Contributor Profile: Gabrielle Harbowy

NAME: Gabrielle Harbowy

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: East of Los Angeles, West of the Moon

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Interviewer, tattoo fanatic, TTRPGer, Team Star Wars. Totally normal about Baldur's Gate 3.

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: many and varied. How much time do you have?

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Astarion Ancunín specifically. In this essay I will...

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: A House Between Sea and Sky by Beth Cato, A City on Mars by Kelly and Zach Weinersmith ... and some fantastic books by clients (I'm a literary agent) that I can't talk about yet, but believe me I'll be crowing proudly about them when you can read them!

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: Final Orbit by Chris Hadfield, Bury Your Gays by Chuck Tingle

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... Curled up under a homemade blanket with a book and a mug of tea. No...I'll be at my desk reading queries.

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO: Does Dana Scully count?

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Regulating the air temperature around me. Always comfortable in all situations!

THE BEST / WORST COMIC FILMS OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: I think it's been longer than that since I've seen one. I'm happy that other people enjoy them! I get my nerd-fix elsewhere.

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME: Del Toro's Frankenstein

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS TERRIBLE: the nightly news

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE XXXX BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE: the aurora borealis (or aurora australis), with their own eyes.

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Severance and Mrs Davis both hit me right in the feels.

NAME A BOOK YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): I need a movie of Aether's Pawn by Gabrielle Harbowy so that I can retire comfortably.

Welcome Gabrielle!

Contributor Profile: Eddie Clark

NAME: Eddie Clark.

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: The bottom right corner of the map, if we have in fact been included on it.
 
NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): SFF books. Video Games. Anime. The intersection of gay shit with all 3.
 
MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: The Hugo Award for Best Novella from Tor. Books which don’t trust the reader to do the slightest bit of work. Mistaking aesthetic preference for for moral valence.
 
VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Alien Vampires.
 
RIGHT NOW I'M READING: The Incandescent, by Emily Tesh.

…AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: A Tangle of Time, by Josiah Bancroft. The Door on the Sea, by Caskey Russell. The Effaced, by Tobias Begley.

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: Notes from a Regicide, by Isaac Fellman. Seventhblade, by Tonya Laird.

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE… on the couch. Either book or controller in hand.

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: My answer to this will vary over time. This month: Kid Juggernaut and Mysteriant respectively (Anthony Oliveira’s run on Avengers Academy is a thing of queer beauty; do check it out).

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Sending anyone to sleep instantly. I’d mostly use it on myself.

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Probably haven’t seen an western comic adaptation in the past five years! But the Netflix limited series adaptation of Naoki Urasawa’s Pluto in 2023 was spectacularly good.

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Happily for the genre, I really don’t have one to offer!

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME: Kowloon Generic Romance—pitch perfect vibes, well produced, casually queer, and didn’t take any easy exits. 

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. Star Trek: Section 31. Did not understand what Star Trek is. Didn’t understand character. Bleh.

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE XXXX BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, Run, don’t walk, to whatever distribution is available in your country and watch the superb SF black comedy Creamerie. Funny, sharp, and bleak.

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: The Expanse.

NAME A BOOK YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): A Merchant Ivory adaptation of A Mourning Coat by Alex Jeffers would be amazing.

Welcome, Eddie!

Contributor Profile: Maya Barbara

NAME: Maya Barbara

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: Nestled somewhere between two major cities in West and Middle Tennessee 

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): horror, literary fiction, narrative essays, comics, anime/manga, vampires, movies, hyperspecific pop culture moments that is special to gay women specifically, pop music

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: gatekeepers, poorly written plot twists, unearned quips, mean horror movies, acting like genres were just born out of tiktok

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Vampires, duh.

RIGHT NOW I'M READING:

Beneath the Trees Where No One Sees: Rites of Spring by Patrick Hovarth

Pure Innocent Fun by Ira Madison II

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: 

Aggregated Discontent by Harron Walker

The Chromatic Fantasy by H.A.

The Grimmorie Grammar School Parent Teacher Association by Caitlin Rozakis

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: 

I Was A Teenage Slasher by Stephen Graham Jones

Automatic Noodle by Annalee Newitz

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... in bed, rotting away with either a movie or a book.

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Batman and Magneto 

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: telepathy because Jean Grey is iconic.

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Across the Spider Verse

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Thor: Love and Thunder (UGH!)

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME: I just watched Love Bites (1988), a softcore gay romcom created by porn vets, and it was awesome.

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS TERRIBLE: I just watched Prom Night (1980) and it was terrible because no one died for an HOUR. 

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE XXXX BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE: Everyone should see Interview With The Vampire (2022) before it’s too late. 

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: It’s going to be Interview With The Vampire (2022) I fear.

NAME A BOOK  YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): YELLOWFACE BY R.F. KUANG. I’m DYING for a A24/Neon level adaptation of it! It’s tailor made for it!

Welcome Maya!

Contributor Profile: Christine D. Baker

NAME: Christine D. Baker

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: Vancouver, B.C. (Oops, I disclosed my location. Feel free to say hi if you’re local!)

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): History over all other things, especially ancient and medieval history. Memes and Early Internet culture. SFF books and short stories. Working to develop a specialization in Canadian SFF.

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: Plots that are entirely based on two characters failing to have a normal conversation.

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Definitely vampires.

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: I am almost always reading 6-10 books at a time (have I mentioned the ADHD?). These are the books I am actively reading at the moment: 

• How to Love a Forest: The Bittersweet Work of Tending a Changing World (2024) by Ethan Tapper.
• The Raven Tower (2019) by Ann Leckie.
• The Tapestry of Time (2024) by Kate Heartfield.
• Dreams Underfoot (1993), Newford #1, by Charles de Lint.
• Scattered Minds: The Origins and Healing of ADD (1999) by Gabor Mate, MD.
• Between Two Rivers: Ancient Mesopotamia and the Birth of History (2025) by Moudhy Al-Rashid. 

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: 

• Bog Queen (2025) by Anna North.
• The Way We Never Were: American Families and the Nostalgia Trap, 2nd ed (2016) by Stephanie Coontz. 
• The Siege of Burning Grass (2024) by Premee Mohamed. 

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: Honestly, I never know. It could be one of the books on my massive TBR list, the next book I have on reserve to pop up from the library, or something I hear about on social media and then immediately buy and devour. 

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... Hiding in my bed, under several cats, listening to an audiobook. 

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Favorite villain is Ivan/Fornax from Drew Hayes’ Villain’s Code series. I avoid heroes. 

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Reading. Is there a book that the team needs to get through to save the world/destroy the world, I will be the one who can skim-read it quickly. 

THE BEST/WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: I have no idea, as this is not my area of nerdery.

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME/TERRIBLE: The secret truth about me is that I do not actually watch things. My ADHD does not allow it. 

NAME A BOOK  YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): I think that Peter Clines’ 14 (in the Threshold series) would make a fun movie!

Welcome Christine! 

Contributor Profile: Stew Hotston

NAME: Stew Hotston

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: Sword School

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Books, movies, animation

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: the hero's journey

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Aliens

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: Blood over Brighthaven by ML Wang

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: Exordia by Seth Dickinson, The Salt Oracle by Lorraine Wilson

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: The Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, Magic, Maps and Mischief by David Green

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... making chocolate ice cream

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Black Panther, Kilgrave from Jessica Jones

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: luck

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Spiderman into the Spiderverse

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Morbius

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME: One battle after another

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE XXXX BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE: Frieren

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Severance

NAME A BOOK  YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): The Gutter Prayer by Gareth Hanrahan

Welcome Stew!

New Contributors

We are excited to announce that Nerds of a Feather is growing. Today we welcome five new writers to the flock. You’ll be seeing much more from them in the coming weeks and months, but for now, here is a quick introduction to who they are and what they are about.

Christine D. Baker, Historian and Cat-Wrangler

Nerd specializations: History over all other things, especially ancient and medieval history. Memes and Early Internet culture. SFF books and short stories. Working to develop a specialization in Canadian SFF.

Bio: Christine has a PhD in History, although not in anything immediately relevant to SFF fandom. She's currently working through all the Hugo award winners and podcasting about it at Hugo History

(@hugohistory.bsky.social). In addition to SFF nerdery, she also does a lot of weight lifting, open-water swimming, and kayaking. You can find her posting photos of her cats at @klaxoncomms.com on Bluesky. (Klaxon is her freelance writing and editing business; so named because Christine is often a human klaxon.)

Maya Barbara

Nerd specialism: horror, literary fiction, pop culture

Bio: Maya Barbara, or known by a few as Babs, hails from West Tennessee where you can find her yelling about something pop culture related. She is also a high school English teacher who has moonlighted as a pop culture researcher/reporter for an uneven amount of years. You can summon her by talking about hyperspecific pop culture history or Interview With The Vampire (2022), the only show she’s trying to create a cult for.

Stew Hotston, The Mummy Librarian

Nerd Specialisms: Books, movies, sword fighting

Bio: Stew is an author of all kinds of science fiction and fantasy. He's also a keen Larper (he owns the UK Fest system, Curious Pastimes). He's a sometime physicist and currently a banker in the City of London. A Subjective Chaos and BFA finalist he's also Chair of the British Science Fiction Association and Treasurer for the British Fantasy Society.

Eddie Clark

Nerd specialisms: SFF books. Video Games. Anime. The intersection of gay shit with all 3.

Bio: For his sins, Eddie has a day job which involves talking and writing about very specific nerd fixations to people who are at least nominally just as interested in them. Outside work, he takes a break by hiking, taking photos, and indulging in very specific nerd fixations and talking to people on the internet about them, which is of course very different from work. (He's an academic. All public nerdery, all the time).

Gabrielle Harbowy, part-time elf

Nerd Specialisms: TTRPGer, Team Star Wars. Totally normal about Baldur's Gate 3.

Bio: Gabrielle is an editor, writer of TTRPG adventures, novels, and short fiction, and she's a literary agent with Corvisiero Literary Agency. She loves cats, ravens, tattoos, starry skies, and playing tourist in her own city. When she's not reading or writing, she's thinking about reading and writing. She has a patreon focused on querying, writing, and game stuff at patreon.com/gabrielle_h, and can be found on bluesky at gabrielle-h and online at gabrielleharbowy.com.

Welcome to the flock!

Contributors Wanted

Do you want to write for Nerds?

Nerds of a Feather, Flock Together is looking for 3-5 awesome individuals to join our team of regular contributors! 

What do we want? We're looking for volunteers who can offer at least 1 review or feature per month to our schedule, as part of our regular Monday-Friday blog content. We're particularly looking for contributors able to cover comic books and graphic novels, or those with interests that range broadly - though all contributors are free to write about SF/F novels or anything else relevant to geek culture. 

What do you get? Nerds of a Feather is a fanzine, which means we means we do not seek or generate revenue. Rather, it is a fanspace run by fans, who work as volunteers. However, joining us does mean opportunities for free e-books and the potential for other free stuff, as well as the fun and support from joining a dynamic and flexible team of enthusiastic nerd bloggers at this here little Hugo Award winning fanzine.

We're looking for people who: 

(a) write well in long form (900-1500 words) and don't need extensive copy-editing
(b) understand and are ready to engage with our established formats and review scoring system
(c) are otherwise good fits with our voice and style

We are not, however, looking for automata who agree with the rest of us on anything and everything.

One of our goals is to feature a diverse range of voices on the topics that matter to us. As such, we encourage writers of all backgrounds to apply.

Caveat: we know lots of you have other awesome projects you want everyone to know about, but since these are regular contributor positions, we would like to emphasize that this would not be an appropriate forum to use for that self-promo.

Process: send an email to NoaFeditors at gmail dot com telling us what you are interested in doing and why you'd like to join our team. Please also send a writing sample, which can be either embedded into the body of the email or links to published work. We will try to respond to everyone as quickly as possible.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Regards

NoaF Team

Contributor Profile: Ann Michelle Harris

Today we welcome a new contributor to the flock: Ann Michelle Harris

Raised in Atlanta with a degree from Penn, Ann loves character driven sci-fi and anime,
escapist books, loud cats, and vacations at the beach. She is a problem solver by day and fiction
writer by night with a short story featured in the crime anthology Hook, Line and Sinker and a
fantasy novel scheduled for 2024. Find her on Twitter at @_AnnHarris_ or on Instagram at
@ann_michelle_harris25

NAME: Ann Michelle Harris

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: Atlanta, the filming location of the best Marvel movies.

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): TV, movies, some anime

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: killing the Black character first.

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Aliens!

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: Legendborn by Tracy Deonn

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: Everything Inside by Edwidge Dant, Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: Binti Home by Nnedi Okorafor, Faery Tale by Stephen King

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... writing my novel

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Storm and Magneto

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Teleportation

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Black Panther

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Aquaman, maybe?

I JUST WATCHED Spy x Family AND IT WAS AWESOME.

I JUST WATCHED Russian Doll, Season 2 AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. (Loved Season 1)

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE Everything Everywhere All at Once BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Star Trek: Strange New Worlds

NAME A BOOK YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): N.K. Jemisin’s The Fifth Season


Welcome, Ann!

Contributor Profile: Clara Cohen

Today we are welcoming another new contributor to the flock: Clara Cohen

Clara lives in Scotland in a creaky old building with pipes for gas lighting still lurking under her floorboards. She is an experimental linguist by profession, and calligrapher and Islamic geometric artist by vocation. You can see her right hand on Season 8, episode 3, of Outlander, because they needed someone who could cut and wield a quill pen. During figure skating season she does blather on a bit about figure skating.

NAME: Clara Cohen

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: Home. Always home. Never was a homebody more bodiful at home.

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Star Trek, linguistics, massive doorstop fantasy, scifi can play too

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: 

a. The belief in strict genre boundaries between fantasy and scifi

b. The belief that romance is less rigorous or more trashy than other genres

c. 'Historical accuracy!' Pal, you've got DRAGONS.

d. The etymological fallacy: 'if only we could discover the true meaning of <word>' Pal, the true meaning is how people use it now.

e. 'What it means to be human', oh, god, please no, stopit. It's a cliched piece of portentous-sounding zoom-out language that has been overused and lost all meaning.

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Aliens

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: Battlestar Suburbia, by Chris McCrudden

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: 

The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, by Sangu Mandanna
Children of Ruin, by Adrian Tchaikovsky
Infernal Devices, by Philip Reeve
The Hidden Palace, by Helene Wecker

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE:

The Half-Life of Valery K, by Natasha Pulley
The Hands of The Emperor by Victoria Goddard

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... In my favourite armchair with a cup of tea, reading, or else at my desk doing Islamic Geometric Art and listening to an audio book

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE:  The Accountant (aka Anna Tromedlov), from Hench by Natalie Zina Walschotts (both for the price of one!)

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Able to speak all/any language, including programming languages

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Black Panther (or do you mean funny movie? If funny movie, then Knives Out (the first one; second was good too, but the first was surprising.)

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Oh, I think you do mean like marvel/dc. Unfortunately, I've really fallen off that bandwagon. I couldn't begin to tell you.

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME: Knives Out: Glass Onion was great! I mean, I expected it to be, but it did live up to my expectations.

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. The Woman in the House Across the Street from the Girl in the Window (gave up after episode 2)

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE XXXX BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, Black Sails! (Don't know why it would be too late, but everyone should watch it. Great show.)

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: The Expanse. (But can I put in another plug for the SF-adjacent show Black Sails. Pirates! It's genius.)

NAME A BOOK  YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): Ooh, hmm. Saint Death's Daughter, by C. S. E. Cooney. Great visuals in that one. Or Daniel Abraham's Long Price Quartet. The role of co-speech gestures in that one, along with the passage of time and the characterization of the andat, would make for some very interesting filmmaker interpretive choices.

Welcome, Clara!

Contributor Profile: Alex Wallace

Today we welcome another new contributor to the flock: Alex Wallace

Alex is a history nerd and science fiction nerd who reads far more than is probably healthy. He is a fan of alternate history, and has had four stories in that genre published. When not being that type of nerd, he is a devoted partaker of various partner dances.

NAME: Alex Wallace

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: A black site outside Washington DC

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): alternate history, Star Wars, SFF literature more broadly

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: apologia for murderers

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: robots hands down

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: The Culture of Narcissism by Christopher Lasch

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: The Rubayyat of Omar Khayyam and Lord Valentine's Castle by Robert Silverberg

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: The Dark Side of the Street by Danielle McGuire and Guantanamo: an American History by Jonathan Hansen.

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... reading

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE:  Ant-Man and Thanos

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: invisibility

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Shazam! 

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Eternals

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME: Cocaine Bear

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. Kruty 1918 (although more 'okay' rather than truly terrible)

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE XXXX BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, Overlord

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: The Plot Against America

NAME A BOOK  YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): V-S Day by Allen Steele


Welcome Alex!

Contributor Profile: Haley Zapal

Today we're welcoming the next of our new contributors to the flock: Haley Zapal.

Haley Zapal is a lawyer-turned-copywriter who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She has no memory of watching Star Wars for the first time — it’s always been a part of her consciousness. By 12 she was immersed in the Expanded Universe and writing her first novella-length fanfic. As an adult, she enjoys movies and books about space, and pondering if the speed of light really is the universe’s speed limit. She does not like fantasy, mainly because of all the horses.

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Star Wars, post-apocalyptic fiction, the Locked Tomb trilogy

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: Folks who overly critical of movies.

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Zombies! Fast-moving, slow-moving, I'm and equal opportunity zombie lover.

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: Micky7 by Edward Ashton

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: Cyteen by CJ Cherryh, The Order of TIme by Carlo Rovelli

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang by Kate Wilhelm, A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE - At a book store, getting my next fix.

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Batman & the Joker

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Flying!

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Black Panther

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Antman Quantumania

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME: M3GAN

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. High Life

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE XXXX BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE: The Last of Us season 1

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Station Eleven

NAME A BOOK YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): Gideon the Ninth!


Welcome, Haley!

Contributor Profile: Christopher J. Garcia

Today we're welcoming the first of our new contributors to the flock: Chris Garcia

Chris Garcia? You mean the archivist, curator, film festival programmer, fanzine editor, professional wrestling enthusiast, painter, true crime writer, podcaster, and father of 2? The one from Boulder Creek, CA? The one that won the Hugo for Best Fanzine a couple of times? The guy with the hair? Oh, he's @johnnyeponymous on all the social media!

NAME: Christopher J Garcia

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: Boulder Creek, California, about half-a-mile from downtown, on the right.

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Short films, fanzines, history of fandom, professional wrestling and the relationship to fandom, short stories, podcasting

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: Pretty mild, really.

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: UFOs, which are basically alien robots, if you think about it...

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: Blackbeard by Kurt Vonnegut

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: Much Depends on Dinner by Margaret Visser, Earthquake Weather by Tim Powers

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: The Employees by Olga Ravn. Finnegan's Wake by James Joyce

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... trying to keep my kids from breaking every object in the house.

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Hero: Plastic-Man. VIllain: Plastic-Man, but with a goatee.

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: None. I'd be a nerd-type Batman.

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Captain Marvel

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: .Logan

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS AWESOME: SHARE?

I JUST WATCHED XXXX AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. White Zombie

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE XXXX BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, Hundreds of Beavers

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Twin Peaks: The Return

NAME A BOOK YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): A Scattering of Jades by Andrew Irvine.


Welcome Chris!

New Contributors

We are excited to announce that Nerds of a Feather is growing. Today we welcome four new writers to the flock. You’ll be seeing much more from them in the coming weeks and months, but for now, here is a quick introduction to who they are and what they are about.


Chris Garcia? You mean the archivist, curator, film festival programmer, fanzine editor, professional wrestling enthusiast, painter, true crime writer, podcaster, and father of 2? The one from Boulder Creek, CA? The one that won the Hugo for Best Fanzine a couple of times? The guy with the hair? Oh, he's @johnnyeponymous on all the social media!

Haley Zapal is a lawyer-turned-copywriter who lives in Atlanta, Georgia. She has no memory of watching Star Wars for the first time — it’s always been a part of her consciousness. By 12 she was immersed in the Expanded Universe and writing her first novella-length fanfic. As an adult, she enjoys movies and books about space, and pondering if the speed of light really is the universe’s speed limit. She does not like fantasy, mainly because of all the horses.

Clara Cohen lives in Scotland in a creaky old building with pipes for gas lighting still lurking under her floorboards. She is an experimental linguist by profession, and calligrapher and Islamic geometric artist by vocation. You can see her right hand on Season 8, episode 3, of Outlander, because they needed someone who could cut and wield a quill pen. During figure skating season she does blather on a bit about figure skating.

Alex Wallace is a history and science fiction nerd who reads far more than is probably healthy. He is a fan of alternate history, and has had four stories in that genre published. When not being that type of nerd, he is a devoted partaker of various partner dances.

Contributor Profile: Elizabeth Fitzgerald

Today, we're welcoming the third of our new contributors to the flock: Elizabeth Fitzgerald!

Elizabeth Fitzgerald is a freelance editor and owner of Earl Grey Editing. An unabashed roleplayer and reader of romance, her weaknesses are books, loose-leaf tea and silly dogs. She tweets @elizabeth_fitz.

NAME: Elizabeth Fitzgerald

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: A eucalyptus forest defended by drop bears.

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Australian speculative fiction (I’m working up to including Aotearoa)

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: “Seasonal” release dates, reading lists or challenges (there are people living in the southern hemisphere, you know). Speculative fiction people dunking on romance like it’s the Genre Wars (if you’re going to try it, be prepared. Those romance fans do not mess around).

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Vampires. I’m generally allergic to zombies unless it’s Mira Grant. A definite yes on aliens or robots if it’s Becky Chambers.

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: Scar Tissue and Other Stories by Narrelle M. Harris and Stories of Your Life and Others by Ted Chiang (I swear I don’t usually read this many short stories)

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir, Rosewater by Tade Thompson and A Night to Surrender by Tessa Dare.

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: A Song of Flight by Juliet Marillier and Hyperbole and a Half by Allie Brosh

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... camped out on the couch with a cup of tea, a blanket, a pair of dogs and a good book.

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE:  Joey aka Solar from Tansy Rayner Roberts’ Cookie-Cutter Superhero series (although I’m also quite partial to Ms Marvel). There seriously needs to be some more memorable super-villains in books (and on the whole, let’s be real).

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Administration a la Myfanwy Thomas in The Rook by Daniel O’Malley.

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: I do not watch enough film to be able make any claims about what’s best (seriously, there are far too many books to read), but I loved the recent live-action adaptations of Ruroni Kenshin.

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Captain America: Civil War

I JUST WATCHED Dune AND IT WAS AWESOME: Dune. Yes, the character development wasn’t the best, and there were definitely some issues. But I loved some of the design elements and my goodness it was pretty.

 

I JUST WATCHED ... AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. I do not have the patience to watch terrible things.

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE ... BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, If I’m hearing about it, it’s definitely too late.

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Cleverman. Indigenous Australia does superheroes.

 

NAME A BOOK  YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): Since we’re on the theme of superheroes, I’d love to see a movie adaptation of Ambelin Kwaymullina’s series The Tribe. X-Men style YA superheroes in (a distantly) post-apocalyptic Australia.

Welcome, Elizabeth!

Contributor Profile: Joe DelFranco

Today we welcome the second of three new contributors to the flock!

Joseph DelFranco aka Joe D enjoys spending time thinking of questions that cause uncertainty in others, after all, what is life without a little introspection? When he isn't causing existential crises, he likes to play a breadth of video game genres and read a wide variety of books from mythology and fantasy to sci-fi and political. Oh, and he writes sometimes.

NAME: Joseph DelFranco (Joe D)

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: Westerly, Rhode Island (Come check out Savoy Bookshop/Cafe if you're in the area!)

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Video Games. I also read every day, but I read a little of everything so I can’t say any specific genre is a specialization.

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: Video games with awful cutscenes or games that insert story just to have one.

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: This is tough. Probably aliens due less restrictions in expectation.

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller and I may re-read The Lord of the Rings alongside it. Haven't decided yet.

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: My most recent three books are Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media by Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman, The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune, and The Hour of Meeting Evil Spirits: An Encyclopedia of Mononoke and Magic by Matthew Meyer. Games: Nexomon, Hades, and Disco Elysium were my last three.

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: The Book of the Hakutaku: A Bestiary of Japanese Monsters by Matthew Meyer and Circe by Madeline Miller (subject to change). Games: Guardians of the Galaxy and Deathloop.

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... Depends on what one describes as sucky weather… When it’s super hot out, I’m most likely inside near the a/c reading, writing, or playing video games. If it’s rainy or snowy (which is what most people consider sucky weather), I like to go for a walk in the beautiful strolling park near my favorite bookshop.

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Spider-Man. Love his spunk and conflict solution. Favorite villain is the Joker. I love the entropy. I especially love a good Joker performance and we've been so lucky with Hamill, Ledger, and Phoenix.

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Time control.

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: (Animated) Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse, (Live-Action) Joker.

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Probably Aquaman, though I’ve missed a ton of comic book movies.

I JUST WATCHED Moonrise Kingdom AND IT WAS AWESOME: Haven’t watched anything in theaters since before Covid started… I just watched Moonrise Kingdom which I enjoyed. Otherwise, I re-watched Breaking Bad with my girlfriend and it’s still a great, high-intensity show. I recently played both Hades and Disco Elysium, which were phenomenal experiences and highly recommended.

I JUST WATCHED ... AND IT WAS TERRIBLE: I haven't watched anything I thoroughly disliked in a little while. In the video game realm, I started up Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and shut it off pretty soon after because I felt like I was hit with too much uninteresting exposition in a short amount of time. I liked Deus Ex: Human Revolution a lot though.

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Game of Thrones Seasons 1-4. The books were better, but the show did a phenomenal job. Seasons 5-6 were decent. And I guess they ran out of time with seasons 7&8 because they were not particularly great.

NAME A BOOK YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): I’d love to see Sabriel turned into a movie, but I’d love it even more as a video game. There is so much potential for enticing gameplay with the Abhorsen's ability set.

Welcome, Joe D!

Contributor Profile: Roseanna Pendlebury

Nerds of a Feather are expanding our flock, and we have three new contributors to welcome this week!

Roseanna is the humble servant of a very loud cat, but finds time around that to consume and then have opinions about SFF (which she’s been doing for as long as she can remember, but quietly blogging about since 2012). She’s never quite managed to escape from her classics degree, and so can often be found reading things with Greek gods in and then grumbling about them to her long-suffering partner. She also plays rugby, morris dances, board games, quizzes, dabbles in tabletop rpg and really really likes bread.

NAME: Roseanna Pendlebury

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: London

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Books, graphic novels, sometimes short fiction, some video games

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: Treating mythology as if it’s always unambiguously fantasy, books that are all setting/cool idea but flat characters/bad prose, being unable to tell if a book has been labelled YA just because the author is a woman or because it’s actually YA

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Vampires all the way, since childhood and forever. Vampires are just cool.

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: About eight different things, but primarily rereading The Once and Future King and re-listening to Gideon the Ninth, which is super interesting with the different cadences to how I read them in my own head from the paper-book the first time.

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: DIE volume 4 (amazing); Terciel and Elinor (extremely nostalgic for the Old Kingdom); Clock, Star, Rose, Spine (beautiful poetry, and surprisingly the first explicitly SFF poetry I’ve read as an adult… I feel like there ought to be loads more of that); Paladin’s Hope (because T. Kingfisher’s paladins are always wonderful).

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: Iron Widow, because I’ve heard some really interesting things about it… but also the cover art is just really pretty; Lore Olympus, because what I need in my life is about my fortieth Greek myth retelling

WHEN THE WEATHER SUCKS OUTSIDE I'M MOST LIKELY TO BE... Playing Dragon Age (again), playing rugby (somehow better when it’s wet and rainy – the ground is nice and soft), trying to get the cat not to sit on the book I’m reading

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE:  This is super difficult. Partly because I’m boring, and I like the goody-two-shoes, uncomplicated heroes like Wonderwoman (although the recent films have made her a bit more rounded) and Superman. And partly because this means I don’t tend to super identify with the villains. If I had to pick, I like Harley Quinn, especially after seeing Margot Robbie’s version of her in Birds of a Feather, but I’m also a little partial to Magneto (mainly because I love Ian McKellan – who doesn’t?).

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Controlling fire. You always get a bit typecast as a red-head for the visuals, but honestly, I think this really fits for me… and it’s just extremely cool.

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: The Old Guard was astonishingly good, to the point I immediately went out and bought the two trades of it to read as well. It’s one of my favourite comics I’ve read this year (which is saying something, considering there’s been DIE and Once & Future updates).

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Captain America Civil War. I could write a whole essay about what was wrong with this film for me, but it would probably boil down to “oversight isn’t bad”. It was an interesting idea that I think they did from totally the wrong side.

I JUST WATCHED Green Knight AND IT WAS AWESOME: ...which is weird because it’s basically a film without a plot (or barely any), but it is so intensely atmospheric, it doesn’t matter.

 

I JUST WATCHED Loki AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. Aside from anything else, it didn’t actually feel like he was behaving… like Loki? It confused me a lot.

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE Green Knight BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE, (again, because it was that good)

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power. Does this count as SF? I hope it does, because it was glorious. I woke up early to watch the last season when it dropped on Netflix, so I could yell about it with my friend. It’s the sort of tv show I wish had been around when I was a child, because so much about it is perfect and I would have definitely appreciated a lot of the threads running through it.

 

NAME A BOOK  YOU *NEED* A MOVIE OF (OR VICE VERSA): Sabriel, although part of me worries that if they did make it, I’d end up not liking it because I love the book that bit too much. It was a really big one in my childhood, and I still go back and read one of the later chapters of book three when I’m sad and need perking up. But it also one I think you could make very visually arresting – Garth Nix is great at conjuring up a sense of place – and I would love to see that translated to screen.

Welcome, Roseanna!

CONTRIBUTOR PROFILE: Spacefaring Kitten

Last but not least we welcome Spacefaring Kitten, who you may know from the sardonic review blog, Spacefaring, Extradimensional Happy Kittens. I've long been a fan of Spacefaring Kitten's writing and am thrilled this galactic feline traveler aboard our ship!   

NAME: Spacefaring Kitten

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: Small Magellanic Cloud

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): science fiction, comics, fantasy

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: (Pseudo)historical characters with modern-day values

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Weird, weird aliens

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: Black Bolt: Hard Times written by Saladin Ahmed and illustrated by Christian Ward and Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: Raven Stratagem by Yoon Ha Lee and October by China Miéville

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Ozymandias and Magneto

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Procrastination and feeding cats beef sticks.

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Lego Batman

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Avengers: Age of Ultron

I JUST WATCHED Black Panther AND IT WAS AWESOME

I JUST WATCHED Hellraiser: Hellseeker AND IT WAS TERRIBLE

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE The Punk Syndrome BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE:
It's a documentary about a Finnish punk band of four developmentally disabled guys.

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Orphan Black

WORSE ENDING--LOST OR BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: Huh, was there something wrong with the ending of Battlestar Galactica?

THE OFFICE--BRITISH OR AMERICAN VERSION: The Office is the one exception to the rule that everything British is always better.

GAME OF THRONES--LIKE OR DISLIKE DEVIATIONS FROM THE BOOKS: I haven't read the books, so I am unmoved. I was saving them for the (ever-distancing) day the series is finished.

CONTRIBUTOR PROFILE: Adri

This week we are also welcoming Adri to the flock! Adri is a fantastic writer who has been running her own review blog, Adri's Book Review, since 2017. If you haven't read her work before, then prepare yourself for some serious awesomeness! 

NAME: ​Adri Joy / Arifel​

SECRET UNDISCLOSED LOCATION: A bioluminescent coral palace 40 metres under the sea

NERD SPECIALIZATION(S): Fantasy, Sci fi, feminist SFF.

MY PET PEEVES IN NERD-DOM ARE: Overly convoluted love triangles, stories without diverse representation.

VAMPIRES, WEREWOLVES, ZOMBIES, ALIENS OR ROBOTS: Aliens​!

RIGHT NOW I'M READING: Raising the Stones by Sheri S. ​Tepper in paperback; Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb and Forgotten Women: The Scientists by Zing Tsjeng on e-reader; An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon on audio (I'm polybiblious!)

...AND A COUPLE BOOKS I RECENTLY FINISHED ARE: Akata Witch by Nnedi Okorafor, the Stone in the Skull by Elizabeth Bear, Prime Meridian by Sylvia Moreno Garcia​.

NEXT TWO ON QUEUE ARE: Obsidio by Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff​, Paladin of Souls by Lois McMaster Bujold.

MY FAVORITE SUPERHERO AND SUPER-VILLAIN ARE: Dreadnought from April Daniel's Nemesis series​ for superhero, Fire Lord Ozai for supervillain.

IF I WERE A SUPERHERO/VILLAIN, MY POWER WOULD BE: Avatar: The Last Airbender-style​ control of the classical elements.

THE BEST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: I don't watch many comic films, but Guardians of the Galaxy​ was amazing.

THE WORST COMIC FILM OF THE PAST 5 YEARS IS: Probably one of the 90% I haven't seen...

I JUST WATCHED ​Thor: Ragnarok AND IT WAS AWESOME

(...and made sense even if you haven't watched the first two, or Avengers 2, or the one where Benedict Cumberbatch is a wizard with a terrible American accent.)

I JUST WATCHED ​Blade Runner 2049 AND IT WAS TERRIBLE. Well, not exactly terrible - visually stunning but super shallow.

EVERYONE SHOULD SEE The Expanse Season 3 BEFORE IT'S TOO LATE,​ because it's not coming out until later in the year in the UK, and I desperately want them to get higher ratings and avoid cancellation.

BEST SCIENCE/SPECULATIVE FICTION SHOW OF THE PAST 10 YEARS: Steven Universe​.

WORSE ENDING--LOST OR BATTLESTAR GALACTICA: *whispers* I haven't seen all of Battlestar ​Galactica! The Lost ending was objectively terrible though.

THE OFFICE--BRITISH OR AMERICAN VERSION: I haven't seen either, but I appreciate the American Office's contribution to the world of reaction GIFs.

GAME OF THRONES--LIKE OR DISLIKE DEVIATIONS FROM THE BOOKS: I'm generally in favour of good adaptations, but repeatedly turning consensual sex into rape destroyed my trust in that show's judgement.