Kieren Alderling
@alderling.com
Canadian writer and artist. Lover of weird fiction, horror, gothic romance, and SFF. Ghosts and demons; magic and cyberpunk. He/him.
Pinned
Kieren Alderling
@alderling.com
· Sep 29
For the #AugurMicros2025 contest, some thoughts about the net. @augursociety.bsky.social
I think that writing is less agonizing than people think it is.
You know what IS agonizing? Trying to work on a creative pursuit when you're already stressed and burned out and exhausted at the end of a workday, and you're beating yourself up because you "should" be able to sit down and write.
You know what IS agonizing? Trying to work on a creative pursuit when you're already stressed and burned out and exhausted at the end of a workday, and you're beating yourself up because you "should" be able to sit down and write.
November 10, 2025 at 12:57 AM
I think that writing is less agonizing than people think it is.
You know what IS agonizing? Trying to work on a creative pursuit when you're already stressed and burned out and exhausted at the end of a workday, and you're beating yourself up because you "should" be able to sit down and write.
You know what IS agonizing? Trying to work on a creative pursuit when you're already stressed and burned out and exhausted at the end of a workday, and you're beating yourself up because you "should" be able to sit down and write.
Oh, I do enjoy some possible rewriting of history
I bought airplane wifi so I could tell you that @alixeharrow.bsky.social’s THE EVERLASTING is a perfect goddamn book, also if you can see her on tour you absolutely should
November 9, 2025 at 9:28 PM
Oh, I do enjoy some possible rewriting of history
My nb witch swag for Halloween
October 31, 2025 at 10:19 PM
My nb witch swag for Halloween
Reposted by Kieren Alderling
October 30, 2025 at 11:37 PM
I had a dream where I was riding a bike and fell into an iced over lagoon and had to do the self rescue thing and then my bike was a horse which was very inconvenient but in hindsight, probably more helpful for hypothermia than the bike would have been
October 30, 2025 at 5:02 PM
I had a dream where I was riding a bike and fell into an iced over lagoon and had to do the self rescue thing and then my bike was a horse which was very inconvenient but in hindsight, probably more helpful for hypothermia than the bike would have been
Thinking about looking into this season of Critical Role, because Bolaire sounds fun.
[Fanart] Bolaire, keeper of many trinkets and secrets
#criticalrolefanart #crfanart #criticalrolecampaign4 #criticalrole
#criticalrolefanart #crfanart #criticalrolecampaign4 #criticalrole
October 27, 2025 at 7:24 PM
Thinking about looking into this season of Critical Role, because Bolaire sounds fun.
"Ha, enjoy the sun!"
October 26, 2025 at 4:59 PM
"Ha, enjoy the sun!"
Reposted by Kieren Alderling
A whole bunch of horror-y folks recommend the scariest stories they’ve ever read. I wrote about @lairdbarron.bsky.social ‘s “Tiptoe.”
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
‘It’s insanely sinister’: horror writers on the scariest stories they’ve ever read
Bloodthirsty ghosts, sadistic supercomputers, creepy childhood games ... Mariana Enríquez, Paul Tremblay, Daisy Johnson and others on the tales that kept them up at night
www.theguardian.com
October 25, 2025 at 12:42 PM
A whole bunch of horror-y folks recommend the scariest stories they’ve ever read. I wrote about @lairdbarron.bsky.social ‘s “Tiptoe.”
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
www.theguardian.com/books/2025/o...
Reposted by Kieren Alderling
WHAT IF, hear me out, we just got into bed and (re) read RAKESFALL all day and talked about THEORIES and LOVE and DEATH and WORMS and LEVERET and ANNELID and RESISTANCE.
October 22, 2025 at 2:31 PM
WHAT IF, hear me out, we just got into bed and (re) read RAKESFALL all day and talked about THEORIES and LOVE and DEATH and WORMS and LEVERET and ANNELID and RESISTANCE.
I wish I had time to read more books. There are so many good ones out there.
October 24, 2025 at 12:42 AM
I wish I had time to read more books. There are so many good ones out there.
Reposted by Kieren Alderling
I respect the absolute hell out of Jamie Flanagan for this! All right you magnificent word beasts! Get writing!
____________________
WHO SHOULD SUBMIT?
We’re looking for a new voice.
ELIGIBILITY FOR OPEN CALL
Author must not have a book published through a traditional big 5 publisher
____________________
WHO SHOULD SUBMIT?
We’re looking for a new voice.
ELIGIBILITY FOR OPEN CALL
Author must not have a book published through a traditional big 5 publisher
Guidelines
VIEWS FROM THE OVERLOOK An anthology of stories set in the infamous hotel from Stephen King’s THE SHINING, edited by Jamie Flanagan, with foreword by Mick Garris, to be published by Vintage Books i…
jamieflanagan.com
October 23, 2025 at 3:20 PM
I respect the absolute hell out of Jamie Flanagan for this! All right you magnificent word beasts! Get writing!
____________________
WHO SHOULD SUBMIT?
We’re looking for a new voice.
ELIGIBILITY FOR OPEN CALL
Author must not have a book published through a traditional big 5 publisher
____________________
WHO SHOULD SUBMIT?
We’re looking for a new voice.
ELIGIBILITY FOR OPEN CALL
Author must not have a book published through a traditional big 5 publisher
Oh, that sounds lovely. In a cosmic horror, pain-filled kinda way (affectionate)
![ALL THE STARS DIE
by John F.D. Taff
"A powerful and original take on
cosmic horror that, despite revealing
the dreadful darkness beyond the
stars, remains richly and] painfully
human, bound up in suffering, loss,
and regret."
Brian Evenson, World Fantasy Award-winning
author of Song: for the Unraveling of the World
OCTOBER 28
Background image is of a pained/screaming face in the clouds](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:dqtgt5nhz5w6b5rgffuls5y3/bafkreihypwitkb7z2oovglst4b66g7i5brhy6qfrnxiypms63aytq65vgq@jpeg)
October 24, 2025 at 12:36 AM
Oh, that sounds lovely. In a cosmic horror, pain-filled kinda way (affectionate)
This is really cool! I hope you had fun with the residency
more from the banff science fiction residency 2025!
📸: Abigaile Edwards, Banff Centre 2025
📸: Abigaile Edwards, Banff Centre 2025
October 24, 2025 at 12:15 AM
This is really cool! I hope you had fun with the residency
Reposted by Kieren Alderling
Hey Americans: Is the word "scribbler" used to refer to a notebook, usually college-ruled? Or is it a Canadianism, like "duotang"?
#AmWriting #PrairieSFF
#AmWriting #PrairieSFF
October 23, 2025 at 2:43 AM
Hey Americans: Is the word "scribbler" used to refer to a notebook, usually college-ruled? Or is it a Canadianism, like "duotang"?
#AmWriting #PrairieSFF
#AmWriting #PrairieSFF
What a shiny phrase to add to my collection of gender phrases
it's a nice rainy morning and my brain decided to provide me with the term "gender fuzzy" and... yes
October 22, 2025 at 5:22 PM
What a shiny phrase to add to my collection of gender phrases
Reposted by Kieren Alderling
one of the best things I've read in a long time: thoughtful, wry, kind of elegiac but determinedly not nostalgic. How does time move, who gets to direct its flow, what it feels like in the midst, on the changing ground
A Tale of Two Murals on Telegraph Avenue, Aaron Cometbus's "The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah," and Praising the Emptiness: www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org/war-is-over-...
War is Over (Because UC Wants it)
A Tale of Two Murals on Telegraph Avenue, Aaron Cometbus's "The Loneliness of the Electric Menorah," and Praising the Emptiness
www.oaklandreviewofbooks.org
October 22, 2025 at 2:18 PM
one of the best things I've read in a long time: thoughtful, wry, kind of elegiac but determinedly not nostalgic. How does time move, who gets to direct its flow, what it feels like in the midst, on the changing ground
Take a walk through "Far to Fall", appearing in the Harvest Harmonies 2025 Zine/Contest from
@choeofpleirnpress.bsky.social
www.choeofpleirnpress.com/harvest-harm...
#alderwritings #poetry #poetrycommunity
@choeofpleirnpress.bsky.social
www.choeofpleirnpress.com/harvest-harm...
#alderwritings #poetry #poetrycommunity
October 22, 2025 at 12:04 AM
Take a walk through "Far to Fall", appearing in the Harvest Harmonies 2025 Zine/Contest from
@choeofpleirnpress.bsky.social
www.choeofpleirnpress.com/harvest-harm...
#alderwritings #poetry #poetrycommunity
@choeofpleirnpress.bsky.social
www.choeofpleirnpress.com/harvest-harm...
#alderwritings #poetry #poetrycommunity
I keep coming back to:
"The lesson is that you can't win. You can only keep moving... You can only resolve your own paradoxes and become more of who you are."
"The lesson is that you can't win. You can only keep moving... You can only resolve your own paradoxes and become more of who you are."
I am delighted and honoured to say that my second novel RAKESFALL has won the Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction! vajra.me/2025/10/21/r...
RAKESFALL wins the 2025 Ursula K. Le Guin Prize for Fiction
RAKESFALL wins the Le Guin Prize!
vajra.me
October 21, 2025 at 9:22 PM
I keep coming back to:
"The lesson is that you can't win. You can only keep moving... You can only resolve your own paradoxes and become more of who you are."
"The lesson is that you can't win. You can only keep moving... You can only resolve your own paradoxes and become more of who you are."
Congratulations!!
Excited to share that my little map story won the Augur’s Choice award!! 🗺️ ✨
➡️ augursociety.org/augur-issue-...
➡️ augursociety.org/augur-issue-...
Drum roll please...🥁 the WINNERS for the 2025 Microfiction Contest‼️are LIVE!
A huge, huge thank you to everyone who submitted; we had a BLAST reading the 80+ fantastic stories 🌌 on this year's theme!
Winning pieces ⬇️💫
#augurmicros2025
A huge, huge thank you to everyone who submitted; we had a BLAST reading the 80+ fantastic stories 🌌 on this year's theme!
Winning pieces ⬇️💫
#augurmicros2025
October 21, 2025 at 8:26 PM
Congratulations!!
Thank you for hosting the contest! I enjoyed writing "Far to Fall" so much—those mountains run deep into my soul. #alderwritings #mywriting #mypoetry
October 21, 2025 at 5:46 PM
Thank you for hosting the contest! I enjoyed writing "Far to Fall" so much—those mountains run deep into my soul. #alderwritings #mywriting #mypoetry
Enchanted by this
October 20, 2025 at 5:13 PM
Enchanted by this
Reposted by Kieren Alderling
#WritingPrompt: Witches and sorcerers? Nia's certainly never met one.
October 18, 2025 at 4:46 PM
#WritingPrompt: Witches and sorcerers? Nia's certainly never met one.
Reposted by Kieren Alderling
Repostin' The Autumnal. Manifesting my seasonal mood.
October 17, 2025 at 6:10 PM
Repostin' The Autumnal. Manifesting my seasonal mood.
"Some got caught, I think. Lost a bet, made a bad bargain." Spira gave her a long, thoughtful look. "And some just wanted it hard enough."
"The Fox's Cartographer" by Devin Miller smallwondersmag.com/piece/the-fo... #alderreads #flashfiction
"The Fox's Cartographer" by Devin Miller smallwondersmag.com/piece/the-fo... #alderreads #flashfiction
The Fox’s Cartographer - Small Wonders
She thought of herself as the Fox by now, and in the quiet moments when she started feeling too old for the circus, too bored, she wanted to become a fox.
smallwondersmag.com
October 17, 2025 at 8:39 PM
"Some got caught, I think. Lost a bet, made a bad bargain." Spira gave her a long, thoughtful look. "And some just wanted it hard enough."
"The Fox's Cartographer" by Devin Miller smallwondersmag.com/piece/the-fo... #alderreads #flashfiction
"The Fox's Cartographer" by Devin Miller smallwondersmag.com/piece/the-fo... #alderreads #flashfiction