Category: Special Blogs

4th of July Special

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I used to do a “on this day” segment on my blog. In honor of the holiday, I’ll be doing that for this one too. I’ll include ten different events that happened on July 4th in history. My source is from On This Day.

  1. 1776- US Congress proclaims the Declaration of Independence and independence from Great Britain.
  2. 1838- Huskar Colliery Mining Disaster in Silkstone England: mining pit floods drown 26 children, leads to 1842 ‘Mines and Collieries Act’ bans women and children working underground.
  3. 1925- American “Gone With The Wind” author Margaret Mitchell (24) weds 2nd husband John Marsh (29) in the Unitarian-Universalist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, until her death in 1949.
  4. 1453- 41 Jewish martyrs burned at stake at Breslau.
  5. 1826- Past presidents Thomas Jefferson and John Adams both die on the 50th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, President John Quincy Adams calls “visible and palpable remarks of Divine Favor”
  6. 1827- Slavery abolished in New York.
  7. 1862- Charles Dodgson (Lewis Carroll) creates Alice in Wonderland for Alice Liddell on a family boat trip on the river Isis (Thames) in Oxford.
  8. 1884- Statue of Liberty presented to US in Paris.
  9. 1925- The former Dreyfus Hotel collapses in Boston, Massachusetts, killing 44 of an estimated 200 patrons dancing in the second floor Pickwick Club.
  10. 1927- Sukarno and friends form the pro-Indonesian independence party, the PNI (Perserikatan Nasional Indonesia) in Batavia, Dutch East Indies.

There are many more interesting events that happened on this day. Please click the link above to check them out!

If you enjoy my content, please consider leaving me a tip! Thank you so much for reading!

Bookish Chatter: A Change of Plans

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Due to a misunderstanding with this week’s author, I do not have an Author Spotlight for this week. They got the Author Spotlight segment and the Reading With Star segment confused and insisted that they already gave me what I needed. I let it go. I’m thankful that they want to be part of my blog. And we all have our moments where we get confused here and there.

I decided to take this opportunity to just chat about my reading lately. I’ve been doing far better than I have in a long time. I’m starting to really get into readathons. I have days where I really don’t to read. I read a bit and stop once I feel like I’m not concentrating like I should be. I find it’s really helpful. I still have my “reading streak”, but I’m not forcing myself to read. It’s a win win!

I have two conventions that I will be going to in a couple of months. One in Tennessee and one in Salem. I have everything booked for Tennessee, and I have the plane booked for Salem. I haven’t gotten somewhere to stay booked yet. I want to find a reasonable priced place that’s as close to the event as possible. It’s really not easy since I don’t know the area at all. Maybe something will come up.

That’s all I can think to talk about. If you’ve read this to this point, I want to say thank you for reading my blogs. It gives me the encouragement to keep going. I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Review Format and Thursday Segment Update.

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I had a last minute change in schedule so I thought I’d take advantage and do an update on the announcement I made awhile back.

The Plans:

Blog Plan Potential

Review Format:

Title:
Author:
Release Date:
Page Count:
Format:
Start Date:
Finish Date:

Rating:

Review:

Important to Note:

Similar To:

Blog Schedule:

Monday-
12 PM- Blog Tours (If Any Are Scheduled)
4 PM- Weekly Reading Plans and Goals- Will discuss the books I plan to read each week and the goals I have for the week overall
8 PM- Reviews (If any)

Tuesday-

12 PM: Blog Tours (If Any Are Scheduled)
4 PM- Gaming Updates- Will discuss games I play. Especially Tomodachi Life Updates
8 PM- Reviews (If Any)

Wednesday-

12 PM- Blog Tours (If any are scheduled)
4 PM- Coloring Projects- Will display my favorite four pictures that I’ve colored each week. I hope that this will give me the accountability to start coloring more.
8 PM- Reviews (If Any)

Thursday-

12 PM- Blog Tours (If Any Are Scheduled)
4 PM- Reading With Star- I’ll showcase an excerpt from an author’s book of their choice. All authors have sent me the information. It belongs to them and not me. I have their full permission to use it for this blog and this blog only. It is not to be used or copied anywhere else.
8 PM- Reviews (If Any)

Friday-

12 PM- Blog Tours (If Any Are Scheduled)
4 PM- Author Spotlight- Will showcase a random indie author I’ve discovered recently or that I think needs a lot more exposure than they have.
8 PM- Reviews (If Any)

Saturday-

12 PM- Blog Tours (If Any Are Scheduled)
4 PM- Weekly Reading Wrap Up- Will talk about the reading I’ve accomplished for the week and discuss if I succeeded with my goals or not.
8 PM- Reviews (If Any)

Sunday-

12 PM- Blog Tours (If Any Are Scheduled)
4 PM- Sundays in Bed With- Will talk about the book I’m reading for the day. Sundays are my no social media or computer days. My me days if you will.
8 PM- Reviews (If Any)

1st of the Month- Monthly Reading Wrap-Up
15th of the Month- Mid Month Check In
30th/31st of the month- Monthly TBR

IMPORTANT!!!!: Please note that Reading With Star and Author Spotlight are two different segments. One is to give you a taste of the book. The other is to let the readers get to know the author. Those are two entirely different things.

Picking a New Thursday Segment

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Thursdays were supposed to be my Thursday Quotes blog day. The thing is, I haven’t really marked quotes in a long time. I was hoping that this would give me the encouragement to do so. I was mistaken. So, I am on the thinking block on what I can do in the place of that for my blog. I have a few ideas. I’d REALLY LOVE feedback from you all. You reading my blog is so important and matters so much to me. I want to make sure you have content you enjoy reading as much as I enjoy writing.

My ideas so far:

  1. Thankful Thursday- I did this awhile back. I listed four things I was thankful for.
  2. Mental Health Journal- I also did this awhile back. I talked about things I struggled with because of my mental health. I’ve since started taking medicine to regulate things, so this would also discuss how I am doing on the meds.
  3. Thoughts With Nikkie- This would be new. I’d talk about a topic of any sort for the week. It could be silly. It could be a series. It could be book related. It could be real-world related. There would even be chances that I could talk about the same topic more than once.
  4. Blogger of the Week- This one might be tough for me. I need to start reading other blogs more often. Don’t get me wrong. I do read blogs. I just don’t have the time to do it as often as I would like. I would eventually like to help support fellow bloggers in some kind of way. The talent and thought behind every single blog is just so remarkable. Note: I think I’ll be open to taking nominations for bloggers for this one if I do it.

That’s all I have so far. Please comment on which you’d rather have. It’s okay if it’s more than one. Also if you would like to request something not listed above, I’m open to feedback! Thank you again for reading this!

400 Followers!!!!

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I started out not knowing what to blog about. I really haven’t created a schedule because I feel like it really hinders me. I mean I had a theme for each day, but I wasn’t planning on using it unless I got stuck like today. I digress. Then I noticed I had a notification. I have 402 followers! I’m just so in shock! It may not seem like a lot to some, but to me it’s amazing. I’ve never got on here expecting to get thousands of followers. My main goal was to talk about my passions and find people who share those passions with me. It’s not about numbers for me. It’s the people. It’s the interactions. I’m still so thankful. I hope to see it grow more and to meet more people that share my love of reading and gaming. This is a great milestone to hit. And the perfect year to hit it as I’m approaching my 10 year blogging anniversary!

Happy New Year!

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It’s 2023!!! Can you believe 2022 passed by so quickly? Heck. I feel like it was just last week when I felt like 2020 would never get here. That was 2016 for me haha! It always seems like a few years down the road are a long way off. They never are!

I hope you all have an amazing year! I hope you find yourself and your happiness. I hope that you are content and happy.

Most that know me know that I don’t do New Year’s Resolutions. I don’t have anything against them. They just aren’t for me. What I do instead, is yearly goals. Here are mine for the year:

2023 Goals:

Reading Goals

Read 1 PERSONAL book a week

Read one a month for: LGBTQIA, Nonfiction, Book of the Month, Classic

Maintain schedules and reading guidelines

Read 200 books

Stay on top of written and video reviews

Personal Goals

Start and keep a routine

Close all three rings every day.

Maintain self care every day

Branch out in self employment/freelance work and start looking into passive income

Reach out to friends and family more

Deleting TikTok

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I’m really considering deleting TikTok from my phone. It’s just become so toxic. There’s too much of an us vs them mentality. A one extreme or the other and no in between. I fully agree people should be held accountable for their actions. I also fully believe that if they acknowledge and understand where they went wrong and improve from it, they should be forgiven. I will never say I understand people’s struggles and triumphs. I only live my life. I only know what I’ve been through. I do think that we should all start remembering the golden rule though. Treat others how you want to be treated.

That’s as much of my feedback as I’m going to speak on the TikTok matter. I have a limited time in my day after work. I’m going to use it to get caught up on my reading and blog work. I’m not going to waste it anymore on things that are toxic and draining. I haven’t fully decided about TikTok yet, but I am leaning on deleting it though. It’s just too much.

Rest of the Year Goals

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Things I hope to happen by the end of the year

  1. Book of the Month Challenge
  2. Picking up my Netgalley ratio
  3. Interacting with more bloggers
  4. Find a routine that works for me
  5. Organize my things better
  6. Make more friends
  7. Take classes to enhance my freelance
  8. Start learning sign language
  9. Start learning Spanish
  10. Start writing short stories

Today Is My Birthday

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Note: Posting this late. I have finally had the time to catch up on posts and I’m taking advantage.

Today (August 15th) is my 36th birthday! I thought in honor of it I would share 36 facts about me! I hope you enjoy!

  1. I love reading
  2. I love coffee, tea and hot chocolate
  3. I love taking photos and have a camera obsession
  4. I love to color
  5. I am part of the LGBTQIA+ community
  6. I love playing games
  7. I have been blogging since 2013
  8. I graduated high school in 2004
  9. I have three beautiful puppies. Two are seven and one is four months 
  10. I prefer to keep my hair black. I feel like I look prettiest with black hair
  11. I love readathons
  12. Gilmore Girls is one of my favorite tv shows
  13. I was obsessed with Jurassic Park as a kid. I’ve seen the movie series multiple times
  14. I have also seen A Walk to Remember multiple times 
  15. I have a problem choosing things
  16. My favorite book genre is horror
  17. My favorite color is purple
  18. I love all things cheese and potato
  19. I’m 92.9% British & Irish (According to 23 & Me)
  20. I lost a sister when I was 19 (She was 14)
  21. Mario Kart and Mario Party are my favorite video games to play
  22. I once wanted to be a journalist
  23. I’ve moved many times in life and don’t really have any friends I’ve grown up with
  24. I am demisexual
  25. I wear glasses, but not a strong prescription
  26. I’m a tech geek
  27. I’d like to find a job to settle down with. Preferably not customer facing
  28. I have an amazing partner who I adore with all my heart
  29. I was born and raised in Georgia
  30. I have Depression, Anxiety, PTSD, and ADHD
  31. I never finished college
  32. I want to own my own library
  33. I love criminal shows like Criminal Minds, CSI, and NCIS
  34. I’m very introverted
  35. I’ve seen every episode of Buffy, Charmed, and Gilmore Girls
  36. I am obsessed with candles and incense

My Reading Challenge Update

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  1. Hair of the Dog by MK Mancos & Cara North with Roxy Sterling – Almost done with this
  2. Between the Moon by P.L Porter- About to start this
  3. The Keeper of Night by Kylie Lee Baker- Completed
  4. Heartstopper by Alice Oseman- Completed
  5. Dracos Anthology- In progress
  6. Fortune And Glory by Janet Evanovich- Completed
  7. Buried Beneath by Debbie Baldwin- Completed (Technically I read all books with them)
  8. Cupcakes and Catastrophe- Hope to start soon
  9. Mythical Creatures Anthology- Starting soon
  10. Murder and Grits by Karen McSpade- Hope to start soon

This has been kind of fun. I’ve been considering doing it more often. Maybe make something every month. Would anybody want to join me on this?