13.12.13 Story, Poem and Inspiration Point of the Week

A big thanks to everyone who came out on Wednesday to ABCtales’ Winter get-together. It was a wonderful evening, filled with fantastic readings and even a few surprises (not least of which was the true identity of Rosa Tabula!) And despite all the carousing and the many pints consumed, we also managed to raise £120 for the Railway Children. Thanks to everyone who came!

We’re planning to have our next get together in London in late March, but, well before that, we’ll be meeting up North — in York on the first of February. Come out, one and all!

It’s been another great week for writing on the site. Poem of the week goes to Animan’s ‘Paralysis and release’, which is an incredible portrait of the grief caused by the passing of a father. It moves from after the parent’s death to before, touching on the concentration camp at Majdanek and Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia. There’s so much at work here that it merits several reads:

http://www.abctales.com/story/animan/paralysis-and-release

Christmas is almost upon us, and with it comes a hilarious Christmas story from Jolono. If ‘Julian Asks About the Nativity Play’ doesn’t make you laugh, I don’t know what will! One of the funniest stories of the week we’ve had on the site in a long while:

http://www.abctales.com/story/jolono/julian-asks-about-nativity-play-chr...

This week’s responses to the Inspiration Point have been particularly good, and I can only hope the responses will be as good this week, as I’ve really been enjoying reading them. Please do respond and post a link to your piece at the bottom if you do: http://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip

Again, if you're able to, please donate to Second Sight UK — they’re doing fantastic work eliminating cataract blindness in India and ABCtales firmly supports their efforts: bit.ly/1fIVzn3