Month(s) In Review(s) - April + May 2024

Warning: pet death, grief

Did I intend to make this a 2-month wrap-up?

No. No I did not.

Did it become abundantly clear that I wasn't gonna get April's post done by the end of May?

Yes. Yes it did.

April was awful.

Really.

You know how my criteria for a good month is one where no-one I care about - human or animal - dies, almost dies, or gets a life-changing diagnosis?

April was not a good month.

My beautiful cat died, dearest nerdlets.

And the world feels off without him. There's a hole in my chest.

So most of the rest of April + May has been trying to get used to life without him.

...It still hurts like hell.

That boy was my everything, and I have cried every single day since I lost him.

But I kept going, despite the urge to stay in bed and wail. 

(Turns out I'm frighteningly good at wailing - with frighteningly being the key word. I... did not know I could make that kind of noise. I freaked my parents the hell out.)

So, y'know, if you've got the chance to check out the posts I somehow managed to write despite the separation of my soul from my body, that'd be great... 😅

Comics Wrap-Up

Was Not Expecting That! - Wenglish in Marvel's Echo and more

Iconic and Irreplaceable - Joker: Folie a Deux and more

I Can Already Tell - X-men '97 and more

My Fangirling Heart Is Singing Right Now! - Deadpool & Wolverine and more

You Learn Stuff, I Guess - Chibird and more

The Freaking Chaos - Marvel's What If...? and more

Actually Quite Lovely - X-Men '97 and more

Gracing The Waves of the Interwebs - Deadpool & Wolverine and more

Wholesome and Positive - The Cursed Princess Club and more

Friday Fics Fix

The Nature of the Void - A The Umbrella Academy (TUA) fic exploring the nature of death, grief, and the Void

Most of You Aren't Gonna Read This - A The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (TFATWS) horror novella that is extremely well-written. I loved it. I hated it. It's so good.

Because I Am Trash - A TFATWS fic where Sam and Bucky are stuck in an industrial freezer. I stand by my life choices.

Cyberpunk Stucky - In a nutshell: Stucky (Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes from the MCU in a relationship,) as detectives in space. But it's so much more than that. I would legit. buy this as an original novel - it's that good.

Vampires and a Smidge of FrostIron - Everything's better with vampires, right? Plus a little bit of Tony Stark/Loki love.

Klaus' Ghosts In A Specific Trope - I like the fandom-specific trope of Klaus literally showing his demons to people who deny or minimise them - the emo goblin spaghetti brain very much likes, OK?

Bucky's A Literal Demon and Sam's A Literal Angel - TFATWS

So. Freaking. Beautiful - A TUA Klaus/Dave fic with Klaus noticing that, in some lights, Dave's eyes are the exact same shade of blue as his powers, the ghosts, etc. etc. Which leads to a whole lot of introspection from both of them and... it's beautiful.

Nerd Church

Can Books 'Talk' To Us? - Do you think books can send us messages?

It's OK (Just Keep Going) - Brought to you by the art of giving myself a pep talk and then posting it on the internet 😅

My Heart Is Broken... - My beautiful boy is gone. 💔

Random Audiobook Ramblings - Walking is boring and books are awesome

Unpopular Opinion: I've Never Liked Gavin and Stacey - Sorry, not sorry. It feels uncomfortable - like Wales through an English lens.

What Does 'Enough' Even Mean? - Has anyone ever reached ‘enough’?

Things Happen When They Happen - I'm trying to remind myself that, so long as I'm working on things, they'll be ready when they're ready.

I Quit Google AdSense - Because this is way too many hoops to jump through for £7

Other Non-Review Posts

Month In Review(s) - March 2024

So, that's April and May for yours truly.

How was yours?

Talk to me! 😊💬

You can follow me on Twitter @CeeDoraReads, on Pinterest, and on Dora Reads @ BlogLovin. For more ways to support me, check out the Support Me page

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Nerd Church - Short Story: Gravel-Crunch

This is another Anna Sinclair short story - if you don't know what that is, then you may or may not want to read the previous stories first.

If you do, here they are:

• New Money

• Living the Dream

If you don't - the briefest of re-caps:

Anna Sinclair rocks, she swears a lot, and she's got some kind of feud going with some rich boys called Miles and Tony Addison, relating to some money. At least some of said money is currently down Anna's bra.

Now you pretty much know everything I do about her 😅

Warning: alcohol

Gravel-Crunch

A short story about one Anna Sinclair.

Image by André Rau from Pixabay

Nerd Church - Whatever Else Happens, Trump Is Guilty

 

Whatever else happens, Trump is guilty.

Finally there are criminal, legal, marks next to his name which can be - have been - proved.

Nerd Church - I Quit Google AdSense

I’ve been using Google AdSense here on Dora Reads for quite some time — at least two years, but honestly, I lose track.

It’s probably more like 5 or 6 years at this point. (I am nothing if not persistent.)

In that time, I earned about £7  — which I couldn’t get to, because the minimum payout threshold is £60.

Nerd Church - Things Happen When They Happen

 

I'm trying to remind myself that, so long as I'm working on things, they'll be ready when they're ready.

I'm an impatient person by nature - I want things done yesterday or earlier, thanks very much - but that's not the way to get sh** done in the long term.

Nerd Church - What Does 'Enough' Even Mean?

I never feel that I’m ‘enough’ of anything.

Not good ‘enough,’ not attractive ‘enough,’ not successful ‘enough,’ not ‘enough’ of anything.

Nerd Church - Unpopular Opinion: I've Never Liked Gavin and Stacey

...confessions of a rebel Welsh chick, I guess. 😅

OK - I know that there are international fans of this series, but since it's less well-known outside the UK, a little background:

Gavin and Stacey is a BBC sitcom about a Welsh woman from Barry and an English dude from Essex meeting on the internet, falling in love, and trying to get together despite being from opposite ends of the country.

It's also where James Corden hit the big time, in the UK at least. So... there's that. Make of it what you will 😅

Nerd Church - Random Audiobook Ramblings

 

...a post brought to you by my boredom with walking, and my doctor's insistence that, if I go walkies, it'll help with my mental health. (I'm not buying it - it's never helped before, but I'll try anything.)

When there's been no rain for a couple of days in a row, it's not so bad 'cos I can go to the woods, but otherwise said woods are like a very slippery mudslide. 

So if it's been raining within 48-72 hours, then I have to walk around streets and shops and sh** so I don't trip, fall, and end up in the river/bang my head on a tree/anger one of The Fair Folk by falling into them or summat. 

*Sigh* The woods are my natural habitat, dammit!

Nerd Church - My Heart Is Broken...

 

Warning: pet death

One of my cats died this week.

My beautiful boy had a seizure in my arms, and never fully came back. We had to take him down the vets to ease his journey.

Nerd Church - It's OK (Just Keep Going)

 

The world is a total mess, but it's OK, just keep going.

There's war and floods and famine and disease, but it's OK, just keep going.

The things that bump in the night are real, but it's OK, just keep going.

Month In Review(s) - March 2024

 

March wasn't great.

Not terrible - but then, the bar for terrible is pretty high (or low, depending on your perspective, I guess,) at this point - but not great.

Basically: my mental health sucks at the moment.

Nerd Church - Can Books 'Talk' To Us?

 

Do you think that books can send us messages?

I've been re-reading Beautiful Creatures by Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl -

so that I can finally move on to the second book in the series with some sort of familiarity with these characters because my brain is swiss cheese

- and I'd forgotten that there was a scene, in the library, where the books are 'talking' to the main character.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: How Do You Assess Your Own Writing?

 

Can someone tell me how to assess your own writing?

Because I am not good at judging the quality of the stuff I write!

Nerd Church - The Participation Trophies Were Never The Problem

...Some hard truths from one of those pesky millennials

I know you wouldn’t expect any less from a millennial but:

The participation trophies were never the problem.

Nerd Church - Should We Judge Older Books By Modern Standards?

 

Warning: this post discusses racism, ableism, and general prejudice, including reference to dehumanising language and slurs

I've been re-reading* The Princess Diaries for a while now.

For those not aware: this was a massively popular YA series by Meg Cabot from the early 00s where a New York teenager named Mia Thermopolis finds out she's actually the Princess of Genovia. (As you do.)

There also 2 films starring Anne Hathaway, which are fun, but don't really match the tone of the books.

*Well, re-reading the first couple and reading the rest for the first time 😅

Month In Review(s) - February 2024

 

February for yours truly wasn't too bad.

...It wasn't great either, tbh. But it's still one of the better months I've had lately, so I'll take it!

Nerd Church - Short Story: Everyone Is Born With A Void

This story was originally published on the Promptly Written publication on Medium, in response to the following prompt from Ravyne Hawke:


Write a story around the following:

— a bottomless pit
— a moment of despair
— a hopeful or hopeless outcome

Warning: this story contains injury imagery, including acid burns, and also centres on mental health issues (depression,) and hopelessness.

Everyone Is Born With A Void

This is Emmeline's.

Nerd Church - Practice Runs and Prototypes

We're so used to seeing our media as the finished product that we rarely think about the component parts...

...the drafts. The demos. The practice runs and prototypes. 

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Writing vs *Writing*

 

In my head, there's a difference between writing and *Writing.*

Like, I'm one of those people who thinks that all writing is writing, and I will take that to whatever bank and/or government authority you want me to.

I mean it - I will back you up 100%. All writing is writing.

All writing is writing.

Writing this blogpost is writing. Writing a tweet is writing. Writing a to-do list is writing.

It's all physically (or digitally in some cases, I guess,) writing. 

And all of it works on your skills with words - don't ever let anyone tell you different, m'k? Gatekeepers can get all the way in the bin. *nods sagely*

Month In Review(s) - December 2023 + January 2024

 

And 2023 is OUT OF HERE!!!!

And thank whoever's listening for that.

Because, in case you weren't aware, my 2023 effing sucked.