Blogs

Story and Poem of the Week and Inspiration Point

Posted by airyfairy. Thank you to everyone for the lovely contributions to ABC this week! Story of the Week is Ewan's 'Message: Post Scriptum'. It's very funny, surreal, and of course totally unrelated to events in the real world. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! Message : Post Scriptum | ABCtales Poem of the Week is Angus Folklore's stunning 'East Coast Scotland (Reflection). It combines history, myth, and wonderful observation of 'the sea...

House Anthems by Ralph Dartford, a Review by Ewan Lawrie

House Anthems Ralph Dartford Published by Valley Press I know some of Ralph’s work from what he has shared on ABCTales.com. Always thoughtful, with significant depth of feeling and honesty, his poems are sculpted from blocks of language until what is left is poetry that is both striking and meaningful. I am particularly impressed with ‘House Anthems’, the final collection in his ‘Recovery Trilogy’. The playlist Ralph has curated to accompany...

Confederacy of drunkards

I wore my drinking like a badge of honour. Somehow, the fact that I could keep it together—without my wife or kids ever really knowing—felt like an achievement. This was mine. My secret. I hid bottles everywhere: in coat pockets, hanging shopping bags, the tops of kitchen cabinets, under the car seat, even in the bushes by our gate. I was an adult, yet I treated this like some kind of game. Could I make it through a conversation without slurring...

(Snod) Raymond McHard. 1963—2024

Notes on nostalgia. Adolescence, when neurons exploded and rearranged themselves into them or us. Your senses discombobulated by girls. Everything tasted better. We scattered ourselves on a sea of faces. Some familiar. Some not familiar enough. Our voices thin as scratch-marks. Snod’s hair, flame-red as the hottest summer of 1976, but soon to be eclipsed and forgotten. We knew we were indestructible. All answers copied from the back of an old...

And then, there's this week...

Every Friday, I try to publish another episode in my 'Dead Reckoning' series about my two Undertakers, Josiah and Archibald. There are always weeks when I'm not in the right frame of mind or events overtake me and make it difficult. And then, there's this week... I hope there will be a new episode, tomorrow, but right now, I'm not so sure.

Urban Pigs. Call For Submissions

ABCTales writer Mark Burrow is a guest editor for Urban Pigs Press this month and they're looking for short and flash fiction on the theme of Addiction for their online magazine: 'This call-out window is dedicated to the fixated, the obsessed and the chained. The addiction might be chemical, but not necessarily. Some are addicted to money, sugar, rubber, horror films—the person with blue eyes and a heart tattoo who works on checkout. Prose only...

Story and Poem of the Month

Our Story and Poem for the month of October, very kindly chosen by Di_hard: It has been wonderful to have so much great writing to brighten up encroaching nights. Thank you very much to everyone who has posted on ABCTales in October. This is a selection of work which I have really enjoyed - there are many more. Poems : I loved Turlough's gorgeous goodbye to Crete, the perfect antidote to our drizzly chill : https://www.abctales.com/story/...

Atypical Love Anthology featuring ABCTales Writer HarryC - out now!

ABCTales writer, HarryC has a short story - Conservatory, by Kevin Marman - included this new anthology! "A striking and eclectic collection." Elvin James Mensah, author of Small Joys "Chills of recognition mean I wish I’d had this book while coming of age." Kate Fox, writer, poet & broadcaster "In this anthology are some beautifully quirky neurodivergent stories; gems exploring the nuances of love and the human need for recognition,...

Hallowe'en!

Given the date, I thought it would be appropriate to revive this short story: https://www.abctales.com/story/philwhiteland/trick-or-treat

Is there a word for it?

How to encapsulate that feeling? Like loss, bereavement, a tender crushing feeling that you want to push you to tears but they just won't come. Like seeing beauty and feeling a kind of ache knowing that even as you experience it and it's there right now, you know that it's dying, that it's lost, that even as you're feeling it you can't quite touch it. Somehow like trying to draw a perfect circle freehand and searing it, slicing it, so balanced,...

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