I couldn’t find my phone, and I asked Mary to ring it. And I’d a message from Laughing Boy, Craig—telling me his older brother, Kevin, was dead. My thoughts were Kevin’s poor old mum, Lynn. But Kevin always kept an eye out for Laughing Boy. And when he hooked up with Carla and her son, Aaron, they were part of the family. When Jack was born, Kevin taught him how to fucking swear. These were the kind of life skills he had to learn, pronto, or...

Lots of wonderful things to read on the site this week, and our Picks are two absolute gems. Story of the Week is Rosalie Kempthorne's beguiling 'Boys and Girls', a response to last week's Inspiration Point. It's a fairy tale and, like all the best fairy tales, it has an unsettling edge and hints of darkness amongst the beautiful magic: https://www.abctales.com/story/rosaliekempthorne/boys-and-girls Poem of the Week is Noo's searing 'Oath'. It's...

The Snow Leopard by Peter Matthiessen is a holy book, one of those books you could read again and again (but probably won't). It was reprinted as a Vintage Classic for a new generation of readers. I got called me a book snob, online. It irked me, at first. Readings what I do. I’m one of the clichéd, if I’ve nothing to read, I’ll read the ingredients of the sauce bottle kinda guy. I even read poetry, but I don’t put it on my chips very often. But...

Hey, I have published a small poetry collection on amazon, called Inner Nature. The theme is centered on inner and outer environments, some of which are written from the perspective of nature, while others are based on past personal challenges, and ends with an emphasis on unity and light. Several of the poems have appeared in various anthologies over a ten year period. Want to thank abctales for the confidence boosting cherries! Thanks, Donna.

Gavin Francis tells us of his love affair with islands and maps. And he traces his addiction to a district library in Fife he visited as a child aged eight or nine. How his little fingers traced patterns over atlas and archipelagos ‘as if reading Braille’. As an adult he had to choose between studying medicine, or becoming a geographer. A romantic notion to which I say, you’re a fucking liar, but hey, we all tell fibs. It’s how you tell them...

I don’t know how Ian McVeigh got the name Clank, but he was the Clank Gable of Dalmuir, only he seemed to pop up everywhere, like God or the Devil. I hadn’t, for example, been in the John Rea’s snooker hall in years (obviously, before lockdown) I turned around and Clank was standing behind me. I went to the Dropp Inn and Clank was playing pool. Later I headed to the Mountie and Clank Gable turned up. Clank didn’t as much stalk you as wear you...

Another week in paradise - oh well, at least we have writing and reading to help us through tough times. Thank you to all of you have contributed this week - you do more good than you know. Poem of the week is a dark one - but anxiety is running high and I think many of us can relate -many thanks to London_Calling for Run: https://www.abctales.com/story/londoncalling79/run We've had a few darkly funny stories this week (big thank you to...

I live in Dalmuir, but my brother who lives in Falkirk phoned me to tell me that John Mitchell was dead. Then the house phone went and my partner’s niece, Caroline, phoned to let me know John Mitchell was dead. I dropped in on old John Brady, he’s in his eighties and the first thing he told me was John Mitchell was dead. I parked at Parkhall shops on the jaggy lines you’re not meant to park on, but it was OK, cause I was only going to be a...

At just over 650 pages this offers a comprehensive account of Grigory Efimovich Rasputin’s life and deaths. Deaths—plural. Most of us are familiar with the legend that Rasputin was poisoned, shot and finally drowned. His bound hands still clawing underneath the ice. Radzinsky takes the reader through different versions, but with the same outcome. Rasputin was murdered. The question of why he was murdered in much the same way that the tsar,...

Way back in the music history of the 1980s, a lady called Audrey Hall had a one-hit-wonder with a song called 'One Dance Won't Do'. You may remember it? If not, you can find it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pbWf5tb_CA I've come to the conclusion that I can sympathise with her! Not in terms of dancing, one dance with me would be more than enough for anyone! No, I'm thinking, instead, about readers and, in particular, a couple who have...