Okay, here it is: I'm a Democrat and feel loyalty to the Obama administration, especially Barack and Michelle. I've been an intelligence and also a political operative, and I don't like losing... we don't like losing... any more than any other team. When I was a major leader in the Sanders movement: I did a lot to build and sail that ship and I tried to go down with it... had to get back up, align with and forgive the Clintons... I am a young...

An excellent poem and little paen to the bat - plus an Inspiration Point that should really set you thinking: https://www.abctales.com/story/johnshade/extra-time https://www.abctales.com/story/markle/bat-time https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip Cheers, Tony

I’m not sure how to write reviews. Usually, I start by saying something about the writer, such as I knew nothing about Gay Talese until I read an interview with him in The Observer Review, which focused on his latest book, the name of which I can’t remember, but the story centered around a man who ran a hotel and peeked through the ceiling at the room below and the couples that had sex in them. That piqued my interest. Next up, an online...

Life is sometimes full of lessons. Many we learn through trials and adversities. It makes you stronger for the day of tomorrow and though live moves forward , the reminders will always be there , given the changes you went through. Those changes still shaped you into the leader you are today. One that has learned, who grew but most of all conquered. In everyday life the smallest incident can later prove to be our biggest lesson. Still that is...

It's been desolate on the Poetry Monthly front these last two months. I've confidence that creativity will be revived so I'm calling on members to have a crack at this month's brief and encourage writing peers to participate. If any of you have any fresh ideas for creating new poetry, please email me at raysmart@abctales.com well in advance of next month. I'm open to suggestions - a total re-vamp with new wig and heels in fact - but need to hear...

Clinton or Trump? Sometime tomorrow we shall know the answer to this nasty, brutish and very long Presidential campaign. My money's on Trump. 'Brexit plus, plus, plus' - the man said it himself. He would not get my vote (and I voted Remain) but we have to look long and hard at where these massive protest votes are coming from. Yeats made a prescient point in his poem The Second Coming, written in 1919 'The best lack all conviction, while the...

Story and Poem of the Month for October, chosen by another of our lovely and generous editors: As always there was an awe-inspiring pool of great posts and talent to draw from. Many congratulations to everyone who has posted in October and made the choice so difficult. For poem of the month, I'm picking Branwell Clinic by Julia (Overthetop1), a very talented contributor to ABCtales, sadly no longer with us. The poem was posted by Julia's mother...

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Two outstanding pieces this week - quite hard to choose as there's been so much good stuff. Congratulations to Rosa Cruz for 'I and The Village' and NBeinn for 'Long Tall Sally'. Do read them both, they're brilliant! https://www.abctales.com/story/rosa-cruz/i-and-village https://www.abctales.com/story/nbeinn/long-tall-sallly Here's the Inspiration Point: https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip Have a lovely weekend!

The leaves are changing outside my window and the air is just that touch of chilling that makes me feel alive. This time of year awakens in me the true writer because it feeds my imagination… I don’t know why the months from October to January have this affect on me…I only know since childhood... they do. It starts in October…Halloween and the lure of costumes and their magical abilities to transform you…the tingling intrigue of mysteries and...