Nerd Church - Oliver Queen, You Have Saved This Girl's Life

(Warning: this post discusses Depression and low self-esteem/self-worth, as well as referencing suicidal thoughts and feelings.)



Oliver Queen, you have saved this girl’s life.

People who’ve read this blog before will be aware that I credit a lot of things for saving my life – from fanfiction to meds, from blogging to Fall Out Boy. With what feels like millions of other things in between.

I mean all of it. Completely.

When Depression sinks it’s teeth in so deep that you think you are the worst creature to ever draw breath – that, in fact, you’re probably hogging oxygen from someone who deserves to breathe it more – you need more than just one thing to rescue you.

Friday Fics Fix - The Self-Care Fanfic Rec-List

Fanfiction is a fab form of self-care (which I know I've said more than once, but that's because it's true!)

And seeing as how:

a) we could all do with all the self-care we can get atm...

and b) I have written a lot of fanfiction posts over the years...




I figured I'd take a look over my blog archives, and select some of the most useful fics for self-care.

(Side-note: looking through my archive is super-weird!)

Friday Fics Fix - Three Hearts

'“Hey, He-Who-Lurks-Creepily-in-Corners,” Tony said. “You want a smoothie? You need to replace all the stuff you lost earlier.”'

Amongst the shippers of the MCU, there are many ships on which to sail.

(Yes, I'm talking Avengers again - I know, I've kind of been alternating between Avengers and Umbrella Academy lately, but they're the fics I've found that are worth recc'ing *shrugs* what's a nerdgirl to do?)

Month In Review(s) - March 2020

(Warning: This post discusses Coronavirus/Covid 19 (b/c March 2020) and related stuff like lockdown and Anxiety)



...Maybe the first rule of March 2020, is that we don't talk about March 2020.

But then, I'd totally break that rule in half and throw the pieces in the air like confetti anyways, so here we are!

Nerd Church - A General Message of Positivity For Anyone Struggling With Their Mental Health ATM

(Warning: this post discusses Covid 19/Coronavirus, and mental health problems/general mental health)


I think we could all do with some positivity right now.

We all need to take care of our mental health. You don't need to have a mental health problem in order to be struggling with your mental health.

We all need to take care of ourselves.

So here's one of my famous (notorious? infamous? who knows,) pep talks, with the hopes that it'll do some good, somewhere.

Friday Fics Fix - Cops and Ghosties

'“I’m just saying if you’re so desperate to help people, you could have been a fireman. What they lack in brutality they make up for with sex appeal and basic levels of empathy.”

“Can’t stop murderers with a hose.”

“Not with that attitude.” Klaus shrugged...'

Confession time: I haven't finished reading this week's fic! *gasps*

#BadBookBlogger #FangirlingSins

In my defence, this b**ch is over 300 pages, and I'm on the last chapter!

But if I don't get this post written now, then I know it ain't gonna happen. (Your girl is gonna face-plant the laptop keyboard if she keeps this up. #RestAndRechargeTime)

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Aesthetically Confused

(Warning: this post discusses the affects of Anxiety)


If you hang around bookish and/or writerly corners of the Interwebs, you may've seen random-a** collages related to books, individual characters, or writing projects.

Or maybe you haven't - in which case you probably don't know wtf I'm talking about. But trust me, they're out there.

Nerd Church - The Anxious Girl's Guide To Pandem-onium

(Warning: this post discusses Coronavirus/Covid-19 (but hopefully in a non-stressy way!) and Anxiety/mental health problems)


Wherever you are in the world, your life is probably being affected by the Covid-19 pandemic right now - if you're in Europe, then it definitely is.

I'm Anxious af right now - and I know other people are too.

So, I think we could all do with some practical self-care advice.

(Even if you don't have mental health problems, you still need to take care of your mental health!)

Friday Fics Fix - In Times of Trouble, Turn To Stucky

 ***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.

'“You mean after spending half the day thinking my ex-boyfriend was dead and then finding out that he’s alive but also a wanted criminal? I’m not doing great honestly!”'

I mean... in times of trouble, we should always turn to Stucky.

The world is somehow a little better when Captain America has a boyfriend. Obviously.

...And the most likely boyfriend (hell, the most likely romantic partner full stop #FightMe) for our dear Steve Rogers is Bucky Barnes.

Sorry,  alternative shippers. Your ships have value, but I can't be convinced. 😉

Friday Fics Fix - Wham, Bang, Shazam!

 ***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.

'“Being a superhero is cool and all in theory,” Freddy admits, “but I guess it’s kind of the pits sometimes. It can get a little intense. All those tragic backstories and the almost dying and stuff.”'

I love the DC film Shazam!

It's fun, wacky, so random, but also has some goddamn heart to it. 

...Plus the costumes are peak Silver Age camp superhero costumes! 😅

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 - 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 😅)

Nerd Church - My New Year's Resolution

 ***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.

Hey dearest nerdlets! I hope that 2020 is treating you well so far! 

(...or at least hasn't been too sh** already. ...I'm pragmatic.)

Update, 2021 - this statement did not age well



So, I figured I'd talk a little about my New Year's Resolutions... 

...Well. Sort of.

See, to me, NY resolutions have always been a little *waves hands* ...vague.

Like, I don't even know what I'm doing next week, let alone committing 12 months to something, y'know?

So, they're more like an idea. Maybe a goal, or an intention, or whatever.

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

Comics Wrap-Up - Running Around Like A Clown On Purpose

OK, we got some Harley, we got some Joker, we got some other stuff going on. 

It's Thursday, and it's time for that comics-y goodness!

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.