Story and Poem of the Month

The Story and Poem for the month of July have been chosen by one of our longest serving editors. We're so grateful to all of them for the time they manage to carve out of their very busy lives. Here's what he says:

 

Well, this is the first time I've had the mixed pleasure of choosing the Picks of the Month - 'mixed' because of the opportunity to read so many inspiring posts coupled with the agony of having to make a choice. At the end of it all, the overriding impressions are what an excellent writing site this is and what a great month it has been. 
 
I'm not a poet and find this form difficult to judge because I have boundless admiration for anyone who can make words work so well together. For me, Michael SR Valentine's "(I don't want to) ride the piss and graffiti train anymore" http://www.abctales.com/story/michael-s-valentine/i-dont-want-ride-piss-and-graffiti-train-anymore was a stand-out for the power of the sentiment and the energy of the language. Left me breathless. 
 
When reading prose on ABCtales, I personally prefer reading shorter posts and so tend to miss out on the wealth of impressive short story writing - my loss entirely. I have chosen Matthew Hughes' impressive site debut 'Together' http://www.abctales.com/story/matthew-hughes/together for this month not only because it's a chillingly compelling story but also for the way in which the narrator's voice is so well-realised, which is a hard one to crack. To say any more would be a spoiler, so you'll just have to read it for yourself.

 

Image: http://tinyurl.com/p9pxbn4

Comments

Wow.  Brilliant choices.