Blogs

Some of you have been having issues with posting your work using an android phone. Ewan and John our techie have been working really hard to fix this. We think it's an issue with your phone rather than the site, but Ewan has finally found a workaround for which we're very grateful! Details below: Open ABCTales as normal on your phone, via your browser. (works for Firefox and Chrome) Log in Look for the three dots top right of the phone screen (...

A very big thank you to skinner_jennifer for choosing the Story and Poem of the Month for April. Here's what she says: Reading so many great poems and stories, I've found it difficult to pick out my favourites, but here goes. After much deliberation I decided that Marandina's: Life Through A Prism just had to be poem of the month. It captures the hope and confidence that I believe in, and is very encouraging to read. Life Through a Prism |...

My pet theory is that authors write the same book again and again, until they get it right (write). James Robertson writes about Scotland. No headline there. He always writes about Scotland. He can mix it up a bit with Saints, God and the Devil, but you know where you are with him. Here we have an ensemble cast that takes us from Scotland in the 1950s to the kind of Scottish Devolution nobody much wanted, but we settled for. The book kicks off...

Around seventy years ago, Mahmood Mattan was hanged for the murder of Lily Volpert, a shopkeeper, who happened to be Jewish and under five-foot tall. His conviction was found to be unsafe by the three Appeal Court judges in 1998 and he was exonerated. In the Epilogue, Mahmood’s son Omar was found dead on a beach in Caithness, Scotland. He’d said in an interview: ‘Until I was eight, I was told my father had died at sea. Then one day the Salvation...

Always feels a privilege to award Picks of the Week, but it is never easy to pick just one thing. However, Poem of the Week is These Hands by Ewan. There is something very profound about our hands and Ewan’s poem captures it beautifully. So much so that I am using it as our Inspiration Point this week. You can read the poem here: https://www.abctales.com/story/ewan/these-hands Story of the Week is Sean McNulty’s A Mortal Drag. I am a huge fan of...

When am I going to get my Ukrainian lodger? I registered my interest on Homes for Ukraine some time ago. I have spent hours sorting out my spare room. In fact I shall be moving into my spare room and my lodger shall be getting my current bedroom. Both rooms have their pros and cons. My back bedroom has been my office since my younger daughter was awarded her degree and moved abroad to work and travel. It has more shelving. The front room, the...

Choices, choices. Always difficult, I've found it particularly hard this week. It's not you, it's me. Story of the Week I was tossing up between quite a few this week: I liked Celticman's Uggly Puggly III which is part of the the start of something that could be brilliant, but then it's got Jack's handle attached to it, so that's a given, after all. Go here if you need to. I'm also enjoying Jane Hyphen's Legend of the Pah , you should check it...