Blogs

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Difficult to choose, as always. Nice to see Terrence Oblong back and indeed Craven Danger’s misadventures and the disturbingly funny pieces from Simon Barget. Story of the Week is from a debutant writer Russ Lowe. “Take It Back”. It’s a bitterly funny time-machine piece, with sly nods to Back to the Future and a bitterly funny tone. Welcome to ABCTales. https://www.abctales.com/story/rosslowe/take-it-back Poem of the Week is always a difficult...

Darren McGarvey’s Class War, Episode 1, Identity Crisis, BBC Scotland, BBC iPlayer, presented by Darren McGarvey.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s7hd/darren-mcgarveys-class-wars-series-1-1-identity-crisis Darren McGarvey from Pollock admits he’s lucky, incredibly lucky. And he’s right to do so. He’s on a roll after Poverty Safari . The go-to man when the BBC, or any other media organisation, wants to signal that they’re doing the right thing. Giving the working class a voice. The equivalent of a black woman in the moron moron’s cabinet of his 45...

Circling a Fox, BBC Scotland, BBC iPlayer, Writer and Presenter Matthew Zajac, Director Brian Ross.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000s083/circling-a-fox Matthew Zajac is an actor. Acting is a precarious profession. The same old faces crop up with regularity. Trying to make a living from acting is akin to trying to make a living from writing. I’ve did a few shifts as an extra. I’ve no interest in being the next what-ever-you-call him/her. Writing, well, that’s a different story. Writing is my game. I don’t expect to make a living from...

The Gnawing Flood

Bronze Medal Award winner of the 2020 Cerasus Poetry Olympics

Story and Poem of the Month

Our Story and Poem for the month of January, very kindly chosen by onemorething: As always, with such a wealth of diverse and fantastic writing shared here, it’s very hard to choose just one poem and story. Poem of the Month is Kilb50’s To A Lone Sailor. Such a beautiful poem. It left me lost for words and deeply moved. https://www.abctales.com/story/kilb50/lone-sailor Special mentions: Rosa Cruz’s Fair Maids of February is wonderful - you can...

Happiness is a warm keyboard=I live to and love to write

Writers create little worlds of wonder but where do these stories come from? I know it is different for each writer for we have our own rhythm and flow…require different stimuli…and know what effectively works for us may not work for everyone. For me, when I write, it is visual…the words flow from what I see, or I should say what I imagine. I walk through the scenes in my mind’s eye almost in a trance, imagining and typing the descriptive words...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point - and a special announcement!

First - we've decided to have another virtual reading event at the end of this month and we'd love to see you there! We've had two so far and they've been brilliant. Do register early, as Mark says, places fill up very quickly. You can read or just be there: ABCTales Virtual Reading Description ABCTales is holding a virtual reading night on Saturday 27th February (UKT), running from 19:00 to 21:00. Our members will be reading poems, short...

When is a freebie, not a freebie?

When it needs a review. During the month of January this year, Kobo promoted two of my novels; Eagles Hunt Wolves ; and, The Road of a Thousand Tigers for free download on their platform. I put them up for this primarily as something readers could enjoy during the bleakest month in the grips of a pandemic. Two fast-paced page-turners always help take your mind off things. And, on a more mercenary level, I hoped to get some reviews on the back of...

The Chronicles of a Lady (and her Maid)

A story that sprang from a fragment of dialogue that was going around in my head (and simply demanded to be written down) has now, to my surprise, generated seven episodes, to date, and looks likely to provide quite a few more, before I'm done! Therefore, in an effort to try and tidy things up, I've collected all of the stories about Aefelthrith and Gwladys together in a 'collection' and sequentially numbered the various episodes. If you haven't...

It's been a long time.

My Photographs and Memories plan got a wee bit derailed and it has been superceded by other ventures. I did, however, pull together a small book of work related to the influence of a friend/muse of mine. I've been yoyo-ing between home and hospital since May 2017. It was supposed to be a simple operation but a number of mistakes were made.and as a result, among other stays, I had two visits to Intensive Care totalling around 10 weeks. The final...

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