microwrites - ISSUE TWO AVAILABLE NOW
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microwrites.bsky.social
microwrites - ISSUE TWO AVAILABLE NOW
@microwrites.bsky.social
72 followers 76 following 430 posts
small-time writing for big-time thinkers.

Print editions now available, ebook for Issue Two now on sale https://tinyurl.com/Microwrites

Website: microwrites.wordpress.com
Submissions: https://microwrites.wordpress.com/submissions-guidance/
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microwrites.bsky.social
In your opinion, what does it mean when someone says they're in favour of a strategy when asked about attacks on civilian boats? How do you interpret this answer? What is your opinion on it?
"I totally support his strategy," Machado told me. "And I've said on Dehalf of the Venezuelan people that we are very grateful. I think it is the right thing to do. It's courageous. It's visionary." But attacking a speedboat? Killing 11 citizens? "I'm in favour of the US dismantling this criminal structure."
October 10, 2025 at 1:10 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
She literally replied with "Garbage plate?" to this post of a complete stranger showing his pals a photo of his food. Then started calling his friends weird when they defended him from her unprompted attack.
Sardines For Dinner skeeting a picture of his spice box - chicken, chips, onion, chillis, dips - saying "I feel so powerful right now" Central NY 22 - apparently a name - skeeting in reply "Garbage plate?" A shot from skythread showing the skeet from Sardines with the reply from Central NY 22 in context.
June 12, 2025 at 8:19 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
It's no accident that this is the Guardian of the Beach. The energy of this section demanded it.

Read the whole zine for £3.50 (or your local equivalent, I've tried to make it as fair as I can) here: tinyurl.com/Microwrites
The Beach section breaks. A woman with flowing hair stands at the base of the page. She is overlaid with scales, strange ridged shapes reminiscent of deep sea creatures and beach drift alike. The text reads At the Beach The fizzing borderline where the sea eats and spits out the land calls to us all. Even those who live their entire lives far inland hear it; caught in a shell pressed to an ear, recorded and replayed as a soothing sound to fall asleep to Pebbles clatter in the current, sands whispers over the burrows of secretive shellfish and human feet tread close then retreat at the shock of cold, or stride unswaying into the surf. The beach is a place of languid holiday dreams, yes, and of secret meetings with the unknowable at the edge of our landlocked worlds.
March 17, 2025 at 4:09 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Forgot to attach the photo didn't I? What a pointless post without it
The book "Super Ghosts" by Mark Ronson (not that one). Below the title (in blood-dripping type) a giant face looms at a window. Beneath the window is a bedstead. On the bed is a teddy bear. The whole thing radiates bad vibes.
March 14, 2025 at 3:18 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Fun fact - this story is illustrated by my dad, though after author feedback I digitally amended the species of the character in the boat.
Pen sketch of a mouse in a rowing boat. There is a tiny headland showing in one corner. Same picture but now rendered in colour on a tablet and the mouse is now a badger thanks to the magic of vectors or something I don't remember what I did.
March 10, 2025 at 11:18 AM
microwrites.bsky.social
Look, if you use the tinyurl it now has the ebook. Good, eh? tinyurl.com/Microwrites
Slice of the cover for Microwrites issue two coach. beach. ocean.
March 8, 2025 at 4:09 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Anyway, Fred the Pirate is a delightful creation, a seafaring fool without care or awareness - there's a lightness to all the Ocean stories which might surprise you.

IF you were to pick up a copy of the zine

tinyurl.com/Microwrites
A photo of a picture in a book. A cartoonish pirate with red headscarf and bushy beard leans out of the crow's nest and points, with a curious skull & bones flag fluttering behind him.
February 19, 2025 at 6:12 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Roger's stories tend to the mythopoeic, and this is no exception. A sailor's tale that blooms into a mist of old gods and spirits...

tinyurl.com/Microwrites
The full illustration used for the story Sea Watching by Roger Evans. It shows a man in what could be taken as old time sailor clothing whose head is exploding into mist and cloud.
February 17, 2025 at 4:19 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Thank heaven for etymology (cn slurs). Maybe delete?
tard NOUN offensive, derogatory a person who has an intellectual disability (often used as a general term of abuse). ORIGIN 1980s: shortening of retard.
February 14, 2025 at 8:52 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
And so I received this beautiful chap, for the coast. He was the first of what I came to think of as the three "guardians" of the zine.
The zine, opened at the intro page for the "By the Coast" section. There is a block of small text in the top left which is largely unreadable. Dominating the page is a figure in a crumpled, hooded leathery or maybe waxed overcoat. His face is lined and partially hidden. A large shell is visible on his shoulder. He is holding a massive harpoon, which traces a sharp diagonal across most of the page.
December 23, 2024 at 9:41 AM
microwrites.bsky.social
Issue Two is titled
coast. beach. ocean.

But Thom, you may well say, you asked for stories of the sea. Surely they are all ocean? How can you divide them so? And the answer, my curious friend, is "really easily actually"
Back cover of the zine. A bold blue stripe with slightly frayed edged contains the following text: Coast Helen Carlyle Roger Evans Ray Newman Thom Willis Beach Evie Ephraims Dan Melis Misha Anker Jem Tenebris Ocean Caroline Flanagan Andrew Shilcock Cover and interludes by James Powell Story illustrations by Thom Willis & Roy Nudds
December 23, 2024 at 9:07 AM
microwrites.bsky.social
Contributor copies are here! They look absolutely stunning.
Two stacks of Issue Two (coast. beach. ocean) of microwrites, in a cardboard box.
December 18, 2024 at 12:35 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Hot damn
A hand holding Issue Two of microwrites zine. A large, distorted wave crashes from left to right. The words "micro writes" dominates the left hand side. Below it are the words Issue two coast. beach. ocean.
December 11, 2024 at 12:48 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
TWO!
A hand holding Issue Two of microwrites zine. A large, distorted wave crashes from left to right. The words "micro writes" dominates the left hand side. Below it are the words Issue two coast. beach. ocean.
December 11, 2024 at 12:46 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
It's not quite the proper version (there's some text missing and I'm sure I've put the images in wrong) but oh my god oh my god you guys I've actually done it. I'm sorry it took so long.
UPS tracking screenshot Estimated delivery Wednesday, December 11 between 9:30 A.M. - 11:30 A.M.
December 11, 2024 at 9:46 AM
microwrites.bsky.social
IT'S HAPPENING
Somewhat wonky photo of a laptop screen showing Book Size and Page Count of a manuscript uploaded to Lulu. There are 54 pages. It's available for Global Distribution. A peek of a file explorer to the right shows the folder marked "microwrites"
December 2, 2024 at 7:31 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Issue two will be ready to go really soon. In the meantime, here's a picture!
Illustration on a tablet screen, in a drawing application. It shows a grey ocean breaking on a beach contained within a triangle on white space. A tree is breaking the frame of the triangle.
November 18, 2024 at 4:31 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Booting up Affinity 2 to assemble the zine
Tim Robinson in a car, looking distressed. Caption "I don't know what any of this shit is, and I'm fucking scared"
October 7, 2024 at 8:47 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
ISSUE

TWO

COVER

by @greybear.bsky.social
Microwrites Issue Two cover - a distorted and duplicated wave against a stormy sky. "Micro Writes" is written vertically on the left, above a block of nonsense text. Bottom left corner is the number 2 in a light blue circle.
October 7, 2024 at 6:23 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Cover reveal tonite 👀 Cover reveal tonight queen?? Cover reveal tonite 👀
October 7, 2024 at 2:59 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Nice nod to @paulduane.bsky.social in the intro
Half of the stories in Tales Accursed were written over a hundred years ago, and while they are rooted in the etymological formality of the time, their evocation of fear is a timeless one. The thrill of being scared one of the reasons we read these works - endures across centuries. It's clear that an interest in 'folk horror' (a term coined in 1970 by Rod Cooper in Kine Weekly) not only endures, but is enjoying huge resurgence in recent years. Such films as The Witch, Enys Men, Midsommar, Lamb, and Ben Wheatley's Kill List and In the Earth offer a specific kind of bucolic claustrophobia. This year, another film joins this canon: Paul Duane's All You Need is Death, whose central premise is the search for a lost ancient folk song that can kill. The soundtrack is scored by lan Lynch of Lankum, a band whose brand of drone-folk synchs perfectly with folk horror, but the film encapsulate the powerful endurance of a piece of art - a song, a short story, a film - to haunt, continuing an ongoin
October 1, 2024 at 12:27 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Oh nice, good timing.
Cover of the folk horror anthology "Tales Accursed"
October 1, 2024 at 11:53 AM
microwrites.bsky.social
Work in progress (cc @thefirstcaro.bsky.social)
September 15, 2024 at 5:37 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Quiet day on Bluesky.
Top blocked/blockers in the last 24 hours on Clearsky - in both there is just one name, who have blocked/are blocked by just one person. Poetically, the top blocker is listed as handle.invalid
September 2, 2024 at 4:03 PM
microwrites.bsky.social
Working on myself
Photo of a tablet on my lap, Clip Studio Pro open and an amateurish work in progress of a dark green headland meeting a craggy black island with a rough sea between them.
August 16, 2024 at 8:42 AM