead of one. Why all the craziness? Well, we wanted to get our Hugo Reading project wrapped up before the rockets were handed out on Saturday night (and to that affect, CONGRATS to N.K. Jemisin for her Best Novel win!), and I have to say, it’s been a joy to see all these different bloggers reviewing in one place! But we did MORE than just book reviews, so let’s break it down:

Monday, as usual, was another round of My Favorite Things. Nancy discussed Star Trek Collectibles, Bingeable Books, Animate Cat Rosebushes and Power Armor with Sherry, Lane, Keyes, and Whitney.

Then on Tuesday, Tez managed to nab all kinds of eyeballs with The Culling: Clearing the Clutter of Unwanted Books. We promise: no books were harmed in the making of this post!

Wednesday brought our very first day of duel posts. First, Betsy sat down to review the Nebula-winning and Hugo-nominated Uprooted by Naomi Novik. Then yours truly introduced the Orphan Black Rewatch, which starts in September. Whether you’re watching for the first time or the twentieth, we’d love to have you aboard!

jim-butcher-aeronauts-windlass-cover-530x800Thursday had Nu reminiscing about the past ten years of her writing career and the events that jump-started her path to publication. Then Sharon came by and explained how Jim Butcher finally helped her see the Steampunk light in her review of The Aeronaut’s Windlass.

Finally, on Friday, we learned from Coach Sherry that too much feedback CAN be a bad thing, and then Janicu wrapped up our Hugo reading project with her review of Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Mercy. Spoiler alert: it’s a very satisfying end to an awesome trilogy.

What’s on the agenda next week? My Favorite Things returns, of course, and then we’ll discuss portrayals of teens in the apocalypse, debate the pros and cons of Suicide Squad, talk about why Squirrel Girl should be your new favorite superhero, celebrate the return of Harry Potter, and then, if we’re LUCKY, we might gather around the campfire to whisper about Stranger Things.

Won’t you join us?

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Speculative Chic Round Up: Week 2

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

Wonder-Woman-Teaser-posterHave you discovered Speculative Chic, yet? We just finished our SECOND full week of posts, and below is what you may have missed:

On Monday, Nancy sat down with Sharon, Casey, and Carey to discuss their Favorite Things: spoiler alert: Lindsey Stirling, Heavy Metal Comedies, and Female Superheroes are involved!

Then Tuesday brought us our second Sound Off! where Nancy, Keyes, J.L. Gribble, Betsy, Whitney, and Sherry all told yours truly what they REALLY thought of Star Trek Beyond. Spoiler alert: comments get controversial!

Wednesday brought us the second book in our Hugo Best Novel examinations with Snow Crash-loving Keyes thoroughly examining Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves. She tells us the good, the bad, and the perplexing. The amazing woman even read the book twice!

On Thursday, our convention-guru Venessa Giunta sat down to explain what conventions are, why you should go, and most importantly, HOW TO SURVIVE. I’m telling you, I wish I had this advice two years ago.

113Last but not least, our Creativity Coach Sherry Peters came back on Friday to talk about the value of having a creative outlet, and how there needs to be no other goal than creativity for creativity’s sake. For someone like me who has to make EVERYTHING competitive, it’s a damn good reminder.

What about next week? NEXT WEEK WILL BE EPIC! It’s the first week we’ll be doubling up: not EVERY day, but at least TWO days: you’ll get one post first thing in the morning, as usual, and then another will go live in the afternoon (assuming you’re on the East Coast, of course). We’re wrapping up our Hugo Best novel reviews with Naomi Novik’s Uprooted, Jim Butcher’s The Aeronaut’s Windlass, and Ann Leckie’s Ancillary Mercy. We’ll also have our weekly mash-up of favorite things, and a few other treats besides!

So don’t miss out! You can’t guarantee I’ll remember to put up these round-ups EVERY week, so the best way to get every post is follow the blog or subscribe to the feed,and don’t forget to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumblr, where our moderators are doing more than mirroring Spec Chic posts: you’ll find a TON of fun, extra goodies!

And if you’re already there? Be sure to show the love: like what you like, share what you want others to see! And feel free to stay in touch: is there something you’re hoping to see on our ‘zine? Just let us know!

This concludes my weekly, shameless plug for attention. You may now continue about your regularly scheduled activities.

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Culture Consumption: May 2016

~ Shara ~ 2 Comments

Happy June! May was over in a flash, but that’s because I was working my two SEKRIT PROJECTS. One, you already know about: Calico in Conversation! The other, well, stay tuned…. in the meantime, my brain always needs a break from the day job and SEKRIT PROJECTS, so here’s all the culture I consumed in the month of May!

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A Few of My Favorite Things: Books 2015

~ Shara ~ 4 Comments

I think there’s always a part of me that will miss having a book blog. After putting together December’s Culture Consumption, I started wondering… what WERE my favorite books of 2015? To figure that out, I pulled up my Library Thing account and started sorting by date finished, and then I started looking at the ratings. Anything four stars or higher got written down on the appropriate list: a full five stars are listed as favorites, and four and four-and-a-half stars were honorable mentions.

Why Library Thing instead of Goodreads? Because LT allows for half stars, which means when I’m rating on Goodreads, I might round up or down depending on how I want the rating to look on that site. LT is a more accurate reflection of my thoughts.

I also did not include a few of the fun, children’s type books on the list. I’m a sucker for Jeffrey Brown’s Darth Vader series, and Simon Tofield’s Simon’s Cat books are adorable. So they didn’t get counted.

Before I review my favorites and honorable mentions, I did want to make a few points:

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Culture Consumption: November 2015

~ Shara ~ 2 Comments

December is here, and with it comes holiday madness and the end of the year. It’s hard to believe we’re at the end already, that Thanksgiving is over. I can’t say there’s anything exciting on the horizon for this month, after all: it’s the holiday season. That being said, it’s no excuse not to share what goodies have helped time fly by so quickly, so without further adieu, here is November!

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