Blogs

If we exclude the launch party for my debut novel Lily Poole , where I didn’t have to do anything much, but go to the bar and buy drinks and get a couple of selfie-styled photos, then yesterday’s outing in Dalmuir Library was my first outing as an author. There were only two things made me more nervous than losing something on a flip of the coin. A heads up (i) There would be an audience. (ii) No audience. The tale of the latter was far more...

We have been inundated with wonderful pieces on ABCTales this week - poetry especially. Do please keep it up, it's such a pleasure to read it all. Big congratulations to seashore for 'Blue' (if you aren't one of the 327 people who've already read it, please do so), and the same to celticman for 'the war to end all wars' who incidentally is giving a reading in Dalmuir tomorrow from his brilliant first novel. Details here: http://tinyurl.com/...

Hi all, some of you have been emailing me with Poetry Monthly ideas and had difficulties with my email address. A big apology. That's because I've given you the wrong one. In fact, I invented another one that was an amalgamate of two others. 'Just keeping you on your toes', says the massive bumbling idiot. Anyway, the correct address is ray@abctales.com and I look forward to receiving all your ideas. Thanks Ray

Could be an age thing...When I was young the drama, the story, the scene of fiction - this to me was the real reality, cutting through the pedestrian precincts of organised logical thought and reaching to 'the significant heart of everything.' These days I'm jaded with fictional passion and prefer the metallic jolt of hard fact. Fact can explode preconceptions it can brighten my mind with the unexpected, the harsh, the funny, the telling...

These have been a bit erratic lately but should be all up and working now. If anyone's still having problems please let me know in a comment below - thanks!

This is not the Blog I intended to write when I arrived home on Tuesday 8th November 2016. It was going to be a lighthearted review of nice couple of days at the seaside, following up the London to Brighton veteran car race, then a ‘Sensational'60s' concert with some big names from that great musical era. But when I had almost finished my piece, something awful happened, and my blog seemed frivolous and inappropriate. I Iive in the town of New...

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...

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...

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...

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...