Friday Fics Fix - Cyberpunk Stucky

 

'“Okay, get up, the both of you.” He took out his phone, typed Shuri’s address in, and sent it to Steve’s number. “You’re going to get blood all over the upholstery. And then I’ll have to set fire to it, and then to you for making me sacrifice my good sofa.”'

I love it when fanfic authors have the determination, the dedication, the goddamn verve to write full-length novels.

When those full-length novels are so freaking good - so well thought out, so fleshed out in terms of world-building, so passionate and compelling, that you would legit. buy this as an original novel?

OH MY GOD!!!

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 - Short Story: Crystal Clarity

 

This story was originally published in the Promptly Written publication on Medium by yours truly, in response to the prompt 'Either dream or reality' from editor Ravyne Hawke.

Crystal Clarity

Image by meineresterampe from Pixabay 

He stepped out onto the crystal deck. Unable — unwilling — to look through the refracted layers of light beneath his feet.

It seemed so fantastical. A miracle of modern craftsmanship and engineering, they called it. He hated it.

Layers of quartz and glass melded into one another to create this sturdy viewing platform, over the crater. It didn’t seem real. And yet… it was strong beneath him. Physical.

He wouldn’t look down, through the surface, the prism, the light. Instead he looked across at the crater itself, ragged, raw, a bleeding wound on the landscape.

They told him the platform was very beautiful — stark contrast, they said, with the catastrophe it looked out upon. But he kept his eyes resolutely ahead, away from the glimpses of sublime achievement beneath him.

Beauty had no place here — not like this. No matter how much the tourists clicked and clacked across the quartz and crystal, oohing and ahing, he would not look down.

He wondered how many of them had even taken a videogram or a panoramiograph of the real attraction — the reason the platform was even here: the ugly crater which once held so many hopes, dreams, lives. None of them seemed to care.

They’ll tell people they visited this place. Not quite the truth.

If you enjoyed this story, please consider buying me a coffee here.

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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

Previous Short Stories on Dora Reads:

• Nerd Church - Short Story: The Midday Sun

• Nerd Church - Short Story: A Broken Princess

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Friday Fics Fix - There's A Surprising Lack Of Angsty Ash Tyler Fics

 

'...he couldn’t quite grasp yet what that feeling had been. 

He only knows that he had seen it mirrored in Ash Tyler’s dark eyes.'

 

In my opinion as a fanfiction professional -

(Lol - kind of, I've written literally hundreds of these posts dontcha know! So I reckon if anything qualifies me as a 'fanfiction professional' then that does 😅) 

- there aren't enough angst fics about Ash Tyler.

I mean c'mon fic writers! He's right there and brimming with angst!

Friday Fics Fix - There's A Metaphysical Barn and Everything

'"So that's six ghosts, then. Six angry, murderous ghosts."

"Yeah," Duke said. The foundations of his anger had washed away, and now he just looked tired.'

 

There are some TV series which are truly amazing... until the ending.

Sometimes the ending just isn't up to scratch, y'know?

Sometimes the end is totally unsatisfactory and/or doesn't make goddamn sense.

And that's where fanfiction comes in.

Because Fix-It fics take that cr**py ending and/or plot development, and say 'no - that's not what happened.' And they write their own, instead.

(Yes, I'm talking Fix-It fics on Friday Fics Fix - keep up and don't let your tongue get too tied 😅)

Month In Review(s) - August 2022

(Warning: this post briefly discusses mental health problems)

August was... OK, I guess.

And for me, this year, OK is freaking fantastic!

So, it was still too hot, but it was cooler than July which -

 - yes, please, thankyou, more of the lack of heat melting my brain, if at all possible, thanks!

I do not function in the heat. At all.

Frighteningly, we now have an official drought in much of Wales. 

If you don't know Wales and our verdant, fertile, valleys all that well, you might wonder why that's frightening.

Basically - you know the stereotypes that the rest of the world has about it always raining in London? Yeah? Well, I would consider London to be quite a dry place.

And we have drought.

(And now London possibly wants our water - but if I start getting into the long and exploitative history of water politics between Wales and England, we will be here all day.)

Climate change is real, and it is here.

Mini-Review Time! - Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro

 **This post contains affiliate links for Amazon.com; purchases made through these links will earn me a small amount of commission**

Title: Klara and the Sun

Author: Kazuo Ishiguro

Genre: Sci-Fi(-ish)

Buy now on Amazon.com 

Friday Fics Fix - Like A Whole Season Arc of Supergirl

 

'“Alex,” he said quickly, his voice strained. “I need you to overrule security protocol and allow me access to a cell in the basement-level holding facility. Please listen carefully, I require several apparatuses to ensure my escape is at its lowest likelihood-”'

Good Supergirl fics are like buses (which ironically do feature in this fic) - you wait what feels like forever for one to come along, and then two come along at once!

OK, you might remember a couple of weeks ago I recommended a Supergirl fic.

...And I'm here to do it again.

...From the same fic author.

They deserve it, OK?! 😅 They're good fics!

Friday Fics Fix - A Hero Descended From Villains

 

'...they’d known that something was wrong, just as much as they’d known that they couldn’t let Brainy out of their sight.'

Supergirl is one of the CW Arrowverse shows.

Like most of these shows, Supergirl is a cancelled series.

Which makes me sad. But we have fanfiction! Woo! (Lol.)

Nerd Church - Short Story: Girl, Alone

 

'The neighbours have come home. I can hear Mr L pulling his filtration system off – the sound seeps through the walls. Our walls are so thin – doesn’t seem like it could keep what’s going on out there at bay, does it?'

About mid-week this story was slammed into my brain, without warning, by the universe.

And I am but a simple writer - the universe calls, and I answer.

So... have this sci-fi-ish/dystopian-ish short story, I guess! 😅

(Bo Burnham's Inside (especially All Eyes On Me,) was pretty much my writing soundtrack for this - for anyone who finds that sort of insight interesting! ...Plus, it, uh, might explain a lot 😅)

Content Warnings:

- isolation

- life-threatening climate/environmental catastrophes

- brief non-sexual nudity and mentions of anatomy

- life-threatening heat and physical stress

- implied physical disability/health condition

- mental health issues/extreme stress

...I've never done a full Content Warnings list like this for one of my stories before, so be careful and tell me if I missed anything that needs to be listed!

Friday Fics Fix - Not Ready

 

'As good as she is at anticipating his family’s actions and decisions, everything always gets a little skewed and unpredictable once the bullets start flying'

I love quirky horror movies with kick-butt heroines - which brings us to the film this week's fic is based on: Ready or Not.

Ready or Not is a super-quirky horror film about Grace, who is marrying Alex Le Domas - a member of the rich Le Domas family, who made their money in board games.

(And yes, there is a vibe here that feels very akin to Knives Out, but that's more of a crime film than this - this is def. horror.)

Friday Fics Fix - Locked In Space

 

'Across the top of the control panel, the AI’s official designation read: Security and Hazard Emergency Response LOCK (S.H.E.R.LOCK)'

You know I love originality in fanfiction dearest nerdlets.

And I have some more of it for you this week!

Comics Wrap-Up - Got Called An Alien For Bein' Myself

 

It's Thursday, it's February, let's get some comics-y, superhero-y goodness!

This week's is unintentionally super-queer (ha, super 😎) and is once again all in the 'Other Stuff' category (#BlameLoki).

Friday Fics Fix - My Stand-Out Fics of 2020

 

It's December in a matter of days, which means that Friday Fics Fix will be going on its annual Christmas holiday.

...So what better opportunity to look back on the fics that've really stood out to me in 2020?

(Don't answer that. It's rhetorical. I'm gonna do it anyway. 😎)

2020 has been 2020.

So, I've totally been reading a butt-tonne of fanfiction as self-care. 

Because fanfiction is excellent for all the self-care purposes - whether you need deep and angsty, or sweet and fluffy, or you want to fulfil some very um, specific, tastes: fanfiction has it all!

(I don't judge. But if I never read another pumpkin sex fic, it'll be too soon. And yes, it happened again in October - how do they keep finding me?!)

Friday Fics Fix - Returning to Haven

  ***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.

'Duke’s grateful for the small loading dock in the back of the Gull, with its concrete ramp and rolling service door. They rarely take shipments large enough to even warrant having the thing, but it’s remarkably useful for smuggling grizzly bears into the building'

I love (and really miss!) the TV show Haven - a gothicky, horror-y, sci-fi (and SyFy,) series that ran between 2010 and 2015.

It's ostensibly based on Stephen King's novella The Colorado Kid - I've read The Colorado Kid, there are very, very, few similarities.

Instead, it's like a kick-a** mash-up of random elements of Stephen King-ery. Which I love. So much.

Comics Wrap-Up - I'll Be the Watcher of the Eternal Flame

 ***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.

It's Thursday, 2020 is still being 2020,  let's get some superhero-y, comics-y, goodness!

Friday Fics Fix - Pride Fics Fest: Fics With Trans+ Characters

It's another Friday in June my dearest nerdlets, which means that it's another instalment in my Pride Fics Fest - and this time we're gonna look at fics with Trans+ main characters.

Fanfiction is here to support our Trans and Non-Binary siblings!

Fanfiction can be a place where Trans+/NB+ people can find the kind of representation that is largely not present in mainstream media.

Comics Wrap-Up - Slowly Words Break Through, Walls Break Down

 ***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.

It's Thursday. Somehow it's still 2020. Let's get some comics-y goodness!

Once again this week is only the 'Other Stuff' category - for which, as is traditional, we will blame Loki.

Friday Fics Fix - A Star Wars Trio

I know Star Wars day was technically Monday (for those who are less fluent in nerd - 'May the Fourth be with you' is a pun that's taken on a life of its own,) but I figured now was a good time to take another look at some Star Wars fics!

Oh, and just assume that everything in this post has SPOILERS up to and including The Last Jedi.

(No, I haven't seen The Rise of Skywalker yet, so there won't be spoilers for that - but everything else is fair game.)

(Side-note: I'm still getting used to the new Blogger (the platform I use,) interface, so apologies if things look a bit strange!)

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.