Blogs

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 21 Jul 2023

Posted by airyfairy I hope no-one's suffering too much from the heat, choking on wildfire smoke or getting too soggy from the great British rain we're having in my part of the world. Story of the Week is another installment in the life of Mark Burrow's heatbreakingly wonderful young protagonist Jason. This chapter gives him a rare moment of triumph and exhileration, along with - as usual - some killer one liners and observations on the world...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 21 Jul 2023

I hope no-one's suffering too much from the heat, choking on wildfire smoke or getting too soggy from the great British rain we're having in my part of the world. Story of the Week is another installment in the life of Mark Burrow's heatbreakingly wonderful young protagonist Jason. This chapter gives him a rare moment of triumph and exhileration, along with - as usual - some killer one liners and observations on the world. One day this is going...

ONLINE READING EVENT AUGUST 12th UPDATE WITH LINK TO REGISTER!

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 16 Jul 2023

UPDATE: Our reading list is now strictly speaking FULL, but we might have room for one or two depending on timings. Please contact rachel@abctales.com to let her know if you want to go on the waitlist. For all readers already on the list, here's the link to register - please do so as soon as possible. Also if anyone would like to come along to be in the audience, you will also have to complete the registration link or you won't get in. Hope to...

Debbie Fanning (2023) The Journey Home.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 15 Jul 2023

The Journey Home is a short book, self-published by Debbie Fanning. In subscript at the bottom of the cover is the message she wants to convey after being raped by two men on Burns Night, 25 th January 2003, when she was twenty-one: ‘Finding my voice and taking my power back after a devastating assault’. ‘ I’m OK. You’re OK .’ That’s the name of a philosophy and a way of listening and doing. It’s one of those convenient lies. Rape and brutality...

Delia Owens (2019) Where the Crawdads Sing

Posted by celticman on Wed, 12 Jul 2023

Where the Crawdads Sing is Delia Owens’ debut novel. A New York Times Bestseller and a Reece’s Book Club pick. Although this is Owen’s first novel, she is also a bestselling author of non-fiction as a ‘wildlife scientist’ in Africa. She lives in Idaho. Write what you know. It’s no great leap to imagine the young Kya, ‘the Marshgirl’. Her brutal coming-of-age marked by oneness and appreciation of the natural world not being far from what Owens’...

Andrew Miller (2006) The Optimists

Posted by celticman on Tue, 11 Jul 2023

Part One of The Optimists, begins with a quote from Fergal Keane, Season of Blood . It was Rwanda, of course, Keane was referring to. The same place politicians such as Nigel Farage want to send refugees in the British Isles. The same place Fergal Keane admitted broke him. Here we have the first line: ‘After the massacre at the church in N—Clem Glass flew home to London.’ Clem Glass, an international photographer, is equally broken. A candidate...

Story of the Week, Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point 7th July 2023

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 07 Jul 2023

Chosen by Ewan Story of the Week No beating about the bush, this week’s Story of the Week is Turlough’s Miss Australia 1978 in four parts. Miss Australia 1978 Pt One Miss Australia 1978 Pt Two Miss Australia 1978 Pt Three Miss Australia 1978 Pt Four I did enjoy returning member Sooz006’s continuing series Silas Nash catch it all here Celticman’s Goatie 17 continues to maintain this series’s high standards too. Poem of the Week I cannot deny that...

Story of the Week, Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point 7th July 2023

Posted by Ewan on Fri, 07 Jul 2023

Chosen by Ewan This just gets harder every time I do it. Well done to everyone who posted in the last week Story of the Week No beating about the bush, this week’s Story of the Week is Turlough’s Miss Australia 1978 in four parts. Miss Australia 1978 Pt One Miss Australia 1978 Pt Two Miss Australia 1978 Pt Three Miss Australia 1978 Pt Four I did enjoy returning member Sooz006’s continuing series Silas Nash catch it all here Celticman’s Goatie 17...

Jimmy Henderson RIP. 26th June 2023.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 03 Jul 2023

I picked Teresa up last week, Thursday. She'd her brother's funeral today. She was carrying two plastic bags, stuff from the Coop and Jimmy’s medication from the chemists. She stood waving her arms, standing at the clock across from Dalmuir Library. I tooted the horn and parked at the traffic lights. ‘I thought you were a taxi,’ she said. Teresa is scheduled at the end of July to go for a cataract operation. Then she said I was an angel. I’ve...

Story and Poem of the Month

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 02 Jul 2023

Our picks for the month of June have very kindly been chosen by Mark Burrow: ABCtales – Pick of the Month The joy of ABCtales is in the variety. Everybody is welcome to play in the sandpit of prose and poetry. Looking over the work in June, there was plenty of writing to choose from. It seems obligatory for anyone who does Pick of the Month to say it’s been hard to make a selection. Well, as someone doing this for the first time, I can confirm...

Pages