Seán Padraic Birnie

@seanbirnie

seanbirnie.com Short stories in ergot, Weird Horror, Interzone, Remains & elsewhere me/cfs

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Ist das dein Profil?Übernimm es — dann gehört dir seanbirnie.dirty.social.Profil übernehmen

An installation project based on a torrent of a film made from a screenplay adapted from a book about a haunted house. ‘I Am Going Somewhere I am Expected & I Am Being Given Shelter’ (think I’ve remembered that right). Poor Eleanor Vance

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· 20d

Anyway, here are some random images from an abandoned MA project. Shot on a Mamiya RZ67 in the Odeon Cinema in Brighton.

Some underlit steps converging in a corridor at the Odeon, blue carpet, dark blue wallpaper, white banisters and tread.

One of the projection rooms. Old film reels mounted on the war. Boxes with switches. Big units. Dark and well techy

A projector in the room before, pointing through the little window into the screening room. Moore buttons and knobs etc, more blue. Shot on the wrong type of film so this was a nightmare to colour balance — graduated layer masks etc

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· 20d

“At the veldt institute everyone is sick, so no one is sick.” Some new arrivals.

The front covers of, respectively, The Veldt Institute by Samuel M. Moss, and Patchwork Dolls by Ysabelle Cheung.

The back covers of The Veldt Institute by Samuel M. Moss and Patchwork Dolls by Ysabelle Cheung.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Jul 8

Learning to type by typing up my illegible longhand mess of circumlocutionary bureaucratic nonsense on an olympia traveller. first page messy, second will be better. Then copy and pasting the photographed text for digital editing.

a white olympia Traceller de Luxe S next to a a notepad of scruffy longhand. Scruffy is putting it charitably

a page of badly typewritten text from the notebook.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Jul 7

New arrivals/current mood

The front covers of Asylum Piece by Anna Kavan and On Being Ill by Virginia Woolf & others

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Jul 5

Nice to be able to cook again today.

some heide red potatoes, peeled and chopped on a board.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Jun 8

Pleased to say that @polyscribe70.bsky.social's Blurred Edges has reached rain-blurred Hove, courtesy of @ballerinibookpress.bsky.social ballerinibookpress.ch/product/blur...

The front cover of Blurred Edges: Short Stories by Mike Fox. the cover artwork is called Surrey Docks Night Scene, by Geoff Stadden

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· May 16

Saturday morning is not so bad.

A copy of Jesus’s Son by Denis Johnson on a cafe table next to a cookie on a plate.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· May 14

I wonder what the flat was like.

A folded handwritten letter on a pillow.

The letter, unfolded, dated 16.4.99.

It reads:

Dear Si

Here is a belated birthday present. I hope you
haven’t read it yet - if you have I’m sure you can swop it for something at your local bookshop.

Hope you are well and that work & play are going fine.

I'm off to look at a flat this afternoon hopefully it wont be too much of a dump!

Make sure you keep your place nice for when I visit in summer,

Byeee
Bae.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· May 12

Can never see him without think of this.

screenshot from a twitter post by the late dawn foster, dated Jan 3, 2021:

“I knew Wes when I was a student and he was the NUS president - always been a right wing lickspittle cunt”

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· May 8

page 116 of The Blue Mask, part 7 of chapter 6:

“The final break with the past was, in many ways, the easiest. In late November, the government announced that from now on, students in higher and further education would have to pay their own tuition fees. This meant the end of universal access to education beyond school. On the day the Teaching and Higher Education Bill was passed, Neil and Matt tore their Labour Party membership cards into tiny pieces. They mixed the scraps of cards together, put them in an envelope and sent them to Millbank Tower.”

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· May 8

My head and chest is full of cold and my voice has dropped several decibels, so today I’m mostly horizontal enjoying this excellent novel.

The front cover of Joel Lane’s The Blue Mask. ‘A novel of considerable power.’ — The Guardian. They ain’t wrong.

The back cover of The Blue Mask, which reads:

'Joel Lane understood and expertly exploited the connection between exterior and interior
landscapes like no other.'

- Paul Tremblay

'A poet of misfits, outsiders and the forsaken, his empathy for their suffering ever poignant.'

- Adam Nevill

Neil is a student at Birmingham University, living a typical life of gigs, clubs, politics, sex.
One night, after a row with his lover, Neil follows a stranger onto a canal towpath. The stranger turns on him and attacks, viciously carving up Neil's face and leaving him mutilated beyond recognition.

Neil's recovery is a journey through surgical reconstruction and sexual alienation. His attempt to track down his attacker becoming a search for his own hidden, destructive self;
a search that leads him to question values he had always taken for granted.

First published in 2003 and long out-of-print, The Blue Mask is a hardcore emotional trip exploring the trauma of change and the nature of violence and of love.

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY JOSEPH O'NEILL

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· May 5

Very very pleased to read Paula Guran’s review of my story ‘Heavyness’ in the May issue of @locusmag.bsky.social. She says four of the stories in that issue of @remainsmagazine.bsky.social are exceptional — check it out: remains.uk/products/iss...

Screenshot of Paula Guran’s review of Heavyness:

“Four of the stories in Remains 4 were exceptional. Seán Padraic Birnie's "Heavyness" (sic) is narrated by a man who is beset by physical ailments as a child. Despite the causes being diagnosed as psychosomatic and somatisatic disorders, his parents see him as having a disability. Father aids him by inventing a protective suit, while his mother provides a diet of red meat and raw milk. Esther, his elder sister, has similar disorders, but hers manifest in a fluctuating respiratory condition she terms the "heavyness." Her ailments do, indeed, appear to bodily weigh her down. The family functions well enough. The parents die in their nineties, leaving the siblings orphaned in their sixties and seventies. Still, life goes on. When Esther dies, we learn more about that heavyness. A weird and well-wrought story.”

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· May 4

“‘I wake up every morning and think you will be there[… ] Every day they tell me again that you are not.’” Bank holiday short story number 1. Another extraordinary @nightjarpress.bsky.social release. An old boyfriend returns from the past, a duffel bag stuffed with memories. The weight of years.

A Nightjar press chapbook, Green Dress by Siobhan McKeown, on a cafe table next to a cup of coffee and a plate.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 27

Home to a welcome discovery on the doormat, courtesy of @raynewman.bsky.social. Order yours here, you won’t regret it: amzn.eu/d/05hvC2uT

The front cover of Ray Newman’s short story collection Thin Places in Hard Concrete, with an endorsement form Rose Ruane, author of Birding: "Ray's books are masterpieces of uncanny atmosphere." She’s not wrong.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 27

He enjoyed the pit stop in Surrey.

A Sainsbury’s Bag for Life on a patch of grass, with a handwritten sign attached that reads: DURING HER 12½YeS
OUR BELOVED LABRADOR LOVED FINDING TENNIS (ANY MANY OTHERS) BALLS
PLEASE FEEL FREE TO HELP YOURSELF! xx

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 27

On the plus side I have the best seat in the car.

Ruben a border collie looking at the camera from his position next to me in the back of the car.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 24

Undefeated.

A knackered wooden table football table in an old barn.

A knackered wooden table football table and a knackered table tennis tavle in a gloomier old barn, with a view of hills outside as the light turns.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 23

Excuse me but I am trying to read.

A Kobo on my lap, Ruben the border collie sat next to me on a red sofa in a garden backing on to fields in Wales.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 22

Fields seen through the windows of a door.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 22

Warning: Guard Dog. Soppy as fuck.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 22

Crossing the Severn.

View of traffic on the Prince of Bridge.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 22

Mood.

A photo of an image of Hank Hill from King of the Hill complaining to someone in the Computer Business Centre. University students have added the caption: “ I do not want to save to onedrive.
I want to save to the documents folder... On my computer... That I own... In my house.”

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 19

Acer and olive.

Branches and leaves of an acer, the branches and leaves of an olive tree behind it.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 18

Saturday morning cafe read. ‘The Crossing’ is the story of a breach at a border, guarded by the narrator and his unit. The snow of the setting is almost palpable. Escalating unease. Story and chapbook both beautifully realised.

A chapbook beside a flapjack on a cafe table. The chapbook is The Crossing by David Frankel, published by Uncertain Stories.

The back cover of The Crossing, with the text:

“As soon as I arrive, I sense something isn't right. I feel watched, as though someone is hiding out there beneath the trees where the winter sunlight doesn't reach.”

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 17

Ruben, a border collie, sitting in the boot of a car, looking forward over the seats, wondering when he’s gonna get to chase rabbits.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 17

Post the best picture you have ever taken of your pet. I’m not sure it’s the best but it’s one of my favourites. Ruben looking rather noble, rather than like the adorable himbo he actually is most of the time.

Photo of a border collie sitting down in the grass.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 5

Extract from the above-mentioned story, which reads:

1. Prefatory remarks - my sister's death - our environs

On the Tuesday I collected my sister's ashes from the funeral directors on Lewes Road. That it was an ordinary Tuesday, overcast and constantly on the verge of rain, felt remarkable. It seemed that a change so immense in implication for my own affairs should somehow mark the world beyond it, as if Esther had borne a Royal title and grand formal displays of mourning ought to have interrupted the course of everyday life. That things should proceed as normal felt scandalous. Of course we were not
royalty. We live - had lived - small and modest lives, bound together since infancy, Esther eight years older than I.

Seán Padraic Birnie@seanbirnie· Apr 1

Stepped off the wagon after 90 days to enjoy a pint of Harvey’s Dark Mild with some high brow reading material. When in Lewes, etc.