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...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000vlpr/saved-by-a-stranger-series-1-1-karl-and-emina https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000vszb/saved-by-a-stranger-series-1-2-marc-and-peter The format for this serious is simple, and it’s in the title. People who have been caught up in some traumatic, life-changing event, and some stranger has stepped in to help them. I’m sure I watched the last series, but can’t remember if I did. It’s a feel-good...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$2,371.47 ) Week - 12 The Quarter Pole! Well this isn’t anything like they promised in the brochure… For the first time since starting this game, all twenty positions are in the negative! A hefty loss on the week overall as well. There was devastation, destruction, discontent, discord, disappointment, and woe! Oh the woe. Wow! The week wavered by almost $324. I’d have to check but...

I've greatly enjoyed another week of tremendous ABCTales writing, and this week's Picks are absolute stunners. Story of the Week is Mark Burrow's 'Council Estate Jesus'. Wonderful characters and dialogue that build tension so that the whole structure balances on a knife-edge. By the end, you feel you've glimpsed, and learned from, something very important: Council Estate Jesus | ABCtales Poem of the Week is Yutka's 'Impaired'. This finds beauty...

May flowers are blooming and the animals are coming out from the forest to enjoy the warmth of the sun. There was a beautiful rabbit in my yard chewing on the grass this morning and made my morning coffee all the more pleasurable to see it there. I know my husband wants to put back the fencing that was knocked down by the large tree that fell from the forested area behind out backyard, but I don’t want to. Since that fence fell, I have seen a...