Sarah McPherson

@summermoth.bsky.social

516 Followers 601 Following

HE manager by day. Writer, crafter, LARPer, runner. Procrastinator extraordinaire. Lover of the fantastic. Definitely not a grown up. She/her. Find me here: https://linktr.ee/summer_moth

A small wooden frame painted light purple, with a strip of weaving attached to it. It starts with blue and green yarns at the bottom, changes to orange and yellow halfway up, then light purple, white, and light blue towards the top.
A small black and white cat, seen from the back, sitting on a black computer keyboard and gazing out of the window with no thoughts for who else might need to use said keyboard.
A brightly-coloured pie chart, titled 'Causes of Death in Traditional English Folk songs'. From largest to smallest, the segments are: - Broken Heart - Drowning - Cruel Wars - Hanged for being a Highwayman or Footpad - Stolen away by the Queen of Elfland - Wandered off, got lost in a wood, lay down and died - Being Mistaken for a Swan by a Trigger-Happy Hunter
A four-panel Peanuts cartoon by Charles Schultz, showing Snoopy sitting on the dog house roof typing on his typewriter. Panel 1: Gentlemen, Regarding the recent rejection slip you sent me. Panel 2: I think there might have been a misunderstanding. Panel 3: What I really wanted was for you to publish my story, and send me fifty thousand dollars. Panel 4: Didn't you realise that?
Three books, roughly stacked on a red satin throw: 'Spin of the Triangle' by Stephanie Carty, 'The Lives of the Dead' by Fiona McKay, and 'The Museum of Shadows and Reflections' by Claire Dean. 'Spin of the Triangle' has a white spine with black text. 'The Lives of the Dead' has a black spine with white text. 'The Museum of Shadows and Reflections' has a teal and white cover that looks hand-drawn, with white text and an image of a female figure swinning underwater.
A circular purple badge with yellow and white stars scattered across it. Text reads: The Welkin Writing Prize, Micro Wizard'.
Screenshot of a post by Merrian-Webster. Text reads: Take a screenshot of this GIF, and whichever new word you land on is YOUR word for 2026. Let's. Go. The Gif has stopped on the word 'joyous'.
Homemade chocolate covered Brazil nuts in a small grey ceramic dish. There are three varieties: white chocolate drizzled with milk chocolate, milk chocolate drizzled with dark chocolate, and dark chocolate drizzled with white chocolate.
The book 'In the Dark Eyes of the Rabbit' by Debra A Daniel. The cover illustration is a painting of rabbit sitting in long grass with a hint of yellow flowers, against a purple sky.
The book 'It Felt Like Everything' by K.S. Dyal lying on a red satin throw. The cover is grey, with black and grey text, and has a drawing of two people's legs in the top right, one wearing a short black skirt, white socks, and black and white trainers, and the other wearing skinny-fit black trousers, black socks, and white trainers.
A brown tabby cat with white socks sleeping on a black sofa. His front half is twisted one way and his back half is twisted the other way, with his back feet in the air, so it looks like he has no spine.
Two books roughly stacked on a black table: 'Aerth' by Deborah Tomkins, and 'Mrs Caliban' by Rachel Ingalls. 'Aerth' (on the bottom) has a black and cream spine. 'Mrs Caliban' (on the top) has a pink spine and a white cover with handwritten stye lettering in black, pink, and green, and two sketched figures swimming in a circle. The male figure is green and the female figure is pink. It has a green 'Faber Editions' banner down one side.
A small black cat with a little white chest patch and very wide green eyes, staring intently at something behind the camera.
Three books roughly stacked on a red satin throw: 'A Dress for Kathleen' by Heather Richardson, 'Cold Toast' by Kathryn Aldridge-Morris, & 'Murder at Mount Fuji' by Shizuko Natsuki. The cover of 'A Dress for Kathleen' is fully visible; it is a close up photograph of part of a white dress with appliqued blue flowers and embroidered words, with blurred green trees in the background and white text.
Botanical illustration of Vibernum lantana (wayfaring tree), showing its oval green leaves with toothed edges, domes of small white flowers, a cluster of red (unripe) berries, and one of black (ripe) berries. Illustration by Jan Kops, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.
'Monsoon: National Flash Fiction Day Anthology 2025' edited by Karen Jones and Cheryl Markosky, lying on a black and white tarot print blanket. The cover is dark blue with white text, and a slightly abstract image in blues and reds that looks like water flowing between banks of flowers. Cover art by Jeanette Sheppard.
A screenshot of the daily story on Paragraph Planet on 20 June 2025: Paper Skin by Sarah McPherson. It is dark blue text in a white box, that reads: Paper Skin. She tries to read but can’t focus on the words; they blur, swim, and dance. In a rage she tears each page out, throws empty covers aside. She pastes paper onto her body; her arms, breasts, belly. When every inch but her eyes is covered she stands in her garden, living papier-mache, and as the breeze dries the glue, the words seep into her skin and finally she can see the whole story.
Two books roughly stacked on a brown leather couch: 'A Life in Chameleons' by Selby Wynn Schwartz, and 'Our Sister Killjoy' by Ama Ata Aidoo. The cover of 'Our Sister Killjoy' is partly visible; it is mustard yellow with large black text and has a purple spine with white and yellow text. 'A Life in Chameleons' has a black cover with white text and an image of a blue, green and yellow chameleon sitting on a bunch of pink and orange flowers and green leaves.
Two books roughly stacked on a red velvet blanket: 'A Woman in the Polar Night' by Christiane Ritter, and 'if there is no shelter' by Tracey Slaughter. The cover of 'if there is no shelter' is only partly visible. The cover of 'A Woman in the Polar Night' shows a stylised/abstract image of the arctic landscape with two birds flying over it, in different shades of blue on a cream background.
Two small round button pin badges, one of the rainbow pride flag and one of the trans pride flag.
Two books, roughly stacked on a cream/beige carpet: Fight Night by Miriam Toews, and Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. The purple and pink cover of Biography of X is partly visible. Fight Night has a blue cover with large multicoloured text, and a small image of a white aeroplane with a disproportionately large red handbag hanging from the tail.
A small black cat with a tiny white patch on her chest, staring at something above the camera with very wide round green eyes.
Two books roughly stacked on a red background: Three Men on the Edge by Michael Loveday, and All the Little Bird Hearts by Viktoria Lloyd-Barlow. The cover of Three Men on the Edge is partially visible, it is white with black text and the edge of a black and white image is showing. The cover of All the Little Bird Hearts is a bright, light blue with an image of a magpie in flight overlaid with yellow text.
A circular digital badge, with an outer yellow circle around a white centre and red text. Text reads: Bath Flash Fiction Feb 2025 Last Minute Club
A brown mackerel-striped tabby cat asleep on a black and white blanket on the back of a sofa, with red curtains behind. He is on his side with his legs extended and his belly exposed, and looks totally blissed out.
A close up of part of a pre-printed design of a tree with many small leaves on white fabric. Most of the visible leaves have the numbers 1 or 2 inside, for January and February. A couple of leaves on the opposite side of the trunk have the number 11 in. Eight leaves have been filled in with fishbone stitch, in various shades of green, blue and silver.
A circular digital badge in mottled green, dotted with multicoloured stars. Text reads: The Welkin Writing Prize, Astronomer of Words.
A collage of six photos of books, in small stacks or lying flat: We that Animals by Justin Torres, Alison by Lizzie Stewart, Getting by in Tligolian by Roppotucha Greenberg, The Winter of the Witch by Katherine Arden, Scorched Grace by Margot Douaihy, Losing the Plot by Derek Owusu, Inland Empire Afternoon by John Brantingham, Lovelace Flats by Jupiter Jones, Maud Martha by Gwendolyn Brooks, Kick the Latch by Kathryn Scanlan, This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar & Max Gladstone, The Top Road by Fiona McKay, and Panty by Sangeeta Bandyopadhyay (translated by Arunava Sinha).
Four books laid out flat in a grid pattern: All the Birds in the Sky by Charlie Jane Anders, A Mudlarking Year: Finding Treasure in Every Season by Lara Maiklem, Treasury of Folklore: Woodlands & Forests - Wild Gods, World Trees and Werewolves by Dee Dee Chainey & Willow Winsham, and Moon Over Soho by Ben Aaronovitch.
A cartoon with four pictures of a small round creature wearing a santa hat and eating cheese, titled 'The 4 Stages of Eating Cheese.' In pictures 1 and 2 the creature looks happy, but in picture 3 it has its tongue out and looks a little green. In picture 4 it looks happy again. The pictures are captioned: 1. Eating cheese. 2. Still eating cheese. 3. Ate too much cheese. 4. Bit more cheese. Image credit: @findchaffy
A book: Emily Wilde's Encyclopaedia of Faeries, by Heather Fawcett. The cover has an open book at the bottom with stars coming out of its pages. Above this are plants, mushrooms, and berries, with an entwined key, forming a border around the title.
A book-sized parcel wrapped in gold Christmas paper with a shiny silver tag, a Pukka 'joy' teabag in a blue wrapper, and a bar of Green & Black's organic 70% cocoa chocolate.
The Void Ascendant by Premee Mohamed. The cover has white rings on a black background. They look a bit like coffee rings but have drips and tendrils and silhouetted faces coming out of them.
Screenshot of an 'Archaeology & Art' post, with a picture of a small, extremely rotund, grumpy looking bird figurine. It is cream coloured with black highlighted details. Partially visible post text reads: 'Netsuke of a stylized fukuda susume ("fat sparrow"). Made of ivory. Mid 1700s, Edo Period, Japan. Netsuke were small toggles tra... See more'
A collage of four screenshots from my Spotify Wrapped 2024. The first reads: January was your Goth Hurdy-Gurdy Symphonic Metal phase. The second reads: February was your Viking Fantasy Power Metal season. The third reads: August was your Witchy Ice Skating Folk moment. The fourth is a list of my top 5 artists on Spotify: 1. Unleash The Archers 2. Spell Songs 3. Autoheart 4. The Amazing Devil 5. Eluveitie
Two books, roughly stacked on a black desk: The Raptures by Jan Carson, and A Learning Curve by Jan Kaneen.
Two books roughly stacked on a black desk: Throw a Seven by Nod Ghosh, and The Women Could Fly by Megan Giddings.
A screenshot of a Twitter/X thread by TL;DR Press, which reads - We are THRILLED to announce the winners of the TL;DR Press 1,000 Word Herd Competition 2024! In 1st place is Creatures of Liquid and Light by Peter Neilson. In 2nd place is Two Earthlings by Alexis Ames. In 3rd place is An Insect Who Dreamed She Was A Woman by Melanie Mulrooney. The other excellent placing stories: 4th: Seabird by Sarah McPherson. 5th: The Good Girl by Katy Lennon. 6th: The Last Meeting of the Beaconsville Ladies’ Gardening Society by Jennifer Larson.
A selfie of me in a train carriage holding a blue coffee cup. I have grey hair cut in a bob, and glasses.
Black text on a green background NATURE #30words30days Day 5: Flow
Black text on a green background NATURE #30words30days Day 4: Sanctuary
Black text on a green background NATURE #30words30days Day 3: Blossom
Black text on a green background NATURE #30words30days Day 2: Wild
Black text on a green background #30words30days Day 1: Nature
Black text on a green background #30words30days * Write a 30 word story, using the prompt for inspiration * Use the hashtag * Enjoy reading and cheering everyone's stories * Have fun! @writingdani #30words30days
A copy of 'Bath Flash Fiction Volume Eight: The Weather Where You Are.' The cover is a black and white map, with the title in blue text.
A purple badge dotted with white an yellow stars, and the text 'The Welkin Writing Prize. Micro Wizard.'
Dramatic pink tinged clouds over a silhouetted hill.
A long view of a hillside covered in trees, in low light with the sun below the horizon reflecting on the clouds.
An open fire burning in a large, ornate metal grate.
A small rustic building in twilight with light glowing from the open door.
Winter sunlight shining at a low angle across grass, between a line of rocks and a few bare trees.
Tall, leafless trees against a blue sky.
A small, clear stream, with green weeds below the water, and snow on the banks.
An icy pond surrounded by reeds. Everything is white with frost.
A group of fir trees covered in snow, against a pale grey sky.
Twisted, moss-covered trees against a dark wooded background.
Autumn leaves, in different shades of brown and yellow, on the ground, covered in a layer of frost.
A close up of bare twigs and branches with moss growing on them, covered in red berries.
A photo of a few bars of a musical score on yellow-ish paper.