Blogs

I've tried multiple times over the past few days to upload a story but I keep getting the incomprehensible error message below. I've sent pleading messages via the Contact Us section of the web page but to no avail! I would really like to upload this story but may have to abandon the effort if this goes on :-( Any ideas? PDOException : SQLSTATE[HY000]: General error: 1366 Incorrect string value: '\xF0\x9F\x98\x8A</...' for column 'body_value...

Many stories I read blend into one another. Some of them I can vaguely remember. They tend to be—by that measure—the best. I’m thinking here of George Mackay Brown, Celia , which is arguably the best short story in The Devil and the Giro , edited by Carl MacDougall. I met Carl a few times and he was great, but not great enough to get in the collection of the best of The Scottish Short Story . Bernard MacLaverty short story A Time To Dance is a...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$3,365.46 ) Week - 32 Go Birds - Dallas SUCKS! ------------- (I say again) EAGLES!!! EAGLES!!! EAGLES!!!!!! --------------------------------- Very disappointing outcome last week as a winnable contest slipped through the fingers of an inexperienced coach. All will be forgiven with a quality win on Monday night against the hated, despised, despicable… Cowboys (Ssshhhkk.. Ptooo..!) In...

Happy Friday to all! As always, it's very hard to pick just one poem or story - there is always such a variety of wonderful writing to choose from. Poem of the Week, this week, is hoalarg1's Beyond Reflection. A beautiful poem, tragic too, it stays with you. A very skilfully written poem. You can read it here: https://www.abctales.com/story/hoalarg1/beyond-reflection But please have a read of these poems if you haven't already from Rhiannon,...

When you are asked to review books, a number of prompts are translated into numbers. For example, you are asked to award a mark out of ten for literary merit. I often cheat here. If I like a book, it gets nearer ten than one. After all, even the ingredients on the label of a brown sauce bottle have enough literary merit to get five. Ingenious Pain gets a ten, because his sentences sing and you can get your teeth into them. His characters have a...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$3,366.54 ) Week - 30 & 31 Go Birds! ------------- E-A-G-L-E-S… EAGLES!!!!!! --------------------------------- That’s right, football is back, life is good and all is as it should be in the world. Big impressive win for the Eagles as they soundly dispatched the hapless, hopeless Falcons. Sadly however, the market missed the memo and did not follow suit. Ah well, this weekend’s...

Difficult as always to choose just one of each. Story of the Week. I really enjoyed Mitzi 44’s ‘ Busmar Astral ’ which was tender, funny and ultimately uplifting. Equally good, but very different was houghtonrick83’s Isolated . However, this week's story of the week is Marandina’s moving With or Without You. Poem of the Week Di_Hard’s ‘ preserving time ’ was as sweet and lovely as no doubt the jam was and I enjoyed that the title might be taken...

To further explain the genesis of The Man In The Bar' idea. It dawned on me that, as a new State Pensioner, this might be a suitable new profession. Similar to a court jester or writer in residence. As mentioned yesterday, the U.K. government's decision to do away with proper experts meant that the role might now be more onerous than I at first calculated. I certainly can not explain the 'Benefits of Brexit' and related topics. If you can,...