Ian C Peake

@thesearedogyears

Writing the time-hopping, people/dog anthology nobody asked for. They're not *about* dogs, but they're not *not* about dogs. There's always a dog (exclusions apply). Free to read at thesearedogyears.dog. Dog pics from the Scottish hinterland too.

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Bluesky

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Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· 2h

I hope someone enjoyed the Grebe or Water Rail their phone mistook for the pigletty sound of my wet crocs on grass this morning. #dogsofbluesky #birding #Scotland

A stunning black Labrador sits in long wet grass, looking up at the camera with amber eyes and an expression of mild concern. Two crocs-clad feet are visible in the foreground.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· 15h

"You must throw the stick. ...You may not touch the stick. You must throw the stick." -Echo #dogsofbluesky #labrador #Scotland

An objectively perfect soaking wet black Labrador stands on a leaf-strewn woodland path, tongue out, looking directly at the camera with an expression of absolute intent. A stick lies on the ground in the foreground, untouched. A moss-covered burn runs through the trees behind her.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· 2d

1972 Norwegian Arctic. Strøm mushes his dog pack, the past mushes him, while something colder and darker than the polar night waits out on the ice. thesearedogyears.dog/anomaly.html #shortstory #booksky #horror #dogsofbluesky

Anomaly at ARCESS-7. Svalbard Archipelago, Norwegian Arctic, 1972. Text reads: "Fucking Eriksen and his fool's errand. Four kilometers out. Another six to the ridge."

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· 25d

I hurdled, she limboed. We shared the wild raspberries on the other side. #DogsOfBluesky #Nature #Scotland

Sunlight filters through an open woodland with tall grass and a moss-covered fallen tree across the foreground. A black dog ducks underneath the trunk, with only her back half and upright tail visible, heading towards a bright clearing.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· 28d

thirty miles of good clean air between our hill and someone else's mountain tonight

A view over a hedgerow, out of focus in the foreground, onto a green field where cattle lie at rest. Beyond, a dark line of beech trees, and on the horizon the mountains of Arran, blue-grey against a pale evening sky streaked with soft cloud.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 19

Scottish winters can be relentless. Stormy, cold, wet and dark. If you like the outdoors and you work and commute, you can end up living for the weekend. Hoping for dry weather on your day off. Then the day arrives when you realise the 9-5 has left you enough light, and the world is wide again.

A black dog silhouetted in the shallows against a vivid pink and orange sunset over the Firth of Clyde, Arran in the distance.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 10

The stories page was a list. Functional and... fine. The problem: each story lives in a completely different time and place. A list flattens that. So I rebuilt it as a carousel: one story, one image, one world at a time. thesearedogyears.dog #webdev #booksky #amwriting #indieweb

A full-screen carousel card for the Dog Years stories page. A sepia photograph of a stray dog on a dusty frontier street. The title 'Packless', date '1885', location 'Dakota Territory USA', and a gold-outlined 'Read This Story' button.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 9

Dogs have been everywhere that humans have, but didn't try to narrate it or give their hot take. They just caught the scent of joy, heard mischief on the hill a mile off, felt danger coming along their spine. That makes them the perfect comrades for adventure. Here's Echo this weekend.

A black Labrador turning toward the camera in the foreground, mouth open, ears alert. Behind a metal farm gate, a group of cattle stand in mud backlit by a low winter sun. East Ayrshire, Scotland.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 8

Beware the false spring.

A black Labrador stands on a muddy farm track at golden hour, silhouetted against a low winter sun breaking through bare trees at the field's edge. Tractor ruts score the ground around her. Her tail is raised.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 7

wing's tip carves the sky mastery needs no witness the buzzard just is

A common buzzard soars against a cloudless deep blue sky, wings fully extended, primary feathers splayed at the tips like open fingers.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 6

Planning a euro trip on the ferry early June. Belgium, Netherlands, Le Touquet. Echo has opinions (pro cheese mostly), but limited geographical knowledge. What's unmissable with a dog? Anywhere we shouldn't bother with? #DogsOfBluesky #Belgium #Netherlands #France #travel

A black Labrador sits at a ferry porthole, gazing out at the sea with the focused expression of someone who has important nautical contributions to make.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 5

We had a contextless yellow van with 'potatoes' stenciled on the side driving round my neighbourhood in the 80s. No phone number, no name, just the assumption you'd what- flag him down to access the potatoes? Also this:

A billboard reading GABBO IS COMING. No further context provided. None needed. This is fine.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 4

My brain's writing a novella set in a corporate climate refuge in 2038 when I only asked it for a short story. Your dog's violated the terms of employment/residence/existence and the clock's ticking. I think it shares DNA with Terry Gilliam's Brazil, but nobody gets the luxury of going mad. #WIP

A man sits strapped in a chair wearing a metal helmet, facing a masked figure in a clinical setting. A still from Terry Gilliam's Brazil (1985).

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 3

Honestly I wasn't setting substack alight. But since leaving and building a wee site of my own (with no idea how), I found the fringe benefit of not having to pick your aesthetic from a limited menu. The page itself becomes part of the story, not just a container for it. #indieweb #booksky

Screenshot of four pages from an indie website hosting stories from a collection about dogs and humans across deep time.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Mar 2

'Why Dogs?' #3 Writing stories across different times and places needs witnesses. Dogs are perfect for that. Here's Echo from the Fife coast this weekend, fresh from everyone's business. #DogsOfBluesky #booksky #amwriting

A black Labrador sat on a Scottish beach with the harbour wall and fisherman's cottages visible in the background. Her snout is sandy.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Feb 24

I grew up on spoken word vinyl discs like HCA's Snow Queen, with voice acting, snowstorms, hoofbeats etc. That's why I'm risking hokeyness to put optional ambient sounds with the Dog Years stories. Nobody has to use them. But if they do, I hope they feel like bedtime stories for grown-ups. #indieweb

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Feb 23

Dogs arrived before we had a fixed home to offer them. Before we had reliable food to share. In many ways before we'd done becoming recognisably human. They were just there, and up for it. Whatever we both are, we became it together. So umm, yeah, that's why dogs. Wait where'd you go? #dogsofbluesky

A freaking gorgeous black Labrador taking a moment to sniff snowdrops with her snoot.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Feb 19

Haha thanks 😄 Yeah, exactly- when you list the 'standard dog attributes' you basically get a recipe for coolness: live in the moment, enjoy your people, show love freely, hold few grudges, embrace dumb joy. Conclusion: cool guys, worth writing about forever. Thanks for the repost too!

A black Labrador looking lit af on a Scottish hillside in winter.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Feb 18

Working on a story with a marriage ending- it's all terse words in the dog park at handover time. The question: how do you make it compelling/fun, and not just mean/sad? Hepburn and O'Toole have the masterclass. Goldman's words. Merciless wit. Irresistible, consummate cruelty. #WritingCommunity

The movie poster for the 1968 film 'The Lion in Winter.' It features Katharine Hepburn as Eleanor of Aquitaine and Peter O'Toole as King Henry II. They are dressed in regal medieval attire, their faces etched with a mixture of intense rivalry and deep, complicated affection. The atmosphere is one of high-stakes psychological warfare.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Feb 17

"I went from zero website to one website in four months and it hasn't made me a penny." ...is exactly why I don't have a productivity substack going gangbusters BUT I made a cute retro little online home for my stories AND learned a bit about coding which turns out to be kinda creative. #IndieWeb

Screenshot of a webpage for a short story featuring a wounded rabbit sheltering with a hunting dog at midwinter.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Feb 16

"Why dogs?" #1 We teamed up so long ago that we're like friends who've been close since kindergarten. There's no imagining either one without the other. We're a Gordian knot at this point. Anyway here's a pic of Echo from the weekend. #dogs #dogsofbluesky #writing #literaryfiction #history

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Feb 10

-Smaller -Slower -Weirder -Kinder That's how my stories get to be when they're relaxing in their own space, and that's why I've been learning basic code stuff and building a website for them. Someone said it feels like circa 2002 internet and I'm absolutely chuffed with that.

Ian C Peake@thesearedogyears· Feb 9

I've been writing a collection called Dog Years. They're stories about humans and dogs across tens of thousands of years. Why? Dunno. But I'm having fun, and dogs are cool (and many other things too). Nine stories so far. More coming. They live free on my website www.thesearedogyears.dog