Blogs

Helen Ivory and George Szirtes (eds) (2012) In Their Own Words Contemporary Poets on Their Poetry. It’s poetry week on BBC 4. Last night I watched a drama that uses Simon Armitage’s poetry to dramatize the life and death of Sophie Lancaster in 2007. She and her lanky boyfriend were attacked in a park by a group of feral boys. Their attackers shoe prints and the pattern of their laces were left embedded in Sophie’s head. Black roses were the...

Mischievous wind…playing in leaves… tapping branches on windows… howling down alleys…rattling doors…empty streets…chill air…foreboding lurks round every corner…dark clouds...moonless night...glowing eyes in Orange faces…shadow witches peek from doorways…sinister forms appear in bushes…cries of fright and squeals of delight for October’s All Hallows Eve is nearly here… Halloween...A truly abandoning holiday… A day to be whatever you can dream and...

There's been a positive avalanche of quality prose this week! Two series - one finished now and one ongoing have caught my attention especially and I can thoroughly recommend them: The Trip by Jeand which starts here: http://www.abctales.com/story/jeand/trip-part-1 and Jake Mutant by Jane Hyphen which starts here: http://www.abctales.com/story/jane-hyphen/jake-mutant-chapter-one It's beautiful outside right now, but later on when it starts to...

Hello humans ! I am Liv the Grungy Whovian, and am excited to find a new writing website (my school blocked Wattpad and other sites but that's okay because, this place is awesome too!). A couple things you should know about me and my writing: 1. I am in fandoms *coughs* Doctor Who, Impractical Jokers, Sherlock, American Horror Story, etc (so don't be surprised if fandom poetry and stories appear from the Void.. *coughs* Doctor Who reference) 2...

Suckerpunch is a collection of 36 short stories and a Post Script. All for two quid to download, the kind of loose change that makes a five-year old wain scowl at you and poke their lip out when you hand it to them. It’s a great deal. Not all of them are of equal quality. I’m thinking, for example, a bit of ‘Tongue’ action here. I also think as we get nearer to the end of his collection, well, you know, there’s a bit of extra padding being added...

A few members have been keen to find out which pieces have taken the September accolades so without any messing about this news just in: The picks of the month for September were “challenging” to say the least… But there have to be winners. For Poetry, Bee, Pat G, Vadislav32 and Celticman treated us to some wonderful imagery. All brilliant yet each one different in content and form. But the POTM goes to a newcomer to Abctales. Mackatoof’s “...

Adversity…a road to maturity…or to detachment…Love…to believe in forever…or pine for unrequitedly…Which way will the story bend… When we pull emotions forward to create we use so much of who we are…good moments and difficult times help us breathe life into a story. We use pain and sorrow in Drama…tender moments in Romance…silly times in Comedy and a marvelously free imagination in Science Fiction and Fantasy. We are…to some extent… what we write...

September’s poetry brief was so inspiring because we found poetry in our daily routines; the usual haunts where we pause or pass through were seen afresh with a scrutinising eye and some truly skewered perspectives. Refreshing is the word that emerged whilst reading. Thank you for setting us free, Bear. Here’s a roundup of some excellent found poetry: Silver Spun Sand found those predictable gems in funeral conversations: http://www.abctales.com...

watch this and weep Many years ago I read a short story about a woman with gigantic tits that picked up hitchhikers on the back roads. I think it was set in the Highlands. To be fair anywhere outside Old Kilpatrick is a bit like the Highlands to me, but it might have been closer to home. And I do read lots. Stories blend together and become a kind of fudge-cake mix. So if someone says have you read? I kinda have and kinda haven’t because until I...