Karl Wiggins (2015) Self-Publishing! In the Eye of the Storm!

Posted by celticman on Thu, 09 Apr 2015

I’m not sure why Self-Publishing should have an exclamation mark! But I’m not going to argue with an exclamation mark. This book cost less than a pint of beer and more importantly I spent about five hours reading it. I dutifully followed all the links to some impressive Amazon sites that featured self-published authors have set up to sell their novels. I was familiar with some of the names featured. Joe Lawrence and East End Butcher Boy is...

Louis Theroux: Transgender Kids, BBC 2 9pm

Posted by celticman on Mon, 06 Apr 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05qkzt2/louis-theroux-transgender-kids Louis Theroux used to write books. He’s moved into the far more lucrative market of documenting those in our society that don’t quite fit in. He writes the scripts for these programmes. Has his own crew. Puts it together like a jigsaw. A novel approach. I get the feeling Louis doesn’t quite fit in either. An alien presence among those we hold at arm’s length and treat...

Inside the sex offender's prison & Strangeways: Briton's Toughest Prison Riots.

Posted by celticman on Sun, 05 Apr 2015

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b05px4sk/strangeways-britains-toughest-prison-riot Rex Bloomstein visits HMP Wharton in Nottinghamshire, the largest sex offender prison in Europe. 841 men range in age from 21 to 91 (93 was the oldest inmate). They have committed a variety of offences from rape to downloading child porn. The average cost for each prisoner is £27 000 per annum. What is unusual about HMP Wharton is the mix of social classes...

Genesis - Selling England by the Pound (music 54 minute album)

Posted by Ray Schaufeld on Sun, 05 Apr 2015

Discovering this, 41 years after it came out I am astounded these these young men who had nothing extra about them apart from probably some classical training created a work so big, individual, beautiful and unpredictably hypnotic. It's mainly instrumental with great crescendos into glory, some little voice bits, a few deliberately comic some more serious singing of love or loneliness. It's a huge bright elaborate canvas, music by image rather...

Errata

Submitted by scratch on

A clarification to my earlier newsletter.

Please note the following:

The site up-grade will take place on the morning of Wednesday 8th April 2015 and ABCtales will be off-line during this period. 

Sorry for the earlier typo.

blush

Peter Hitchen.

Important Information and an Appeal

Submitted by scratch on

Site Developments

With the first quarter of 2015 now behind us the weather finally seems to be taking a turn for the better and despite what TS Elliot said April is a time of re-generation, rebirth and broad optimism. 

And what blue-ribbon period this first quarter has been for ABCtales.

Story and Poem of the Month

Posted by scratch on Sun, 29 Mar 2015

This month a great writer and very much valued ABCtales editor, Vera Clark, has done the hard yards and provided us with March's winners. Here's her rationale: This month’s picks bring us two different literary genres written with style, authenticity and impact. Not only do they provide excellent writing and content but secondly, they employ experimental form to showcase elegance and intelligence. Both pieces grabbed me by my ears and gave me...

Coalition Channel 4, 9pm.

Posted by celticman on Sun, 29 Mar 2015

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/coalition/on-demand/57947-001 Timing is everything in politics. Growth in the economy. A few weeks from another Tory triumph, or another patchy coalition? Scriptwriter James Graham looks backwards to what happened five-years ago, when the Conservatives formed a coalition government with the Liberals. For me it’s a case of who do I hate the most. In Ten Days that Shook the World , American socialist and...

Kurt Vonnegut (2010) Look at the Birdie

Posted by celticman on Fri, 27 Mar 2015

This is not a modern collection of thirteen and a bit Kurt Vonnegut short stories as the publication date suggests. In a letter to a Mr Miller dated 1951 Kurt Vonnegut addresses, anthropology, the Indian Ghost Dance of 1894 (which interested me) and among other things, whether writing can be learned at a school of writing. He concludes: ‘This letter is sententious crap, shot full of self pity…I quit GE, if I’m not a writer then I’m nothing. This...

Story, Poem and Inspiration Point of the Week.

Posted by scratch on Fri, 27 Mar 2015

This week's poetry pick is an wonderful example of talent underscored by love, or love underscored by talent. You decide: http://www.abctales.com/story/hudsonmoon/song-sam-video When I first finished reading this from Geraldine the words 'that's absolutly wonderful' slipped out without me even realising. This really is a special story of the week: http://www.abctales.com/story/quigleygeraldine/bias-binding This week's inspiration point came to...

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