Ciaran McGrath

@cerandor.com

1122 Followers 679 Following

Writer of stuff, player of games, enjoyer of life. Living with cancer, trying to be a better person one day at a time.

Moonset over the Mournes: a view of the Mourne Mountains silhouetted by an evening sky, with the crescent moon visible above them. In the foreground are a stony beach and some fields.
A view from the lower tier of a large stadium, its seats filled with a scattering of people. On the pitch beyond, two GAA teams are competing, albeit at a distance that makes the entire exercise seem futile.
David Xanatos from Disney’s Gargoyles. Looking very natty in a business suit.
A cargo freighter seen from above, steaming towards a setting sun. And if the phone hadn’t decided to act the maggot suddenly, I might have got a shot showing it emerging from under the bridge I was standing on.
A section of text from Terry Pratchett’s “Moving Pictures,” which reads: In a sense which his tutors couldn't quite define, much to their annoyance, Victor Tugelbend was also the laziest person in the history of the world. Not simply, ordinarily lazy. Ordinary laziness was merely the absence of effort. Victor had passed through there a long time ago, had gone straight through commonplace idleness and out on the far side. He put more effort into avoiding work than most people put into hard labour. He had never wanted to be a wizard. He'd never wanted much, except perhaps to be left alone and not woken up until midday. When he'd been small, people had said things…
Two drinks beside each other on a table in a dimly lit bar. On the left is a half drunk pint, remembering all the good times, assuming that the evening is at an end. On the right is a brand new Old Fashioned, looking forward to all the good times you’re going to have together.
A view across the sea to the Mountains of Mourne, lost in mist and silhouette on the horizon. The foreground is divided between a garden catching the last light of the day and a grassy slop bathed in shadow. The sky is all wisps of sunlight and smoky clouds, and the photographer is perhaps fonder of words than he should be.
A descriptive six-panel comic explaining “How to Gird Up Your Loins.” In it, a solidly built gentleman ties his ankle-length robe around his waist, freeing himself up to raise havoc with a slingshot.
Two posts with photos on BlueSky, one of a train travelling through space, the other of an effigy of a basking shark in a garden hedge. Posing and coloration create a weird resonance between the two images.
The cover of Marvel Conics Presents: Wolverine #101. Drawn by Sam Keith, it shows a heavily stylised Wolverine and Nightcrawler perched like terrifying murder frogs in the branches of a tree.
A view across some darkening fields, outshone by the sky above, where tattered wisps of cloud have been cast in pink and orange by the setting sun.
On the Royal Canal under a BlueSky (ahem), with the red and white striped chimneys of Poolbeg visible in the distance. Two joggers are running away from the photographer on the towpath, and a building in the middle distance has been adventurously graffitied with an Irish tricolour.
A bottle of 2017 Hungarian Tokaji. You can’t see the top, but it’s not open. Yet.
A small telescope stands on a tripod in a driveway, beside a car. It’s pointed at the moon, a glowing yellowish disc rising above a nearby house. The whole setup suggests that it was quickly assembled by someone who was watching the moon rise as he made a long drive home and decided to take a closer look as soon as he arrived. Somehow.
A map of New Hampshire, showing both Derry and Londonderry, presumably settled by people from Ulster who headed to the New World with the intention of taking everything with them.
An empty corridor in an airport. Signs overhead point to gates with implausibly high numbers.
A hand holds a book entitled: THE GAME NARRATIVE KALEIDO SCOPE 100+ ESSAYS ON THE CRAFT OF GAME WRITING Collated by Jon Ingold The book’s cover is a colourful kaleidoscope on a black background.
A screenshot of the youraislopbores.me app. It’s showing the “human” tab, with a request to “Draw a happy goblin” and a hand-drawn image in response, of a big-eared goblin wearing a top hat and wielding a sword, with a broad smile.
A black mug with the crest of West Bromwich Albion football club in grayscale, sitting on a slate coaster amid the detritus of a messy work desk.
A shot of Santiago in Chile, taken from the top of a skyscraper, showing a vista of buildings with the snow-capped Andes in the distance below a clear blue sky.
The front of a cinema in faded colours, with the word GRAND in unlit neon and a “for sale” sign in one window.
A view over a beach to a distant headland. The tide is out and the wet sand reflects the light of the early morning sun, shining through the clouds.
A screenshot of the credits from Runequest: Warlords. The text reads: SPECIAL THANKS! President and Creative Director @ Chaosium Inc.—Jeff Richard Narrative Designer, Writer @ Virtuos—Ciaran McGrath Game Designer @ Virtuosv—Gavin Crosbie Game Designer @ Virtuos—Hugo Cerruti Storyboard Artist—Serhii Sudenko
A shot from the short film “The Shore,” showing four men walking on a beach, carrying buckets and wearing wellington boots.
A tabletop still life featuring a bottle of orange juice, a packet of crisps, a brown paper bag, and the 2025 AdventureX programme.
The back of an airplane seat, with USB-A and -C ports for charging.
Dublin Airport Terminal 2 at dawn.
A stand of three trees on a grassy bank, close enough to look like one, with strong sunlight from the left and a blue sky behind. Autumn leaves stain the bank brown and gold where the shadow of the trees does not hide them.
An election poster featuring the smiling face of a bald man, with the text: ‘FOR PRESIDENT. GAVIN” It lies abandoned on a footpath, covered in a scattering of autumn leaves.
The Mourne Mountains, seen on the horizon, lit by the early morning sun, with fluffy clouds atop them in a blue sky. In the foreground are a slightly muddy field and a sand-and-stone beach, with a winding coastal road between the two.
A low-level photo of a beach at sunset. Mountains are silhouetted on the horizon to the left, and the sky to the right of them is lit up with orange clouds. In the foreground, low waves roll in from the left, onto rippling sands, where pooling water reflects the sunset.
A fox walks down a railway track, balancing itself on one of the rails.
A list of five games and their purchase/activation dates (from most recent to oldest): Empire: Total War Retail The Orange Box Half-Life 2: Episode One Jade Empire (ROW) Half-Life 2 Retail Collectors
My first five Steam purchases: Gratuitous Space Battles, Portal 2, Endless Space, Crusader Kings II, and Mount & Blade.
A view across field, shore, and sea to the Mourne Mountains, silhouetted on the horizon, girdled by low clouds. Wisps of high cloud hang in the sky above, and a housemartin dances in the middle air.
Early sunset photo taken from a garden. The silhouette of the Mourne Mountains can be seen on the left, beyond a receding shoreline. On the right, the sun shines through clouds over farm buildings on the horizon.
On a striped bedsheet sit two items: a hardback graphic novel entitled DEGA, and a colour drawing of the Marvel comics character Death’s Head II, saying “Expecting someone else, yes?”
A comic book cover titled Death’s Head II, issue 3. Text on the page reads “On the run in the far future … Death’s Head and Tuck are partners in crime”. The cover image shows a skull-faced cyborg with and sword for a hand and a red headed woman leaning on a sword beside a tree.
A grainy image of a headland seen across a stretch of water. In the centre is a yellow-and-black striped lighthouse. To its left, appearing almost the same height is the red moon, still touching the horizon.
A sticker in the format of an old-style Guinness label, but it reads Palestine Original: Freedom & Justice, Equality & Return
And then, in half an instant, the blue light was everywhere, following every path of red lightning at once, up into the blue skies and deep into the ground, until there was nothing and nowhere, only a unified whole of light that was a little red and a little green but mostly blue.
A selection of comics are resting on a bed, with a copy of The Wicked + The Divine compendium propped up on cushions behind them. The comics are issues of The New Gods, Fantastic Four, One World Under Doom, The Immortal Thor, The Ultimates, The Power Fantasy, and Assorted Crisis Events.
A clipped headline from the BBC News front page: “Trans former judge plans to challenge gender ruling at European court”
A poster for the short film “The Shore,” showing the stars Ciarán Hinds and Kerry Condon.
A view across a square towards an ornate brick building. In the forground, six feet-high white letters spell out “RĪGA”.
A kiosk-style cafe surrounded by paving and trees. Standing on its roof, in bright, bold orange letters, is the word “CAFFEINE”.
On a wooden table, in front of a glass vase, from left to right: a slice of banana bread, a glass of coffee (flat white), and a semi-eaten croissant.
A life-size bronze statue of James Joyce stands on some pavement, affixed to which is a plaque honouring his name. Beyond him is a railing, and beyond that a stretch of water, where a kayaker is enjoying the sunny day.
A view across green fields and a stone-studded beach. A road can be seen to the right, and in the distance, rays of light pierce through low clouds, concealing the mountains beyond.
The proscenium of the Bord Gais Energy Theatre, showing “Dr. Strangelove”
A stretch of open water, under a grey sky, with green hills beyond. In the foreground, an inflatable boat makes its way through the wake of a larger car ferry, which can be seen behind it, heading towards the far shore.
A photo of the walls of Carcassonne, taken from before one of the gates, so that a pattern of cleaning on the walls is revealed as a series of concentric circles, centred on the gate.
The author in beard and medieval guard outfit in red, with long boots and a puffy hat.
A Roman stone bridge, seen from three quarters view.
A scattering of stars, the cloudy form of the Milky Way clear among them. At the top of the frame, the corner of a roof is seen in silhouette.
The moon, almost full, hangs in a dawn sky above clouds tinged with rose. Below the clouds are rooftops, the chimneys tufted with weeds. To their left are a set of floodlights for a nearby football pitch.
A black and white photo of a grumpy looking Johnny Morris, a children’s television presenter, in his trademark zookeeper’s hat, with a lizard sitting on the shoulder closest to the camera.
A pint of beer sits on a pub ledge beside a packet of crisps. The beer has “Kinnegar” on the glass, and the crisps are cheese and onion.
On a wooden table sits a bowl of vegetables soup and a plate with three slices of sourdough bread. One slice is buttered and half eaten, and a knife with butter attached rests on the plate. Also on the table are a butter dish and a salt cellar.