Author / Nerdy Spice

Posts by Nerdy Spice

http://advers.io Formerly "kht" I grew up playing Disney-movie-based games with my baby sister. I majored in English in college, got a graduate degree in creative writing, and then found myself earning a living as a software engineer. I'm working on my second novel and querying agents for my first. I eats home-cooked meals only when my husband Keets makes them for me, and he is still trying to teach me how to turn on the oven. Interests: Victorian novels, modern MFA novels and I'm not ashamed of it, super-long novels that aren’t by David Foster Wallace, Michael Chabon, Claire Messud, Henry James, feminism, movies with Robert Downey Jr. in them, TV shows with Connie Britton in them, Pacey Witter, 90s teenybopper movies with training montages, The Good Wife, Homeland, Tina Fey’s entire oeuvre, Mindy Kaling’s entire oeuvre, shows from the WB/CW circa 2004, and JJ Abrams.
by Nerdy Spice

Homeland Recap: 8×09 “In Full Flight”

Previously on Homeland: Max was shot right before Carrie’s eyes, and Saul convinced her to come in, but Mike thought she was a defector because of the whole running-off-with-a-Russian-agent thing; Jalal Haqqani claimed to have killed the President and President Hayes vowed to invade Pakistan if they didn’t turn him over; Carrie got a lead on the black box, and demanded that no one question her loyalty; when the soldiers who were with Saul tried to handcuff her, she ran off with Yevgeny again and told him she knew where the black box was.

Spoiler alert: I am a BIG FAN of this episode. If you have been reading my previous recaps you’ll probably guess why!

Continue reading →
by Nerdy Spice

Homeland Recap: 8×7 “F**ker Shot Me”

Previously on Homeland: Hayes told G’ulom not to execute 300 men in a stadium, but then gave up; Haqqani turned himself in in exchange for G’ulom freeing the men; Carrie asked Yevgeny for help finding Max; Saul sent Carrie home for lying to him about Yevgeny–but she snuck off the jetway and made her escape in a getaway car driven by Yevgeny.

Side note: It’s so interesting hearing soundbites from as early as season 2 (Carrie telling Brody he’s a traitor) in the credits. So much has happened in these 8 years. And there’s a snippet of Carrie saying “This whole country went stupid crazy after 9/11” shortly after the classic snippet of her saying “I missed something once before” specifically about 9/11, to justify spying on Brody.

Continue reading →
by Nerdy Spice

BuffyWatch: Season 4, Episodes 13-15

Janes (a True Stan) and Nerdy Spice (a New Fan) are watching all of Buffy together and comparing notes. Warning: May contain spoilers for later episodes!

Season 4, Episode 13 “The I In Team”

Willow is lonely. You know this because she’s reduced to spending an evening playing poker with Xander and Anya. And if you’re wondering whether it’s awkward to third-wheel with Xander and Anya, Willow learns the answer when she says the word “spanking” in an innocent context, and Anya gives way too enthusiastic a response. Meanwhile, Buffy is in new-love glow, and Willow is trying not to be jealous once again. Of course, I am spoiled about this show just enough to know that Willow won’t be a Miss Lonelyhearts for very long. Willow and Tara are in the early stages of what we know, but Willow doesn’t know, is a courtship. Poor Tara abruptly offers Willow a special “doll’s eye” crystal (no idea what that is) that belonged to her grandmother as a gift, which makes Willow a little uncomfortable, which makes Tara kind of smile awkwardly and ask Willow to “do something” that night. But just as Buffy keeps snubbing  Willow, Willow snubs Tara. Aw, that’s sad.

Continue reading →
Spike lies on a white tiled floor looking ill.
by Nerdy Spice

BuffyWatch: Season 4, Episodes 7-9

Janes (a True Stan) and Nerdy Spice (a New Fan) are watching all of Buffy together and comparing notes.

Season 4, Episode 7 “The Initiative”

OK, so Spike has been kidnapped by some kind of Stranger Things-esque evil experiment group, which has trapped him in a solitary cell and starved him. His next-door neighbor tells him it’s all Buffy’s fault, which solidifies Spike’s intent to kill Buffy. He escapes, and also stops by his old place and runs into Harmony, but leaves after they have sex so he can go after the Slayer, causing Harmony to pitch a fit and burn all his stuff. Meanwhile, poor Spike discovers something alarming: he can’t bite people. He catches Willow alone in the room she shares with Buffy, throws her on the bed to, um, suck her blood, and then… can’t. He’s impotent! (The innuendoes being drawn here are, to put it mildly, not subtle.) 

Continue reading →

Buffy holds a book and looks around.
by Nerdy Spice

BuffyWatch: Season 4, Episodes 1-3

Janes (a True Stan) and Nerdy Spice (a New Fan) are watching all of Buffy together and comparing notes.

Season 4, Episode 1 “The Freshman”

Buffy’s off to college–and she has a roommate, Kathy, from whom she has to keep her secret identity secret, which as we all know she’s GREAT at. She’s extremely nervous, in contrast to Willow who’s excited for every class and every protest. And things don’t go super great for her: she gets yelled at by a professor for whispering in class, she can’t get into the one class she kind of wants, and the first cute guy she meets can’t remember her name because he’s more interested in talking shop with Willow about Psych 105, while the second cute guy gets turned into a vampire by a ring of goth stoner vamps that like to eat college freshmen and then just pack up their rooms and take their stuff and leave a good-bye note so that no one realizes they died. (I guess the parents never bother calling the school to find out what happened when their kids don’t come home for Thanksgiving. Just roll with it.)

Continue reading →

by Nerdy Spice

Our Favorite Books By Black Authors

Recently the #publishingpaidme hashtag highlighted on Twitter just how absurd the discrepancies between advances for Black authors and non-Black authors are in publishing. For example, NK Jemisin’s famous Broken Earth Trilogy? She got $25K advance for each book. Jesmyn Ward had to fight to get a six-figure advance (a number frequently bestowed upon White debut authors with no track record) after winning the National Book Award.

If you’re White (or non-Black) and you’re anything like us, this hashtag (and the recent uprising against police brutality and racism in general) may have made you redouble your commitment to reading works by Black voices. Anyway, here are some of our favorites, old and new. Some of them we’ve written about before, some we somehow haven’t mentioned yet. Check it out, and follow the links to purchase from Bookshop, which supports independent bookstores with each purchase!*

*We’re not grown-up bloggers, so we don’t get any money ourselves… we just want to stick it to Jeff Bezos.

Continue reading →