News and Features

Story, Poem and Inspiration Point of the Week

Posted by tcook on Fri, 18 Dec 2015

A really great story and poem for you this week - and an Inspiration Point that could have you scratching your head! Story of the Week is this belter from the ever wonderful Vera Clark. She captures the time and place of the Holiday Camp and gives us a tale with a wicked twist: http://www.abctales.com/story/veraclark/souvenirs The Poem of the Week is one that really made me think. This is an orginal and really quite profound notion: http://www...

Lisa Hinsley

Posted by tcook on Tue, 15 Dec 2015

It is with great sadness that we have to announce the passing of long term ABCtales member Lisa Hinsley. She was a wonderful writer and a fine member of our community - giving freely of her time and opinions in order to help hundreds of others. Lisa was a fine writer with a number of published books. Her most famous, Plague, is strongly recommended to you. She fought cancer with bravery and stoicisim for three years. Lisa leaves a husband and...

Get 'Ex' by Laurie Avadis

Posted by tcook on Wed, 16 Sep 2015

Our latest ABCtales book to be published by Unbound is the truly excellent 'Ex' by Laurie Avadis, known on here as 'lavadis'. It's the extraordinary tale of a 30 stone policeman who is intent on murdering his young son. It makes you laugh - a lot - and then suddenly take in a sharp breath and realise just what it is that you are laughing at. This is a shocking and thought provoking book that comes from the heart of Laurie's experience as a...

Interview with Jack O'Donnell, Author of Lily Poole

Posted by Luke Neima on Mon, 15 Dec 2014

Over the past few months ABCtales has helped turn two of its members into published authors. A third member – Jack O’Donnell (also known as Celticman) – is about halfway to publishing his Lily Poole with Unbound . This novel is a moving portrait of working class life in Scotland. It’s supernatural – but it’s much more than a simple ghost story. It's also about family, the social services, community and the way Scotland is now. If you haven’t...

Roll Up, Roll Up

Posted by Luke Neima on Thu, 23 Oct 2014

A guest post by ABCtales Author Ewan Lawrie : The galloping mare that is Gibbous House 's campaign to be published is careering down the home straight. We are 87% of the way there. And to save this poor jockey from brandishing his whip, Unbound is holding a draw for Launch Party tickets: everyone who contributes from now until the target is reached is eligible. I'll buy the winner a drink too, when I meet them. Now that's an offer. Let nothing...

Unbound to Publish ABCtales Author

Posted by Luke Neima on Sun, 19 Oct 2014

Ex , a novel written on ABCtales by Laurie Avadis (or lavadis), has now reached 100% funding on Unbound, and the book will soon be going to press! This is in no small part thanks to you – the ABCtales readers and writers who got behind the project from the beginning and helped make it a reality by buying a copy of the book in advance. The macabre humour, the violence and the absurd scene-setting that make this book what it is will soon be on...

At The Risk Of Being Tedious

Posted by tcook on Wed, 08 Oct 2014

Please please please support our final books on Unbound. If you haven't done so yet, then now is the time to do it! Celticman is lagging behind and badly needs your help. He's done so much for this site and helped so many of you - now is the time to give him something back: http://unbound.co.uk/books/lily-poole And Ewan is so nearly there - just a few more of you and he'll be over the line. Go, give him a boost: http://unbound.co.uk/books/...

Some Sadness and Great Joy

Posted by tcook on Mon, 22 Sep 2014

I am sorry to report that Luke Neima has left us for the Granta but he goes with my lasting appreciation for a great job done. Luke will still be about to help to promote our Unbound books (so if you haven't signed up yet please do so now!). In his place scratch and insert, aka Peter Hitchen and Claudine Lazar, are taking over as the main Editors in a job sharing arrangement. I am delighted that they feel able to take on the onerous task of...

An Interview with Ewan Lawrie, Author of Gibbous House

Posted by Luke Neima on Mon, 15 Sep 2014

Ewan Lawrie , a long-time editor on ABCtales, is two-thirds of the way to publishing his historical novel Gibbous House on Unbound. If you haven't already, have a look at the short movie and the excerpt of the book on his Unbound page . Gibbous House was written in serial form on ABCtales - and influenced by many of you. Ewan talked to us about that process, about intertextuality and the identity of the mysterious Moffat. 'Moffat is an imposter...

Heroes: 10 Poems from the New Generation of War Poets

Posted by tcook on Tue, 02 Sep 2014

ABCtaler John Giffard ( http://www.abctales.com/user/john-giffard ) has written one of the poems in this new anthology. Heroes, 100 Poems from the New Generation of War Poets. Edited by John Jeffries. This book is exactly as described in the title. It contained 100 poems covering various aspects of war. A large number of submissions were made in response to a call for poems for inclusion. A selection panel of 4, each individually rated all those...

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