Alyssa Bushell
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writesaly.bsky.social
Alyssa Bushell
@writesaly.bsky.social
76 followers 98 following 66 posts
Flash fiction enthusiast and cozy mystery novelist. Find me near the water with my nose in a book. Bring pastries.
✒️ AlyWrites.ca
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writesaly.bsky.social
Sigh. Okayyyyy, I'll spend November madly writing 50,000 words of a sixth mystery novel as if I don't have umpteen other things screaming for my attention...
#NovNov #NovelNovember
(as if there was ever any chance I wasn't going to sign up for this)
October 28, 2025 at 2:47 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
WHY is it harder to write a tight synopsis than it is to write a whole dang novel???
August 20, 2025 at 12:42 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
Summer is a season best recognized by its scents and sounds. Sunscreen, chlorine, fresh-cut hay, french-fries, lake water, campfires. Cicadas, lawnmowers, seagulls, thunderstorms, waves crashing, bagpipes at sunset.

alywrites.ca/2025/08/19/a...
AWOL: Absent Writer, Out Lingering
If my absence has been noted, consider this my excuse: I’ve been savouring.
alywrites.ca
August 19, 2025 at 11:28 PM
writesaly.bsky.social
after half a lifetime of breaking my own heart, I find
peace among the pieces cast away

New poetry "in my riverbed" over at AlyWrites

alywrites.ca/2025/06/10/i...
in my riverbed
after half a lifetime of breaking my own heart, I find peace among the pieces cast away
alywrites.ca
June 12, 2025 at 1:40 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
I've only gone and had a little story take first place in a Blank Spaces Magazine prompt contest!
www.blankspaces.ca/winners/alys...
“Lionel Wexelbaum Will Not Wake Up” by Alyssa Bushell—Our March 2025 Gold Medal Winner — Blank Spaces Magazine
Congratulations to Alyssa Bushell, our first place winner from the contest posted in our March, 2025 issue!
www.blankspaces.ca
May 17, 2025 at 1:21 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
What are your dream publications? I'll start.
@smokelong.bsky.social
Typishly.com
@reckonreview.bsky.social
@fracturedlit.bsky.social
@flashfrog.bsky.social

Check out why over at AlyWrites today.
alywrites.ca/2025/05/13/m...
My Top 5 Dream Publications
Every writer has a few: those legendary lit mags we dream about when hitting “submit” on Submittable. The ones we read and reread when imposter syndrome sets in. The ones that feel just out of reac…
alywrites.ca
May 13, 2025 at 12:23 PM
writesaly.bsky.social
The sunshine outside, a lengthy to-do list, and my neglected manuscript are playing tug of war for my attentions. Sigh. Maybe I'll just go sit by the river and daydream.
May 4, 2025 at 3:23 PM
writesaly.bsky.social
Meet me where the storm clouds GATHER
Bring along your broken heart
Lose all your tears between the raindrops
Raise loud your voice with rolling thunder
Shatter the whole sky

#30Words30Days
April 30, 2025 at 11:05 PM
writesaly.bsky.social
On a good day, it might look like I've got myself together, but with one inadvertent snag of a stray STRING, this jumble of a patchwork life will certainly unravel.

#30Words30Days
April 29, 2025 at 2:31 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
It was just a casual WAVE, but the stranger's face transformed like clouds parting for sudden sun. No need to let him know that my friend was right behind him.

#30Words30Days
April 29, 2025 at 2:24 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
Let's SKIP the awkward phase and jump straight to you and me, hand in hand, comfortable silences, and shared dreams. Let's start forever yesterday and hoard all of our tomorrows.

#30Words30Days
April 27, 2025 at 1:27 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
A conversation with her always felt a little like having someone RUMMAGE through your nightstand; a violation thinly veiled in empathy, and you just know she'd gossip what she found.

#30Words30Days
April 27, 2025 at 1:11 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
Chad puffed and strutted like a Tom turkey, but no one took any note of his CHALLENGE. It may have been a little intimidating if he was more than five-foot-five.

#30Words30Days
April 27, 2025 at 1:05 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
The only thing that could tie Luella to the crime was dropped off a cruise ship somewhere between Fort Lauderdale and Nassau, just a plop, a RIPPLE, and overwhelming relief.

#30Words30Days
April 27, 2025 at 12:58 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
So many unspent kisses glint with promise in her eyes, so many whispers yet unbreathed resting ready on her lips. Stung by love before, she'll be slow to POUNCE again.

#30Words30Days
April 27, 2025 at 12:36 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
Like a jungle cat, he WEAVEs through the crowd, unnoticed, looking for his next victim. He's sharpened his claws and bared his fangs and you won't even see him pounce.

#30Words30Days
April 24, 2025 at 12:15 PM
writesaly.bsky.social
They’re poetry in living colour, waiting to be transcribed. These moments—strange, sweet, stunning, sometimes silly—are a reminder that inspiration doesn’t always shout. Sometimes it just nudges.

alywrites.ca/2025/04/22/u...
Unexpected Inspiration
Trying to write in the aftermath of grief is harder than I ever imagined it would be. Good stories demand emotional resonance. Writing something worth reading requires tapping into the same well of…
alywrites.ca
April 22, 2025 at 12:54 PM
writesaly.bsky.social
Though the WINDs of change blow years so quickly by, here I am, the same person in the same place, looking at my shadow as if it should've walked away.

#30Words30Days
April 21, 2025 at 2:40 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
In adoration most unrequited and unwise, she once again falls victim to her own incautious heart. This imaginary FEAST is set for two, but she, the fool, will dine alone.

#30Words30Days
April 20, 2025 at 2:09 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
I see the feathered outline, angelic in the snow, and know that with a silent SWOOP, one life has ended while another's carries on. Are not we all so fleeting?

#30Words30Days
April 20, 2025 at 1:53 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
No one warned Gwyneth that after 40 it was a long, steady SLIDE into irrelevant spinsterhood, not that she minded. Freedom comes in many forms, and power in being overlooked.

#30Words30Days
April 19, 2025 at 1:50 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
Is there anything quite so delicious as STRETCHing out in a hammock strung between whispering birch with a good book, a view of the lake, and an afternoon nap imminent?

#30Words30Days
April 19, 2025 at 1:43 AM
writesaly.bsky.social
I COLLECT secrets told around bonfires, the colour of late August sunsets reflected in loved ones' eyes, and the scents of crackling bread, spring rain, new crayons, and old books.

#30Words30Days
April 16, 2025 at 7:54 PM
writesaly.bsky.social
Mama'd holler, "Get a WIGGLE on," wrangling five under five out the door alone. That's an awful lot of boots, mitts, and mouths, but she never ran out of love.

#30Words30Days
April 16, 2025 at 7:46 PM
writesaly.bsky.social
Just POP to the corner store, grab some milk for Mom, such a simple thing. But this town ain't safe, and no one saw nothin', and nothin' but questions remain.

#30Words30Days
April 16, 2025 at 7:39 PM