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Mike Stevens

@mikestevens72.bsky.social
91 followers 164 following 66 posts

Writer, musician, songwriter. Co-winner of the Irish Writers Centre's International Debut Novel Competition 2026. linktr.ee/mikestevens72

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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 12/10/2026
Lovely. It charts the unexpected friendship triangle between a neurodivergent kid in a posh school and two teachers, each with fractured pasts. The inner world of the boy in particular is charming, and the currach they build feels like a lifeboat to navigate life's calamities.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 10/10/2026
A guy gave me a lift to Dublin once. His car was immaculate. I checked his tape collection and it was all “Best of the Beatles“, “Best of Crowded House“, “Best of Fleetwood Mac“ and so on. I think about that guy more often now than I think of most people I’ve known in my life. 
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Pretty mind-blowing episode, that. All (nearly) five hours of it. If this homage brings in the Tralfamadorian time switches too, well…
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Very good, plus Michael MacDonald’s involvement in the song AND his restauranty surname. What a universe we live in.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
My son cycled into a bush on the way home from school and is now angry at his sister because she and her friends all laughed at him. Today's drama, them's the vagaries.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Yama Be There
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Patrick Freyne @patrickfreyne.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 06/10/2026
Sycamore Helicopters is two years old today. This album was a joy to write and record with the guys, as well as Les Keye at Arad Studios. Fun times.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 05/10/2026
Anyone see any blackberries? We went up the mountains yesterday and they were all rotted and dead, and the leaves of the briars mottled and sickly. I’m wondering if it’s due to the uncommon heat we’ve had.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 02/10/2026
This was one of my top ten episodes. As a squeaky-voiced balladeer myself, it's to my shame that I actually don't know much about the early Bee Gees stuff. So I really need to check out Odessa and others.
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Jonathan Gibbs @jonathangibbs.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
And off it goes, David Collard’s Personal Anthology, clanking, stumbling down from Selston, passing the house and studying the lighted square of window, leaving a thin cloacal trail all across the walls and the ceiling, groaning like a thing possessed, waiting for the geranium…
apersonalanthology.substack.com
A Personal Anthology of Debuts, by David Collard
In a slight departure from tradition, Jonathan has allowed me to submit a selection of short stories that mark their author’s first appearance in print, presented (more or less) in chronological order...
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Shame! But yeah, fair play to him.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Really hoping they make the right decision. Stating the obvious but it’s a chance to do something properly symbolic, like the Dunnes Stores strikers back in the day.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Got to try that thing of having an umlaut and punctuation in my band's name, makes you immediately seem edgier. e.g. The Bёe Geёse Bӓy Cit'y Rӧllers Whӓm?
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Dudley has the tunes every Friday morning, making life worth living.
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David Collard @davidcollard.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
Thursday 24th September at 7pm (BST) join me and authors Kevin Boniface, Susanna Crossman Paul Kavanagh & Tony White for POST MODERN, an online event featuring writers connected with postal services. Free & all welcome. If not already invited email me via m'website: davidjcollard.wixsite.com/my-site
Author Kevin BonifaceAuthor Susanna CrossmanAuthor Paul KavanaghLondon author Tony White
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
Third, be a brick of Mu in the People’s Pyramid.
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Dudley Colley @thecorpo.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Terrifying robots, ahoy! And a stream of last night's Click Clack, have at it. tinyurl.com/3nje8hxb #Try8radio #NoAiUsedInTheMakingOfThisShow
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
I also loved this book, Ro. I’d love to go to Cheltenham. If I can’t, please give Willy my best.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 17/09/2026
Fab couple of days with the @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social gang and the other writers as part of the International Debut Novel Competition winners’ pitching day.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
Aagh!
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 15/09/2026
I can't really get my head around "That's one heck of an impressive biceps."
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
A couple of days pitching The Setlists at the Irish Writers Centre, I’ve met some fantastic writers, publishers and agents, as well as the lovely IWC gang. Great fun.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 08/09/2026
The latest astounding episode from Andrew Hickey, this time about Captain Beefheart and the Magic Band. I take a while to get through these longer episodes but they’re worth it. Sugar and spikes der ner ner
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 07/09/2026
Sad day
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 06/09/2026
16 years ago Lie Ins played the first Popical Island all-dayer. And we shall return this year! (As a three-piece now.)
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
Reader, I picked up her shite.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 04/09/2026
It was great talking to Paul and Niall on Claremorris Community Radio about the Setlists and the International Debut Novel Competition. www.mixcloud.com/ccrnews/mike...
mixcloud.com
Mike Stevens chats with Niall and Paul by CCR946.ie Audio Online Hub
Mike Stevens chats with Niall and Paul about being 1 of 12 authors selected for the Irish Writers Centre Debut Novel Competition
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 03/09/2026
Blown away by finding out that this is coming out, what the heck. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hiob...
youtube.com
Everybody Digs Bill Evans - Official UK Trailer - In Cinemas 11 September
YouTube video by Little White Lies
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Dr Panti Bliss-Cabrera @pantibliss.bsky.social · 02/09/2026
Oh no. Exactly what everyone who knows anything about it said would happen, happened. Oh gosh. Maybe another moral panic will do it? Or maybe we should give "pretending to care but not actually asking the tech companies who are responsible to do anything" another go?
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 01/09/2026
Posting this for no other reason that it popped up on my socials and it's an astonishing performance by everyone involved. www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qia...
youtube.com
Ry Cooder - At The Dark End Of The Street - Live 1977
YouTube video by HoneyboyWalter
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Rónán Hession @ronanhession.bsky.social · 31/08/2026
Bump! My writing masterclass in Derry is coming up on 12 September. I'll have loads to say. Do come! @irishwriterscentre.bsky.social irishwriterscentre.ie/courses/writ...
irishwriterscentre.ie
Writers in the Regions: Writing, a masterclass with Rónán Hession (Derry) - Irish Writers Centre
This masterclass will focus on the writing, editing and publishing of novels of creative literary fiction with Ronan Hession in Derry
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Andy Burnham’s ruling out of a border poll in NI says more about him than any amount of Smiths jams. Disappointing.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
A couple of proper surprises in it and all. (no spoilers)
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 28/08/2026
Yay. Another diverting episode. I'm surprised how many of the songs on this I know.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Just some thoughts popping about my head today. Feel free to disagree.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
But it’s been my experience that, if they start to become energetic or dynamic in any way, the emotional response to this, while there, is not the same as seeing a drummer letting loose and perhaps doing something different than they did last time.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
Like for example, pre- synthesised beats in a live environment. They can be very nice and contribute really well to accompanying music.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
It’s possible that, in time, AI will work its way around that too. But what it can never work around is the fact that we seek to identify with the makers of things, in our human way.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
On pub/restaurant posters, in books (sometimes), on ads, it’s usually obvious. Like there’s a part of the brain, as I think Oliver Sachs said, reserved for recognising animals, might there be a part of the brain that recognises something made by a person? 
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 27/08/2026
My 12 year old kid, having little experience of AI (he has no phone or computer) can spot AI-generated imagery a mile off, and finds it to be tacky without really analysing why.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Apparently Muhammad Ali coined “diff’rent strokes for diff’rent folks”.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 25/08/2026
Sorry to hear Dolly’s gone. But also not sad, because she made everyone who saw or heard her happy. So that’s good. Safe travels to her anyway.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 23/08/2026
This year I’m having a belated birthday. People with them seem to get a lot of attention on the internet.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Galway-bound to meet up with homies. Always good to head west. The train is my favourite mode of T these days. Good for reading and a bit of an old sleep.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 21/08/2026
Trying to get a morning photo of a Labrador, competing with licks and stretching.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
It begins... fight them on the beaches.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 20/08/2026
Thank you!
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 18/08/2026
Tender is the meat/The meat I like to eat/Here inside my stew/You can almost hear it moo And people say I can’t write songs.
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Mike Stevens @mikestevens72.bsky.social · 16/08/2026
Thanks Ian, I know right. Messed up.
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