Nerd Church - Christmas Hurts, This Year

 

Warning: grief, death, serious illness, mental health issues, general trauma

I've always loved Christmas.

But Christmas? It hasn't treated me so well. Especially the whole lead-up-to part of Christmas.

In 2023, my father had brain surgery a few days before Christmas - that was stressful (he's OK now, mostly.)

My grandfather died not long before Christmas in 2018.

Eleven years ago, my other grandparents died at Christmas within four days of each other. We had a double funeral. 

...That still wasn't the worst Christmas of my life.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: A Writer Is Not...

 

A writer is not replaceable — each voice is their own.

A writer is not tameable — each is wild, each answers the call the way that they must.

A writer is not something definable, not something that an algorithm can create, not someone who can be easily pushed aside, not a simple money-making cog, not someone who exists to generate a profit for Capitalism’s insatiable beast.

A writer is someone you pay — art is not a disposable item; writers need to eat.

Nerd Church - Shout Out To Those With Mental Health Problems In This Clusterf**k Timeline!

 

Sh**'s messed up.

...Like, it's been messed up for a while, I know. But our current level of 'historical' is feeling more like 'biblical' (in terms of scale, rather than religion,) every day.

It's one thing on top of another on top of another. 

I came across a blogpost I wrote in 2018 where I was like 'the world is bad at the moment,' ...and I genuinely can't remember what I was talking about. That was 2 years before 2020, and none of us really know what normal is any more.

Maybe, five to ten years from now, I'll look back and think, 'what was I complaining about in 2025?' but I really hope not.

Against that backdrop then, I, like many people, have mental health problems. And have for 10+ years at this point.

And it's f**king tough.

So to all of those with mental health problems, or anyone struggling, right now - this is a shout out to you.

Nerd Church - Stephen King's IT Is F**ked Up

 ...which probably isn't that surprising.

Warning: this post contains discussions of drugs and addiction, and brief references to one of the most notorious scenes in IT (the child sex scene.)

**This post contains affiliate links for Amazon.com. Any purchases made via these links will earn me a small commission. Please only use my links for .COM purchases, as this is the only Amzon site for which I earn commission.**

Stephen King

        - or so the meme goes -

                    did not write Stephen King's IT 

                                - he co-wrote it, alongside IT's primary author: 

                                            Cocaine.

Nerd Church - Fighting the Pointlessness

 

Warning: brief reference to feeling suicidal, discussions of pointlessness, grief, mental health, existentential dread, and all the things that make up the general sh**ty state of the world.

Things have been tough for me, lately.

When you lose someone you love... it's damned hard.

Everything feels pointless - if that can happen to them, then what is the point of anything?

What's the point of writing a blogpost? What's the point of writing anything?

And since my purpose in this life is to read and to write... if I can't find the point of that, then what's the point of me?

(...I'm actually an optimist, if you can believe that. I just have mental health issues, and have been through some tough sh**.)

Nerd Church - The Fractured Web: Our Socials are Scattering

Warning: this post refers to the bad things that happen on the internet; wide variety of topics, be careful!

The internet is fragmenting...

Nerd Church - A Series of Kafkaesque Events

*This post contains Amazon.com affiliate links - if you purchase items via these links I receive a small commission. Please only use these links for .com purchases, not regional Amazon sites*

Warning: this post discusses and/or references panic attacks and Anxiety, murder, grief, forced marriage, and systemic failings

There are also some (mild) SPOILERS for Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

I recently found myself re-reading Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: My Brain Is Unpredictable, Right Now

 

[Warning: this post discusses mental health problems and grief]

Look, I've been through some stuff lately, and it's definitely affected me.

My mental health has not been good for the last 10+ years, and now, after losing my mother in February... my head has given me a whole bunch of Very Bad Days lately.

I can't bring myself to go into details, but... it was hell. As a family, we've been through absolute hell since October 2024.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Let Me Romanticise Writing, Dammit!

 

Every now and then, out there on the Interwebs, I come across someone who disapproves of the 'romanticisation' of writing.

To them, writing is a career, a job, an occupation. Maybe they enjoy it, maybe they're good at it, but there's no fire in them that compels them to write.

Nerd Church - To-Do List Struggles

 

My to-do isn't that long - at first glance.

But that's mostly because I only write down a few things that I need to prioritise and/or think I'm in danger of forgetting. 😅

My mental to-do list? Much, much, bigger.

Like... I expect a lot of myself.

Nerd Church - Strange Days

 

Strange days are here to stay
Ever since Bowie died
It hasn't been the same

- Green Day, Strange Days Are Here To Stay

 

The world's weird, right now.

Maybe it always is, always was, always will be.

Still, I can't help but feel - and I know other people will agree - that we're in the middle of a particularly weird and wacky period.

The 2020s haven't exactly been an easy ride so far, and it looks like that isn't changing any time soon.

But whoever you are, wherever you are - keep going.

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: Stories Don’t Need A Beginning, A Middle, and An End

*gasps*

Nerd Church - Blogging Schedule Update (...It's Been A Stressful Week)

 

I don't usually write Nerd Church posts like this, but since Nerd Church isn't really tightly defined (...or defined at all, OK, I know,) I figured why not?

You may or may not have noticed that there was no Comics Wrap-Up (CWU) post, or Friday Fics Fix (F3) post this week.

- Which wasn't a planned break.

My life turned into another whirling ball of chaos this week, with my mother's health being very Not Good.

(Thankfully she's doing so much better now.)

Nerd Church - That Time American Horror Story Made A Mini-Series About Writers...

 

I love American Horror Story (AHS).

It's amazing, let's be honest.

I started watching a fair few years after the beginning, and started from said beginning - Murder House (as everyone should, imho,) - so haven't actually caught up yet.

Nerd Church - Short Story: Over the Rain

 

This story was originally published in the Medium publication Promptly Written in response to this writing prompt from Bella Smith:

— During a relentless rainstorm, two old friends reconcile their differences over a cup of coffee.

Over The Rain

Image by Engin Akyurt from Pixabay

Nerd Church - I’d Love To Have A Cat’s Self-Confidence

 

Originally published on Medium

This started with a prompt, and then meandered far, far, away from the original idea… 😅

Prompt set by Dr. Casey Lawrence on Medium:


“ The world breaks everyone, and afterward, some are stronger at the broken places.”

— Ernest Hemingway, A Farewell to Arms: Library Edition [x]

Nerd Church - The Writer Diaries: You Don't Have To Publish Everything

 

Warning: brief discussions of Anxiety/mental health issues

This is a reminder to any of you fellow writers/bloggers/whoever-s out there who need it:

 

You don't have to post everything.

You don't have to publish everything.

Nerd Church - Prioritise Small Steps

 

...brought to you by me, once again, giving myself a pep-talk and posting it on the internet 😅💪

Listen, the world is rough and tough and kind of awful sometimes. 

It feels like everything is crashing and burning and we live in a frankly batpoop timeline.

Nerd Church - Celebrity Birthday Buddies!

 

It's my birthday today (15th Sep) so I figured I'd have a little fun.

(...of the nerdy sort, because that's on-brand, let's be honest.)

So, y'know that thing where people talk about their ideal celebrity dinner guests, either living or dead, fictional or real?

This isn't that.

But it is somewhat adjacent to that.

I thought that instead I'd talk about my celebrity birthday party list - with the twist that they also have to have their birthday on September 15th. Just because it's an awesome date, let's be honest.

So, here's my celebrity birthday buddies:

Nerd Church - Short Story: The Lady Klara, The Prince Matteo

This is a fantasy short story that first appeared in the 'Promptly Written' publication on Medium, in response to the following prompt by Ravyne Hawke:

Conceptual theme — Villain
Twosome — Dreadful and Deadly

I'm actually quite proud of this one, so I hope you like it! 😅

Warning: general violence (mostly of the stabby kind,) blood, injury, murder, implied war, loss of autonomy

The Lady Klara, The Prince Matteo

Image by Enrique Meseguer from Pixabay