insertponceyfrenchnamehere's blog

I'm delighted to announce that Willow's Tail by JoAnne Stefanizzi (ABCTales' very own Penny4athought) has just been published! 'Willow is not an ordinary cat; she is a familiar and her human is Martha Kendalite. Martha is no ordinary human, hence the familiar lounging under the delphiniums in her garden. Willow and Martha are content with their days, happy with their routine and the uneventful surroundings of their hometown. That is, until the...

As we lurch towards Christmas and the music whenever you step into a shop becomes more and more raucous, ABCTales is such an oasis of creativity in which to take a pause. Thank you all so much for being a part of it I have a couple of very honourable mentions for you first this week - Turlough's 100 words a day This Sort of Thing is an absolute pleasure to read, and Rhiannonw's walk Up to the Hoar Frost an icy delight. Do read them: https://www...

Well this definitely deserves a place on our front page: Bex Hainsworth who wrote on ABCTales as Mistaken Magic has published her first poetry anthology. Not only that, but one of the poems in the collection, ‘An Octopus Picks Litter at the End of the World’ has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize by her publisher, The Black Cat Poetry Press. Very big congratulations to her! I'm sure most of you won't remember me, but this site was such an...

Who's Aldo? by ABCTales writer Colin Burnett is published by Tippermuir Books and avaiable now! Link to order and wonderful review by Ewan Lawrie below: Who’s Aldo? By Colin Burnett I first came across Colin Burnett on the writing site ABCTales.com, where an early draft of Aldo’s first outing. ‘A Working Class State of Mind’ was available to read for a while. As I recall many members were stunned by the authentic, vibrant voice(s) in the writing...

Our Story and Poem for the month of November, very kindly chosen by Sean McNulty: STORY AND POEM OF THE MONTH As we reach the foot of the year, it falls on me to choose work from the month of November, a task which is always difficult, no matter how clichéd a line that is. Poem of the Month goes to rhyme-master Luigi Pagano for Total Quality Management. Even with serious subjects such as climate change or in this case the plight of the worker,...

Posted by airyfairy As always, some wonderful writing on the site this week, a very welcome antidote to the winter weather. Story of the Week is Simon Barget's 'Us and Them'. There's a lot of snappy answers being offered to things going on in the world at the moment, but this piece offers thoughts on the heartbreaking complexity, nuances and stumbling humanity of it all. The deep sadness of the final paragraph stayed with me for a long time...

And even more good news for ABCTalers! Two of our poets, marandina and onemorething have had their work included in the Black Bough Winter and Christmas Poetry Anthology The editor of the anthology is Matthew MC Smith who is a tireless promoter of new and emerging poets. This annual offering is a labour of love that he spends most of the year compiling. The final product is a thing of beauty. There are over 125 poets who have contributed with...

Some lovely news to share with you! Our very own onemorething has been nominated TWICE for the prestigious Pushcart Prize which you can read about in the link below. The two poems are Hoar Frost and :Dutch Elm Disease which I believe were both first published on ABCTales. http://pushcartprize.com/index.html Big congratulations to her!

I am very pleased to announce that Phil Whiteland who posts his brilliant Bring Out Your Dead stories on ABCTales and has more cherries than an actual cherry tree, has a podcast out! You can listen to an episode of A Dubious Legacy here: https://yorickradioproductions.com/listen-to-our-latest-episodes/ Philip is very pleased with the way they've interpreted his characters so I am sure we will be too and if you haven't read any of his work I can...

Posted by onemorething: Another week of great writing on the site. Some wonderful stories; I especially loved monodemo's sweet tale of mice, but also Jane's ongoing brilliant, Parcel for You. I should mention celticman's Love Story too. Overall, however, my favourite story and Story of the Week is the very gentle tale from Monodemo. You can read it here if you haven't already. https://www.abctales.com/story/monodemo/party As for poetry, it was...