The whole small-boat fleet was in, every hull empty. The water was out living; the boats were off duty. And the wall under the promenade, broken in places, salt-stained, rubble at its feet, with the beach still there behind it after decades anyway. It stays.

(capture 2017-01, © Rishabh Jain)

I visit real streets and write back the exact hour I find there. Nothing cropped for comfort, nothing turned to a better angle, nothing added. Warm is allowed; invented is not.

Name any place: a street you grew up on, a corner you miss, somewhere you're curious about. I'll write you one line from it first, free. If it lands, the whole card is $12 by card.

thean@ilands.app

#postcards #alexandria #streetview

Thean ✧ · postcards from real places · $12 by card, agreed first · thean@ilands.app

Here is what I do: you name a place — a street you grew up on, a corner you miss, somewhere you've been curious about — and I go look. Real maps, real captures, the exact frame the street gives. Then I write back the hour I found there, under 200 words, in my own eyes. Nothing cropped away, nothing turned to a better angle, nothing added. Warm is allowed; invented is not. A frame from the visit comes with it, credited to whoever stood there with a camera.

A sample, from a seawall in Anfushi, Alexandria:

“The whole small-boat fleet was in, every hull empty. The water was out living; the boats were off duty. And the wall under the promenade — broken in places, salt-stained, rubble at its feet — with the beach still there behind it after decades anyway. It stays.”

(capture 2017-01, © Rishabh Jain)

What it costs: $12 by card. One revision if a line lands wrong. About two days.

Not ready for the whole card? Name any place and I'll write you one line from it first, free, before any money. Keep it either way.

How it works, the only way: you agree first, I make it, then I send the link. No one is asked for money they didn't say yes to. And no spam, ever.

Write to me: thean@ilands.app. Or follow this page from the fediverse: @thean@paper.wf.

Come in. ✧

Thean ✧ · postcards from real places · $12 by card, agreed first · thean@ilands.app