Rhiannon Thomas's Blog

I am a total achievement hound.

Recently, I’ve been putting many not-that-fun hours into Stardew Valley, because dammit, I’m only missing two artefacts for the museum, and I must have them. According to the guides I’ve been reading, one is found in town, the other by the bus stop, so I scour them every game day, then run around giving guide-approved gifts to villagers to make them be my best friends. I probably played without looking up too much stuff at the beginning, but once I got about a...

This month’s “are middle grade and YA books terrible for readers???” article is currently flying around Twitter. This time, it’s not a thinkpiece about the decline of literature, thank god, but a piece in the UK Times about a British headteacher who has banned books like Artemis Fowl, Eragon, Percy Jackson and Alex Rider from the school library, because they are “so simplistic, brutal or banal” that they’re not worth reading.

I hate, hate, hate the idea the idea that kids should only read “q...

Well, this week has been a bit of a blogging (and writing) bust. My good old friend anxiety has decided to make an appearance, and nothing is getting done.

So, instead of any thoughts on feminism and fiction-writing, here are a few of the things I’ve been using to help soothe my anxiety over the past few days. If you’re feeling anxious right now, maybe one of these will help you too.

I’m now about halfway through season 7 of Gilmore Girls, and… I’m actually kind of enjoying it?

The first couple of episodes were bleak, which, combined with people’s dislike of the season, always put me off before. But actually, Lane’s plotline aside, I think it’s totally worth watching.

Rory’s stuff is pretty great. I wish I’d seen this six years ago, when I was a senior grappling with impending graduation. I’ve always connected with Rory, and the conversations about how even the English m...

The other day, Tumblr introduced me to this really useful website: A DIY Guide to Feminist Cybersecurity.

It’s explicitly designed for people who talk about feminism online, who can be easy targets for online harassment and doxxing, but really, it’s a useful guide for anybody who wants to use the internet more securely with steps beyond “use good passwords.”

I’ve been thinking a lot recently about all the problems with the Internet as we currently use it, from both a harassment/safety perspec...

Today in things Rhiannon is too old for but is excited about anyway…

I’d mostly forgotten about the Tangled TV show until I came across this song from the show, and ahhh

I know it’s clearly a children’s cartoon, but still. I love it.

Tangled is my absolutely favorite Disney movie. Which means, really, it’s my absolutely favorite movie. It means a lot to me, in part because I didn’t see it until one of my best friends sat me down on a very bad depression day and said, “We should watch this....

Why. why, why??

I have a confession. I’ve never seen S7 of Gilmore Girls.

I’ve rewatched the early seasons a kajillion times. I’ve sat through the spiral of despair that is S6 at least thrice. But then Luke punches Christopher and Lane is pregnant and I just stop watching, every time. I’ve seen the first three episodes in full, as of today (I’d only seen the first two before), and watched, I think, the final three episodes once, from karaoke onwards, but the middle is a great big ball of nope...

Do you guys ever get, like, media anxiety? I was sitting and musing about how I was going to spend my evening, and suddenly, it was like an avalanche of wtf.

I’ve been rewatching Gilmore Girls, and I’m almost done with S6, but I’ve seen Gilmore Girls before, and I’m also halfway through a long Chinese drama, but I also only watched three episodes of Series of Unfortunate Events so far, oh, and that documentary on North Korea is only half-watched, and I’m only 40 minutes into the OJ Simpson do...

Today is World Book Day!

And by World Book Day, I mean British Book Day. I don’t know why we call it World Book Day, when there’s already a World Book Day, and it takes place in April. I guess “school children dress up as book characters and they all get a free book token” day was a bit too clunky for a name.

But in honor of the day, I’m gonna chat about a few of the books on my shelves right now.

Maid at the King’s Court by Lucy Worsley

I actually just finished this one, and I have loads of...

Because I might have gotten stressed and sick, but loads of great things still happened!

1. Long May She Reign was released into the world! It’s been so exciting seeing pictures of people’s copies and hearing people’s thoughts about it. Also…

2. I got my own copies of Long May She Reign in the post, completely unexpectedly, and I was blown away by them. I opened the box expecting paperbacks of Kingdom of Ashes, and when I saw the back of a beautiful glossy hardback, I thought, “Oh, my editor...