The Pebble Inspector Podcast

The Pebble Inspector Podcast

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The Pebble Inspector Podcast episodes

  • Ep. 7: The Taming Of The Weasel
    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
    57 min
  • Ep. 6: The Importance of Being Earnest
    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
    53 min
  • Ep. 5: The Reading List
    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
    1 hr 18 min
  • Ep. 4: Bleak Midwinter
    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
    28 min
  • Ep. 3: A Is For Angst
    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
    42 min
  • Ep. 2: The Unbearable Lightness Of Being (A Princess)
    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
    48 min
  • Ep. 1: Knowing me, knowing…me
    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
    37 min

About The Pebble Inspector Podcast

From the publisher's feed

The Pebble Inspector Podcast is a weekly reflection on the writing experience, acting as a journal and sounding board. Recapping what I have written (or not written) that week, how I feel about it,…