17.01.14 Story, Poem and Inspiration Point of the Week

It’s been an exciting week here at ABC – we’ve had two big announcements, our Picks of the Year from 2013 (which you can read more about here: http://www.abctales.com/blog/luke-neima/picks-year-2013) as well as the results from our Winter competition (which you can find, along with honourable mentions, here: http://www.abctales.com/blog/luke-neima/results-abc%E2%80%99s-winter-competition).

All of which makes for some excellent reading (for that matter, have a browse through all the competition entries, here - http://www.abctales.com/competitions - there are some utterly fantastic pieces, and we were sorry to not have awards enough to highlight all of those which deserve recognition). I’ve rarely seen the site so rich with quality material. But to add to it all, we have two picks of the week, both of which are outstanding!

Our poem of the week is from Lavadis, who is back with an incredible poem called ‘Her 64th Boyfriend’. The voice and the images are surprising, the descriptions explosive and the imagination stuck on sixth gear, as you’d expect if you’ve read any of Lavadis’ work before (and if you haven’t, I’d highly recommend having a look through his profile). A frenzied love poem that’ll stun you on first look. Enjoy:

http://www.abctales.com/story/lavadis/her-64th-boyfriend

Our story of the week is one from Max Salsbury, a new writer to the site with some serious talent. ‘Sandwiches’ is a satirical and surreal portrait of decadence. The solemn tone of the narrator is undercut with images of Romanesque orgies and vomitoriums, pitched in the jargon of modern statecraft – a substantial feast for the hungry reader:

http://www.abctales.com/story/max-salsbury/sandwiches

And, as always, we have a new inspiration point to get your creative juices going:

http://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip

And don’t forget – ABCtales’ get-together in the North is happening in only two weeks! Information is available here: http://www.abctales.com/forum/wed-2014-01-01-2134/york-reading-01022014#new. Book your ticket to York if you haven’t already, and gear up for a great night of catch-up and reading.