Blogs

September was a really great month on ABC Tales, with lots of new members and some fantastic work from both newcomers and regulars. It's been a joy to go back and read so much good stuff, but choosing was very, very hard. Story of the Month is Noo's brilliant three-parter 'Land and Water'. The writing is exceptional, drawing the reader completely into this trio of moving stories, which are both intensely intimate and universal: https://www...

ABCTALES READINGS – LONDON, 16 th NOVEMBER It’s been a long time since the last once, but we’re pleased to announce that we have our next London reading event planned. It’s set to take place at the usual venue, The Wheatsheaf, on a Saturday afternoon from 3.00-600 on 16 th November. We hope this will be convenient for people within reach to come into London for a day trip, with plenty of time for socialising and to get trains home. It’s an...

It's been another brilliant week on the site, with lots of new members (a big welcome!) and some great work from our regulars. Story of the Week goes to Charlie77's 'Beauty'. Good horror is as much about the journey to the denoument as the end itself, and there's a lot more to it than just chills. This one has sadness, love and bewilderment, as well as a genuine freeze down the spine: https://www.abctales.com/story/charlie77/beauty Poem of the...

102 Sonja Street

I am sitting in the front row of The Allan Park Church Hall in Stirling, Scotland. It is nearly 11am. Its nearly showtime. Beside me sit my fellow pitchers for Perfect Pitch 2019; Suzie, Libby, David, Anne, Dave, Elissa and Cheralyn. Selected from seventy submissions earlier this year, we have made it here on a wet Sunday morning from all over the UK and Ireland. We all sent 100 word pitches only, no details, nothing to indicate who we were...

I once heard that there is no greater failure as a writer of not letting go of a story that you cannot tell if you never experienced it as a mirror from your own life. I'm sure some of you have heard about my story concept from long ago about 'Schism' and that I would dedicate myself completely to finishing it to whatever end. I never realized all that time ago I was dealing with a newborn who had not experienced life enough to put forth a story...

It’s a Sunday evening, I sat through the last Sunday football match: Chelsea vs Liverpool, I’m a Chelsea fan, don’t ask me about the final score, google it, and my night with Nancy Drew was my treat to forget. That, and popcorn, chocolate flavoured popcorn. My inspiration: recreating the scene in the President’s Daughter when Katie Holmes character goes on a movie date and mixes my two-favourite junk— excuse me— empty calories together:...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0008ncz/darren-mcgarveys-scotland-series-1-3-west-dunbartonshire-worst-place-to-be-a-woman I live in Clydebank. That’s in West Dunbartonshire. The place where women in Scotland are most likely to be beaten up. Poverty is not gender blind. Women, for example, are 60% more likely to be carers than men. Women (and men) living in poverty are far more likely than their more affluent neighbours, such as those...