So much good stuff to choose from this week - particularly prose - but I hope you like the two I finally settled on. Story of the week goes to The Baby In The Well by Jewel Serpent. A beautiful voice with a very necessary message. Our Poem of the Week is Silver Spun Sand's Where The Bee Sucks. It's Earth Day today, and what better way to celebrate than with this stunning hymn to nature. http://www.abctales.com/story/jewel-serpent/baby-well-0...

I knew the secret of this book before I read it. Joss Moody, jazz trumpeter, extraordinaire is really a woman. So what, I thought. I also thought it would be set in some seedy jazz country called New York. But it’s not, it’s set in London, Glasgow and Torr and spans about sixty years from the early fifties. And I’d guess, from reading Red Dust Road , it’s the kind of quiet place and space that Jackie Kay’s parents John and Ellen, who live in...

For everyone who's been following this, please read my update: http://www.abctales.com/story/insertponceyfrenchnamehere/bees-journey

Ronny Delia will be the loneliest man in Scotland this morning. In case you didn’t notice Rangers are back. They beat Celtic in a Scottish Cup semi-final, in a penalty shoot-out, after drawing 2-2, after extra time. Triumphalism from the Huns, and rightly so. Over the piece they had more possession of the ball and were the better team. That tells you everything you need to know about Celtic. Out fought and out manoeuvred by a team made up of...

The journey is long. You will be thirsty, you will be hungry and you will be weary. So, when you feel like quitting, just say to yourself, "I haven't heard NO enough to be someone else."

Hard to believe but Walter Smith has been talking sense. The real fear for Rangers should be ten-in-a-row. That’s five in the bag. Five to go. Obviously, Walter would play Goram in goal and Laudrup up front and use the other nine players as defenders. That worked for him, time after time. But Mark Warburton favours a more expansive game. Well, at least I hope he does. Because Walter Smith’s game plan is perfect for derailing the current Celtic...

'An agent needs to see you have done a creative writing course.' I was recently advised. So I spotted on Facebook a posoting about Future learn Open Univeristy course - Start Creative Writing. Now, with 4 novels written, this sounds like a step back, but its not. The great drummer Neil Peart decided to learn jazz drumming and went back to the start and this is how I've approached it. Its a well laid out course, and I have gleaned a few nuggets...

I didn’t watch this film all the way through. I got to the bit where Detective Sergeant, Bruce Robertson, (James McAvoy) of Lothian Police force looks in the mirror and sees the image of a pig. Pig, filth, black comedy. Gettit? I turned the telly over and watched the end of the Liverpool game. That was exciting. The truth is I don’t know what truth is. But I don’t really need to see the end of the film to know what happens. Writers have a...

This week’s picks stayed with me from the minute I read them. Both are stunningly constructed. Congratulations to Noo for her darkly woven prose-poem ‘My Reflection’ and Celticman for his richly impressionist fiction ‘Glitter.’ http://www.abctales.com/story/noo/my-reflection-poetry-monthly http://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/glitter This week’s IP is to write a story or poem inspired by a phrase you’ve found in some junk mail.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b077r82t/panorama-im-broken-inside-saras-story How many children die whilst in psychiatric care? You probably don’t know. If you were health secretary, you might say something to the effect, none that I know of, or you might guess the answer to be four this year, one of them Sarah Green. You might suggest that the knock on effects of broken Britain (my words) is the number of children seeking psychiatric care...