Katie McDermott

Currently reading 'Stag Dance' by Torey Peters during the day, 'Operation Bounce House' by Matt Dinniman during the night feeds and listening to 'the eye of the bedlam bride' also by Dinniman while doing chores or out walking

Happy #IrelandReads day

David Lynch saying ‘One day, the sadness will end. But I don’t think today’s the day.’

“Pre-emptive strike” is an interesting way of spelling “terrorist attack”.

It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
Signifying nothing.

M&S has 20% off footwear and accessories, tried to buy some cosy socks but it turns out there's no discount on them because they are, in fact, "lingerie", not footwear or accessories. Gonna have to do some seducing in them to justify the full price 😂

An image looking at the edge of a hardback book, the whole book is curved like a banana

Said book is Neven Maguire's perfect Irish Christmas recipe book

I have never seen a hard back book curve like this in my life. Still perfectly usable

4 book covers, all by Matt Dinniman: the dungeon anarchist's cookbook, carols Doomsday scenario, dungeon crawler carl and this inevitable ruin

January 2026 reading wrap up, I finished reading dungeon crawler carl then started at the beginning again with the Audiobooks

James Joyce - born on this day #botd 1882:

“Write it, damn you, write it! What else are you good for?”

Playing mario kart and nephew (4) is refusing to throw any turtle shells because he says they're pets 😂 bless.

Gaza and the Board of Peace feat. Dana El Kurd

If, like me, you've had to tap out of the news for a few weeks, this podcast is a very good guide to the devastation that continues in Gaza open.spotify.com/episode/1xut...

I just ploughed through all of Dungeon Crawler Carl and now I've started back at the beginning, this time in audiobook format. Great, fun books!

Section 5(1)(f) of the Child Trafficking and Pornography Act 1998 (as amended) makes it a criminal offence to knowingly facilitate the production or distribution of sexualised images of children. The problem here isn't the law - it's the political willingnesss to enforce it against X.

New year's resolutions:

more tattoos, including a trip somewhere to get a tattoo.

Learn to sew.

Eat more kinds of pasta, including shapes , sauces etc. (in part, to set the bar low so I can achieve something and in part to help encourage my eldest to eat a slightly broader range of food).

So I got quite sick, and wasn't able to focus on reading very much, and didn't keep track of what I did read.

Then I had a baby late in the year and during the endless night feeds I read 6 dungeon crawler carl books. I'll try keep better track in the new year!

#spéirghorm Athbhliain faoi mhaise daoibh! 🥂🍾

This set of observations is produced by my scrolling Reddit and otherwise listening to people talk about "how to write."

A) there is no requirement that any of your characters has any sort of "arc" let alone a redemption.

B) there is also no requirement that your fiction has a plot.

Bong Joon Ho took a characteristically radical approach when questioned on his thoughts around the rise of Al technology at the jury press conference of the Marrakech Film Festival on Saturday. The Korean director, who is president of the jury, gave two responses, one measured, the other deeply personal. "My official answer is, Al is good because it's the very beginning of the human race finally seriously thinking about what only humans can do. But my personal answer is, I'm going to organize a military squad, and their mission is to destroy AI," he said.

Bong Joon Ho hit me up for the squad you legend deadline.com/2025/11/bong...

The Google AI search results are a bit like an Irish person giving directions. They might not know the answer but they're happy to give it a go and guess along with you.

Wonder if he's ever said this about homelessness. ##speirgorm

This bears repeating.

❛ What. / The fuck. / Is this leaf. / Doing. In my–– / And this. / And fucking this.

A poem for your Sunday reset – by Dawn Watson, from Issue 25. 🍂

September reading wrap up: no photos for this one as I've mostly been editing my own novel and Beta reading a novel for my friend, neither of which are published (yet!).

But I sure did START reading a lot of different things, now I just need to finish something 😅

August reading wrap up

Just gave the 3-year-old a "disco bath" - we turned the lights down, put glow sticks in the bath and I played maniac 2000 from my phone. Everyone had fun, definitely recommend it.

The level of destruction and erasure in the Gaza Strip is simply incredible. North Gaza, before and after:

Join our meet and greet session on Thursday October 30th to share your experiences as a writer with a disability, as we devise a range of targeted supports for disabled writers.

Please contact Declan Meade by Wednesday October 22nd

We’d love to hear from you.

stingingfly.org/news/a-call-...

It’s a "crisis" when immigrants "take jobs away", but "innovation" when machines do. Funny.

Budget 2026: State’s basic income scheme for artists made permanent Negotiations down to the wire, with five big-spending departments yet to agree their budget allocations

Cool!

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