The Pebble Inspector Podcast

We take to the high seas for the first ever waterborne pebble inspection. I record on a very noisy ferry en route to the Roundstone Storytelling Festival and read from my own version of a fairytale, an uneasy bedtime story for any age. I also read from a couple of books I read this week that have helped crowbar me out of last week’s maudlin rut. Have at it. Works mentioned: Rain by Kirsty Gunn Millstone Grit by Glyn Hughes (A newer version than mine with an intro by Benjamin Myers, who’s class) Also mentioned: Roundstone Storytelling Festival, Galway Wordarium at The Gregson, Lancaster New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

CONTENT WARNING: She’s a salty one. This week sees me cast adrift into the world of being a freelance, by which I mean jobless, writer. I write a story too horrible to finish and I spiral into a pit of self pity and misery live on air. I talk about pirates, vikings, jellyfish and storytelling with a brief interlude for some chat about holiday plans. Works mentioned: Everything Ravaged, Everything Burned by Wells Tower The Heart In Winter by Kevin Barry Also mentioned: Roundstone Storytelling Festival, Galway Wordarium at The Gregson, Lancaster Verbalise & Poetry Club at the Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

I take a look back at a year spent working on a masters in creative writing at Lancaster University and ask was it worth it? Did I learn owt? What the fuck do I do now? Could I have spent £10k more wisely? And a first for The Pebble Inspector Podcast, we have listener’s letters! Works mentioned: The Tent by Margaret Atwood Four Stars by Joel Golby and his Substack Check out Jenn & Eoghan’s work Listen to The St Elwick’s Neighbourhood Association Newsletter Podcast New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

The death throws of a dissertation and an entire masters… I talk about writing that most hated of things, a critical reflection; trying to sound clever about all the stuff you just made up. Expect poorly pronounced french, poorly pronounced english, frostbite and lots of making it up as I go along. Works mentioned: The Years by Annie Ernaux

Skulking about in cupboards, laughing at my own jokes and generally living my best life. You can expect, in no particular order: Alligator wrestling Bashed heads Poultry pulling Dead dogs Winter winds Weasels strike back Fargo (1996) Works mentioned: A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers, Granta Magazine & The Abundance by Annie Dillard New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

Live from the studio…which is a bedroom cupboard, episode 7 of the Pebble Inspector Podcast covers writing-induced psychosis, Wetherspoons-related writing advice, taxidermy, overtop reactions to good writing and me being fully kicked in the head. I also ask, are celestial events good for flow state? Books mentioned: Teaching A Stone To Talk & The Abundance by Annie Dillard New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

I’ve scuttled back under my duvet for this week’s pebble inspection. I take another run at a piece I discussed back in episode two, following feedback and some fairly substantial rewrites. I wonder whether diorama is the right word, I take time to appreciate noise-cancelling headphones and the physics of helium balloons, all while a one-hundred-foot-tall skeleton haunts the streets and skies of London and I start seeing double. Books mentioned: A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius By Dave Eggers Grief Is A Thing With Feathers By Max Porter The Year Of Magical Thinking By Joan Didion New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

Breaking out from under the duvet, this time recording in a French kitchen at the foot of Mont Blanc. A different format this week, the Pebble Inspector Podcast looks back at the last few months of reading during the Creative Writing & Literature Studies Master’s course at Lancaster University. Over an hour and a quarter of me reeling off 40 titles with no notes or plan but what I remember of them. I also completely forgot to mention two entire books but I’m on holiday so I’m not rerecording (listed below). Works cited: The Tent Margret Atwood The Heart In Winter Kevin Barry The Years Annie Ernaux The Truth About Babies Ian Sansom A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius Dave Eggers Short Cuts & Will You Please Be Quiet? Raymond Carver Selected Poems Thomas Kinsella  Grief Is A Thing With Feathers Ant Colony Michael Deforge A Shock Keith Ridgeway Salt Slow Julia Armfield West: A Journey Through the Landscapes of Loss Jim Perrin A New Path To The Waterfall Raymond Carver  In Another Country David Constantine  The Third Policeman Flann O’Brien The Power Naomi Alderman The Testaments Margret Atwood Go Tell It On The Mountain James Baldwin Essex Serpent Sarah Perry A Maggot John Fowles Paradise Toni Morrison Gilead Marilynne Robinson Hey Nostradamus Douglas Coupland Home Fire Kamilla Shamsie  Fen Daisy Johnson Constellations: Reflections From Life Sinead Gleeson Topographia Hibernica Blindboy Boatclub Rock As Gloss Mark Goodwin The Emigrants W.G. Sebald Selected Poems Paul Celan  Paris: A Poem Hope Mirrlees The Waves Virginia Woolf Endgame Samuel Beckett Intimations Zadie Smith The Periodic Table Primo Levi Dance Move Wendy Erskine Possession A. S. Byatt Brief Interviews With Hideous Men David Foster Wallace The Dangers Of Smoking In Bed Mariana Enriquez Poetries In English Not mentioned but also read: The Gospel Of Órla Eoughan Walls The Dalkey Archive Flann O’Brien New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

Back under the duvet for another episode of the Pebble Inspector Podcast. This week I take a look at an early draft of a piece all about being born, if not in a barn, then pretty close. Expect giant unkillable turkeys, lambs in need of a Panadol and a never ending winter. The book mentioned is Constellations: Reflections From Life by Sinéad Gleeson New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

I once again risk heat stroke by sitting under a duvet during a heatwave to record this week’s episode. This week we look at a second piece of writing as part of my dissertation, its an encyclopedia of sorts, all about growing up and becoming an adult and the 90’s and Nintendos and Cantona and cancer and psychology and castles. I also talk about the following books: - Four Stars: A Life In Review by Joel Golby - A Heartbreaking Work Of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers - The Truth About Babies: From A - Z (I get this wrong in the ‘cast but we roll) by Ian Sansom (I get that bit right) - The Years by Annie Ernaux New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

In this episode we have a first look at this week’s work in progress. Plus: A hundred foot tall inflatable skeleton, the death of Princess Diana and a few mummy-issues. I try to work out if my story is going anywhere and if so, where. I nearly die of heat exhaustion under a duvet during recording and have to finish the rest in my pants. Book mentioned: Grief Is A Thing With Feathers by Max Porter www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk

A debrief on who I am and what to expect from The Pebble Inspector Podcast. Some extracts of my work, what I've been reading recently and what's coming next. New episode every Friday. www.jamesgraywriter.co.uk