The chairs are plotting.

Only a handful of stories left. I have this feeling that I’m in extremely competent hands. Certain stories - ‘Louisa, Please Come Home’, ‘Jack the Ripper’, ‘The Bus’ - are particularly memorable and deft. Quality

Love that BBC Sounds advert for Wayne Rooney’s podcast which ends ‘it’s what everyone’s talking about’. You can’t move for people talking about the Wayne Rooney podcast.

A sky of two halves.

Alan Partridge means time with my dad. Went over today and we put on the first episode of the new series. This was my favourite joke. Long live Pear Tree Productions. 🌳

Saturday morning reading. Loving this by @theprofrog.bsky.social. Onto the Greek Necropolis now. Such a beautifully written and presented book. ‘To be human… is to be defined by rituals in remembrance of the dead.’

Saw E.T. on Sunday.

FACT OF THE DAY. 2 October 1925. John Logie Baird, a Scottish engineer and inventor, performed the 1st test of a working TV system in his London lab where he successfully transmitted the 1st TV picture which was a greyscale image of the head of a ventriloquist’s dummy.

Been on a real The Beths kick since the release of their latest album. I think for me Expert in a Dying Field is still their best overall, but the title track for Straight Line Was a Lie is also brilliant. Quality! youtu.be/vU0Q8DKWhQk?...

New blog post about the story published this week. Ta all x kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com/2025/10/02/o...

Featuring the reanimated corpse of Martin Amis.

Picked up the new McEwan at lunch. When I heard about it, I thought the world sounded close to Private Rites by Julia Armfield, but looks like it’s trying to do something different. But still - rising sea levels/lots of rain. Looking forward to starting.

Sometimes I put an apostrophe in an Excel spreadsheet just to watch it disappear

I have a new story out today, which is exciting! Thanks to Eunoia Review for publishing it. The title comes from the poem ‘Money’ by Larkin. If you have five minutes, I’ve popped a link below. Cheers all! eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2025/10/01/w...

Why Do You Let Me Lie Here Wastefully I saw myself queuing for coffee. I was in the kitchen of the shared house. There was a TikTok of someone stealing my bike. He went at the lock with a pair of pliers. His get-up was funny to me. The balaclava. It was too much of a cliché. The video was ten…

Two thirds of the way through The Exorcist. Features a real scare which is not, as far as I remember, in the film: Kinderman sees a figure standing by Regan’s window. We twig the weirdness before Kinderman. Feels like a direct reference to Mrs. Bates walking by the window in Psycho.

Pitching an alternative House of Guinness to Netflix called "House of Lucozade" for anyone who is on antibiotics or has to get up early in the morning.

It's too late.

Every day I walk by Barnardo’s and see this portrait of Ronaldo. One day I’ll walk by and it won’t be there and I won’t know why.

“The night was pitchy; the sky indigo. Black vaporous racks flitted across the moon that could be glimpsed… through rifts in the interlacing branches of the crowded trees.” 🌑 Finished reading this collection today. If I had to pick one story it’d be ‘They That Have Wings’ by Evangeline Walton.

On my own in the office this morning, listening to the Köln Concert. Microsoft Excel is my jazz.

Ultimate reading for pleasure time of the year 🎃 Probably won’t read all of M.R James again but definitely looking forward to my first Aickman and Shirley Jackson stories. Ambitious list as I’m not the quickest reader, but want to give all these books a go!

Enjoying Pure Gold by John Patrick McHugh. Keep wanting to call it Free Gold for whatever reason. Particularly liked the story ‘The Real First Time’ which is so pungent with teen angst it brought back strong memories, like the time I burnt a banana scented condom and buried its ashes in the garden.

Returning to Elden Ring and I’m determined to defeat the Tree Sentinel first thing (let’s see). Limgrave, reveal thyself!

New @nightjarpress.bsky.social in the post today. Excited because I believe one of these stories mentions the Co-op and I’m always intrigued to see what shops people include in stories.

The view from Pendle Hill this morning

Taking Poor Ghost! away with me this weekend. Been looking forward to it for a while! Love the cover. Trying to go in without knowing too much.

My absolute favourite thing about Melvyn Bragg is his singular attitude of No Mucking About. Literally every episode starts like “HELLO IN 1492 COLUMBUS SAILED THE OCEAN BLUE WITH ME ARE TWO EXPERTS OK TELL ME RIGHT NOW WHERE THE FUCK IS GENOA?”

I can

New blog post about reading an Orwell I’d never read before, and two new stories out soon or out now. Cheers! kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com/2025/08/25/o...

Passionate about valves

What a brilliant book. Incredibly difficult to put down. Speech, action, and thought are formed concurrently on the page - it’s overpowering but also immediately recognisable. Really pleased I picked this up!

Tuesday commute

Put Planet Rock on the office radio this morning just to feel something.

My 1999 diary, when I was 15. This entry points to the future somewhat.

Started I Will Crash by Rebecca Watson last night. Ordered on eBay. It came next day, which has never happened to me on eBay before. Reluctant to remove the ‘Peel to Remove’ sticker. Thanks to The Allender Calendar podcast for the rec. The interview with Watson was brill @robinallender.bsky.social

Finished Children of Paradise by Camilla Grudova. I love her two collections of stories, and this shares a lot of the same juice, but it didn’t click for me. 1/2 way through the anthology Weird Sisters. Brill stuff. Favourite stories so far ‘Leonora’ by Everil Worrell and ‘Mommy’ by Mary Counselman.

Been listening to Band on the Run a lot recently. Always liked ‘Jet’ and ‘Let Me Roll It’, but for some reason dismissed the rest. I remember hearing the start of ‘Mamunia’ and thinking it was quite annoying. But it’s beautiful. Now probably my favourite Macca track. youtu.be/gJNKPh7_Mv0?...

I’ve been getting back into the swing of submitting stories for publication, after starting a new day job a few months ago. Really excited to have a story coming out late September: ‘Why Do You Let Me Lie Here Wastefully’. Title taken from the poem ‘Money’ by Larkin. Excited to share!

Very excited to have a copy of The Innocents again on DVD. Remember buying this at Preston HMV with pound coins saved up from cleaning my granny’s skirting boards over the summer hols. Watched it over and over. Will not lose it again.

Read one of the new run of Nightjars last night. David Gaffney is one of my favourite short story writers. ‘Flight Paths’ feels like a puzzle. I don’t know if I want it to click completely. I particularly loved the dialogue. Big up Stockport too. @ggaffa.bsky.social @nicholasroyle.bsky.social

Been going over some old work. This story was published by Eunoia Review in 2020. It was so odd reading this again because there’s now so much I don’t like about it. But it was the first time I’d put something out there and I like it for that. eunoiareview.wordpress.com/2020/10/13/t...

“The spectacle of a scarecrow in a field late on a winter afternoon has cost him more than one sleepless night…” Couldn’t be happier with this amazing piece of art by Richard Wells. Will treasure it. @slipperyjack.bsky.social FUR FLA FLE BIS

Mum sent this photo over of World Book Day c. 2004. I was desperate to go as something Harry Potter, because it was so popular. Hadn’t read the books. Didn’t want to go route one. Mum suggested the phoenix from OOTP, an (unbeknownst to us) allegorical phoenix which does not appear in said book.

I’ve had a stinking cold recently and I’ve been struggling to get into any fiction, but I have been making my way through A Long Hard Look at ‘Psycho’ by Roger Durgnat, which is just brilliant, especially if you like ridiculous phrases like ‘The text-spectator interface’.

I’ve been really enjoying the guitar again after a long absence. Real stress buster. This is one of my favourite Elliott Smith songs: ‘St. Ides Heaven’. (Tuning: DGCFAD) Sort of winged the chord after the natural ‘C’ but it seems to work well enough!

Inspired by YOPB and @robinallender.bsky.social, I’ve been trying to get out of my comfort zone on the guitar. May I present to you a very shaky version of the opening to ‘Be Here Now’. One of those songs I could listen to all day.

Quick re-up of a post about my favourite reads from Jan to the end of June. Been lucky enough to read some great books so far in 2025. Always looking for recs! kieranstorieswriter.wordpress.com/2025/06/29/b...

Looking forward to picking up more Alison Moore after this. Favourite stories from Eastmouth so far are ‘A Month of Sundays’, ‘Point of Entry’, and ‘The Sketch’. Brilliant stuff.