Blogs

Making a Voice/Video Recording

If you have your own SoundCloud or YouTube account you can link from that (they are easy to open accounts with if you don't), but we also have an ABCTales SoundCloud and YouTube account and if you want to email your file to admin@abctales.com we will happily upload it for you and put a link on your poem or story. For mobile phones you can get apps for the above - also recommended is one called Hi-Q: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=...

The Bleeder, BBC iPlayer, Director Philippe Falardeau.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0006wg1/the-bleeder Sometimes you just hit upon a movie you know you’re going to love. Here it is. As surely as any movie written or starring Simon Pegg (or even an actor that looks like Pegg) is going to be a going to be a stinker, The Bleeder is a knock-out. I’m not a big boxing fan. Yeh, sure I remember the Rumble in the Jungle and Ali v’s Frazier. I watched them on BBC in the same way that I later...

Calling All Poets!

I've just been sent this opportunity from Leeds City Museum and thought it might interest someone (also they will pay you £700!!!!). Gooid luck to anyone who enters! https://museumsandgalleries.leeds.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Leed...

STORY AND POEM OF THE MONTH

Our Story and Poem of the Month for July have been chosen by Mark Say: Story of the month Top story goes to Poking a Snake by amavisti, best described as a slightly sleazy love story. It conveys the way some couples maintain a strong emotional bond and a sense of loyalty to each other despite immoderate behaviour and keeping secrets. I suspect a lot of marriages survive because of the moral in the story. https://www.abctales.com/story/amavisti/...

Happiness is a warm keyboard=I live to and love to write

Dusk is setting in and the low light of sunset is blanketing the grass with shadows and patches of last light…Day is ending and night is falling and in this moment between light and dark…I sit in quiet contemplation… reflecting on all the issues of my day….but I don’t battle the problems…I let them simmer…pausing to see what answers may come. I have always been a night bird…the pace of morning exhausts me with rush hour and work day demands and...

Karen Armstrong (1993, 1999) A History of God.

All writing is an act of faith. I come from a long line of dead people and bar-room prophets, all saying the same things. We’re going to hell in a handcart. We’ve had the fall of the Berlin Wall and Francis Fukuyama proposing The End of History . Karen Armstrong posits The Death of God. The time frame is opaque. But in places like Britain it seems more clear-cut, less than fourteen percent of people attend regular worship (Anglican or otherwise...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Philip Sidney on Fri, 02 Aug 2019 What a week for ranting - i'm in a particularly ranty mood myself so took great pleasure in the green calm of Di Hard's delectable and thought-provoking poem https://www.abctales.com/story/dihard/grassjuly - it's our poem of the week. I really enjoyed the discussion of the possible reading of this poem too - it would be wonderful to hear our writers reading their work. I would love to hear Hudson Moon...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point.

What a week for ranting - i'm in a particularly ranty mood myself so took great pleasure in the green calm of Di Hard's delectable and thought-provoking poem https://www.abctales.com/story/dihard/grassjuly - it's our poem of the week. I really enjoyed the discussion of the possible reading of this poem too - it would be wonderful to hear our writers reading their work. I would love to hear Hudson Moon reading his story aloud too: https://www...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Once again another very difficult choice - particlarly with poetry this week - we have been inundated with some very special pieces. Story of the Week goes to airyfairy's very funny 'Pad Life: Cyber Tranche' with a strong recommendation to read the continuation of canonette's 'Looking For Andrew' which was last week's pick. Poem of the Week - like I said earlier was very hard but I am giving it to skinner_jennifer, one of our stalwarts who not...

Middle Class Morality and the Corporatisation of Everything

I have some thoughts about charity, based on my interactions with Andrew and the people who are supposed to help him. I am yet to engage with the Council on Andrew’s behalf, so can’t comment on how they treat him. However, he tells me that they can’t and won’t help him, as he made himself “intentionally homeless”. This phrase lets councils off the hook and means that they no longer have a “duty” of care towards him. I’m sure how it works...

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