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Kieren Alderling

@alderling.com

90 followers 310 following 110 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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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 13d

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

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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 8h

I once got halfway through a 15k story and realized the extent to which the deuteragonist was lying their ass off.

Catherine “Halloween meme participant” Winters @catherinewinters.com · 8h

I, who once wrote 70,000 words before realizing the protagonist was in love with one of the other characters, was SO MAD to discover that planning works well for me. #WritingCommunity

Mx. D. D. Ward (they/them) @ddwardiswriting.bsky.social · 9h

Okay #WritingCommunity

Planners and Pantsers. Have you ever tried the opposite approach? Planners, have you ever just writtem with no plan? What happened. Pantsers, have you ever tried outlining? What happened?

Was there anything you kept from this experiment.

I switched from pantser to planner.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 9h

Yesssssss the introduction of the Human with the wide predator eyes, and Doctor, who looks completely normal and is somehow registering fear on the Human's face...

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 10h

I always love that kind of playing with monsters and appearances, too!

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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 11h

What about her work still resonates most strongly with you today?

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 11h

Because so tired by that point 😭

Reposted by Kieren Alderling

Catherine “Halloween meme participant” Winters @catherinewinters.com · May 23

Nia Moredi just wants to look out for her little brother. Miss Laval needs to attend a governess-teacher meeting. Baarsin Dorvierre's being watched. Pickpocket Wren needs to recharge her misdirection charm. If only Nia could remember which of them she's supposed to be today. #WIPPit #YA #F #LGBT

A mood board of eight tiles and a centre square with lockpicking tools and ancient writing:
1. Always have an escape plan.
2. A swindler never lets herself feel like a fraud.
3. Don't look for the easy grab, look for the easy mark.
4. Never get involved with golems.

The pictures depict, clockwise from upper right:
A) A city of canals and towering footbridges. There are minarets and steeples and red-tiled roofs.
B) A market selling elaborate lanterns, all aglow.
C) A porcelain and gold hand, reaching upwards.
D) Two figures leaping across rooftops against the coming dawn.
E) A pocketwatch--or is it? Constellations and continents cover the front, the body of the watch engraved with runes. It's sitting on ancient parchment.
F) A wax stamp with removable chits that function as coins in a card game.
G) The lords of the city overlooking grand canals and issuing edicts. They are dressed in fine red robes and silks.
H) Assorted bones and shells used for divination and more.

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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

Now that's what I'm talking about! That's excellent, and I love the rules.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

Vigilante authors writing illegally in the night—wait, no, that does it, too.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

Love when the mask cracks!

Reposted by Kieren Alderling

Catherine “Halloween meme participant” Winters @catherinewinters.com · 1d

#QueerWritersChat A5: Follow my 1990s office-themed narrative video game After Work on itch! Coming soon! cornonthecob.games

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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

The problem with pretending to be someone (or a dizzying variety of someones) is that you can misplace your own face. :)

Catherine “Halloween meme participant” Winters @catherinewinters.com · 1d

#QueerWritersChat A2: Literal masks are just for breathing and safety purposes. Metaphorical masks, on the other hand, those tend to show up a lot, considering how much I write about scammers pretending to be people they’re not…even to themselves.

AmaraJLynn💎🌌🌺GEMS & STAR FLOWERS coming soon! @amaralynn.bsky.social · 1d

#QueerWritersChat

Question Two: Do any of your MCs wear literal or metaphorical masks?

Next question at :15!

@theodoresnapdragon.bsky.social #QueerWriters #writesky #writers

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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

I will be completely honest here; LOVE masked balls in the third act.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

Perpetually. I see masks as a way that people interact with the world; one puts on a different mask for appropriate situations. It's also easy to get lost behind.

They're especially fun for genderfluid characters to use.

#QueerWritersChat

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

I'm Kieren Alderling and I'm currently working on a dark fantasy novel with cosmic horror elements:

A changeling assassin who serves a noble house is drawn into a mystery in the dock district when they come upon a series of murders that it looks like they committed. #QueerWritersChat

Theo Transcendragons @theodoresnapdragon.bsky.social · 8d

Welcome to #QueerWritersChat!

To start things off, introduce yourself and tell us what you're working on!

Feel free to mention what you’re looking forward to in October, too :)

Next question at :10!

@amaralynn.bsky.social #QueerWriters #writesky #writers #writingq

#QueerWritersChat
Question One: Introduce yourself and your current project
Hosts: @amaralynn and @theodoresnapdragon Every Friday 8pm EST
All LGBTQIAP writers and allies welcome Background: gray wood with multicolor art supplies around the border.

Reposted by Kieren Alderling

David A. Rozansky @davidrozansky.bsky.social · 1d

#SciFiChat ends its broadcast day, but tune in again next week, same time, same hashtag. Oct. 17. Social Chat at 3pET, Discussion Questions at 4pET. Topic will be: A Future of No Kings, or, Fall of Empire in #SciFI and #Fantasy.

#Horror #Books #TV #Movies #Comics #Games #NoKings

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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

Hi David, looking forward to the next chat! I enjoy writing about monsters of many kinds, chasing terror and longing to look at visceral experiences of what makes us differently human.

I have a sci-fi horror in the works, set on a penal space station where an infection begins to form a hive mind.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

As it turns out, getting caught is pretty irrelevant.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

Someone You Can Build A Nest In was great fun! These are often great examples of flipping the fear of the Other into fear of the Authority that considers itself the default; often a rejection of other stories that position people like Us as the monster. Sympathy for the devil and all. #scifichat

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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 1d

I enjoyed that The Shape of Water preamble described the story as "a tale of love and loss" and "the monster who tried to destroy it all."

You know it's going to be good when they're playing with "who's the real monster" from the start.

Reposted by Kieren Alderling

🌈 Hailey Piper 🌈 @haileypiperfights.bsky.social · 2d

The most important art advice possible

DannyAraya @dannyaraya.bsky.social · 2d

Creators, be less tasteful and more indulgent.

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Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 3d

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.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 3d

I LOVE that. I'm terrible at watching TV, but it's been bumped up my list now.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 3d

But you're going to be now! Enjoy your fun trip!!

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 4d

That happened to me for the first time recently, and even for someone with chronic migraines, it felt bizarre.

Kieren Alderling @alderling.com · 4d

That IS a real word; autocorrect just hates onomatopoeias.