Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: No, I Don't Have A Writing Routine

 

There's a lot of writing advice out there. Like, a lot.

So much so in certain online spaces that sometimes you wonder if anyone's not writing about writing.

But then, I'm writing a blogpost for a sub-series called 'The Writer Diaries' so I'm clearly standing in a glass house and holding a rock, about to lob it over my head. 😅

A lot of the writing advice I've seen around on the *waves hands* general interwebs lately has been about writing routines.

Which wouldn't be a problem - writing routines help a lot of people. 

Except more than a few of them have given me the general impression of 'OMG if you don't have a writing routine then you're writer-ing wrong!'

And? Honestly? F**k that.

So weird.

Friday Fics Fix - Trope Stew With SamBucky (You Know You Love It!)

 

'Bucky’s knife skills are like a well-choreographed dance, smooth and dangerous and beautiful. He moves like water, the knife a true extension of his arm, and it’s all Sam can do not to let his mouth drop open like a goddamn cartoon character.'

 

To the surprise of probably no-one by this point, I'm here to rec you some more The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (TFATWS) - specifically, more SamBucky.

(Look, the inside of my head is essentially a big ball of tangled spaghetti, the confusion of which is relieved by the presence of various fictional characters, who have taken their spots rent-free, and who fight each other for dominance. 

Right now, Sam and Bucky are winning. 😅)

(Fandom Notes: 

SamBucky is a romantic and/or sexual relationship between Sam and Bucky. Hence the name, lol.)

Comics Wrap-Up - Woke Up Today, In A Van

 

It's Thursday, the UK has entered the 'fuel shortage' stage of whatever apocalyptic media it is that we're currently inhabiting, let's get some superhero-y comics-y goodness!

Nerd Church - Of Tigers And Men: 'A Killing In Tiger Bay' and The Cardiff Five

Warning: this post discusses a murder case, and related themes such as blood and violence. 

It also discusses racism, institutional racism, miscarriages of justice, wrongful conviction, borderline torture, and police corruption. 

There are brief references to sex work and drugs.






The name Lynette White is one that’s known all over Wales.

Because of what happened to her, and what happened to five innocent men after her death.

Sadly her life is often brushed over, eclipsed by the crimes of the police officers who were supposed to investigate her murder – police officers who couldn’t even manage to spell ‘Lynette’ correctly when they told the press her name.

Lynette White, a 20 year old White woman who had been working as a sex worker in the docklands area of Cardiff, was found dead on 14th February 1988.

She had been brutally and viciously murdered.

An eye-witness had seen a White man, covered in blood, leaving the flat where Lynette’s body was found on the night she was killed.

She thought he was injured, so had asked if he was alright or if he needed help. He told her he was fine, had just hurt his hand, and said someone was coming to pick him up, so she left it there.

After Lynette was found, the eye-witness told the police what she’d seen, and described the man.




This was almost certainly Jeffrey Gafoor – Lynette’s murderer.

Modern DNA evidence proves that his blood was present at the murder scene, it was through a partial match on the DNA database that police eventually tracked him down.

Jeffrey Gafoor plead guilty to the murder of Lynette White in 2003.




...But the police arrested five men for the murder of Lynette White in November 1988, with the trial starting in 1989.

The Cardiff Five were put on trial for the murder of Lynette White, and the Cardiff Three were wrongfully convicted of her murder.

It was one of the biggest miscarriages of justice the UK has ever seen.

Friday Fics Fix - Umbrellas In A Burning Building

 

'"What’s the plan?" Diego asked. 

Five rolled his eyes. "Stay out of my way."'

Last week I brought you a The Falcon and The Winter Soldier (TFATWS) mission fic, this week it's the turn of The Umbrella Academy (TUA).

Even though we barely see any actual missions in the TUA series, because the Academy is more-or-less defunct by the time we properly pick up the story, mission fics are still a fave of this fandom.

Comics Wrap-Up - Too Good To Be True, What Chance Did You Stand?

 

It's Thursday, this is Dora Reads, so let's get some comics-y, superhero-y goodness!

Nerd Church - Climbing A Mountain To My Grandparents' Grave

 

(Warning: this post deals with themes of death, grief, and graveyards)

I climb a mountain to my grandparents' grave.

We park the car down the street, and walk past rows of houses to the cemetery.

We enter through a gate and a set of stone steps made over a hundred years ago for people with feet as small as mine.