Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 31 Jul 2026

Firstly I'd like to say a huge thank you, both to Cerasus Poetry for the idea and the very generous donation offered, and to everyone who's joined in with his fiction challenge, The Way We Heard, which comes to an end today. We've had a massive surge of last minute entries - no mean feat when the minimum word limit was 1000. I hope you've all had as much enjoyment from the writing as I've had from reading them. I'll be waiting with bated breath to see if Cerasus considers the challenge to have been met! 

 

On to my picks for this week (a little early due to other comittments). 

I have too many honourable mentions for prose, including the aforementioned flurry of writing challenge entries:

 

https://www.abctales.com/story/turlough/way-we-heard-all-time-low

 

https://www.abctales.com/story/airyfairy/way-we-heard-wannabe-1996

 

https://www.abctales.com/story/airyfairy/way-we-heard-what-do-you-want-december-1959

 

https://www.abctales.com/story/airyfairy/way-we-heard-somethings-gotten-hold-my-heart-january-1989

 

Also Eric Marsh's newest Amanderella story which starts here:

amanderellaand-punctual-ghost-chapter-1

 

My Story of the Week goes to hudsonmoon for Ghosts which has struck a chord with so many of us:

https://www.abctales.com/story/hudsonmoon/ghosts

 

For Poem of the Week I'd like to give an honourable mention to Luigi for his IP response, A Roof Over Their Head:

 

https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/roof-over-their-head

 

My choice for Poem of the Week goes to marandina for his wonderful A Better World:

 

https://www.abctales.com/story/marandina/better-world

 

We don't do this often, but I'm leaving up last week's Inspiration Point for another week as it was such a wonderful one and has produced so many brilliant and positive entries:

 

https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip

 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend smiley

 

 

Comments

Submitted by Cerasus Poetry on

Sorry I haven't been around to monitor this closer.

I've had an offer accepted on a seaside home I intend to retire to, so have mostly been reading legal paperwork rather than fiction.

How the challenge currently stands at 8PM Friday is that there are 18 stories representing 8 decades, meeting the conditions to secure a donation of £80 to ABCtales.

However, to secure the full £100, someone other than Terence Oblong or airyfairy must write a story set in the 1980s or 1990s and someone other than Turlough must write a story set in the 2010s or 2020s.

(Please note that 4 stories were disqualified for not meeting the criteria: airyfairy's 'Three Coins in The Fountain' and celticman's 'Love Is All Around' were not contained in 1 post; Eric Marsh's 'Singing The Blues' was not based in reality; w.w.j.abercrombie's 'Dog Days Are Over' was not a number 1 record.)

If there any latecomers willing to step up and fill the gaps then I will extend the deadline.

 

Submitted by SoulFire77 on

I'd be happy to write something to represent the 1980's or the 2010's, if that would be allowed. 

 

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

What a kind offer SoulFire - thank you! Let's see if Cerasus comes back with a yes

 

Submitted by SoulFire77 on

If so, I will most likely choose that 1983 hit song Bonnie Tyler sang about vampires.

You know the one.

 

- Jay

 

Submitted by Cerasus Poetry on

Go for it Jay. Your previous story was set in the 70s, which is pretty well covered so doesn't create another gap.

Submitted by Turlough on

I thought we had all the decades covered. Is there a catch in the rules that I've missed?

Turlough

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

I think it might have been this:

'In order to meet the challenge’s full criteria, there need to be at least 8 distinct stories, each from a different author; one from each decade from the 1950s to 2020s'.

Since you already covered a different decade Turlough

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Aww, yes, of course. I forgot about that bit. 

And thank you very much for my mention.

Turlough

Submitted by Cerasus Poetry on

Yes, at the moment there are only 7 different authors who have written stories that meet the criteria, so one new person needs to step forward to fill the gap.

Turlough is the only person to have written stories in the 2010s and 2020s, which means there is not 2 distinct authors to cover those decades.

Submitted by Turlough on

I get you! I wasn't helping with the challenge anywhere near as much as I thought I was. But I enjoyed writing them anyway.

Turlough

Submitted by insertponceyfre... on

We all enjoyed reading them Turlough

 

Submitted by Turlough on

Awww, thank you.

Turlough