Kieren Alderling
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alderling.com
Kieren Alderling
@alderling.com
100 followers 260 following 160 posts
Canadian writer and artist. Lover of weird fiction, horror, gothic romance, and SFF. Ghosts and demons; magic and cyberpunk. He/him.
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alderling.com
My nb witch swag for Halloween
The side of my head, wearing a delicate lace and velvet hood in black, with purple hair peeking out from underneath, in front of a natural stonework background
October 31, 2025 at 10:19 PM
alderling.com
"Ha, enjoy the sun!"
Text says "Caption this with the 2nd to last text you sent." Image is the corner of a room that looks like a murder scene with blood on the walls and a chest with a lamp and a small TV which has, on its screen, an image that looks very much like a naked butt.)
October 26, 2025 at 4:59 PM
alderling.com
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
October 24, 2025 at 12:36 AM
alderling.com
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
The poem "Far to Fall" by Kieren Alderling over a mountain background: September died with smoke in the air / A lush billowing, provocative red caps / Sheltering the jagged peaks / Autumn dawns yellow and cerulean / Swirling aspen, those leavings bleached / Peroxide-blond over mountain streams / Cotton is strung—hanging—stratospheric / A mirror, for wardings over doors / Observed between branches from the overhang / Scree crunches under boots and whorls / Called away, tumbling down the side / Satisfaction in the upset. /end The text around the poem reads "Harvest Harmonies 2025" by Choeofpleirn Press. The mountain includes a scree field with aspen forest around it, and red clouds above.
October 22, 2025 at 12:04 AM
alderling.com
Very excited for the new book from @hironennes.bsky.social (I adored Leech)!

I picked up A Murder of Prose by local author Scott Charlton Paul while I was at Owl's Nest Books in #yyc, because I love crows and also puns.
Two books side by side: The Works of Vermin by Hiron Ennes, with an oroborus-style centipede eating its own tail, and A Murder of Prose by Scott Charlton Paul. Brown leather backdrop.
October 8, 2025 at 11:49 PM
alderling.com
On possession: "I understand now. The devil taught me; I am the devil, so I was my own teacher. I accept the consequences."

I woke up in the middle of the night and tried to read a new book to get back to sleep. I have now read half of Rakesfall by Vajra Chandrasekera in one sitting.
Rakesfall book cover, by Vajra Chandrasekera, with a pink cover and an animal skull, and the tagline: "Will you follow me to the end?"
September 30, 2025 at 11:44 AM
alderling.com
For the #AugurMicros2025 contest, some thoughts about the net. @augursociety.bsky.social
The microfiction piece "Reprise" appears against a background of a photo looking up a limestone cliff at the trees above. The piece reads: "*Not enough*, we hold, the round hulls of our wings casting oars into the dark, the splash echoing to spill into distant coves. The land will not sustain us; its rocky shores cast a soaring cry over the waves, defiant and daring, but rocks repelling teeth bear little fruit. Our voices swell, songs replete with the ken that magnates always outpace kings: weighing anchor, trading empire, casting out the net. Industry and worship. Reassurance and rapine. One calamitous scramble after another and then: devoured. Reprising, splashing, throats forming the chorus behind bloody teeth. Not enough. Never enough." by Kieren Alderling
September 29, 2025 at 1:26 AM
alderling.com
I just found out that @hironennes.bsky.social has a new book coming out in October, so guess what I'm preordering!

Leech was such a phenomenal journey through the mind of a character that was both becoming and unbecoming due to isolation from its larger self...
The Works of Vermin book cover, by author Hiron Ennes, with pull quote "I will follow this author anywhere.” from Gillian Flynn, NYT bestselling author if gone girl. A centipede or millipede surrounds the title in a circle, and a dreamlike greenish backdrop uses floral and geometric shapes to frame the image.
September 11, 2025 at 12:27 AM
alderling.com
"This was too much to process. What was this human woman’s game? Was she teasing her about her injuries and her new helplessness? Shesheshen had to get out of here."

My precious, precious monster. Get loved, idiot.
The woman cast her eyes down, which made no sense. There was no tactical advantage to taking her eyes off of Shesheshen. “Uhm. I’m sorry if I offended you somehow. You were badly hurt.” This was too much to process. What was this human woman’s game? Was she teasing her about her injuries and her new helplessness? Shesheshen had to get out of here.
August 4, 2025 at 4:07 AM
alderling.com
I am CHARMED.

"The notion of someone trying to heal her like a person was alien. It couldn't be trusted."
“I gave it the best splint I could. You have some unruly bone structure. It will heal, though.” Shesheshen kept struggling with her splinted arm. She could re-spool that flesh into her body—there was no way the pulverized stones inside were going to heal like a mammal’s bones would. The notion of someone trying to heal her like a person was alien. It couldn’t be trusted. Book cover "Someone you can build a nest in" by John Wiswell, illustrated in eerie red under a yellow moon, with the shape of a dark witch with a cloak and tentacles behind a young, solidly-built young woman carrying a lantern. Chains, skulls, bear traps and other spooky items line the edges.
August 4, 2025 at 4:04 AM
alderling.com
You know how you finish a trip and are already looking forward to the next adventure? Definitely that for me.

I'm looking forward to being home for a while, too, though!
The view of the wing of an airplane out the window, with a view of the area around London, UK spread out below.
July 18, 2025 at 4:25 PM
alderling.com
We also stopped in Exeter. Sadly, I did not get to see the mechanical sculpture at Exeter Phoenix at the right time for it to be moving...
A mechanical phoenix on top of the entrance to the arts space Exeter Phoenix
July 8, 2025 at 12:40 PM
alderling.com
A quick wave at Stonehenge* as we go by! Not stopping there this trip.

*from the passenger seat
A photo of Stonehenge in England as viewed from the road. People walk around the historic location in a ring surrounded by ropes. The sky above is cloudy, with a dramatic burst of clear blue to one side of the stone ring.
July 8, 2025 at 12:28 PM
alderling.com
Big fan of this hawk I met near the wildlife park in Keswick, England. The stories from her handlers really make her sound like a cat, personality-wise.
A Harris hawk perched on a sign in front of greenery. The sign has arrows pointing to "The Lake", "Channel Walk" and "Wildlife Park"
July 3, 2025 at 2:42 PM
alderling.com
If my profile pic looks weird, it's because I doodled it in an hour or so. I might make another one!
A person with green hair and fair skin wearing a white shirt and blue tie. Signed with "Kiernan".
June 11, 2025 at 10:27 PM