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...

Nihal Arthanayake (2022) Let’s Talk: How to Have Better Conversations.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 09 May 2025

Nihal Arthanayake’s premise in Let’s Talk is we increasingly live in a polarised world (guilty as charged, anything and everything about the moron’s moron, Trump infuriates me) but we need to put aside our differences and reconcile ourselves to change. We need to talk. Technology drives change (discuss)? Nihal Arthanayake believes like many others, including Professor SherryTurkle, our smartphones make us dumber and lonelier (for example https...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 09 May 2025

Posted by airyfairy. Another great week of reading on ABC Tales, and another set of near impossible choices for Picks of the Week!

Intrapersonal Experience

Posted by memphis on Tue, 06 May 2025

INTRAPERSONAL EXPERIENCE YOU’VE ORCHESTRATED A NARROW POINT OF VIEW. IT’S PROJECTILES RICOCHET OFF THAT LIMITED ATTENTION SPAN. CALCULATED, MANIPULATIVE; EVEN THE SHADOWS WHISPER SUSPICION. NO SHAME IN PLAYING THE BLAME GAME. ONLY REINFORCING YOUR TINTED GLASS REALITY. EVIDENCE? DENIED. YOUR CONTRADICTIONS TO IT. DISMISSED. SINCE YOUR OPINION IS ALL THAT MATTER. IT'S ALMOST HERITABLE: IF NOT HILARIOUS, IT'S NOT. LIKE IT’S ETCHED IN YOUR DNA,...

Story and Poem of the Month

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Mon, 05 May 2025

Our Story and Poem of the Month for April, very kindlty chosen by RJNewlyn Pick of the month April 2025 Well done to everyone who has posted this month and for keeping up the quality so ably. It has been a tough call … For prose, do take a look at Caldwell’s riff on The Raft of the Medusa ( https://www.abctales.com/story/caldwell/th%C3%A9odore-g%C3%A9ricaults-raft-medusa ), K-Burgin’s challenging ‘Killing Caprice’ ( https://www.abctales.com/...

Why Doesn't God Stop Evil?

Posted by mallisle on Fri, 02 May 2025

Why is there so much suffering in the world? If God is a God of love, why is there so much evil? The devil brought evil into the world, not God. Why did God create the devil? I used to think that the devil was like Donald Trump or Nigel Farage. Someone you don't like but it gives people a choice. The universe has to be a democracy. But no. God created the devil to be good. He was a beautiful angel. Ezekiel 28:11-19. He was perfect in wisdom and...

Housebound (2014), BBCiPlayer, written, edited, and directed by Gerard Johnstone

Posted by celticman on Thu, 01 May 2025

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m00248vd/housebound https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Housebound_(2014_film) My dodgy internet usually gets me the big matches. I wanted to watch Arsenal v PSG. I’ve been much impressed by PSG and they’re my tips to win it, but I don’t really care. I don’t watch as much football as I used to. Pissed off at missing this match, I watched Housebound . I’m not sure why I watched it from beginning to end. The...

Hallie Rubenhold (2005 [2012, 2020]) The Covent Garden Ladies.

Posted by celticman on Mon, 28 Apr 2025

Sex sells. It’s older than Adam and Eve. Whisper it, before the internet, people had sex and were even naked together, sometime even at the same time, in the same room, without a phone. Hallie Rubenhold has turned a Ph.D. into an international bestselling book of non-fiction (which we used to call factual) based on a list of prostitutes that sold their bodies around the Covent Garden region of London. Her parameters of study were centred on a...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by Insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 25 Apr 2025

Posted by onemorething: Another wonderful week of writing on ABCtales. Our Poem of the Week is a very beautiful poem by Yutka, I am the stillness. https://www.abctales.com/story/yutka/i-am-stillness Our Story of the Week is hudsonmoon's very clever and funny, J.C Jones II The Podcast. https://www.abctales.com/story/hudsonmoon/j-c-jones-ii-podcast Our new Inspiration Point is here: https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip Have a good weekend...

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