Blogs

ABCTales Virtual Reading Event - Register to Reserve Your Place Now!

ABCtales is delighted to host another virtual reading on Thursday 26th August from 19:00 to 21:00 (UKT)

The Investing Game

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$3,161.26 ) Week - 22 The Future’s So Bright! I gotta wear shades... My crystal ball might have been working better than I thought! My favorite little mico-penny hired a big important mucky-muck to serve in an advisory capacity and the market responded with a 125% jump in the share price. World Health Energy Holdings (WHEN) on Tuesday gained one half of one tenth of one penny in one...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point 16 July 2021

Chosen by Ewan. Story of the week, in an unusually strong field, goes to Rosalie Kempthorne whose apocalyptic narrative WebWorld (plus version no.s) continues to read like something publisher ready. If you’ve missed earlier parts, do go back to the beginning Today’s episode WebWorld (1.10) https://www.abctales.com/story/rosaliekempthorne/webworld-110 [Episode 1 WebWorld (1.1) is here] https://www.abctales.com/story/rosaliekempthorne/webworld-11...

South African Anarchy 13 July 2021

Context – Third Wave of Covid Pandemic, now amidst the riots and looting of the KwaZuluNatal, South African, livelihoods. Gunshots have been ringing out beyond my window for 4 days now, with fewer shots starting on Saturday evening, to a more continuous stream this Tuesday morning. A WatsApp video showed police shooting at gatherers in my area to disperse them from a mall car park this morning. The government knew that this would be going down...

The Investing Game

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$2,976.91 ) Week - 21 I can see the Future! Well, some of it anyway... It’s not that big a trick really, almost anyone can do it. I was reminded of this when the young couple next door moved in, replacing the slightly older but still young couple who had moved out. Seeing the future only requires reaching an age in life where a younger person’s future is your own past. Oh the...

England with the sound down.

England can beat Italy and win the Euros. They’re playing at home and favourites. Even I’ll admit that. I’m not anti-English, and I don’t mind them winning the odd game. Although I was never there, I’ve telly memories of Scotland going to Wembley on the fitba specials, beating England, tartan clad hordes of Bay City Roller fans stealing the goalposts and ripping up the turf and eating it to show how hard we were. Payback for all those invasions...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Two wonderful pieces for you today: Poem of the Week goes to skinner_jennifer's Daydreamer which seems to have touched a nerve with a lot of people - including me. As Jenny's success shows, daydreaming can get you places! Story of the Week goes to drew_gummerson's You which has kept me laughing all week Both wonderful reads and very much recommended! https://www.abctales.com/story/skinnerjennifer/daydreamer https://www.abctales.com/story/...

John Burrowes (2005) Irish: The Remarkable Saga of a Nation and a City.

I qualify for an Irish passport. My Da was born in Belfast, but lived his life in Glasgow, and fought in the second world war for Britain. When he married my mum, he moved to Clydebank. John Burrowes is telling us something we already know—many of us have much the same story. How many? Most folk find statistic boring. My Da was born in 1923. The Irish Free State was formed in 1921, with the six counties still part of Britain. Susan McKay 2021...

Story and Poem of the Month

Story and Poem of the Month for June, very kindly chosen by Parson Thru: Prose elegantfowl ‘Sanctuary’ https://www.abctales.com/ story/elegantfowl/sanctuary My choice for prose pick of the month for June is elegantfowl’s ‘Sanctuary’. I found this a very intense and well-written piece. The atmosphere is claustrophobic, which suits the telling well. I felt drawn into the mind of the character and into their thoughts. The voice is matter of fact...

James Hunter (2019) Insurrection: Scotland’s Famine Winter.

Professor James Hunter revisits a student historical dissertation to remind us that it wasn’t just Ireland that suffered from famine, after potato crops failed year after year in the late 1840s, but most of Europe suffered from the fungal spores of Phytophthora infestans . The poor people of the Scottish Highlands and Islands did not experience to the same scale as the Irish Holocaust, but many of the structural problems were the same. The...

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