https://www.amazon.co.uk/Bront%C3%ABs-Inferno-Ewan-Lawrie/dp/B0CYSZJZ7N/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr = Writers create versions of themselves on the page. Ewan Lawrie is a better version of myself on ABCtales. I read Bronte’s Inferno in one go. I couldn’t decide whether Bronte’s Inferno with a veiled reference to the Bronte sisters and the mystical worlds they created with their brother was also a satirical play on the...

REBLOG TO MARK 2Ist. When Davie McCallum, aged 31, went missing on 28 th March 2003, his son David (junior) was aged five and about to start school. Now he’ll be twenty-four or twenty-five, he’ll be approaching the same age when his dad started a family. His wee brother, Robbie, was a one-year-old baby. Now he’ll have left Clydebank High School, the same school as his dad and older brother. The mother of his sons, Margaret McDowell, waiting for...

Hi all, hope your all ok, still creating brillinat work. missed my ABC family and hope soon more work from me. Take care all and have a fun, peaceful Easter x

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/memories-of-murder/on-demand/73142-001 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memories_of_Murder Most of my writing is in Scottish Noir. In other words, if you’re waiting for a happy ending, watch The Waltons . Memories of Murder is South Korean Noir, directed and written by Bong Joon-ho. Largely based on investigation into the unsolved rapes and murders of young women that took place in Hwaseong in the late 1980s. In...

Here We Are or Here We Are again. Graham Swift won the Booker Prize for (I think) Last Orders . I checked to see if I’d reviewed it. I haven’t. But I have read it. But what sticks in my mind is the film version. Michael Caine, Bob Hoskins and Helen Mirren as the wife of the Caine character. Why am I going on about this? Well, Here We Are has much the same plot and tagline. Brighton, 1959. Punters are sick of war and rationing. They demand...

Story and Poem of the Week, and Inspiration Point 22 March 2024 Some very good writing indeed this week. Give yourselves a pat on the back for making this job as difficult as ever. Story of the Week I very much liked Starfish Girl’s The Spa . Equally good were Parts 1 & 2 of Blighter’s Rock’s The Plan. But in the end Celticman was in competition with himself – and not for the first time – with The Little Lady and the eventual winner. So with...

If you’re like me, you’ll associate Muriel Spark with The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie . I don’t think I’ve read the book. I’ve seen two television versions. Miss Jean Brodie really is a gift to any actress with our Dames playing the lead roles. Muriel Spark reminds us teachers in the James Gillespie’s Girls’ School in 1930s Edinburgh were also actors that had to instruct their audience: ‘ the creme de la creme’ . Not just be teaching, but by...

I'm sure if you have any writing in print, you will have already have done this. However, if not, joining ALCS UK ensures you receive payment if any of your work has been photocopied/reproduced for use in schools/colleges/work seminars etc. I got a significant payment this year. Join ALCS, it is worth it. As you can see from the image, it comes at what - for me - is the worst month every year, March (no idea why). Oh, and join PLR too, which...

Writers have a need to understand words, to gather them like flowers in a literary garden of colorful, pungent, blooming, budding words. They carefully pick them to tell a story, structure a tale, by placing those words in a way that brings the reader in. Characters light up with specific details and become dimensional. Some writers tell you that characters, once fully formed, can take on a life of their own. When you know your character, you'll...

PostSecret is a collection of anonymous postcards people sent to Frank Warren, who in 2004 printed 3000 postcards with his address on them, inviting strangers to fill them in and tell him their secrets. The response was so great, he didn’t have to print any more postcards. People sent their own, in various languages, including Braille. ‘Like fingerprints, no two secrets are identical.’ Reading is a kind of voyeurism. We always want to know more...