orphan black

Welcome to the Trip: The Great Orphan Black Rewatch Begins!

~ Shara ~ Leave a comment

The funny thing about being an editor: the very things you hound your writers into doing are often the very things you forget to do yourself. Or maybe that’s just me. But I tell my writers to promote their posts wherever they can, including their blogs if they have them, and what to do I do?

I utterly forget to do so.

But only for a day.

Over at Speculative Chic, my rewatch of Orphan Black has begun with the very first five episodes of season one. The plan is to do 5 episodes every month, and by time I finish season four, I’ll have the fifth and final season to freak out over. Of course, the best laid plans of mice and men, yada, yada, yada, but so far, so good, and if you’re a fan of Orphan Black and you’ve watched the first five episodes, I’d love to have you join the discussion.

How Many of Us Are There? Orphan Black Rewatch Episodes 1.01 thru 1.05

There will be spoilers, of course, but nothing past episode 1.05. I’ll be discussing episodes 6-10 for October 19th, so you’ve got plenty of time to catch up, especially if you’re watching the show for the first time. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

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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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Culture Consumption: June 2016

~ Shara ~ 3 Comments

Happy July! The year is officially half over! June brought the first month of Calico in Conversation, which was SEKRIT PROJECT #1 and seems to be going well so far. And this time next month, you’ll be introduced to SEKRIT PROJECT #2, so please, stay tuned to the blog for any announcements.

In addition to working on said SEKRIT PROJECTS, June brought a lot of great entertainment, so let’s break it down, shall we?

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Culture Consumption: December 2015

~ Shara ~ 7 Comments

Good-bye, 2015, and hello, 2016!!!! While 2015 was a better year than 2014, I’m still glad to have it behind me. I may or may not talk about the reasons why in a later post, but what I will talk about are the goodies that were consumed before the year wrapped up. I may also do a separate post of favorites later, but again, we’ll see if the mood strikes.

So, let’s see how I ended the year, shall we?

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Culture Consumption: August 2015

~ Shara ~ 8 Comments

September is here. I’m in denial. Not just because the year is passing faster than my poor little human brain can comprehend, but because the end of August brought the end of Bryan Fuller’s Hannibal, and I’m so full of FEELS that I can’t focus on much anything else. My brain is happily writing blog posts in honor of the show, to talk about it, the ending, what it means, what the show compares to, and SO MANY THINGS. Whether those posts find life outside of my brain is another story, so in the meantime, here is the Culture Consumption for August.

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Wolves Without Teeth: Thoughts on the 2015 Hugo Winners and the Nominees that Might Have Been

~ Shara ~ 2 Comments

So. The 2015 Hugo Awards were announced last night. I forgot all about it, because I was remembering why I never wanted to work in the food industry again while volunteering at a concession stand at a baseball game to raise money for charity. This morning, I woke up to a thunderstorm, a playful cat, a husband playing Bloodborne, and the Hugo Results.

I have a few links I want to share before I talk about the winners (or lack thereof):

1) Tor.com: Announcing the 2015 Hugo Award Winners: Winners, winners! Read all about it!

2) Tobias S. Buckell: What the alternate Hugo Ballot would likely have been: Toby uses the 2015 Hugo Award Statistics, crosses off all puppy nominees, in order to figure out what the fiction categories MIGHT have looked like without slates informing the ballot. He also has some great thoughts about those nominees, as well as the nominees who were on the puppy ballots and withdrew their nominations.

3) 2015 Hugo Award Statistics: I love looking at this every year, but this year is particularly fascinating. The “what-if” nature of the ballot is endlessly fascinating for me. I would’ve been SO MUCH MORE ENGAGED in this year’s awards if the ballot hadn’t been hijacked by the puppies.

4) Wired.com: Who Won Science Fiction’s Hugo Awards, and Why It Matters: A really great piece that talks about the controversy, the awards ceremony, and what happened after. Kudos to George R.R. Martin for his Hugo Loser’s party.

And now, for my thoughts on some of the winners:

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Culture Consumption: July 2014

~ Shara ~ 8 Comments

I know, I know! THIS IS SO LATE! But here it is, better late than never! As always, I’ll post a list of what I’ve read/watched over the past month, and in some cases, provide some commentary. If there’s anything you’re interested in or curious about, don’t hesitate to ask me in the comments, and I’ll be happy to talk further!

July wasn’t very ambitious reading-wise, sadly. My comic pile is suffering too, and I’m reading at Sunday driver levels of speed. But hey, I’m catching up on some great television, and also, some great movies.

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