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February's Story and Poem of the Month have been picked by Ray Smart (Vera): February's Story and Poem of the Month have been picked by Ray Smart (Vera): It's a privilege to read all the wonderful work and get the opportunity to choose two pieces. A tricky job indeed. Here are February's Picks of the Month. Congratulations to David Martin with his beautifully composed story An Ending. Finely written prose with a transporting, ethereal feel to it...

A wonderful poem with great depths gets my pick of the week today. It's from Silver Spun Sand and I've no idea how she manages to keep on producing such high quality pieces day after day. An inspiration to us all. http://www.abctales.com/story/silver-spun-sand/painting-homeless-godly-0 Terrence Oblong's 'The Death of Andrew McGinty' is my Story of the Week. Slightly surreal and very funny as always, this has serious undertones as well. Please...

I didn't have to think very hard this week, as two pieces (luckily one prose, one poetry!) have refused to leave my head since I first read them. The Other Terrence Oblong's 'The Coldplay Problem' is my favourite of all his Island Stories. It has everything anyone could want, including David Bowie, a bottomless well and - this is a big plus - the utter rubbishing of Coldplay. Do read it if you haven't already: http://www.abctales.com/story/other...

Without any preamble, here's Joe Lawrence - one of our top editors - who has been diligently sifting through all the wonderful things that have appeared on ABCTales this month: It’s always a challenge when asked to pick the SOTM and POTM. There are just so many great pieces to choose from. But for me SOTM goes to Stephen Thom for his magical “As long as sea beats on stone.” http://www.abctales.com/story/stephen-thom/long-sea-beats-stone The...

She's only posted two pieces on ABCTales but they've both been spectacularly good. T_az's story of loss, distance and family ties is powerful and an all-round excellent read, which is why it's our Story of the Week. Hats off also to Philip Sidney for giving us this week's Poem of the Week - Huldufolk - a slip sideways into the otherness of Icelandic legend - inspired into existence by January's Poetry Monthly theme.(Look out next week for...

Actually this is for the past two weeks, as we were quite rightly showcasing our wonderful Picks of the Year last Friday. Anyway, 2016 has got off to a flying start on ABCTales. I think perhaps the start of really cold weather must have done something to the poets in particular because there was so much to choose from. I'm giving this week's poetry honours to Philip Sidney for parts one and two of her as yet unfinished Triptych (do hurry up with...

Two fantastic picks for you today. Poem of the Week goes to johnshade for Angry Words and Canonette gets Story of the Week for The Clairvoyant - congratulations to both! http://www.abctales.com/story/johnshade/angry-words http://www.abctales.com/story/canonette/clairvoyant For this week's Inspiration Point I'm giving you one word - resolution. Use it any way you want, as ever, and post the results for us to see I hope you've all recovered from...

Each month we ask one of our brilliant volunteer editors to take a turn at choosing the best of the best. Mr December is Parson Thru who's very kindly taken time away from his globetrotting to give us his carefully thought out opinion. Here it is: Thanks for giving me the privilege of choosing December's pick of the month. The story that I finally chose impressed me when I first read it earlier in the month and remains strong. It is "Sadie", by...

No Picks of the Week for you today, instead here's an extra special cherry for you all and a fantastic Pick of the Day. Thank you so much for all the wonderful poems and stories this year. I hope you all have a wonderful day! xxx

ABCtales: The Book Some of the best writing from ABCtales is now available to buy in hard copy as a quality paperback. Featuring the authors: Laurie Avadis, Holly Fisher, Alex Graves, Deborah Hambrook, Joe Lawrence, Ewan Lawrie, Richard McDonough, Ian McLachlan, Rhona Millar, ‘Noo’, Jack O’Donnell, Luigi Pagano, Richard Penny, Roy Raubenheimer, Moya Rooke, Stephen Thom and Sam Thornley. Including a chapter from Laurie Avadis’s novel ‘Ex’ with an...