Katie McIvor
@mckatie
Scottish writer 🐾 Stories in / soon in Strange Horizons, The Deadlands, The Dark, PodCastle, PseudoPod, The Rumpus, Gamut, Uncharted, Fusion Fragment, Interzone & others 🐾 katiemcivor.com
Forever behind on this sort of thing, but I finally had a look at the 2025 Stoker Awards recommended list aaaaand... The Somnambulist was on it! I had so much fun with this story, it's really nice to see it getting some love 🥰
This happened to me 4hrs after giving birth, when they wanted to move me off labour ward & send husband home. Crying, shaking, midwife offering "reassurance". Got to pp ward, had a >1.5L haemorrhage, sent straight back to labour ward. At least they let husband stay after that 🙃
We had a visitor in the kitchen yesterday! Not sure what kind of bird (song thrush maybe?) but she was fine and flew out again without even pooping anywhere
An unanticipated perk of breastfeeding is actually having more time than usual to read! When someone else is watching the toddler that is 😂 I just finished Katabasis and have started A Stranger in Olondria 📚
Thrilled to have a story in the latest Three-Lobed Burning Eye anthology! If you like stories about insomniac hitmen, creepy deer, and Scottish bogs, 'The Somnambulist' is for you 🦌 Huge thanks to Andrew @3lobedmag.com for publishing my weird stuff!
Today is a bit of a milestone - we are now as far along in this pregnancy as we were the day Marnie was born! So happy that everything seems to be going more smoothly this time round 🤞 and thankful as always for NHS Scotland and their excellent medical care ❤️
Chances of me finishing this giant pile of parenting & cleaning self-help books by the time the baby arrives in March, what do we reckon 🤔
Things I read in December! I especially loved Liar, Dreamer, Thief by @mariadongwrites.bsky.social - it kept surprising me all the way through ❤️ I'm not sure if I'll keep tracking my 2026 reads as I'll be busy with baby number 2, but it's been fun posting book & short story recs for the past year :)
Things I read in November 📚 no short stories this month as it's khoreo season and also life has been crazy busy, but I enjoyed this slightly chaotic selection of novels and poetry
1-year-old is randomly obsessed with this balti recipe book and it's the cutest thing ever. She just sits on the floor poring over pictures of baltis and saying things like "Is that... tomatoes?" 😭❤️
Things I read in October - 3 solid choices for spooky season! Hugely recommend this short story collection by the always brilliant @thomasha.bsky.social . On my third (I think?) reread of @jeffvandermeer.bsky.social 's Area X novels, Authority is still my fave ❤️ And Fevre Dream was just insane fun 🧛♂️
Scotland y u so pretty 🥺❤️❤️ Photo credit: my 1-year-old for waking me up early enough to see this
I spent baby's naptime today going through edits for my upcoming 3LBE story. It's about a sleep-deprived hitman going slowly insane on an interminable car chase across Scotland, and I can't wait for you all to read it! And, yes, it has a bog in it :) 💚
Please enjoy this video of a nice ba ba, with commentary by my 1 year old 🐑
Things I read in September! It's not been an easy month as reading, like everything else this preggo, has been making me nauseous, but I managed a couple of new books and a(nother) re-read of the brilliant Annihilation
Riverside run the other evening. If you zoom right in in the middle you will see a ridiculously tall heron
Husband just spent a week on holiday in Italy with his friends and the thing I am most jealous about is that their villa had a view of the actual big boat from Big Boat Stuck
Things that make me feel sick right now: Food Music Being awake Literally any smell Reading ☹️ Being hungry The only things that don't make me feel sick right now: Gilmore girls Cheesy doritos Baby number 2 arriving next year!
I've lived here nearly 2 years and run this route about once a week, how have I only just noticed this field is surrounded by a huge border of wild sunflowers? 😭 🌻 💛
Today I finished writing a short story for the first time this year. I love parenting this wee poppet but it's so, SO hard to find time to write. Trying to feel good about what I've managed to do instead of beating myself up for not being able to do more.