Bronze Medal Award winner of the 2020 Cerasus Poetry Olympics

Writers create little worlds of wonder but where do these stories come from? I know it is different for each writer for we have our own rhythm and flow…require different stimuli…and know what effectively works for us may not work for everyone. For me, when I write, it is visual…the words flow from what I see, or I should say what I imagine. I walk through the scenes in my mind’s eye almost in a trance, imagining and typing the descriptive words...

When it needs a review. During the month of January this year, Kobo promoted two of my novels; Eagles Hunt Wolves ; and, The Road of a Thousand Tigers for free download on their platform. I put them up for this primarily as something readers could enjoy during the bleakest month in the grips of a pandemic. Two fast-paced page-turners always help take your mind off things. And, on a more mercenary level, I hoped to get some reviews on the back of...

A story that sprang from a fragment of dialogue that was going around in my head (and simply demanded to be written down) has now, to my surprise, generated seven episodes, to date, and looks likely to provide quite a few more, before I'm done! Therefore, in an effort to try and tidy things up, I've collected all of the stories about Aefelthrith and Gwladys together in a 'collection' and sequentially numbered the various episodes. If you haven't...

My Photographs and Memories plan got a wee bit derailed and it has been superceded by other ventures. I did, however, pull together a small book of work related to the influence of a friend/muse of mine. I've been yoyo-ing between home and hospital since May 2017. It was supposed to be a simple operation but a number of mistakes were made.and as a result, among other stays, I had two visits to Intensive Care totalling around 10 weeks. The final...

There's been a great variety of things posted on ABC Tales this week, and my two Picks couldn't be more different from each other. Story of the Week goes to Simon Barget's 'A Day In The Life'. It's very difficult to get it right with a story 'told' by an animal, but this one captures Essence of Cat and is also very, very funny. You don't need to be a cat lover to appreciate it. In fact, if you don't like cats, this will confirm all your...

So went a conversation I had with Kenneth (not their real name) during the course of pitching my novel through 2020. In the unforgiving world of commercial publishing, this question is often asked - who is saying what to whom, and is their internal world caught up in the jump cuts of talking heads ? A roving POV can lead to confusion which begs the question most authors face - are you making a movie, or telling a story? I suspect that any author...

Some may have seen me mention Tales from the Shadow Booth in the past. These were anthologies of speculative fiction (very good ones too), but are no longer taking submissions and haven't been for a while. However, Dan Coxon was the man behind them and, as he says over on twitter, he has had an idea for a new anthology. I suggest any spec fic types on here keep an eye out for what he comes up with.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000rgnx/all-the-presidents-men This is an old film, with impossibly young actors. But the same old story of corruption and cover-up, we’re more familiar with now. The 45 th Un-United States President could say with some justification that he could ‘stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot someone and not lose any votes’. He was partly right, and always wrong. Let’s leave the twice impeached President...

No, they haven't been locked up (yet!) My two hapless Undertakers have their latest collection of stories, Grave Expectations, available FREE for one day only (Thursday, 21st January, 2021) and, as many people on ABCtales have been kind enough to read their stories and comment on them, I thought you might appreciate a 'heads up' as our transatlantic cousins insist on saying :-) Even when it's not free, it's just the ridiculous price of 99p but,...