Blogs

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by onemorething on Fri, 19 Nov 2021

It’s getting ever closer to winter and our Poem of the Week is a beautiful reminder of the season to come - Thoughts of an Oak Tree’s Spirit by skinner_jennifer. You can read it here: https://www.abctales.com/story/skinnerjennifer/thoughts-oak-trees-spirit Story of the Week is the very powerful and brilliantly written story, Wednesday Club, by celticman. You can read it here: https://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/wednesday-club This week’s...

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...

Nickel Boys (2024), Prime, based on the 2019 novel The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead. It was directed by RaMell Ross, who wrote the screenplay with Joslyn Barnes.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 18 Mar 2025

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nickel_Boys I’d read the book. So I kinda remembered what happened. The plot is straightforward moral outrage. Man traps. Jim Crow laws. Mutilating and killing black kids inside the Dozier School for Boys, renamed and repacked as The Nickel in sunny California. An episode of Danny Robin’s Uncanny , ‘The Haunting of Hollymont Farm’ ( https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m0027g7b/uncanny-series-2-1-the-haunting-of-...

Paterson Joseph (2022) The Secret Diaries of Charles Ignatius Sancho.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 17 Mar 2025

Black Lives Matter. The moron’s moron Trump proved they don’t. Ripping up a Black Lives monument in Washington wasn’t exactly Kristlenacht . Just a little reminder. A little nudge. Know your place. Class matters. Race and skin colour matter more is the kind of argument Paterson Joseph became involved in. ‘Critical fabulation’ based on a real character, a black man in Georgian London, Charles Ignatius Sancho. In other words fiction. A reminder...

Vladimir Nabokov (1948 [1998]) Speak, Memory.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 15 Mar 2025

Poets make the best prose writers. I’m no poet. So I should know. Speak, Memory is a collection of pre-Second World War articles published before Nabokov had written and published Lolita . I’ve read Lolita and Pale Fire . I use the past tense and use the term ‘read’ imaginatively. My memory isn’t good. Pale Fire, I didn’t like or remember much other than vague shadows or reasons which I also can’t remember or don’t really care, which is perhaps...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 14 Mar 2025

Posted by airyfairy. I was all set to greet you with happy things about the coming of Spring, but then the weather changed its mind again (in my neck of the woods, anyway) and so...happy Spring, Second Winter, Early Summer, whatever is the current state of affairs where you are.

Brett Anderson (2018) Coal Black Mornings.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 14 Mar 2025

Brett Anderson is the lead singer of Suede. I’ve heard of the band, but not listened to any of their records. His first love was Justine Frischmann. She was also was a founding member of Suede and later became the frontwoman of Elastica. They both attended University College London in the late seventies. Nope. Never heard of her either. I can’t therefore be described as a fan. I don’t listen to music. I’m not likely to erect a flagpole and fly...

Abir Mukherjee (2024) Hunted

Posted by celticman on Thu, 13 Mar 2025

Abir Mukherjee has written five international bestsellers set in 1920s India, (Wyndham & Banerjee) still owned by the English between the First and Second World War. I’ve not read any of them. Hunted is my first stab at his work. The author informs readers it took three years to write almost 500 pages. He’s from Hamilton. Just up the road from me. I’m not saying that’s a great achievement, coming from Hamilton, many people do. But if he came...

'Gift, a son's story' by Dan Seagrave - out now!

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Tue, 11 Mar 2025

I'm very pleased to announce the publication of 'Gift, a son's story' by Dan Seagrave. Dan writes as HarryC on ABCTales and is one of our most talented writers. You can order your copy here (free on Kindle Unlimited) https://tinyurl.com/4snv2e3n 'In 2016, Dan Seagrave and his family were faced with a decision that faces so many people with elderly relatives. His mother had to go into hospital with a serious illness. While she was in there, it...

Happiness is a warm keyboard=I live to and love to write

Posted by Penny4athought on Tue, 11 Mar 2025

Happiness is a warm keyboard and more than ever…it’s providing my escape from a sad reality. My guiding light, my shinning star, has gone out. The loss of my love, my spouse, my heart has changed the trajectory of my world. He encouraged my writing, championed my efforts and was the daily voice threaded through decades of my life. The love we shared was my muse when I created the hero and heroine of a tale; he was forefront in my thoughts,...

Pages