Blogs

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 23 Dec 2022

Happy Christmas all. May you be safe, warm and well-fed. Wonderful writing as always to make choices from. And though neither of my choices are at all seasonal, they are both excellent pieces of writing. Story of the Week is Leander42’s Jordan Gravette. This is Part 1, but Part 2 is also up on the site now too. https://www.abctales.com/story/leander42/jordan-gravette-part-1-6 Poem of the Week must be Ewan’s deeply moving poem, ‘Hereafter’. https...

Mark Burrows (2022) Coo

Posted by celticman on Tue, 20 Dec 2022

https://tinyurl.com/4a46jtek On page 5 of the foreword, author Mark Burrows tells the reader, ‘the following is a work of fiction’, and whatever Kafka was thinking, people don’t turn into pigeons, but Tories are still cunts. Realism begins with truth. He might not have used those exact words. I might be factional with his realities. Anger at the fuck-you world we’re forced to live in. Shit trickles down doctrines of Tory policy makers, you...

That Christmas Thing!

Posted by philwhiteland on Tue, 20 Dec 2022

There's definitely something about Christmas that encourages me to write stories a little more often than I would normally. I suppose it helps that the subject matter more or less suggests itself! That, and the fact that, by and large, people are generally in a good mood and looking to be entertained. With this in mind, I usually aim to publish at least a couple of Christmas-themed stories in the run-up to the main event. This year, I challenged...

November Spider Night

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Mon, 19 Dec 2022

Christmas tinsel overhead I go for free food and questionprobes To the Minted Methodist Church. The to the scrag end of Denise Moulds Social worker ukulele group Where no one knows the trad tune 'four strong winds' I grab instrument tuning key of irony Singing turning to the main crowd in the bigger room 'we all love Denise'. I walk to the bus stop bussses all spent, homeward went so on ward to my peace shop in New Bridge Street Yankee folkie...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 16 Dec 2022

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 16 Dec 2022 Reading the week's new work on ABC is always a cheering antidote to the current 'cold snap' we're having in the UK. Thanks to all those who have posted such wonderful stuff over the last seven days. Story of the Week goes to ethancrane's brilliantly surreal and funny 'Your Mutual Aid Hourly Pay Insults My Intelligence'. Like all the best surreal writing, it has at least one toe firmly planted in reality,...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 16 Dec 2022

Reading the week's new work on ABC is always a cheering antidote to the current 'cold snap' we're having in the UK. Thanks to all those who have posted such wonderful stuff over the last seven days. Story of the Week goes to ethancrane's brilliantly surreal and funny 'Your Mutual Aid Hourly Pay Insults My Intelligence'. Like all the best surreal writing, it has at least one toe firmly planted in reality, and there is nothing in it that seems...

Coo by ABCTales' Mark Burrow - Available Now! Includes Review

Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Wed, 14 Dec 2022

I am more than delighted to announce the publication of ABCTales' very own Mark Burrow's first novella, Coo. Here's a review from Airyfairy: Anyone anxious that Mark Burrow’s highly inventive ‘Pigeon Variations’ might have lost something in its restructuring to novella length for publication need not worry. The new version, ‘Coo’, is sharper, funnier and more insightful than ever. The book’s nameless narrator is trapped in several cycles of...

Kathryn Chetkovich, Granta, Envy.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 13 Dec 2022

Envy | Kathryn Chetkovich | Granta Magazine I came to read this in a roundabout way. A recommendation from a writer I hadn’t read. She’s posted on Betsy Lerner’s blog. I hadn’t heard of her either. Betsy was Lucy Grealy’s literary agent. I greatly admired her autobiography. Betsy’s literary agent to Patti Smith, whose recent publication Book of Days , which I haven’t read, obviously went straight in at number one in The New York Times Bestseller...

Betty (2020) Tiffany McDaniel.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 12 Dec 2022

Betty by Tiffany McDaneil is my novel of the year. Yeh, I know it was published in 2020 and this is 2022, nearly 2023, but I’ve always been a bit behind. I’ll try and explain why I think it’s pretty much perfect. I had to check Betty wasn’t real. This wasn’t autobiography. Listen to the first line. It’s an encapsulation of the whole book. ‘A girl comes of age against the knife.’ A coming-of-age story, but we all know they are ten a penny. Who...

Christmas Zoom - Thank you!

Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Mon, 12 Dec 2022

A very big thank you to everyone who came to our Christmas Zoom Reading. I think it was one of our best so far, with people joining in from all over the world. I do love our regular events in Soho, but at our online readings we get the chance to see and hear people who'd otherwise not be able to come. An especially big thank you to Mark Burrow and onemorething for organising so brilliantly (it's not easy!)

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