Insertponceyfrenchnamehere's blog

Posted by airyfairy Firstly, just a reminder about the ABCTales Virtual Reading Night, hosted by Mark Burrow, on 1 April. If you haven't yet, please do email rachel@abctales.com (link sends e-mail) to reserve your place, with both your user name and real name. These events are always friendly, supportive and great fun, and it's lovely to see and hear new readers. Or just come along to be part of the audience! You can see the original...

It's come to our attention that AI is being used by some of our members. I've discussed this with our trustees, editors and directors and we are all in agreement that ABCTales isn't the place for it. We will be updating our Terms of Use to reflect this shortly, but in the meantime just don't! If anything is published on our site using AI we will require it to be removed within 24 hours. This is a creative writing site and we love reading what...

Our Story and Poem of the Month for February have very kindly been chosen by marandina: Spring is in the air, winter now behind us after a tricky few months for many, what with the cost of living crisis, the ongoing war in Ukraine and other issues at home and abroad. A bright ball of sun in a blue sky remains the writing oasis at ABCTales.com. It was lovely to be asked back to choose the monthly picks for February. It meant I could masquerade as...

I am delighted to announce the following: On Saturday 1st of April we will be having an April Fool’s Day online reading event from 7pm - 9pm hosted by the wonderful Mark Burrow. Please email rachel@abctales.com . Let her know if you would like to read or be in the audience, also your username as well as your real name. Do get in touch quickly if you want to read as the list always fills up quickly. A zoom link will be sent to you before the...

Happy Friday! Poem of the Week is Yutka’s beautiful and moving, Different to caged birds. https://www.abctales.com/story/yutka/different-caged-birds There is, as always, an abundance of brilliant poetry on the site to choose from. Do read Mark Burrow’s ‘night of the armed siege' https://www.abctales.com/story/mark-burrow/night-armed-siege and Ewan’s 'Don’t Ask' too. https://www.abctales.com/story/ewan/dont-ask Story of the Week is Phil Whiteland...

Posted by Ewan on Fri, 17 Feb 2023 Here are the picks of the week. Poem of the Week is Ralph's 'Any Old Jerusalem' a reworking of an old poem. When you can picture the people and the places, it's a sign that a piece is as near perfect as anything has any right to be. You can read it here Story of the Week is TJW's 'The R Word'. A very strong narrative voice tells us a gritty, yet heartbreaking story. You can read it here This weeks IP is here

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 10 Feb 2023 ABC Tales writer Colin Burnett (author of the absorbing and thought-provoking novel 'A Working Class State of Mind') has an article in today's issue of 'The National'. Anyone familiar with Colin's work will know that this is going to be well worth reading. https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23311832.betting-shops-cash-social-inequalities-location/ We've had some wonderful stories posted during the last...

Our Story and Poem for the month of January, very kindly selected by RJNewlyn: Pick of the month January 2023 Well done to everyone for another great month’s worth of writing. January can be a little wearying and I don’t think it’s the easiest time for inspiration, so it’s doubly impressive that there are so many excellent recent posts. For the prose section, do take a look at celticman’s Eejit Knickers https://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/...

Fabulous writing to choose from this week…not least the bumper crop from today alone. Despite being spoilt for choice, this week’s stand-outs for me are: Poem of the Week is Welkin Spirit by Penny4athought. It satisfies all my poetic desires. https://www.abctales.com/story/penny4athought/welkin-spirit Story of the Week is TJW’s profound and brilliant writing of ‘GOODBYE, SOUL BROTHER or The Cavalry of Ten Thousand Horses - I: The Green Hell / 6...

Posted by Ewan on Fri, 20 Jan 2023 Never easy any Friday to choose, but I'm going to plunge straight in with the picks this time. Story of the Week is newcomer Steve Hoselitz's 'Eavesdropping' . A strong voice and quirky story makes for an excellent read. I'm sure we are all looking forward to reading more from Steve. Speaking of quirkiness, one of the most distinctive voices on ABCTales belongs to Lavadis. His work is always identifiable and...