Sonia Focke
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soniafocke.bsky.social
Sonia Focke
@soniafocke.bsky.social
870 followers 260 following 1.3K posts
SFF author & Egyptologist. Loves tiny 🫖, 🦋 & 🐙.
Stories out in The Were-Traveler‘s „Women Destroy [Retro-] Sci-Fi“ edition, „Mirror, Mirror“, „Crunchy With Ketchup“, „Wyngraf #4“, „The Pelagic Zone: Uncharted Waters“, New Myths #70, GigaNotoSaurus 07/2025.
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soniafocke.bsky.social
My husband‘s Halloween costume this year!
Bodysuit and mask are store-bought, the rest of the costumre by moi.
Man wearing a Skeletor costume from Masters of the Universe.
November 1, 2025 at 6:31 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Okay, so I needed to organise my pens and sewing supplies. The shelves and the bottom left jars are from last month. I found the blue-patterned jars this time - 5€ for the spice jars (they‘re labelled in Plattdüütsch!) & 12€ for the onion & garlic jars, then 2€ for the jug.

Total money spent: 20€
Dark brown wooden spice rack standing on a wooden surface against a tiled wall. The top shelf has five smallish round spice jars and a tall convex jar in a blue pattern of four-petaled flowers on long stalks, called „Indisch blau“. Scissors peek out of the top. The bottom shelf has a tall rectangular jar with a frieze of blue flowers just below the lid, then three with a pattern of wreatjs and roses with their lids off to show art pens. Then another convex jar in Indisch blau and a tea tin. Under the shelf are the lids of the open jars, in the foreground before it an orange vintage toy sewing machine and a milk jug in Indisch blau holding pens.
October 13, 2025 at 8:00 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
This pretty tub is perfect for my sketchbook and the books I‘m reading, which otherwise tend to colonise the couch armrests. This way I can still see them from the couch & remember to read! (ADHD hack)

2€, total money spent so far: 3€
Small dark brown wooden tub with folk art painted decoration, holding seceral books including „Glasgow Boys“ by Margaret Macdonald.
October 13, 2025 at 2:13 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
More finds: this little blue vase is perfect for our pens in the kitchen, AND it was in a „free to take“ box!

Total money spent so far: 1€
On a kitchen counter, goblet-shaped vase in white glaze with blue flowers in a traditional „folk art“ style, between a tin decorated like Quimper ware and a copper tub.
October 13, 2025 at 2:04 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Flea market finds!

These three (+ a wall decal not pictured) for 1€!

The little tin and ceramic saucer with the painted grapes will keep our pepper mill from spreading pepper dust all over the counter, the dish will be a plant tray and the hen egg cup will join our Easter decotation.
On a ceramic hot plate, a little tin saucer with a porcelain center painted with a bunch of grapes, a blue-and-white dish in the Chinese style with raised sides and a white egg cup in the shape of a hen with pink tail, wattle, and comb.
October 12, 2025 at 7:47 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Both my kids are really creative. K1 invented the „Strawberryfant“ and we both had to draw him. This is my take 😁

Alcohol marker, acrylic marker and coloured pencil. The eye is felt-tipped pen.
A drawing of one of those big, flat strawberried with several tips - three in this case, forming the trunk and two legs. The ear and tail are bumps, the eye is shaped like a seed. His expression is slightly exasperated as he eyes the leaf hat on top of his head.
October 10, 2025 at 11:54 AM
soniafocke.bsky.social
I kept meaning to post last year‘s book list - here it is!
This year‘s is twice as look - I have my reading mojo back!
Page from a Journal. In the center „Books 2024“, the B and K looking like book spines. The titles are all in more or less fancy script: Harrow the 9th, Nons the 9th, Moon Called, Blood Bound, Ricer Marked, Night Broken, Alpha and Omega, Monstrous Regiment, Good Omens, Death‘s End, All Systems Red, Artificial Condition, Rogue Protocol, Exit Strategy, Network Effect, Fugitive Telemetry, System Collapse, Arsène Lupin, Sorcerer to the Crown, Bookshops and Bonedust, Persuasion, Emma, Manfield Park, Northanger Abbey, Sense & Sensibility, Little White Lies, I have Your Nimber, Call of the Wild, Twelve Sharp, Death on the Nile, Mystic City, Have His Carcase, Murder Must Advertise and Gaudy Night.
September 28, 2025 at 3:52 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Hello #GoodOmens fans - my Little Free Library had the (hetero) French equivalent!
Sept jours pour une éternité (7 days for an eternity) by Marc Lévy.

God & Satan have made a bet: 7 days to see if good or evil wins on earth. But what happens when their agents, Zofia & Lucas, fall for each other?
The cover for a book by Marc Levy, Sept jours pour une éternité… , showing a white feather stuck in the cogs of a watch. The back cover for a book by Marc Levy, Sept jours pour une éternité. The lead is „IL a le charme du diable. ELLE a la force des anges…“ (HE has the devil‘s charm. SHE has the strength of angels…)
September 9, 2025 at 7:09 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Hi!🙋‍♀️ Though I didn‘t name him after you, but have an Aquaeon named Ursula!
A screenshot from the Pokedex of the Game Pokémon GO. Against a bubbly background, a shiny male Aquaeon, a fox-like creature with big eyes, three head-fins (two of which serve as his ears) a white ruff, and a long sea-serpent-like tail.
September 4, 2025 at 8:42 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
I made a poncho thing (and lost my head, apparently - no clue why the picture is cropped like this, but if you tap the picture, I perform a magic trick and get my head back.)
Me, a small brunette with her hair in a bun and a thin fringe going a bit curly at the bottom. I am wearing an orange-and-burgundy flower-patterned dress and holding an open flip case for a phone with pink-and-purple flowers and butterflies. I have prominent hips but proportionalky short legs. From my shoulders to my waist, crocheted in granny stitch, a poncho with a dart that hangs down to my upper thigh, in an iridescent purple between roes of iridescent teal.
September 2, 2025 at 6:26 AM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Post a random picture or else everything will go bad in September
Crocodile mummy mask in white plaster, side view. The eye is grey and opened wide, with a circle of dots around them. The teeth are visible in a smile that is as dorky as it is terrifying.
September 2, 2025 at 6:09 AM
soniafocke.bsky.social
This farmer has a little mini-museum on their still-active farm with all sorts of old farming machines, but was delighted me the most was this find from the stone of a barn wall/foundation.

AMMONITES!!!!
A foundation wall from a barn in Bavaria made out of loose limestone chips. The top layer has five - count `em, five - white ammonite fossils the size of my fist! Above them, you can see the dark brown, weathered wood of the barn siding.
August 31, 2025 at 9:17 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
A Danube ferry with cable! Just a little ferry to cross the river - no major road in sight.
The Danube is not very wide here. The river is a steely grey, reflecting an overcast sky. The banks of the river are green with plant growth; on the other side there are trees and a few scatteted houses. There is a steel cable strung across at maybe 3-4 metres height. Attached to the cable by a verticle cable is a flat barge parked parallel to the embankment, with railings hung with life-savers on the sides and an open ramp at each end. The far ramp is lined up with a sloping path down the embankment. Another such slope is just visible on the other bank of the river. This is such a quaint, old-fashioned contraption with very little safety precautions that it’s hard to believe we‘re in Germany, only a few hundred meters from a tourist attraction.
August 31, 2025 at 5:37 AM
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@maryrobinettekowal.com I saw this darling at the Deutsches Museum in Munich yesterday and couldn‘t help but wonder if the simulators for the Lady Astronaut pilots resembled this one!
Blue flight simulator looking like a stubby little bumblebee of an airplane, with yellow wings and tail. Another view of a Blue flight simulator looking like a stubby little bumblebee of an airplane, with yellow wings and tail., wher you can see the tail better and no it doesn‘t look any less darlingly ridiculous from this angle, either. Info text for the blue flight simulator: „Link-Trainer ANT-18: the „Blue Box“. Edward Link developed his flight simulators, called „Link Trainers“, already in the early 1930s. With the ANT-18 model, also known as the „Blue Box“, pilots of the US Army and Navy learned to fly without leaving the ground. This reduced both cost and risk. The machine could move around three axes and included all important instruments. An opaque hood made it possible to simulate flying blind or at night. The trainee had to talk to the instructor through a headset - just like in real life. Amusement parks bought the first Link Trainers. After the Great Depression, airlines and the military became interested in the machines. The ANT-18 was used all over the world, giving hundreds of thousands of pilots their first flight experience. Edward Link was an instrument maker and adapted the motion mechanics and pneumatics from organ building. Air Trainer Ltd., Binghampton, USA, 1944 Inv. Nr. 7426T1“
August 15, 2025 at 3:47 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Have a video of a baby Coot (a black ducklike waterfowl with a short white beak with a white spot on it) and its parent bobbing along in the water along the shore of a lake. Sound on for some adorable peeping!
August 12, 2025 at 8:07 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
These handlettering pieces are gifts for theatre folk - lines from musicals!

„Give‘em the old razzle dazzle“ (Chicago) for my dad who once bluffed his way into a job as an organist. He barely plays the piano.

„Life upon the wicked stage“ (Show Boat) for my stepmother, a woman of many roles.
Framed black paper. In a frame of white with yellow dots inside. The words „give `em the old razzle dazzle“. „Give `em“ is in blue spaced out capital letters with white highlights, „the old“ in white cursive between psrallel lines and „ razzle dazzle“ in big pink letters with white framework. The right foot of the „r“ goes down to be the back of the „d“, and the „le“ sis tall enough the serve for both words. Framed blue paper that looks black on the picture. The words „life upon the wicked stage ain‘t nothin’ for a girl“. „Life“ is in big pink cursive lined in black, „upon the“ in smaller white cursive on either side of the downstroke of the „f“. „Wicked“ is in black italic capitals with undulating lines. „Stage“ is an imitation of marquee lettering, big red capitals lined in yellow with yellow dot „bulbs“. „Ain‘t nothin‘“ is in lowercase sans serif, „nothin‘ „ outlined in black, „for a“ beneath it in cursive. Finally, „Girl“ is in tall capital letters, double lines of pink and green with little roses. Embellishments include arrows, rose elements, shooting stars and dots.
August 8, 2025 at 3:45 AM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Little cards as handlettering exercises - trying out my alcohol markers and white spaces using washi tape.
Two small cards on a red checkered tablecloth. Both read „Danke für Alles“ with little stars scattered around the words. The one on the left has a rainbow background in copic marker with white spaces for the lettering. Each word is in black in a different Sans Serif font. The one on the right has diagonal stripes in rainbow colours. Again, the spaces for the lettering are left white, though the „für“ is off-center because I wasn‘t paying attention. Here all the words are in the same faux-brushstroke cursive, in glittering yellow with blue accents.
July 30, 2025 at 6:58 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
A shoutout to all the Captain Picards out there who can sit down at a sewing machine and actually make it sew.

Pictured: a white-and-pink devil‘s contraption (aka Singer Serenade) that takes perfectly good thread and utterly fails to use it to attach two pieces of fabric to each other.
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a white-and-pink devil‘s contraption (aka Singer Serenade) that takes perfectly good thread and utterly fails to use it to attach two pieces of fabric to each other.
July 20, 2025 at 9:44 AM
soniafocke.bsky.social
40 plus appreciation post. reskeet with a pic if you're on the right side of 40.

I can‘t take a selfie worth a damn but the husband takes nice pictures of me.
It’s me. 42. Three-quarter face. Long brown hair, bangs, hazel eyes. Long, thin face. The chin, while not excessive, is definitely there. Lips fairly full. I‘m giving a half-smile to the photographer (my husband). A silver butterfly earring is dangling from my left ear & I‘m wearing a light blue peasant blouse and a mostly blue cardigan in patterns reminiscent of Navajo art (they‘re not, though).
June 24, 2025 at 7:44 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
Ice tea can be fancy, too 😉

Basilur Mango & Pineapple black tea, with rock sugar for sweetness.
Travel tea set in white with tan accents on a minty yellow round ceramic tray. The teapot has a little pink flower on top and obe of the cups has dark iced tea in it.
June 23, 2025 at 6:59 PM
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Update: success!
And now, the moment you‘ve been waiting for! Over my knee, a crochet project in granny stitch in shimmering beetle green and purple. The image vibrates with the relief you feel after a scene twanging with tension and anticipation. A row in the round has been closed. It is done. A short string is left, curled in jubilation. The circle is unbroken, the yarn was enough, I don’t need to buy another clew. All sing Halleluya!
June 20, 2025 at 12:35 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
I like to live dangerously.
Draped across my knee, clad in loose red pants with a tan block-printed paisley motif, is a crochet project in shimmering beetle-elytra green and a similar purple hue. You can see the end of a green row in the round, tauntingly near, calling out to be completed. On a purple hook with an orange plastecene handle with white and yellow flowers, there dangles an agonizingly short length of the shimmering green wool. Is it enough? Can I finish my row? Or will I need to buy more wool? The suspense is palpaple. Stay tuned. News at Eleven.
June 20, 2025 at 9:59 AM
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The kids got Bluey books at the petrol station so my husband said I could get a book, too! 😂
They didn‘t have any SFF by French authors, so a French Romance it is!
Book cover: on a mint green background, a straw hat and white invitation paper tied with pink ribbons, surrounded by little white flowers like fice-pointed stars. The book is „Un été pour te retrouver“ by Morgane Moncomble.
June 20, 2025 at 8:39 AM
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I also bought books - a delightful couple in the Librairie la Plage in Carnac helped me with a selection of French #SFF authors to discover.
Four French-language fantasy books: Pascal Quiviger‘s „Le Royaume de la Pierre d‘Angle“, Chris Vuklisevic‘s „Du Thé pour les Fantômes“, Romain Lucazeau‘s „La Nuit du Faune“ and Claire DuVivier‘s „Un Long Voyage“.
June 19, 2025 at 9:10 PM
soniafocke.bsky.social
The Super-U where we are holidaying had a Little Free Library!
On pinkish tiles, two books fanned out: „Le Père Goriot“ by Honoré de Balzac, school edition with a windmill in the background and twp mid-19th century ladies in green and purple, giggling together. And „Aubrincourt: Chronique de la première croisade“ by Pierre Chartier, with, against a cream background, a square reproduction from a medieval manuscript showing Jerusalem in mostly greens and reds over two knights charging retreating warriors on horses.
June 17, 2025 at 7:19 AM