Blogs

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...

Bob Young is a collaborator. As the fourth ranked entrepreneur on Silicon.com’s 2006 list that’s a bit of a surprise. Most hotshot entrepreneurs are not collaborators. But Bob is different. He made his money as the co-founder of Red Hat, the world’s leading open source software company and now he’s lighting up the publishing world with Lulu.com who are about to publish their millionth book. He’s done it all by collaborating. Red Hat used the...

I have now had the chance to anlayse our Google Analytics figures for 2006. They make very interesting reading. Basically, they tell us that we have many thousands of people visiting ABCtales who are not registered members - they just come to read. That explains the good 'read by' figures on your stories. In any case here's the basic figures for the year: Page Views: 1,981,650 Unique Visitors: 312,482 Average Pages seen per visit: 6.55 Number of...

The third issue of the ABCtales magazine is now available by clicking www.etribes.com/abctales Many thanks fo the wonderful Enzo for putting this together and congratulations to all those chosen for inclusion. This magazine represents the very best of ABCtales writing and it's something that we should all take pride in. The plan is that you will now print off copies, read them and then leave them in suitable places - be they the waiting room of...

ABCtales Author Andy Koumi (akoumi) has his first novel released. He was picked up by DexterHaven Publishing, a subsidiary of Black Spring Press, after the owners saw him at an ABCtales evening. The novel, 'The Cypriot' , has been around many of Andy's friends and family but it's also had significant input from ABCtales members. 'The Cypriot' is set in Cyprus and London and tells the story of a young Christian boy and his forbidden love for a...