Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Before I announce our Story and Poem of the Week, I'd like to remind you that AI assisted writing is not permitted on our site.

While we obviously don't have a hard and fast method of weeding out writing that doesn't comply with our restrictions, our very clever and wonderful editors are pretty good at spotting something that doesn't seem quite right and these pieces of writing will not be considered for cherries or any other awards.

While on the subject of AI, it's been brought to my attention that AI assisted art is also an emerging thing. We'd much much rather you found something 'real' - a photo or a piece of art (with appropriate permissions). Obviously you don't have to use any art if you don't want to, but I personally really enjoy seeing what you've found, and I love finding just the right thing to illustrate our picks - it's like a treasure hunt!

Onto the picks - we have been deluged with exceptionally good poetry this week, and I have three very honourable mentions to make:

Jenninfer's Unsaid (A Villanelle-ish), Blighters rock's Damp cloth and lenchenelf's Weeding - all must reads, so please do!

https://www.abctales.com/story/blighters-rock/damp-cloth

https://www.abctales.com/story/jennifer/unsaid-villanelle-ish#comment-793551

https://www.abctales.com/story/lenchenelf/weeding

Our wonderful Poem of the Week is Muscle memory by Lavadis which has stayed with me since I first read it. One to read and re-read:

https://www.abctales.com/story/lavadis/muscle-memory

Our Story of the Week goes to Jane Hyphen for Land of Make Believe which has struck a chord with so many of you:

https://www.abctales.com/story/jane-hyphen/land-make-believe

Big congratulations to both!

Here's the new Inspiration Point which I hope will do the trick for you all:

https://www.abctales.com/inspiration-point-ip

One last thing! Baker Street is trying to get signatures for his petition to stop the creation of a coal and mineral mine at a local nature reserve near where he lives in South Africa. Here's the link if you'd like to sign it too:

stop-mining-local-nature-reserve

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend