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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 |...

Reading through this past week's posts has been an absolute pleasure as always - thank you so much for all the wonderful things you've published. My choices for the Story and Poem of the Week are as follows: Story of the Week (don't read this if you're feeling delicate - he will take you right back there with him) is K Cider - September 1988 by Andy Hollyhead https://www.abctales.com/story/andy-hollyhead/k-cider-september-1988 Poem of the Week...

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...

Posted by Ewan on Fri, 15 Apr 2022 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...

So many wonderful pieces posted here on ABCTales this week. Thank you so much to all of you, not just for the writing but for the generous support you give others whenever you leave a comment. Story of the Week goes to TJW for 'The Most Beautiful Woman in the World' and Poem of the Week to Magnolia Fay for 'Ciao Nonna' - both very different tributes to women and also both very welcome distractions from the horrors we hear about daily. It's good...

Our Story and Poem for the Month of March, very kindly chosen by hudsonmoon: Picks of the Month March 2022 Why me? Do you not realize the suffering that goes along with picking poems and stories of the month? The agony? The self-doubt? Am I even worthy of such a task? The answer, of course, is no. That’s because I always assume someone is better suited to the task. But that someone else is busy — busy prancing merrily in a park picking...

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 01 Apr 2022 No difficulty at all in choosing our Story of the Week this time - an episode of jeand's brave and absorbing account of her experiences of what started out as Bell's Palsy and has now taken an even more complicated turn. Please do read this, and the other parts of Jean's story. I know everyone on the site will want to send her all the very best: Janus Look 4 | ABCtales Poem of the Week goes to smokejack's...

I'm very pleased to announce that ABCTaler Ice Rivers' second book Fill Fuller: Forever Endeavor is now available! Here's what he says: Everybody has a book inside. A writer discovers that inside book and puts it on the outside with words that stay. With the help of ABC tales, I've discovered two books or maybe one huge book. The latest discovery is called Fill Fuller and it's a continuation/follow up of the first book called Full Filler. Most...

As per usual, the stream of good material flows ever on. It cheers me up no end to know that – every day – there is something to read that is brilliant, beguiling, or brave,. Sometimes a piece is all three. Story of the W eek was a tough choice again this week. Rosalie Kempthorne produced several of her off-kilter, disturbing, yet believable pieces. Part one of the first of them is here Jack O’ Donnell (Celticman’s) fishermen’s tale ‘The Ten...

Short stories are having a bit of a moment, and I've been contacted by a new indy publisher - Scratch Books - the only one in the UK dedicated to the genre. Here's a link to an article on them: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2022/jan/30/tales-of-the-unexpected-th... They've offered to do some kind of collaboration with ABCTales, so watch this space, but in the meantime, see below for their first title which is out on March 17th - we get a...