Blogs

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by onemorething: And posted incredibly late. Apologies. Our Story of the Week is Bron-33 by Ivan the OK-ish. Clever and excellent writing. It made me smile as well as feel faintly horrified at the mouse carnage. https://www.abctales.com/story/ivan-ok-ish/bron-33 Our Poem of the Week is Jennifer's very charming Dandelions. https://www.abctales.com/story/jennifer/dandelions Our new Inspiration Point is here: https://www.abctales.com/...

Edna O’Brien (2013) Saints and Sinners.

‘Only a fool thinks that women love differently.’ So says a character in one of her short-stories. ‘Fools and pedagogues.’ Saints and Sinners, take your pick. Edna O’Brien offers all of these things and none, because women’s treachery is different to men’s? ‘Rafferty’, the opening story in the collection. An Irish man in London. He’s been in the English capital all of his working life and now retired longs to return the auld country. He’s loved...

Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer (2024), BBC, BBCiPlayer, directed and produced by Abby Fuller.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002v48h/to-think-like-a-killer-series-1-episode-1 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002vd9y/to-think-like-a-killer-series-1-episode-2 https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002vdb0/to-think-like-a-killer-series-1-episode-3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mastermind:_To_Think_Like_a_Killer When Ann Burgess left school in 1957, former General and war hero, Dwight D. Eisenhower was President of the richest...

Dead Letters: The Storm

Filed by Fletcher Moody — Literary Correspondent I was sent to Palm Beach County in September 1928 to cover a hurricane. Not the hurricane itself — by the time I arrived, three days after landfall, the storm was gone and what it had left behind was not weather but consequence. The dike on the south side of Lake Okeechobee had given way on the night of the 17th. The water rose twelve feet in an hour. Over two thousand people drowned, most of them...

Desperately Seeking...Aefelthrith?

You may have noticed a complete absence of Aefelthrith and Gwladys since mid-February? On the other hand, this hiatus may have passed you by, completely, and I can't say that I blame you! What's happened to the story, you may ask yourself? Surely, we were within a gnat's doo-dah of the denouement? To which the answer is, yes, we were and I'm sorry it's come to a grinding halt in the way that it has. The explanation is that we had an unfortunate...

Story and Poem of the Week, with Inspiration Point

Story and Poem of the Week, with Inspiration Point posted by di_hard This week has included the spectacular finale to Penny4athought's brilliant writing challenge : https://www.abctales.com/blog/insertponceyfrenchnamehere/new-writing-cha... Thank You so much, both to JoAnne for her inspiration, and to everyone who contributed. And now we have a NEW challenge, from Turlough! Please do check it out and add your own 17 words : https://www.abctales...

Listening to God

God keeps his promises. God is not a man that he should lie or a son of man that he should change his mind. If he says something he will do it. Numbers 23:19. God's word is settled forever in Heaven. Psalm 119:89. The grass withers and the flower fades but the word of God stands forever. Isaiah 40:6-8. Jesus said, 'Heaven and Earth will pass away, my words will never pass away.' Matthew 24:35. But we need to be receptive listeners. The Bible is...

The Inaugural ABC Tales Superpoem

After the wonderful success of Penny4athought's excellent initiative, I'm very pleased to announce our brand new writing challenge, The Inaugural ABCTales Superpoem, which is Turlough's brilliant idea. Here's what he says: I’m sure that everyone would agree with me if I were to say that ABCTales is a hotbed of talented writers, all working individually to turn out wonderful poetry and prose. Also, the recently completed Penny’s Pass The Story...

Brother, BBC iPlayer, Written and directed by Clement Virgo based on David Chariandy’s award winning novel.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m002tb7c/brother https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_(2022_film) Brother is one of those films I know I’m going to like right from the get-go. I haven’t read the book. And I’m a bit thick. Even after the film ended I wasn’t quite sure how to place the music (hip-hop) and what part of America this acclaimed Canadian drama was set in the 1990s (Scarborough, Toronto). My sister lives in Canada in one of those...

Ben Creed (2024) Man of Bones.

Man of Bones is the third in the murder-mystery series featuring Revol Rossel. Setting is everything. It returns to the bleak, frozen landscape of Leningrad, winter 1953. Lowly militiaman Rossel has miraculously survived the NKVD and being part of a punishment battalion during the siege of Leningrad and following The Great Patriotic war, (Soviet casualties around 20 million), been deported to Siberia, which is a death sentence in all but name,...

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