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I’m delighted to be able to pass on the news concerning the Poem and Story of the Month award for November 2015: Poem of the Month goes to Johnshade for ‘Autumn.’ A love affair told with startling and visceral beauty, a truly poetic insight into desire, the words arranged with such care and precision that it breathes a life on the page. http://www.abctales.com/story/johnshade/autumn Story of the Month goes to Culturehero for ‘into the grey...

My hand upon it… I feel its warmth; its rough bark is pliant under my hand. I feel the breeze as the branches above move with the wind. I look up and smile as a lone leaf drifts down onto my shoulder. It is beauty…it is alive…it stands tall and proud and timeless…and breathes life for us. I have always felt an affinity with trees. I cannot say why...but standing among them I am calmed and I am able to think and relax. What it is about these...

The deepest wounds are hidden behind the most beautiful scars. They are left by the people who mattered the most. They signify the absence of their essence. The wounds still pain when the scars are pressed hard. The people likewise are still missed deep within the heart, they possess their special place and no matter how much you love the next person, their place will always be empty as they are not there. People unlike furniture are...

Lisa Hinsley is a prodigiously talented writer and an inspirational woman. I'm delighted to announce that her piece Child is our story of the week: http://www.abctales.com/story/lisa-h/child Pat G has written a memorable poem packed with spirituality. There are so many ways to interpret this piece. It's a beauty: Muse This week's inspiration point is "Look beneath the surface". The loosest interpretation is encouraged. Good luck! Have a great...

http://www.abctales.com/story/truth42/nice-see-you Near the end of Ropeburns, author and narrator, Ian Probert, bumps into Rob Douglas. If you’re like me you’ll not have a clue who Rob Douglas is. You’d know who Rab Douglas is – the ex-Celtic goalie that kept making a hash of it in the biggest matches of the season, most notably against Rangers. Football always finds a new way to smack you in the mouth, and I’m biased that way. Think Nick Hornby...

It's been a wonderful week for posting on ABCTales and consequently it's been really hard to pick the best of the best - especially prose - but here are my choices: Poem of the Week goes to Michael S R Valentine for Horreur a Paris - a powerful and heartfelt reaction written in the immediate aftermath of recent events. The Story of the Week is Terrence Oblong's Getting Fat, a quite extraordinary piece. It's not his usual style. Do read both and...

This week I’m reading about the attack on Paris. I don’t need to tell you about it. The media is full of front-line news on continual loop. It’s got that feel of 9/11 about it, but closer to home. Last week I was reading Reportage, Cemetery of Lost Souls , photographer Giles Duley on the Greek Island of Lesbos, where many refugees end up on the beach. Some die, as the image of the Syrian boy that went global show. Perhaps it softened Western...

Whilst Elliot’s Prufrock might have measured out his life in coffee spoons it sometimes feels like I’m measuring mine out in story and poem of the week announcements. Thankfully stories and poems are far better and more beautiful things to measure ones temporality by than coffee spoons – especially when they’re as good as this week's winners, so I’m certainly not complaining. The poem of the week belongs to Bee for her brilliant Poetry Monthly...

Day 1 Am here thinking that sometimes Jehovah humbles us to confirm that he is Supreme and the Creator. Am here right now at the verge of losing all things that is important to me and that’s my education. This is really precious to me. Really important. To have that degree will give me the edge.yes it will. I really want this.i really do. I want to be somebody. I want fame and fortune and its like I am losing it all! Just had sex. Condom broke!I...

Hey, DarkPinkGirl here Do you ever start writing a story or poem or any piece of writing and just feel like you have way too many ideas for one person to think about? I often start writing a screenplay or story with a perfectly planned out idea in my head but then it seems the more I continue to write the more ideas come flooding into my head. Most of the time I end up completely forgeting my orginal plot line and attempt to put ALL of my...