I had a quick read through Donald S Murray’s novel In a Veil of Mist. ‘The Veil of Mist he refers to was inspired by something that happened. A marketing tool, the hook of this is inspired by true events (or factual as we like to call it). My favourite storytellers aren’t fictional writers but factual writers. You can slip a fag paper between the truth and lie. The story is set in 1952, the Ben Lomond operated and staffed by British sailors and...

Write and they shall come….at least that’s what happened when I began writing Willow’s Tail . A day after I posted the first chapter, I kid you not, a tiny black and white cat sauntered into my front garden and made itself at home. The cat, I believe, lives next door or at least that's where I'd always seen it, lying on their porch or lawn but ever since that first day I posted, it decided to check out our shaded garden. It now spends leisurely...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$2,644.02 ) Week - 16 Ahhh West and Weewaxation! And no Wabbits.. I’m on wacation .. I mean vacation this week! My wife and I have been looking at RV’s for a couple of years now. We like the 5th wheel layout for its larger interior space. Downside is the need to purchase a substantial pick up truck to tow the beast. I’ll need to see a remarkable improvement in this selection of...

Two more wonderful pieces for our Picks this week. Story of the Week goes to Terrence Oblong's 'The Word Police'. Funny, surreal, and yet so very, very familiar to those of us attempting to extract inspiration from our little grey cells and get something, anything, on the page: The Word Police | ABCtales Poem of the Week is bhi's beautiful 'In the shadow of geraniums'. A vivid, thought-provoking piece full of colour and life, its imagery lingers...

How Dublin’s coastline inspired my writing during the Covid pandemic Growing up in Drimnagh in the 1980s the sea seemed very distant. To go for a walk along a beach meant taking buses and trains, and you would be away for the entire day. My mother would reminisce about her childhood holidays in Rush and in 2001, unable to afford anything closer to the city, my wife and I bought a house there. All we knew about Rush beforehand was that it was the...

I bought a copy of A Working Class State of Mind because I like Colin Burnett’s writing. I’m an editor on ABCtales and some of his fiction appeared online. Most of the other editors are English. Whisper it, we’ve even got an American. But he recognised the moron’s moron Trump as the narcissistic psychopathic puckered lips organism that he proved to be. I got nudged towards Colin Burnett’s work because as the resident Scot it was my domain. And...

I completely forgot to mention here (and this is why I'll never become a literary colossus!) that 'The Chronicles of a Young Lady (and her Maid)' which started out as a serial here on ABCtales, is FREE as a Kindle e-book this Bank Holiday weekend (29th & 30th May). An entertaining and undemanding read for an unusually pleasant Bank Holiday Here's the blurb: "When a young noble lady's betrothed rides off to battle, she has high hopes of his...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$2,513.32 ) Week - 13, 14 & 15 Recap! Took a few weeks off.. I have ridden and bent a motorcycle or two in my youth. A semi once turned left from the right lane/shoulder in front of me. There ensued almost 5 seconds of frantic braking and a few expletives.. Ended with me gently laying the bike down on her side as the driver checked his mirror and saw me, apparently for the first...

Dr Richard Taylor (2021) The Mind of a Murderer: What Makes a Killer? Dr Richard Taylor is a forensic psychiatrist. You know the sort: Wire in the Blood , Cracker , Those That Kill (Scandie noir). No, not that kind. They’re psychologists that tell you what kind of cheese the killer favours, what kind of street he stays in and how he was making humanity pay for his mum not allowing him mint humbugs. Forensic psychiatrists need to complete medical...

I tackled Emile Zola’s The Drinking Den before, but gave up after reading the first couple of chapters. I stuck with it this time and finished all thirteen chapters. It wasn’t like War and Peace , where when I finished it I expected a librarian (in pre-Covid times) to rush up and pin a medal to my tracky top. Nor was it like Zola’s Germinal or The Earth which I ripped through. When I turned the final page I felt a sense of relief. Job done, but...