Blogs

Title: Beyond Big Willow Author: Valerie McKinley ISBN: 9780955896316 Cost (UK): £7.50 Publishers description: Beyond Big Willow is an entertaining and very frank autobiographical collection of prose and poetry built around events in the life of the author. In her introduction the author, Valerie McKinley, explains how she overcame her doubts concerning the public appeal of her book, by realising how she would be reinforcing the memories of...

We Can't All Be Astronauts by Tim Clare (our very own rokkitnite) has just been published by Ebury Press. There is a link to the Amazon sales page at the end of this article. "Right!' My Dad slammed his fist against the dashboard. 'If you want to die let's f***ing die together!' 'Dad...don't', I said, referring to the profanity rather than the death-threat. But my father was lost in his own private Thelma and Louise moment. His sleep-deprived...

One of our very long standing ABCtales contributers, macmanaman, has got his first book out this week. It's called 'Radio Head: Up and Down the Dial of British Radio' by John Osborne. It's a subject close to my heart so I'll be buying a copy this week and I hope that many of you will do likewise. Congratulations to John and here's the link to purchasing the book: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Radio-Head-Down-Dial-British/dp/1847372309/ref=s...

Great News! Richard Aronowitz-Mercer has had his novel 'It's Just The Beating Of My Heart' accepted by Flambard Press for publication in early 2010. Richard, who is Aronowitz, on ABCtales can be read here: http://www.abctales.com/user/aronowitz ... so you can get a sneak preview of his book!

ABCtales Editor Tony Cook reviews the new children's book by Corinne Davies with illustrations by ABCtaler El Ashfield: Corinne Davies’s Ralph is (not) a Superhero is one of the best children’s books I’ve read in quite a while. It’s funny, witty, pleasantly moralistic and wickedly silly. The accompanying illustrations by El Ashfield complete a memorable experience – and they’ve self published it on lulu. The sing-a-long rhyme of the story makes...

We've had a bit of a spate of multiple postings of late so I'd just like to re-iterate that the rule is: no more than three postings a day. It's our fault as it isn't clear on the home page that this is the rule - but if everyone could keep to three a day it means that the Editors aren't overwhelmed. Many thanks, Tony Cook

'Me and Mickie James' by our very own Drew Gummerson is now out and available for purchase. ABCtales Editor, Tony Cook, reviews it here: First of all I should declare an interest. I am thanked in the back of the book – as is ABCtales – for our assistance in the creation of ‘Me and Mickie James’. It makes no odds. If I thought it was a poor book, I would say so. Happily I won’t. When Drew first wrote this story on the site it was a snapshot of a...

Joe Dunthorne, our very own spack ( http://www.abctales.com/user/spack ) from ABCtales, has had his debut novel Submarine published by Hamish Hamilton and it has met with some great reviews. Joe's first submission to this site back in 2001 was in the character of a boy who suffered from a total allergy to modern life. It was so compelling that we thought it might be a true story - and his novel is from the perspective of a 15 year old boy - and...

In a bid to get more comments on our writers' work it has been requested that as a general rule we try and put a comment on the work of someone else for every story or poem that we post. Those that come along and just read, who are very welcome indeed, are also requested to try and leave more comments for writers. Please try and be both critical and generous. If you feel that something could be improved then don't hesitate to say so - and in...

I'm sorry to say that we cannot accept stories or poems in languages other than English. Every story or poem submitted to this site is read by an Editor. This allows us to 'cherry pick' the cream of the material and to reward writers as they improve. It also allows us to reject material that is racist, obscene, homophobic, or otherwise offensive. We do not wish to censor in any way but we do need to stay within the laws of the UK. If we cannot...