Blogs

Our picks for the month of February, chosen by Alex (london_calling79): Spring on our doorsteps and the twilight world waking up again, I've chosen Stephen Thom's 'Flare' to light the way as February's Story of the Month. With its snarling dialogue contrasting with some gorgeous snowy imagery, the cold intensity at its heart will help you savour every drop of new Spring light. A different type of light pervades Ewan's 'The man on the other end...

Sometimes I read some of the writings on Abc and also the work of modern published fiction writers and it seems like woe and misery from start to finish. With the exception of some good Nature writing and a bit, I wish there was more, of humour the same themes crop up again and again. Women reliving their abusive encounters, individuals going to the pub or the party all set for a good night out but only finding isolation and pain at the bottom...

Sometimes …when I have time to my self…not often…I research places or things I’d like to see someday… and I’ve saved snippets of information on all sorts of interesting places….My documents folder is jam packed with ‘where I want to go’ places and things I’d like to see…but my passport is still unstamped and my airline miles couldn't take me to the next town but still...I can dream..perhaps when I retire??...Anyway my current find is a Botanical...

This week from airyfairy: ABC Tales is on a real roll at the moment - lots of brilliant stuff coming in from both new and familiar names. It's been really exciting to read so much good work, and makes choosing the week's pick an invidious task. However, here we go. Poem of the Week goes to Unseasonably Warm by longrunningspatula. It's full of character observation, wry humour and hope, and it helps that it's brilliantly written. Do get along to...

ABC Tales is on a real roll at the moment - lots of brilliant stuff coming in from both new and familiar names. It's been really exciting to read so much good work, and makes choosing the week's pick an invidious task. However, here we go. Poem of the Week goes to Unseasonably Warm by longrunningspatula. It's full of character observation, wry humour and hope, and it helps that it's brilliantly written. Do get along to have a look if you haven't...

'He sleeps in my arms, we are welded, his penis still in me.' Don't waste your time with the 50 shades series, Anais is the real deal. Born in 1903,her first book of poetry was entitled House of Incest - I have not read it but how the heck did she get it published in 1936? Henry and June is her diary, written up later as a book. Anais is in Paris, it is 1931, she is married to Hugo. She meets the author Henry Miller, his woman June, yes - with...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b08gd0gc/growing-up-in-scotland-a-century-of-childhood-series-1-1-education This is fantastic viewing. I wasn’t about in the 16 th Century when John Knox thought it a good idea that every village and every Kirk should have a schoolteacher, and every child should be able to read god’s word in the bible as a bastion against Popery. Until fairly recently that was the model of schooling for many children in...

This week chosen by airyfairy: Our Story of the Week comes from a writer new to ABC Tales. LJ Huxton's 'Liminal' is a rich, evocative exploration of past echoes and present relationships. Please do read it if you haven't done so already: https://www.abctales.com/story/ljhuxton/liminal Our Poem of the Week shares the theme of memory and times lost. Accidentally Existing's beautiful 'Forgotten Copse' deals wryly with the disappointment change can...

Our Story of the Week comes from a writer new to ABC Tales. LJ Huxton's 'Liminal' is a rich, evocative exploration of past echoes and present relationships. Please do read it if you haven't done so already: https://www.abctales.com/story/ljhuxton/liminal Our Poem of the Week shares the theme of memory and times lost. Accidentally Existing's beautiful 'Forgotten Copse' deals wryly with the disappointment change can bring, but also looks forward...

All writers are historians. Subject and object. Subjecting what we know with what other people know. In other words, we read to write. We look for resonance in our writing and our reading. And sometimes somebody says it better and you’ve just got to acknowledge mastery. This is an honest book, a beautiful book in so many ways. When I start taking notes— Papers: 1991-2003; Tesserae 2003-2007; Letters 2011-2016—I find that I’ve copied word for...