HarryC

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I have 177 stories published in 3 collections on the site.
My stories have been read 333643 times and 197 of my stories have been cherry picked.
119 of my 823 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 129 votes

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Kevin Marman

Care worker, writer, memester, autist, dissenter.

I like people who not only think outside the box, but reshape the box into something else!

I've been writing since I was 10.  It's my sanctuary - though the structure often needs maintenance.  Over the last twenty or so years, I've won some writing prizes for short fiction, poetry and playwriting.  In 2013, I published my first novel, 'In the Day'.  Looking at it now, I can see all sorts of things I would change - but I suppose that shows progress.  I also have a collection of short fiction, 'Sacred Shirts', which was published in 2024.

In 2015, at the grand age of 56, I was finally diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Condition (Asperger's).  I live alone with my cat, Daisy, and lots of books.

My stories

Cherry

The Erosion of Choice

I’m one of an ever-diminishing minority in the UK. Maybe, even, the world. The western world, certainly – if research is to be believed. I don’t have...
Gold cherry

Dead Man: 5

And so there John found himself, in this peculiar kind of limbo. Of all the possibilities there could be after death, this was the one that he had...
3 likes
Gold cherry

Dead Man: 4

Some things happen so fast that the brain is unable to register them. Like a bullet firing from a gun. Other things happen at a speed that allows for...
2 likes
Cherry

Death by Selfie

strangely unaffecting to see lives lost in this way is that a shocking thing to say? guy falls from building filming himself doing handstands on the...
2 likes
Cherry

Dead Man: 3

The bus was crowded, as usual. Workers heading into the city, like himself. John sat downstairs at the back, over the engine, in the warm odour of...
1 likes

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119 of my comments have received 129 Great Feedback votes

2 Votes

With you on that, Turlough.

Posted on Mon, 02 Jun 2025

With you on that, Turlough. It was behind my decision not to have children, in the end.  With AI being predicted to wipe out many white-collar jobs soon, too, children today face a future more uncertain than at any time in our lifetimes.  We...

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Posted in Population decline

2 Votes

I genuinely think her heart's

Posted on Thu, 26 Sep 2024

I genuinely think her heart's in the right place.  She uses her wealth to good social ends.  I find her music and her presence quite bland, uninspiring and forgettable - Joni Mitchell or Patti Smith she ain't -  but am glad if she can make some...

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Posted in On the Wind

2 Votes

“No, it’s a tediously nasal

Posted on Sat, 14 Sep 2024

“No, it’s a tediously nasal-sounding middle-aged white man in a cape.” 

Brilliant.  I retire next year on only the state pension.  And as I've worked for fifty years, I'll get the full state pension.  Which'll make me £12 a month above...

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Posted in Sir Kier Starmer Superhero – Sir Kier and the energy crisis

2 Votes

I heard a joke recently:

Posted on Sun, 08 Sep 2024

I heard a joke recently:

'How do you know if someone's autistic?'

'They'll tell you.'

Hm.

One of the biggest laughs I had was at a comedy night where one of the comedians was disabled.  He used his metal crutches to...

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Posted in A hundred moments in autism - Autistic Comedy Night

2 Votes

And it's a very common

Posted on Mon, 04 Mar 2019

And it's a very common experience with high-functioning autistics - as I read and hear all the time from others.  Even in my last job, with an autism charity, the lack of proper understanding was profound.  I left in the end because of a bullying...

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Posted in The Love of the Loveless (Chapter 6) (8)

2 Votes

I understand the info

Posted on Tue, 06 Nov 2018

I understand the info overload!  It's all a lot to take in, and it takes time to process.  I'm 3 years past diagnosis now, and I'm still running the numbers.  To use the old cliche, it's a rollercoaster.  So many positives... but the other side...

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Posted in Aspie Life

2 Votes

Thanks, Stephen.  It takes

Posted on Tue, 06 Nov 2018

Thanks, Stephen.  It takes some processing - and we're good at that!  I over-analyse everything.

I tried to make this not so much about behaviours and more about how Aspies perceive the world.  It's one of the reasons that diagnosis is so...

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Posted in Aspie Life

2 Votes

Legalise it now.  Either that

Posted on Fri, 02 Nov 2018

Legalise it now.  Either that, or I'm emigrating to Canada!

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Posted in Ode to Cannabis Sativa

2 Votes

A beautiful tale, Lindy.  It

Posted on Thu, 13 Mar 2014

A beautiful tale, Lindy.  It lifted my heart to read this today.

That's sounds like exactly my kind of holiday, too!  The travel agents never quite understand, do they.

I especially love the hope embodied in this - the...

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Posted in Monochrome

2 Votes

So many things going on in

Posted on Sun, 16 Mar 2014

So many things going on in this one, Tina.  Love, loss, disappointment, aging, the sense of growing isolation... and the comfort, still, in those small familiar things.  That final stanza is perfect in capturing it all.

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Posted in Definitely Not Just Another Dog Story

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