Category: general

Posted in general

Restart of the Year

Posted on by sokorra

Hello Everyone,

I want to apologize for the lack of posts for the last month and a half. I’ve been dealing with several offline issues that prevented me from being in a place to work on reviews, or research for history essays.

I plan on restarting this month and hopefully I will be back on track for the year. So here is a quick list of things you can look forward to in March

  • Book reviews continuing for some more of the Chesapeake Shores series.
  • Book review on Staci Hart’s On the Honey Side via an ARC.
  • Movie Review on The Beachhouse.
  • Rewatch Reviews on TNG and DS9. I’m going to try and get to the end of season 6/1 of both by the end of the month. Still posting 5 a week and hopefully I’ll get a bit ahead so the posting will stay regular.
  • History posting on the new home of my history essays on the first meeting of the minds leading up to the US Revolution: The Congress at Albany.

Posted in American History, book reviews, bookit, general, history, movie reviews, Original Writing, Rewatch, tv reviews, writing

State of the Blog 2022

Posted on by sokorra

Happy New Years Everyone!

I figured I would map out what I have planned for this blog in the coming year today.  Many of you have stopped to read for many different reasons.

If you like my rewatch series, that will continue (I’m far from finished!).  The Rewatch project started as a project to keep me focused during a lockdown where I was actually sent home from work for a whole month back in 2020.  There was no clue when they would reopen but they did after 3 or 4 weeks (depending on your status).  So, it ended up taking a lot longer than anticipated.  Its still called Rewatch 2020 even though its 2022 and I’m only 4 series in (For context there is…10 I think).   However, I am in the process of moving and redoing my budget as I am contributing to two sets of bills so it may be slower as my access to the show is behind a paywall.  I plan on trying to get ahead and post 2-3 rewatches a week but there may be delays.  I hope to be on Enterprise by the end of the Year and then I can start watching the *new* Star Trek content.

For those you who came for the book and/or movie reviews, they will be making a comeback.  I plan on trying to restart my bookit goals (50 books in a year) and getting some new movies in.  Honestly part of the reason I do my reviews is to keep writing when my fiction writing brain takes a vacation, but I find them fun to write.  You can expect a movie review in the next coming days.  These won’t all be new to everyone movies, but something new to me.  So, expect classic film movies as well as theatrical releases.

History posts will also continue, although I am currently moving them to their own blog, so they are easy to access and sort for those who want specific information.  When I get it, all set up, I’ll make an update post here to direct those of you here for that to the new blog.  I feel they got mogged down by the Reviews and rewatches, which are considerably easier to write then an essay I need to research.

Thank you all for sticking with me these last couple of years.  I hope you enjoy the content of this blog, both previous and new entries.

I hope everyone’s 2022 is uplifting, inspiring and happy.

EDIT: Just editing to add that apparently this is the 600th post on this blog.

Posted in American History, book reviews, bookit, fanfiction, general, history, Original Writing, writing

Writing Analysis Update (among others)

Posted on by sokorra

Back in 2009 (gosh, was that really 12 years ago??) I wrote a summery of my history in the world of fanfiction. Today I was going through my old posts, trying to make sure that the categories/tags were correct and deleting some minor posts that really never felt like they fit on this blog. It made me think of how I was doing in the fandom world today.

I’m not going to do an as in depth timeline of fanfics. I have over 100 fics on AO3 now (and I haven’t moved over all my FF.net ones. I should, and probably will sometime soon). There are way too many to do that for, and I doubt anyone is interested anyway.

I haven’t had any more award nominations for my fanfic, but I don’t sense alot of fandom awards anymore, at least not for the fandoms I write, which are getting older. I still write many fandoms (Too many as some of my friends say). Currently my major project is finishing ‘”Looking After You”, an Avengers AU story I started to write back in 2012. Its clearly AU now, because that is what happens when it takes you a decade to write a fic on a series of films that keeps pumping out movies every year. But I am determined to finish it. Its probably one of my longest fics, and I’m kinda of proud of it, despite my embarrisment that I’ve taken so long.

I’ve tried to switch over to some original work as well. For Camp NAno this July, I will be working not only on LAY but on an original story based off a Marvel fanfic I started to write in my head but will no longer work in canon. But I still like the idea, and since many of the characters are not based on actual Marvel characters it is not that hard to transfer them to the original realm. And the two characters that are are not that hard to change either. Hopefully one day I’ll be saying that one is complete and getting published.

I plan on getting things together before the end of this year to make changes to my writing (better organization etc) and to this blog. Right now it has become mostly a review blog, as I work through my pandemic project of a complete watch of Star Trek. However, I will be posting periodic posts about my writing, and book reviews as well as I get things better organized in my personal life so I have the time to meet deadlines when it comes to the blog and writing.

I have also decided to create a second blog for my history posts. I feel they get a little lost on here, so if you have been waiting for more of those posts, I will be announcing the new blog soon, and I welcome you to come read them over there. I will be revising my old posts as I transfer them over so they should be fresh and perhaps have more content then the original. Any posts that have comments will be kept, but if there are no comments I may delete the originals on this blog just to tidy up and kept it from being double posted.

Thank you all for sticking around for whatever topic you came for – be it my writing stories, fandom posts, book reviews or history essays. As always, I welcome your comments.

Good luck to anyone writing in Camp Nano.

Posted in American History, book reviews, bookit, essay, general, history, Original Writing, Rewatch, Star Trek, Television shows, tv reviews, Women of history, writing

August News

Posted on by sokorra

I would like to thank all of you who continue to check here for updates.  I know this year has been a bit spotty in the posts, but i plan on changing that. I hope everyone is doing well, and staying safe. I know I’m definately not the only one having a really weird year.

Starting in August there will be the daily Trek post, but i will also be reintroducing Women of History and Writing Wednesday along with some old features.  I also plan a few civic history posts. So there will be a post daily that is a review, plus a sprinkle of a variety of topics. The WOH and the history posts may be here only temporarily. I’m still debating putting those on their own blog solely (and proudly) dedicated to being a history nerd. Depends on fiancies and other factors, as is many things these days.

For those of you new to the blog (or those who want a refresher), here’s a rundown

Writing Wednesday

Starting the first Wednesday of August I will be posting short writing exercises and updates on my writing.  I have not been writing much this year.  As I’m sure is the case with many of you, its been a stressful year overall.  I’m hoping these posts will help me get back into something I love.  I am accepting prompts, if you have a suggestion. Just leave a comment on this post, or any of the writing wednesday posts. I’m also on Twitter.

Women of History

For those of you new to my blog I used to regularly write short essays on various women in history. History is one of my favorite subjects, and I love learning about the women who have shaped our world. I plan on writing one or two posts a month for this. I plan on lengthening my posts for nanowrimo this year, as well. So perhaps for 2021 I will be able to present a book version of this series.

I hope to feature various cultures and be diverse as possible. I have an ongoing selection list but am always glad to add more names if you think there is a woman of history I should feature. The only rule I have at the moment is that it not include women who are currently shaping history. So no Hillary, AOC or Beyonce. Not for a while yet we all hope.

The Rewatch

This started as a fun way to spend my unknown amount in Quarantine. I’m back at work (we only were closed a month) and so i’m not binging my way through it as much as I started. At the moment I have a month of reviews ahead to post and ill try to keep ahead of that. There are over 700 episodes so there is a long way to go. Some days I may post two, particularly on Weekends. I always enjoy comments and once and awhile may live tweet my rewatch.

Bookit

I have taken a pause on writing reviews this year, but dont be surprised if one or two pop up. I’m hoping my Trek reviews will make my book reviews better as well. My goal this year is different as I’m not working towards my normal 50 (I may reinstate that next year) but I’m trying to finally finish some long unfinished books, such as Fiery Cross (the Outlander book the recent season was based on), A Storm of Swords (Game of Thrones), Anne of Green Gables, and the newest Hunger Games novels,

History Essays

I used to write random history essays on American government (and early American history as thats what my minor focused on) and also random “This happened today in the past” entries. I plan on starting that again because those were fun, and as with the writing exercises I really want to get back into my writing. Might as well enjoy the material I’m writing about.

On my main page is my past essays, although I still need to go back and catalog some of them. I may revisit some of the topics. I also don’t plan on sticking strictly to US History, although that is my main base of knowledge. Learning about other countries is always fun too. But for the first couple, I’m pretty sure its going to be US bound.

Posted in general

Temporary Hiatus

Posted on by sokorra

This blog is not going to be updated this month. Several things have happened in my life that make it hard to keep up with the updates and what I had planned for this blog. I hope that May will be a much easier month on me personally and I’ll be back to updating regularly.

Posted in American History, general, Politics

Please Vote!

Posted on by sokorra

For those of you who are US citizens, today is election day.  It is a midterm election which in the past have shown to have embarrassing small turnouts.  So I decided to write a post today asking if you are registered to vote, please go out and vote.

I’m not going to tell you who to vote for – that is your own choice and responsibility.

The average turn-out for a midterm election is 40% according to Fairvote.com.  That is less than half the population that is eligible to vote.  It’s even less for elections that are purely local or primaries.  Being involved in your government is the first tool to making a change in the government.

Imagine that you are having a pizza party and there are ten people.  Four people get together and decide that the pizza is going to have sardines and pineapple. They asked everyone but 6 people decided to not participate in the choosing of toppings.   That is what is happening during midterm elections.  Only 4 of those ten people able to have a say are actually putting any input in.  Most Presidential elections are only having 60% which is still embarrassing low.

Do not let your government be that way.  Please vote today, and have a say in your local offices as well as federal.  Local is even more important then federal as it is most likely to affect you personally as well as many of the future federal politicians will seek local positions first on their way to Washington.  Choose good people to lay the foundation of the future.

Right now anyone over the age of 18 can register to vote.  It was not always that way.  Women and minorities have had to fight a long battle to gain the vote.  We should all appreciate that fight and use our right to vote.

There are many online resources to help you find out where you can vote and how long the polls will be open.  In particular there is Vote.org which has information about your rights as a voter and also can help you find your local polling place.

Posted in book reviews, bookit, general, movie reviews, Women of history

October Arrives!

Posted on by sokorra

October is a pretty busy month for me, but I’m hoping to get back on the schedule I had for myself for this blog with three weekly posts on Monday/Wednesday/Friday.  Since I wasn’t sure what to write about first to kick off the month, I decided to doa  general post about what is coming up.

This month is going to have a couple Halloween/Dia de Muertos themed posts, as well as the normal book reviews, movie reviews, and hopefully at least 2 new Women of History posts. It is also Nano Prep Month, so it might be shorter posts as I focus on doing the prep work for Nano (for those who aren’t familar, visit the Nano Website).  That will be the focus next month, so I’m also going to try and get ahead on posts so that I have them pre-scheduled rather then writing them as I go since I’ll be working (for once) on an original novel next month.

As for the Bookit-reviews, I’ve made the decision to reduce my goal to 30 books.  I think the original goal of 52 is not achievable at this point.  Hopefully I can achieve the new goal.  I’m also starting to write down a list of books I’ve bought and haven’t read yet to start 2019 off (and finish off this year a bit too).  If you have any recommendations for books I should read, please let me know.

Hope you are all having a lovely Fall so far.

Posted in fanfiction, general, writing

Camp Nano Mid-way Update

Posted on by sokorra

The halfway mark for Camp Nano: July 2018 edition has arrived.  Word count wise I’m doing good, with an expected (according to them) end date of the 26th.  However, in actually accomplished projects I’m not doing as well.  I’ve been writing my blog posts which accounts for much of my word count, as well as some shorter stories that have come to mind.  However I had two projects I wanted to complete this month that have yet to be completed.

One is a multi-chapter fanfiction that I’ve been working on several years now (2012) and its starting to get a little ridiculous that I haven’t finished it yet.  Especially as I have several chapters mostly written.    However on the other hand its been one of my more popular works in fanfiction so perhaps the long time working on it paid off.

I also had a project from April where I had 30 songs that I was going to translate into writing prompts.  I have yet to work on this at all.

Mostly I think it’s an issue of time management, which I’m apparently bad at, but also inspiration.  There are some days where just nothing will come out (which ends up being the days I get more work done on my essay series for this blog.

I’m hoping that when I give my end of month update I’ll have a lot better news to share.  I plan on trying to manage my time a little bit better and getting the stories done I wanted to get done.  I also plan on finishing some of the essays that I have that are left incomplete – including one WOH essay that was meant to be posted over a week ago.

I’ll be posting the end-of-Nano post on the 30th.  Not actually the last day (as July has 31 days) but it’s the last posting day for this blog for July.

Posted in general

June & Nano

Posted on by sokorra

Next month is the second yearly Camp Nano session.  I will be participating once again, although my blog won’t feature writing like it did in April.  However, I plan on making a mid month and an end-of-month post about my progress for those who are interested.  I’m hoping to spend this year’s big Nano in November on an original story, so once again I’ll be working on finishing up WIPs and stories that I owe that are vastly overdue. *cough*christmas*cough*

I’m keeping my goals low this time, however.  My goal right now is 15,000 words, and I’m hoping to have at least one story complete.  If I manage to meet that goal I can move the goalpost, but I’d prefer not to cut it back like I did in April.   Hopefully I won’t be as sick as I was in April either.

I do have a month of posts planned.  There are still a few blanks, but quite a few are filled up.  I plan to continue to achieve the monday-wednesday-friday schedule with each friday being the day I post the Women of History series.  Since its the month of the USA’s independence day, I plan on focusing on American women for the month.  I also have three bookit reviews already scheduled for the mouth, a movie post, and of course the two Camp Nano posts.   So, hopefully, there will be alot to see from me next month.

Its hard to believe that we are already halfway done with the year now.  I believe July 3 is the true halfway mark, where we have as many days behind us as we do going forward.  2018 has been a mixed bag so far, but I’m always for being optimistic.

Posted in general, writing

Camp Nano Roundup & May Looking Forward

Posted on by sokorra

So its May, which means Camp Nano is over at least for a little bit.  The next camp Nano is in July.  I started the month with a goal  30,000 words. Unfortunately I ended up taking my goal down to 15,000 after I spent half the month sick or otherwise unable to write.

On the bright side, I did in fact meet that goal. I got a little over 17,000 words for the month and a couple of chapters finished and waiting for posting which was part of my goal.  I did not finish any of my stories or the song drabble prompt series but that’s okay.  Camp Nano is just about trying, so I don’t feel quite so bad about not meeting all of my goals.

I plan on using May to try to finish the WIPS I listed for my April goal, but I have no word count goals or anything like that.  Also I will be starting to plan my November project, getting the research/pre-writing done before the month begins.  It will make Nano a lot smoother.

There is no theme for my May posts, and I’m still planning out the month.  I do know that friday I will be posting the Women of History series, focused on Mexican women of history since its Cinco de Mayo this month.  In the US it’s a day celebrating Mexican-American culture, although in Mexico its a military observance day celebrating the battle of Puebla that occurred on May 5, 1862.

There will also be some book reviews, although I haven’t finished any recently so it will be as I read them rather than a back log of reviews.

Hope everyone is having a lovely Spring.