Time waits for no man and there’s nothing that marks the advancing years more noticeably than a movie. Some hold up well; others not so much. A genre where this is as relevant as any other is horror. “An American Werewolf in London (1981)” is a seminal offering directed by John Landis. When backpackers Jack Goodman (Griffin Dunne) and David Kessler (David Naughton) take refuge at “The Slaughtered Lamb” – an inn in the deepest, bleakest part of...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Britney-Spears-Unbreakable-Louise-Burke/dp/B07T7KSYN1 There’s a new documentary out about Britney Spears revolving around her court-sanctioned conservatorship order that has lasted thirteen years and counting. I Care a Lot described as a psychological thriller shows how these orders really work. They are intended to protect those that need spoon fed and allocated pocket money, but only if they show that they need it...

A while ago, I had a bit of dialogue running through my head and I've learned, through bitter experience, that sooner or later I would have to commit it to writing before it drove me completely crackers! So, I did, and it became a short story called 'She Who Would Valiant Be!' here on ABCtales. It was totally unlike anything I'd ever written before but I was rather taken with the characters and wanted to see what might happen to them next, so I...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ( -$834.21 ) Week - 4 Witchcraft & Wizards Belief systems and the market and life in general. I think, I want v. I feel, I need. The paradox of mathematical perfection against the chaos of belief and feeling. I was raised Roman Catholic and so had an early and somewhat rigid version of beliefs gotten at second hand. I never really took to it myself and if pressed on the issue today...

Thank you again for all the lovely reads this week. Story of the Week is mitzi44's 'A Friend Indeed'. This series has been splendid from the beginning, and this evocation of childhood friendship, and the mishaps that can befall a big sister trying to be kind, are a joy to read: A Friend Indeed | ABCtales Poem of the Week goes to 'Don't Name Them' by Mentalelf. I found this quite extraordinary. It's spare, terse even, but its story of love, pain...

https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x64a7x6 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x64a7x2 I wrote a story a good while ago (I don’t exactly remember when, because it wasn’t very good) about reincarnation. The plot was simple. This rich guy had found a chemical marker that could be traced and he could leave his substantial wealth to himself. Cut out the middle man, sons and daughters. Win-win. Hokum. I was, of course, aware that of the myths of paying...

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Current Status ($934.91) Week - 3 Dungeons & Dragons Sometimes displayed as D&D should not be confused with DD. Normally we refer to “Due Diligence” as a process of vetting a potential investment. Is it a stable company with a reliable customer base, adequate financing and a strong track record of profits? I personally recommend Caterpillar (CAT). Just the highlights here: A $200 share price...

Janice Galloway’s autobiographies This is Not About Me and All Made Up begin in the same way: ‘This is my family’. Stylistically, she doesn’t use quotation marks. There’s no standard way of writing in the Scottish language and dialect. I was checking her work out to find some kind of consistency in my writing. Reaching for the musicality of speech mixed with social realism. She’s light-touch and mostly Standard English. Not into writing as we...

No skis or rifle required.

$5K - 52 Weeks - 20 Penny Stocks One Winner!! Week - 2 The risks & rewards: Loss of entire investment, unlikely but acceptable. Don’t risk what you can’t lose! Whether you’re literally rolling the dice or investing in speculative financial instruments, it’s sound policy not to take out a mortgage on your house to do so. The events of this week highlight why this is so. “Flush me J!” That movie line popped into my head as I observed some...