Blogs

Bobby White: seven marathons, seven continents in seven days.

Posted by celticman on Sat, 21 Feb 2026

Bobby White: seven marathons, seven continents in seven days. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c75e3dny5ygo I’ve been following Bobby White’s story. It helps that I know him. He’d walk past me in the street, but we played in the same team for a wee while. I also played against his dad, Bobby White. He was a great football player as well. And they’d a younger nephew and cousin. Bobby White, naturally. They all played centre forward for some...

Story and Poem of the Week, with Inspiration Point

Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 20 Feb 2026

Story and Poem of the Week, with Inspiration Point, posted by di-hard Thank You so much to everyone for all the wonderful writing this week. I have particularly enjoyed the stories written for and about children/teens, including : Marandina's engossing tale set in England's West country unfolds in two new chapters. If you love Alan Garner and Susan Cooper you should read this : https://www.abctales.com/story/marandina/prophesy-immortal-witch-10...

Case study sessions of the year with playwright and screenwriter Stef Smith.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 20 Feb 2026

You’re probably wondering why I’d want to be part of the audience in a case-study session with playwright and screenwriter, Stef Smith, since I’m neither playwright nor do I know who Stef Smith is or was. Yeh, well, writing is writing is my answer. I might learn something. I’m a Catholic. So it would be no great surprise to me if Jesus was sleeping off another resurrection in bed upstairs. While the Virgin Mary was poking around in the kitchen...

Alphabet You Can't – Game Over

Posted by GlosKat on Thu, 19 Feb 2026

Wow ! Having struggled with this for years, I'm bowled over by the number, and diversity, of the entries. 19 in all. We've had entries including army buddies and ABC itself, Buddhists, babies and ballet, cooking, DNA, Eastenders, fish, fabric and financial advice, the Olympics, sailing, sci-fi and sheep, and two lots of zebras. Almost an alphabet of subjects in itself Oh and one backwards .. It's difficult to pick a favourite, they were all so...

Pushback

Posted by celticman on Wed, 18 Feb 2026

Unexpected death Sometimes, disappointment feels like embracing the unavoidable death you anticipated would come crashing through the roof of your room, only to find it had slipped in through the door. W.H. Auden (1907-73) Epitaph On A Tyrant Perfection of a kind, was what he was after, And the poetry he invented was easy to understand; He knew human folly like the back of his hand, And he was greatly interested in armies and fleets; When he...

David Goggins (2018) Can’t Hurt Me.

Posted by celticman on Tue, 17 Feb 2026

You know this story which is part of the attraction. You get hurt and you get hard. Poet, Seamus Heaney pairs the theme. Pains become armour walking hand in hand with history. Rocky chases chickens and punches cold slabs of meat in a freezer while chasing his dream of becoming heavyweight boxing champion of the world. Djokovic after winning one of the most brutal Grand Slam finals in tennis history celebrates with a square of chocolate. I must...

Alphabet You Can't - Last Call

Posted by GlosKat on Tue, 17 Feb 2026

Don't forget tomorrow is the last day for entries to the Alphabet Challenge ! So far, we have had 13 very eclectic entries showcasing the wide variety of ABCers' imagination and vocabulary. Can we squeeze any more out of those little grey cells ?

Signal / Interference

Posted by FRQNTZ on Sun, 15 Feb 2026

2nd call for contributors / collaborators

Harvey (1950), Film 4, directed by Henry Koster, based upon Mary Chase's 1944 play.

Posted by celticman on Fri, 13 Feb 2026

https://www.channel4.com/programmes/harvey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvey_(1950_film) Our parents would have known who and what Harvey was. But don’t expect anybody under fifty. They might be vaguely familiar with James Stewart. He was the Tom Hanks of yesteryear and resident good guy. Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life (1944) is a regular at Christmas. James Stewart is such a perfect match to the ever-so amiable Elwood P. Dowd it’s...

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by insertponceyfrenchnamehere on Fri, 13 Feb 2026

Firstly a very big thank you to Gloskat for her brilliant alphabet challenge idea which has been a resounding success and has only five more days to run. You can find it here until the 18th: https://www.abctales.com/blog/gloskat/alphabet-you-can%E2%80%99t It's been a very strong week for prose this time around. I've really enjoyed w.w.j.abercrombie's Michael, celticman's Awaiting and SoulFire77's three parter The Lady in Sycamore Lane: https://...

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