Blogs

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

This time of year brings me vivid memories, none more vivid than my father and his harmonica....His harmonica was always with him...ready to play a tune on...no matter where or when...He played the accordion too but the harmonica was portable. And there was a song he’d warm up with, he played it all the time, over and over again...it was a musical backdrop in my days with him that lingered in my mind....I had heard him play this tune since...

America's Mussolini: Donald J Trump.

Hyperbole: hyperbole hʌɪˈpəːbəli/Submit noun exaggerated statements or claims not meant to be taken literally. synonyms: exaggeration, overstatement, magnification, amplification, embroidery, embellishment, overplaying, excess, overkill. Pre-Trump becoming the 45 th American President and post-Trump, taking up tenure of office and becoming United States President, is not will Donald J Trump, last the four-year term, but will the world? That may...

Having a crack at Christmas!

Every year, at around this time of year, I promise myself that I will finally get around to compiling a collection of my Christmas stories and, every year without fail, procrastination overtakes me and my window of opportunity gets frozen solid by the Jack Frost of bone idleness. The barmy part about all of this is that I often find myself (which can be a shock if you weren't looking for yourself in the first place) writing more things in the...

Statement: Spartan

Okay, here it is: I'm a Democrat and feel loyalty to the Obama administration, especially Barack and Michelle. I've been an intelligence and also a political operative, and I don't like losing... we don't like losing... any more than any other team. When I was a major leader in the Sanders movement: I did a lot to build and sail that ship and I tried to go down with it... had to get back up, align with and forgive the Clintons... I am a young...

Story, Poem and Inspiration Point of the Week

An excellent poem and little paen to the bat - plus an Inspiration Point that should really set you thinking: https://www.abctales.com/story/johnshade/extra-time https://www.abctales.com/story/markle/bat-time https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip Cheers, Tony

Gay Talese (1992) Unto the Sons.

I’m not sure how to write reviews. Usually, I start by saying something about the writer, such as I knew nothing about Gay Talese until I read an interview with him in The Observer Review, which focused on his latest book, the name of which I can’t remember, but the story centered around a man who ran a hotel and peeked through the ceiling at the room below and the couples that had sex in them. That piqued my interest. Next up, an online...

Lessons....Learned(IP)

Life is sometimes full of lessons. Many we learn through trials and adversities. It makes you stronger for the day of tomorrow and though live moves forward , the reminders will always be there , given the changes you went through. Those changes still shaped you into the leader you are today. One that has learned, who grew but most of all conquered. In everyday life the smallest incident can later prove to be our biggest lesson. Still that is...

Poetry Monthly

It's been desolate on the Poetry Monthly front these last two months. I've confidence that creativity will be revived so I'm calling on members to have a crack at this month's brief and encourage writing peers to participate. If any of you have any fresh ideas for creating new poetry, please email me at raysmart@abctales.com well in advance of next month. I'm open to suggestions - a total re-vamp with new wig and heels in fact - but need to hear...

America

Clinton or Trump? Sometime tomorrow we shall know the answer to this nasty, brutish and very long Presidential campaign. My money's on Trump. 'Brexit plus, plus, plus' - the man said it himself. He would not get my vote (and I voted Remain) but we have to look long and hard at where these massive protest votes are coming from. Yeats made a prescient point in his poem The Second Coming, written in 1919 'The best lack all conviction, while the...

Story and Poem of the Month

Story and Poem of the Month for October, chosen by another of our lovely and generous editors: As always there was an awe-inspiring pool of great posts and talent to draw from. Many congratulations to everyone who has posted in October and made the choice so difficult. For poem of the month, I'm picking Branwell Clinic by Julia (Overthetop1), a very talented contributor to ABCtales, sadly no longer with us. The poem was posted by Julia's mother...

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