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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Season 5: Episode 3 (Unusual Suspects) Origin episode for the Lone Gunmen. It’s 1989, Mulder hasn’t worked out how to deal with his fluffy hair yet. He’s also got a massive phone. Detective Munch from Law and Order makes a kind of crossover cameo. It’s not a very good episode.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

Season 5: Episode 2 (Redux 2) Scully’s still dying but she might be ok. The Smoking Man’s definitely dead. Mulder’s sister is back AGAIN (maybe the aliens never had her). Mulder calls out all the FBI corruption and cries a lot.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

14th Hilary Mantel of the year is Bring Up the Bodies. I ADORED this. Have been pinned to the sofa every night this week devouring it. Definitely superior to Wolf Hall and it was great. Feeling bereft that I’ve only one left now #MyYearWithHM

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 07/10/2026

One week since we launched #NoVacancy and I’ve already had umpteen people sidle up to tell me the weird things that have happened to them in hotels (some of them were hotel owners). Always up for hearing your Fawlty Towers moments if you care to share…

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Season 5: Episode 1 (Redux) Guess what? Mulder’s not dead. But he is plagued with a horrendous voiceover monologue and he’s now switched his sister abduction obsession for an obsession with curing Scully’s cancer. Oh, and, there’s a whole room of alien corpses and the Smoking Man cries.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 05/10/2026

Season 5. Roughly half way through now. (In the name of all that’s good and true, I have to be half way through at this point) #XFiles

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

I’ve been in 7 countries in the last 7 days and now I am in the same place to write for a whole month and it feels like a long deep breath so if you were thinking of asking me for a wee favour or some work would appreciate it if you could hold off until November. Unofficial out of office is on.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 04/10/2026

Thoughts on X Files Series 4 How can I still not be half way through yet? Goodness but M&S love a seedy motel Scully’s getting hotter, Mulder less so. Exactly how many alien autopsies are required before they have enough proof. Too much semi-naked Skinner

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Season 4: Episode 24 (Gethsemane). There’s a fake alien in a block of ice which might be real. Mulder dins some fetching ski gear. Scully denies Mulder in front of the board. Mulder dies (am guessing he’s not really dead as we still have 121 episodes to go)

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 03/10/2026

Season 4: Episode 23 (Demons). This is a good run of episodes. Mulder wakes up in a motel covered in someone else’s blood and can’t remember what happened. Cue lots of hallucinogenic flashbacks and some creepy paintings.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

Series 4: Episode 22 (Elegy). Murder in a bowling alley. A load of ghosts. A psychopathic nurse. The stand alones in this series are sublime.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 02/10/2026

So great to be in Budapest to hear Colm Toibin give the 13th Heaney Lecture in this incredibly beautiful building

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Series 4: Episode 21 (Zero Sum). Skinner’s gone rogue, erasing crime scenes and disposing of bodies. A welcome return of the deadly alien smallpox carrying bees and everyone’s suddenly remembered Scully has cancer.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Series 4: Episode 20 (Small Potatoes) There’s a lot going on here - a shapeshifting man impregnates five women and all their babies have tales. Then he attempts to seduce Scully disguised as Mulder and almost gets away with it.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 19 (Synchrony) Like a mash up between Back to the Future and Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle, and old scientist journeys from the future to stop his younger self from inventing a compound that turns people to ice.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

End of the month round up. Here are my favourite books I read for the first time in September. Some absolute crackers in here.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Such a pleasure to be back in Bangor for a great chat with Sean Farrell about #FewAndFarBetween and #NoVacancy Thanks to Patricia and all at Aspects for being such brilliant hosts.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 18 (Max). The aliens have started abducting people out of planes (yikes). Scully remembers she has a brain tumour. Mulder visits a trailer park and has a shoot out with a new baddie on a plane.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 17 (Tempus Fugit). Scully has a birthday, a plane crashes, Mulder goes scuba diving and finds an alien at the bottom of the sea. It all goes a bit James Bond.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Huge thanks to everyone who jammed into @noalibisbookstore this evening to launch #NoVacancy to Emma Warnock for great questions @poempoet for a beautiful intro and all @noalibispress for publishing my wee book.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Jet lagged and slightly sniffly and beyond delighted to be off to @noalibisbookstore to launch my 10th book. #NoVacancy is a collection of tiny hotel stories with stunning illustrations by Rory Jeffers. It was a joy to work on it with David and the team @noalibispress

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

So significant that she wrote the following in her last letter before she died. “Be properly scared and go on doing what you have to do, but take the necessary precautions.” Also, man alive, she did not like Carson McCullers and she spent so much money acquiring swans. #MyYearWithFOC

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

I’ve spent almost a week re-reading Flannery’s letters as I travel round the Midwest. There’s some deeply problematic stuff in here alongside some of the most profound wisdom and regular displays of her acerbic wit.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Day Two ACIS conference at University of Notre Dame. Delivered keynote. Did not get laughed out of the building. Hung out with @annemarienichurreain Saw some Irish dancing. Looked at the autumn trees.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

First time spotting #FewAndFarBetween in the wilds of a US bookstore

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 24/09/2026

Friends in Paris, we'll be launching No Vacancy at the Centre Culturel Irlandais on October 8th. Please help get the word out as it's free and you're all invited. Booking information via this link www.centreculturelirlandais.com/en/whats-on/...

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 16 (Unrequited) A Vietnam vet turns invisible and goes on a retribution rampage. Skinner gets shot, but it’s only a flesh wound. No explanation for why Mulder and Scully appear to be on security detail.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Always a treat to get a wee run into RTE. Thanks so much to @rickoshea.bsky.social for a great chat about #NoVacancy on Arena tonight. If you’re Dublin based join us for the launch @booksupstairs.bsky.social on Friday 16th October

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 22/09/2026

Our @mexico_and_below read for October is Kwon Yeo-sun’s Lemon (translated by Janet Hong) we meet Wednesday 21st at 6:30pm @noalibisbookstore all welcome. Please do read the book before coming along. You can purchase it 10% off in store.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 15 (Kaddish). Woman makes a Golem. Golem kills. Bunch of Neo-Nazis. Woman marries the Golem and turns him back into mud. Everyone seems to have forgotten about Scully’s brain tumour.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 14 (Memento Mori) All hands on deck to cure Scully’s brain tumour. Mulder liaises with the alien clones who’ve been made from the ovum of abductees. Skinner entertains the Cigarette Smoking Man in the X Files basement. Scully writes some horrific confessional prose.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 13 (Never Again) Scully asks for a deal. Mulder is a dick about it, then disappears on an Elvis pilgrimage. Scully dates a man with an evil, murderous tattoo. Then she gets a tattoo herself. Mulder is still a dick.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 12 (Leonard Betts) Rocket Romano from ER is a cancer-eating paramedic who possesses the miraculous ability to regenerate a new head post-decapitation. (Useful, seeing as he’s about to lose an arm to a helicopter in ER). Good news, Scully gets a storyline. Bad news, she has cancer.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

I read two books this weekend. Both were excellent and ludicrously different yet in the strangest way pretty much the same story about constructed identity and charismatic, manipulative men. I love it when books feel like they’re talking to each other and they’ve drawn you into the conversation…

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Had the most amazing afternoon @seamusheaneyhomeplace (who were, as always, the most gracious hosts) performing Love Song to Lough Neagh one final time with @fernasongs @thedangerousharpist and the @eastsideartsbel community choir. #FewAndFarBetween

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 11 (Mundo Gira) A Mexican migrant with an extreme case of athlete’s foot turns everyone he touches into moss. Mulder thinks it’s aliens. He’s probably right. Many many sheep get killed.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 10 (Paper Hearts) Mulder dreams himself into the mind of a serial killer. Perhaps his sister wasn’t abducted by aliens after all. Then he gets lost in a bus graveyard. Scully wonders why she hasn’t had a decent plot line for the entire duration of series 4

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 8. (Terma) Peak ropey Russian accents. Mulder escapes from a Russian Gulag in a truck chased by men on horseback and then almost gets blown up with an oil geyser. Krycek gets his arm cut off by a bunch of one armed men. Much talk of diplomatic pouches (no complaints from me)

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

First time reading from a brand new book is always a nerve wracking affair. Big thanks to Kathy Clugston for letting me talk about #NoVacancy and weird hotels on BBC Radio Ulster’s The Ticket this evening. You can listen back via @bbcsounds.bsky.social

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Called into Literature Ireland HQ this morning and came away with one of their very swanky new tote bags. All the cool Irish writer will be sporting these this season.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 18/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 8 (Tunguska) Very confusing episode. Scully dresses up in different costumes. Turns out Krycek’s not an alien after all. He and Mulder are best of pals. They go off to Russia in search of not sure what. Mulder gets covered in Chicken wire and black oiled.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 17/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 7 (Musings of a Cigarette Smoking Man) A flashback episode in which we discover the Cigarette Smoking Man assassinated JFK and MLK and orchestrated most of contemporary history. More importantly we discover he’d have been a nice regular guy if someone had published his novel.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

My 8th Flannery O’Connor of the year and it’s definitely one for the die hards. She was a brutal and very funny reviewer. Maybe don’t read this sample if you like cats. #MyYearWithFOC

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 6 (Sanguinarium) A demonic plastic surgeon goes rogue and possesses all his colleagues before cutting his own face off. Scully says “I’m a doctor,” a lot (I think being in a hospital brings out her insecurities). Mulder eyes up ALL the nurses.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 16/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 5 (The Field Where I Died). Starts well (am a big fan of cult episodes). Descends into past life regression, multiple personalities and Mulder channelling at dead civil war soldier. Then Scully runs her big greasy finger all over archive maps with no thought for preservation.

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Series 4: Episode 4 (Unruhe) Scully gets kidnapped (again) by a stilt-wearing man with a dentist obsession who puts needles through women’s eyes. There are also photos which tell the future though it’s unclear how these are related to the eye needle man and fingers which represent headstones (???)

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Such lovely words about #NoVacancy from the brilliant Sarah Gilmartin. Not long now. Still some tickets left for the Dublin launch on October 16th @booksupstairs.bsky.social

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Jan Carson @jancarsonwrites.bsky.social · 15/09/2026

Almost missed this one. Happy 136th birthday to the queen. #AgathaChristie

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