Blogs

After the success of Jeff Torrington’s Swing Hammer Swing !, The Devil’s Carousel is his follow-up novel. Only it isn’t. It’s not a success and it’s not a novel. The Devil’s Carousel is a collection of short stories, versions of which are listed and have appeared elsewhere, such as ‘The Poacher’ in the Glasgow Herald , ‘The Sink’ in BBC publications, ‘The Fade’ in the Scottia Bar Writers prize. The setting in each story comes from the same place...

Our picks for the month of June have been chosen by the lovely Alex (london_calling79) I would like to dedicate this 'Pick of the Month' to the memory of our dear bee. Like a lot of us on the site, I always loved it when a comment of hers popped up on my work and was always pleased to read her wonderful words. I hope she would have approved of my picks as I had her in mind whilst choosing. For Poem of the Month it was a close one but I've gone...

While everything else falls apart, turns blue, grows wings, hangs upside down and stabs itself in all sorts of unexpected places, you can still come to ABCTales and read the most wonderful prose and poetry. Congratulations this week to samhennig for 'Edges' and Philip Sidney for 'Little Ingland 1. Histry' - both, I think, dealing with the same subject but in very different ways: http://www.abctales.com/story/samhennig/edges http://www.abctales...

Some people have said they weren't getting notifications through, so Lluis the techie has rejigged things for us and it should all be working again now. Please let me know if you're still having problems

The garden path was lit by bright, eye squinting sunlight and I wanted to run down it. To jump over the gate and run for miles finding my way to the beach, to the soft settling sands under my toes as I race to the waters edge. To abandon at the pier all burdens, daily grinds and demands on my time. To be the person I was at eighteen with eyes wide with possibilities, arms open to encompass the world, to live in today and let tomorrow watch at a...

Ha-Joon Chang, The Little Blue Book: ‘Economics is politics.’ Charles Darwin urged the ‘weak in mind and body’ to refrain from marriage. That’s why I never married. Contemporary disciples of Francis Galton’s scientific racism now favour that dismal science of pseudo-economics. Economic racism doesn’t discriminate against the rich. It is premised on it. The poor are feedstock for those that have accumulated land and wealth. A propaganda war,...

Congrats go to safety and MJG this week. A pair of crackers. We hope you enjoy these as much as we do: http://www.abctales.com/story/safety/volcanic http://www.abctales.com/story/mjg/will And we hope that this will give you Inspiration for your writing: http://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip Have fun!

I’m as repetitive as person with Alzheimer’s, but I think I may have picked this book up before and read the start of it. I really wanted to like this book, but didn’t get beyond page 40. We have the Triads: Tia Lo (the boss) his beautiful daughter Ming Fu. I could tell you who the other Triads are but really who cares. There’ll be another along shortly. And why do all daughters have to be beautiful? Why can’t she look like a banana? Well one...

I went to Dalmuir library yesterday and got three books. Two by Des Dillon and one by Jeff Torrington. Ewan had mentioned Torrington in one of his posts. Although I know I’ve read his book, Swing Hammer Swing , like most books I read I can’t remember anything about it. Nothing. Well, the bit about it being set in Glasgow. Since hearing Des Dillon speak at Dalmuir library I thought he’s one of us and I better read something he wrote. When I got...

Congratulations this week go to T_az for 'Maya' and to Kilb50 for 'Something Dead in the Road' - both wonderful pieces. http://www.abctales.com/story/taz/maya http://www.abctales.com/story/kilb50/something-dead-road The Inspiration Point is poetry and prose on the theme of hope because I think we could all do with some of that this week. http://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip