Story, Poem and Inspiration Point of the Week PLUS News of a Fantastic New Anthology!

I'll plunge straight into this week's picks with Bee's stand-out poem Breasts which we've already featured on our front page as it forms part of her Journey sequence, detailing her cancer from diagnosis through treatment. If you haven't already been there, please do pay it a visit. Story of the Week goes to Matthew Hughes for Something Borrowed - a cleverly constructed short with a really unexpected twist.

http://www.abctales.com/story/bee/breasts

For this week's Inspiration Point I want you to choose the titles of at least three songs and incorporate them in a piece of poetry or prose - any songs you like. It might be helpful if you could add the links to the songs at the end of the text. I hope that gets your creative juices flowing - good luck!

Finally, Tony's asked me to spread the word on ABCTales about another great initiative from Greg McQueen who you might remember from his hugely successful previous anthologies a few years ago. This time he's raising money for the Red Cross in aid of the refugee crisis - a wonderful cause, and a brilliant way for writers to give something of themselves. I contributed to the previous projects as did many other ABCTalers and I can't recommend it enough. Here's what Greg says:

The #RefugeesWelcome Anthology will be collection of short stories of all sorts of genres, similar to 100 Stories for Haiti. The aim of this new anthoogy is to raise awareness and money for The Red Cross and their European Refugee Crisis Appeal.

The anthology is produced in partnership with Coboox, which is a platform where writers can collaborate with their work. One of the reasons I have partnered with Coboox is because they have pledged to give 1000 Euro to The Red Cross on top of any profits that the anthology makes -- so we are already off to a great start!

The deadline for submissions is the 1st of October.

What we want ...

* Short stories of any genre

* 3000 words or less

* Stories of hope, happiness, humour. Optimistic stories that somehow shine a light in a dark situation.

* We do not want stories about war, death, or destruction. We want happy and upbeat stories that show how fantastic life can be.

* Previously published and new stories are welcome.

* Authors need to have the right to republish any previously published stories.

Submission by the 1st of October to: submissions@coboox.com