Nerd Church - #InternationalWomensDay: 'My Feminism Will Be Intersectional, Or It Will Be B*llsh**'

'MY FEMINISM WILL BE INTERSECTIONAL OR IT WILL BE B*LLSH**'

Have you heard those words? Maybe seen them on a placard or a pin badge, or on your socials?

Maybe you have, maybe you haven't.

They are the words of Flavia Dzodan, as written in her delightfully sweary 2011 essay of the same name*

(I actually don't mind reading swear words, I just can't bring myself to reproduce them without *s - my mother might find out. 😅)

*CW: racism, rape, violence against women, White Feminism™

Friday Fics Fix - With Grace

(Warning: this post discusses domestic and child abuse (physical and mental/emotional) throughout, and touches on issues such as addiction and substance abuse)

'...There are a lot of things in the children’s lives that are sub-optimal. She has to minimize the damage in whatever ways she is able.'

This post is gonna have SPOILERS for series 1 of Umbrella Academy, ok?

V. minor spoilers, but spoilers all the same. The fic itself has more spoilers.

Friday Fics Fix - Avengers Fun Time!

'...Because Steve, in all of his tall, muscular, patriotic glory is now standing on the coffee table, red faced and hands clasped over his mouth and staring into the corner where a robotic vacuum cleaner is calmly and silently doing it's little roomba business.'

Let's have some fun, this week, dearest nerdlets! 😉

Cos sometimes, you just need something totally ridiculous. Let's be honest.

Friday Fics Fix - A Dose of the Warm Fuzzies

'...“Because life is one big joke,” Klaus replies with a grin.

Diego shakes his head, feeling a headache start to form, and drops the interrogation.'

Not gonna lie, there're some similarities between this week's fic rec, and last week's fic rec - albeit they're from different fandoms.

They both have ill characters being taken of by their brothers, though (in this case, Klaus is ill, Diego's headache didn't develop 😅.)

And they're both about troubled characters who have, nevertheless, snuck their way into our hearts.

Friday Fics Fix - Can Klaus Get A Boo?

 ***All Amazon.com links in this post are commission links. This means I earn commission from purchases made in the US*** 

Please do not use my links to make UK purchases.

'...Miraculously, it held under his weight, and he shimmied down it with an ease that could have been described as elegance if his leather hot-pants weren’t squealing against the metal piping.'

Who would be climbing down a drainpipe in leather hot-pants?

Klaus Hargreeves, of course!

(This is the first time I'm reccing an Umbrella Academy fic in 2020 - I think I've shown a lot of restraint 😅)

The Bookish Diversity Linklist 2020

Let's bring Diversity to the Roaring 20s my dearest nerdlets!

2019's list was a LOT sparser than I wanted.

But I'm uber-pleased that the 'General' section - filled with larger resources devoted to Diversity - is becoming really and truly awesome!

This is the only section that I copy over from linklist to linklist, but I'm still adding stuff to the current year's all the time!

Let's kick the decade off with some positivity!

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Dealing With Self-Doubt

If you've been around my blog at all in the past (love you!) then you probably know that I struggle with...

...Well, that list could take a while, but for the purposes of this post, I struggle with self-doubt.

Image by mohamed Hassan from Pixabay

So it's probably not that much of a surprise that I also have doubts when it comes to what I'm writing.

(Even blogposts - this is like my 6th attempt at writing this week's Nerd Church, and about the 3rd possible topic I came up with)

Friday Fics Fix - Angsty Bear

'He set his jaw and raised his eyes at Steve.

“How did you know what it feels like?”

He was genuinely afraid and somehow calm at the same time.'

I'm sure I've mentioned (probably waaay too much) that, at heart, I'm a li'l emo child.

I love the dark sh**, ok? It cheers me up! 😅

And luckily fanfiction has enough Angst (yep, with a capital 'A' - we mean business dearest nerdlets!) to keep even the most gothic of emo children happy.

Nerd Church - Dyscalculia (Part 2: The Real World)

Dyscalculia is a maths learning difficulty that affects a lot of things that other people find easy and/or straight-forward.

Today, I figured I'd give you a real-life example of how Dyscalculia affects me.

You can catch up on my first post about Dyscalculia, which includes a lot of general info., here.

Image by TeroVesalainen from Pixabay

A real-world Dyscalculia example: catching the goddamn train

Nerd Church - Dyscalculia (Part 1: What Is Dyscalculia?)

I've mentioned in passing before now that I have a learning problem - condition, disability, whatever you wanna call it - called dyscalculia.

So I figured it was about time (ha, you'll see why that's a pun soon,) that I let you know what that entails, and why that means I struggle with a lot of things that most people find easy.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Disclaimer time: I am not a medical, educational, or neurological expert. I’m a Welsh chick with a blog.

So, what is dyscalculia?


In its simplest explanation, dyscalculia is the maths version of dyslexia.

It affects numeracy, rather than literacy, and also affects a lot of things related to mathematical ways of seeing the world that most people don't actually associate with maths.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Writing Vs Self-Care

While my aim is to write every day (y'know, like all the advice seems to say you should if you wanna be successful as an author,) some days I just can't.

That's not strictly true - I usually end up writing something in a day: blogging, tweeting, e-mails, work stuff, etc.

But I don't always manage to work on my work-in-progress (WIP) every day.

Friday Fics Fix - Light and Dark

'There was a noise somewhere but he couldn't make it out. He tried to call for help but it wasn't words, just a distressed sound and more tears.'

I love Oliver Queen, aka The Green Arrow, and the show he's the lead of - which is handily named Arrow. 😅

(Also handily, this was the first in the CW's DC series, known collectively as 'Arrowverse')




Oliver's had something of a rough life. 

I mean, the first 20-something years were pretty sweet - he was the priviliged trust fund party-boy with little regard for what substances he was sticking in his body, and the feelings of his romantic partners.

(I was gonna make a dodgy pun there, but thankfully resisted. If you can figure out what it would've been, then you've probably read as much fanftiction as I have! 😅)

Nerd Church - My New Self-Care Strategy

(Warning: this post discusses low self-esteem and Depression)


I have a plan!


My plan is this: to treat myself BETTER than I think I deserve.


'Hang on Cee!' I hear you cry (well, I don't but it's a structural narrative device,) 'What the hell are you talking about?!'

Let's rewind.

Month in Review(s) - June 2019

June kind of flew by!

Partly because I was super-busy! Which is also why I (once again) posted less here than I wanted to.

I did manage to post a review though! Woo! I can still call myself a book blog! (Lol.) 😅

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Turns Out, People Are Interested

I've never really had much confidence in my writing.

Like, objectively I know that people read this blog but... it always surprises (and delights,) me when someone comments, shares, etc. (Hint hint. Lol.)

Likewise, I'm always on edge about the fiction I write - it can't be something someone'd be interested in reading, right?

At the same time, not writing would be like not breathing. Unthinkable.

It's literally who I am - I breathe. I read. I write.

Friday Fics Fix - Fish Tanks and Music Boxes

'Usually when her parents send her out to play (she always has to be sent) she divides her time between flower-picking (or drawing) and observing the other kids, pretending to be Jane Goodall.'

I love Agents of SHIELD - in particular I love Fitz and Simmons (known as FitzSimmons).

This is partly because they're smart, partly because they're sweet, and partly because they're British but NOT the villains!

Nerd Church - Anxiety: Worrying About Sh** I Actually Don't Care About

(Warning: this post discusses Anxiety (which you probably figured out) and Depression)


If you're worried about paying the bills when you've got no money in the bank, that's logical.

Likewise, worrying about a friend who's been going through a tough time, or feeling anxious before you give a speech, is totally understandable.

Anxiety, though?

Anxiety blows the normal sh** out of proportion, while adding some completely illogical sh** t'boot.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Patchwork Writing and Whatever Works For You

(Warning: this post discusses the everyday affects of Depression/Anxiety)

Some people are 'plotters,' some people are 'pantsers' - and I write in patchwork.

For those who don't know, writing fiction is generally split into two camps by the people who split things (whoever they are - I'm not sure anyone's ever met them) - plotting and pantsing.

Image by Pexels from Pixabay

Month in Review(s) - April 2019

April - well, April didn't have any work-related nose-bleeds, for a start!

Thanks to everyone for asking if I was ok, etc, last month - honestly I think you guys were a lot more worried about it than I was 😅

On the one hand, April had Easter and chocolate and spring flowers, and all that awesome stuff!

Y'know, lots of fun stuff to enjoy and smile about! 😊

Friday Fics Fix - They Didn't Teach Us This At the Academy

"I swear, all the doors in this damn house are going to be destroyed by the end of tonight," Diego muttered.

Yes, we are Umbrella Academy-ing again dearest nerdlets!

(Not least because it's a safe place to hide from Endgame spoilers! Lol.)