Goodbye Microhorror

                Microhorror is no more. The site which published horror flash fiction (666 words or fewer) is winding down. Nathan Rosen, its editor, says he has run out of enthusiasm.

                I feel gutted. For the past 4 or 5 years, it’s been exciting to see my names up in lights, attached to a newly published horror story. It was a challenge to fit everything into such a brutal word limit, but always fun. I often wrote stories on the hoof- started and finished on the train to work, posted by lunchtime. Sometimes Nathan Rosen would publish something I didn’t think stood a chance, and sometimes he would reject what I thought was an absolute certainty, which stopped me from getting a big head.

                I was getting to recognize other regular writers, such as Jane Fell. Microhorror published every sort of horror story, from the semi-poetic to the gleefully trashy (although it was never outright offensive). It was the friendliest of websites. Nathan Rosen edited it with good humour, so that even when he rejected your story, you didn’t feel despondent. And getting nice comments about your story was always guaranteed to lift your mood.

                Ironically, I was about to start writing something new for Microhorror, to keep the engine ticking over. I often find that when I’m actively writing a story, I get ideas for future stories, and that it’s better to write something, anything, than to stare at the blank page, which I had been doing.

                Maybe it’s time for me to move on, as well. In the last couple of days, I haven’t wanted to write fiction. I haven’t wanted to make anything up. I’ve found a new joy in Writing Practice, and I’m steadily filling up a notebook. I’ve been trying to recall what happened the day before, and I’ve found that my pen whizzes across the page. But I don’t know what I want to do in the future.