ABCtales Critiquing Service - good reports!

Posted by tcook on Mon, 26 Mar 2012

Over the years many of you have asked for a critiquing service and it has taken a long time to find (a) someone good enough to do it well and (b) someone who will charge what we regard as a reasonable fee. Finally, we've done it! Lorraine Mace is a freelance writer, columnist and tutor for the Writers Bureau. Winner of the Petra Kenney International Poetry Competition (comic verse category), Lorraine's fiction, features and humour have appeared...

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Daniel Finkelstein (2023) Hitler Stalin Mum & Dad. A Family Memoir of Miraculous Survival.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 04 Aug 2025

In the Sunday Times bestseller, Daniel Finkelstein deals in the mundane and miraculous. He concludes with both. ‘Our family has survived. Love has conquered hate.’ In the battle with Hitler and Stalin, Mum’s victory is over Hitler and the Nazis. Dad’s victory over Stalin and Communism. Surviving, starting a family and thriving, a thumbing of the nose at totalitarianism. Finkelstein’s memoir fits broadly into a type of Holocaust literature which...

MY BEST 5 WRITERS

Posted by Nolan on Mon, 04 Aug 2025

My current best Writers on AbcTales July '25 5. swindonwoody – Maggie (or a very reluctant celticman – Paul) 4. rhiannonw – Rhiannon 3. mscraic – Paul 2. queen beatle – Morwenna 1. Jessiibear – Jess

Look To Jesus

Posted by memphis on Mon, 04 Aug 2025

Look To Jesus Heb 12:2 Looking away from all that will distract us and focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and perfection of faith. (The first incentive for our belief and the one who brings our faith to maturity) John 16:6 I have told you these things, so that in me You may have (perfect) peace. In the world, you have tribulation and distress and suffering, but courageous (be confident, be Undaunted, be filled with joy.) I have...

Story and Poem of the Month

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Sun, 03 Aug 2025

Our Story and Poem of the Month for July, very kindly chosen by Mark Say: Picks of the Month July 2025 Poem I wasn’t looking for it, but sadness seemed to be a strong theme in the stand-out poems this month, and the efforts to convey more painful emotions touched me strongly. For poem of the month I’ve opted for The Daughter-Wife by misskelizabeth. It conveys the pressures of a tragic, grief affected childhood, with some short and powerful...

Betsy Lerner (2024) Shred Sisters.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 02 Aug 2025

Betsy Lerner (2024) Shred Sisters. I read Shred Sisters in about four hours. It follows the rules of novel writing. Betsy Lerner as a writer, editor and agent—she edited and promoted one of my favourite books Autobiography of a Face —knows too well the holes authors fall into. That doesn’t mean she won’t fall into them, because that’s not the way it works. Most of use can’t really see what we write. She knows that too having published a book...

Reflection of the Light

Posted by memphis on Sat, 02 Aug 2025

Reflection of the Light Step out of the gloom, of projection, misconception: your disconnected vision has become an artificial paradise. A snow, sand castle in the rain, glass heart On your sleeves, shallow pain. Light’s out in this darkness; it only serves as A nightmare’s gain. Attune your strings, that brings them into a symphony of streams; that flows with an awareness in harmony, into soft lighting. And listen to the rhythm echo as a sweet...

Story and Poem of the Week

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 01 Aug 2025

Story and Poem of the Week, and Inspiration Point, posted by di-hard Thankyou so much for all the stories and poems posted this week, which made choosing such a difficult honour to fulfil! Story of the Week is Jessiibear's sensitive and chilling understanding from a child's perspective, of the distance between humans and AI, between love and care : https://www.abctales.com/story/jessiibear/watchers-walls Poem of the Week is about being human,...

Philippa Gregory (2023) Normal Women 900 Years of Making History.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 29 Jul 2025

I’ve a copy of Philippa Gregory’s novel, The Other Boleyn Girl . I’ve had it for around five years. Keep meaning to read it. She’s written a stack of books and over 40 novels. These fed into her belief that women are the ghosts of history. She spent ten years researching Normal Women, drawing on archives, letters, and historical records that fed into her ficton. And at around 600 pages she’s re-written history: his-story as her-story. She gives...

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