Rudyard Kipling (1901 [2010]) Kim. What can I tell you about Rudyard Kipling and Kim , you don’t already know? I’ll start at the beginning. No, I’ll start at the end and try and explain my beginnings. Kim is a work of art, a classic text that captured me completely from the first to the last, 306 pages later and roams through India, some of Afghanistan (I think) and takes in Tibet and China. It looks at the world through a lens of mysticism and...

Hi everyone, happy new year and hope it's a good one! Last month's poetry monthly produced some lovely writing and here are two to go back to from Rhiannon and Luigi: https://www.abctales.com/story/luigipagano/dim-and-distant-star https://www.abctales.com/story/rhiannonw/gentleman ’s-word January's focus is Action! Take the word where it leads you, enjoy writing and post on ABCtales. I'm looking forward to reading your poems and see you next...

A by--product of this whole Photographs and Memories process has been rekindling 'sparks' of stories I hadn't got round to writing. This is one. SALVATION I have a bit of a 'sweet tooth' and managed to find a local outlet of a purveyor of old-fashioned and handmade sweets; Gobstoppers, Black Jacks and Fruit Salads - the 'four for a penny' sweets we fromused to buy in the way back from school. They also sold excellent chocolate! The shop was...

So it's 2019! We made it out of 2018 and we're living in the future. A couple of spaced-out pieces are our picks of the week. Poem of the Week has Ewan musing on the odd fact that there's a robot trundling along on the dark-side of the moon - we're great on technology but not so much on the fundamentals of life. Outside gives us lots to think about. https://www.abctales.com/story/ewan/outside It's no wonder the aliens cleared off in Mark Say's...

It's a new year and a step closer to 'the out door'. I'm not being peeissimistic, that's just chronology and statistics speaking. Long before I had a protracted near death experience ( NDE) from June 2017 to March 2018, I had decided to start to divest myself of 'stuff'. I had pretty much travelled light over my years but, when I ceased to be 'nomadic' I started to acquire 'stuff'. Also, the 'stuff' that I had in storage came back into my home...

Hi all I want to say I hope you had a lovey christmas and I hope you all have a happy, healthier, fun, creative new year. :)))))

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bwzhy6/billy-connolly-made-in-scotland-series-1-episode-1 Billy Connolly is one of our most successful exports. A bit like Sean Connery, but with a beard and a lot more hair. Nobody comes away with the usual shite, oh, I can’t understand what he’s saying, he doesn’t speak proper English. Well, fuck off then. I must admit I wasn’t a fan. Obviously, being that age, I got what he meant by The Crucifixion,...

**** PRESS RELEASE *** T he Road of a Thousand Tigers is Robert Craven’s sixth novel published independently on KOBO and Amazon platforms. Inspired by the 007 ® franchise, The Road of a Thousand Tigers , ditches the gadgets, and big production endings of the Bond novels and introduces a romantic leading man; Sebastian Holt; a ‘combination of strength, culture and sensitivity’. Two strong female characters; Marianne Aubuchon, a French journalist...

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b0bwqdbg/the-snow-wolf-a-winters-tale Here we have a Fox, in this case Emilia, talking about a wolf, or Snow Wolf. I know what you’re thinking. Where’s David Attenborough? That whispering presence that adds the glitter and gold dust to so many BBC productions and ensures the gold standard of reportage. Here we have to do with the lesser known relative, of lesser lineage, but admirable in her own way. The...

Firstly, I'd like to wish everyine a very happy Christmas - & let's all keep writing in 2019! Here's an interview link with a fellow writer Christal Rice Cooper, it gives a little insight into the novel, its links and a little bit about the process. https://chrisricecooper.blogspot.com/2018/12/009-inside-emotion-of-ficti...