Seán Padraic Birnie
@seanbirnie.bsky.social
Writer: I Would Haunt You if I Could. Stories in Fictionable, Cōnfingō, Best British Short Stories, Interzone, Black Static, The Dark, ergot.
seanbirnie.com
undertowpublications.com/shop/i-would-haunt-you-if-i-could
linktr.ee/seanbirnie
seanbirnie.com
undertowpublications.com/shop/i-would-haunt-you-if-i-could
linktr.ee/seanbirnie
Pinned
I Would Haunt You if I Could — Undertow Publications
COVER ART: Jana Heidersdorf
I would haunt you …
The debut short story collection from Seán Padraic Birnie does indeed
haunt. Sown with seeds of sorrow and grief, and imbued with disquieting
bod...
undertowpublications.com
First post on the new blue app: the wonderful @undertow.bsky.social’s published I Would Haunt You if I Could, my debut collection of short stories, in 2021, and it’s available here, among an absolute treasure trove of other titles: https://undertowpublications.com/shop/i-would-haunt-you-if-i-could
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
My favorite short story I wrote this year. Please read! Kind of an emotional thing for me.
"Stepan comes to me in a dream, sullen, with a bleeding lower lip split just where his lower canine has been knocked out."
today, beloveds!!
Punks Don't Die by @esedia.bsky.social
read it here 🥀
psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...
today, beloveds!!
Punks Don't Die by @esedia.bsky.social
read it here 🥀
psychopomp.com/deadlands/is...
Punks Don't Die - PSYCHOPOMP.COM
The last time I saw Stepan was at St. Petersburg Central Station.
psychopomp.com
November 20, 2025 at 2:17 PM
My favorite short story I wrote this year. Please read! Kind of an emotional thing for me.
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
Much of the emphasis is on the unsuitability of statutory sick pay's definition of "illness as usual", which does not account for chronic, fluctuating diseases like Long Covid, ME, and fibromyalgia.
#UKCovidInquiry
#UKCovidInquiry
November 26, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Much of the emphasis is on the unsuitability of statutory sick pay's definition of "illness as usual", which does not account for chronic, fluctuating diseases like Long Covid, ME, and fibromyalgia.
#UKCovidInquiry
#UKCovidInquiry
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
(1) Write genre from outside of it in, not the inside of it out.
(2) Try not to model yourself on the best of genre writers, only on the best of writers. Obviously your choices there will be subjective, but the risk with genre is it's a rabbit hole.
(3) Don't try to undo genre using its own tools.
(2) Try not to model yourself on the best of genre writers, only on the best of writers. Obviously your choices there will be subjective, but the risk with genre is it's a rabbit hole.
(3) Don't try to undo genre using its own tools.
November 7, 2025 at 11:40 AM
(1) Write genre from outside of it in, not the inside of it out.
(2) Try not to model yourself on the best of genre writers, only on the best of writers. Obviously your choices there will be subjective, but the risk with genre is it's a rabbit hole.
(3) Don't try to undo genre using its own tools.
(2) Try not to model yourself on the best of genre writers, only on the best of writers. Obviously your choices there will be subjective, but the risk with genre is it's a rabbit hole.
(3) Don't try to undo genre using its own tools.
Now I have a child I realise that technology has stolen one of the most important childhood experiences: finding your dad’s money down the side of the sofa.
November 26, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Now I have a child I realise that technology has stolen one of the most important childhood experiences: finding your dad’s money down the side of the sofa.
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
More blanks, more voids, more left unsaid, more productive ambiguity
March 11, 2025 at 3:20 PM
More blanks, more voids, more left unsaid, more productive ambiguity
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
Less description, fewer feelings
March 11, 2025 at 3:01 PM
Less description, fewer feelings
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
And the titular story is free to read til the end of the month.
undertowpublications.com/uncertain-sons
undertowpublications.com/uncertain-sons
November 25, 2025 at 4:54 PM
And the titular story is free to read til the end of the month.
undertowpublications.com/uncertain-sons
undertowpublications.com/uncertain-sons
Appear to be in a phase of my life in which there simply never enough little treats.
November 25, 2025 at 11:24 AM
Appear to be in a phase of my life in which there simply never enough little treats.
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
'Heavyness' excerpted here: www.seanbirnie.com/september-20...
'It seemed at any moment my body might just decide to disassemble.'
'It seemed at any moment my body might just decide to disassemble.'
September 2025: ‘Heavyness’ & a REMAINS magazine discount code
I was very pleased when Andy Cox and Richard Wagner returned to publishing this year with REMAINS, following Andy's retirement in 2024 and the shuttering of TTA Press, longtime stalwart of genre short...
www.seanbirnie.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:25 PM
'Heavyness' excerpted here: www.seanbirnie.com/september-20...
'It seemed at any moment my body might just decide to disassemble.'
'It seemed at any moment my body might just decide to disassemble.'
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
We're revisiting our back catalogue and the ONLY original novel we've published—M. Rickert's "The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie." This exquisite mystery is an amalgam of Frankenstein, and A Confederacy of Dunces. We want you to read it. The eBook is on sale for just $2.
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
November 24, 2025 at 2:24 PM
We're revisiting our back catalogue and the ONLY original novel we've published—M. Rickert's "The Shipbuilder of Bellfairie." This exquisite mystery is an amalgam of Frankenstein, and A Confederacy of Dunces. We want you to read it. The eBook is on sale for just $2.
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
undertowpublications.com/ebooks
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
these Penguin UK horror reissues look amazing & I’m intrigued by Edith Wharton’s POMEGRANATE SEED (she wrote horror?) & Rosalind Ashe’s MOTHS
November 24, 2025 at 1:34 PM
these Penguin UK horror reissues look amazing & I’m intrigued by Edith Wharton’s POMEGRANATE SEED (she wrote horror?) & Rosalind Ashe’s MOTHS
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
Time is a flat circle.
November 13, 2025 at 5:26 AM
Time is a flat circle.
The troubling realisation that I currently, for the first time in a long, have no stories out on the rejection carousel. I'll need to rectify this when I have some energy, but I'm very excited about two pieces coming out next year: 'Heavyness' in REMAINS (Jan) and 'Autoclave' in WEIRD HORROR (July)
November 24, 2025 at 1:22 PM
The troubling realisation that I currently, for the first time in a long, have no stories out on the rejection carousel. I'll need to rectify this when I have some energy, but I'm very excited about two pieces coming out next year: 'Heavyness' in REMAINS (Jan) and 'Autoclave' in WEIRD HORROR (July)
On which note: bsky.app/profile/sean...
tired of being tired of being tired of being ill
November 24, 2025 at 1:06 PM
On which note: bsky.app/profile/sean...
tired of being tired of being tired of being ill
November 24, 2025 at 1:04 PM
tired of being tired of being tired of being ill
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
I'm up at HAD today and yet my family is still not showing me any respect
seems weird
seems weird
"If someone asks if you’re a narc and you actually are a narc, you have to say it. That’s the rule. Like if someone directly asks you, you’re not allowed to lie about it. Same with if you’re a Republican..."
some rules today from Sasha Brown
https://www.havehashad.com/5as8y
some rules today from Sasha Brown
https://www.havehashad.com/5as8y
Narc Rules by Sasha Brown
If someone asks if you’re a narc and you actually are a narc, you have to say it. That’s the rule. Like if someone directly asks you, you’re not allowed to lie about it. Same with if you’re a…
www.havehashad.com
November 23, 2025 at 5:45 PM
I'm up at HAD today and yet my family is still not showing me any respect
seems weird
seems weird
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
#Booksky folk looking for gift ideas (or cheeky treats for themselves), i've done a list of 60 books that are related to Keshed in one way or another for @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social - mix of fiction, non-fic and poetry old and new. Have a shufty!
uk.bookshop.org/lists/how-to...
uk.bookshop.org/lists/how-to...
How To Get Keshed and Influence People
A list of titles related to Keshed.
uk.bookshop.org
November 23, 2025 at 2:29 PM
#Booksky folk looking for gift ideas (or cheeky treats for themselves), i've done a list of 60 books that are related to Keshed in one way or another for @bookshop-org-uk.bsky.social - mix of fiction, non-fic and poetry old and new. Have a shufty!
uk.bookshop.org/lists/how-to...
uk.bookshop.org/lists/how-to...
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
A murmur about a great short story collected in Michael Kelly's The Best Weird Fiction of the Year Vol. 1, @undertow.bsky.social. Among other things, Charlotte Tierney's "A Woman's Place Is in the Haunted Home" reveals things about anxiety that only fiction can.
www.weirdmurmur.com/2025/11/a-wo...
www.weirdmurmur.com/2025/11/a-wo...
A Woman's Place Is in the Haunted Home
Weird Murmur Blog by Grant Dowell. Weird Fiction, Pulp Tales, and Horror Story Discussions.
www.weirdmurmur.com
November 22, 2025 at 10:25 AM
A murmur about a great short story collected in Michael Kelly's The Best Weird Fiction of the Year Vol. 1, @undertow.bsky.social. Among other things, Charlotte Tierney's "A Woman's Place Is in the Haunted Home" reveals things about anxiety that only fiction can.
www.weirdmurmur.com/2025/11/a-wo...
www.weirdmurmur.com/2025/11/a-wo...
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
We the shitposters of the UK were saying at the time that lockdown was too late, some of us were already working from home. But no he insisted the Cheltenham Festival (March 10-13) and Liverpool v Madrid (March 11) went ahead. Meanwhile on March 12 the subservient press were briefed thus:
November 21, 2025 at 4:22 PM
We the shitposters of the UK were saying at the time that lockdown was too late, some of us were already working from home. But no he insisted the Cheltenham Festival (March 10-13) and Liverpool v Madrid (March 11) went ahead. Meanwhile on March 12 the subservient press were briefed thus:
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.
BREAKING: The UK’s response to Covid was “too little, too late”, a damning official report on the handling of the pandemic has concluded, saying the introduction of a lockdown even a week earlier than happened could have saved more than 20,000 lives.
November 20, 2025 at 4:17 PM
Worth remembering as this unfolds that it was disabled people and people from ethnic minority backgrounds who disproportionately died. Tens of thousands needlessly lost their lives, many who died alone or with just an iPad. Thousands more were left with life changing Long Covid. A true scandal.
Read and rather enjoyed Ray Russell's 'Sanguinarius' yesterday, a story based on the historical Elizabeth Báthory, and found myself thinking of the networks of patronage and ruling class solidarity at play in the Epstein scandal(s). I now want this edition.
November 20, 2025 at 11:17 AM
Read and rather enjoyed Ray Russell's 'Sanguinarius' yesterday, a story based on the historical Elizabeth Báthory, and found myself thinking of the networks of patronage and ruling class solidarity at play in the Epstein scandal(s). I now want this edition.
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
Incredible archive of Byte magazine. The covers. THE COVERS.
November 20, 2025 at 10:06 AM
Incredible archive of Byte magazine. The covers. THE COVERS.
'Are the fae open source?' is going to be rattling around in my head all day, posed with an air of rapidly increasing desperation.
“Are the fae open source?”
They might like you to think they are, but it’s just a ruse to get access to your name.
They might like you to think they are, but it’s just a ruse to get access to your name.
Turning into my father one "the problem is no one reads enough books these days" grumble at a time
November 20, 2025 at 10:11 AM
'Are the fae open source?' is going to be rattling around in my head all day, posed with an air of rapidly increasing desperation.
Reposted by Seán Padraic Birnie
The humor and spookiness are both so great but also, by the end, both feel like a red herring that Birnie uses to distract you from how deeply and insightfully he's written a portrait of a very specific place and people.
November 19, 2025 at 9:49 PM
The humor and spookiness are both so great but also, by the end, both feel like a red herring that Birnie uses to distract you from how deeply and insightfully he's written a portrait of a very specific place and people.
fatigue dip and off work but I made a load of sourdough pizza dough yesterday and the day before, and the sauce today, and I’ll be making pizzas tonight even if have to do it while comatose.
November 19, 2025 at 4:57 PM
fatigue dip and off work but I made a load of sourdough pizza dough yesterday and the day before, and the sauce today, and I’ll be making pizzas tonight even if have to do it while comatose.