Insertponceyfrenchnamehere's blog

I am delighted to announce the following: On Saturday 1st of April we will be having an April Fool’s Day online reading event from 7pm - 9pm hosted by the wonderful Mark Burrow. Please email rachel@abctales.com . Let her know if you would like to read or be in the audience, also your username as well as your real name. Do get in touch quickly if you want to read as the list always fills up quickly. A zoom link will be sent to you before the...

Happy Friday! Poem of the Week is Yutka’s beautiful and moving, Different to caged birds. https://www.abctales.com/story/yutka/different-caged-birds There is, as always, an abundance of brilliant poetry on the site to choose from. Do read Mark Burrow’s ‘night of the armed siege' https://www.abctales.com/story/mark-burrow/night-armed-siege and Ewan’s 'Don’t Ask' too. https://www.abctales.com/story/ewan/dont-ask Story of the Week is Phil Whiteland...

Posted by Ewan on Fri, 17 Feb 2023 Here are the picks of the week. Poem of the Week is Ralph's 'Any Old Jerusalem' a reworking of an old poem. When you can picture the people and the places, it's a sign that a piece is as near perfect as anything has any right to be. You can read it here Story of the Week is TJW's 'The R Word'. A very strong narrative voice tells us a gritty, yet heartbreaking story. You can read it here This weeks IP is here

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 10 Feb 2023 ABC Tales writer Colin Burnett (author of the absorbing and thought-provoking novel 'A Working Class State of Mind') has an article in today's issue of 'The National'. Anyone familiar with Colin's work will know that this is going to be well worth reading. https://www.thenational.scot/politics/23311832.betting-shops-cash-social-inequalities-location/ We've had some wonderful stories posted during the last...

Our Story and Poem for the month of January, very kindly selected by RJNewlyn: Pick of the month January 2023 Well done to everyone for another great month’s worth of writing. January can be a little wearying and I don’t think it’s the easiest time for inspiration, so it’s doubly impressive that there are so many excellent recent posts. For the prose section, do take a look at celticman’s Eejit Knickers https://www.abctales.com/story/celticman/...

Fabulous writing to choose from this week…not least the bumper crop from today alone. Despite being spoilt for choice, this week’s stand-outs for me are: Poem of the Week is Welkin Spirit by Penny4athought. It satisfies all my poetic desires. https://www.abctales.com/story/penny4athought/welkin-spirit Story of the Week is TJW’s profound and brilliant writing of ‘GOODBYE, SOUL BROTHER or The Cavalry of Ten Thousand Horses - I: The Green Hell / 6...

Posted by Ewan on Fri, 20 Jan 2023 Never easy any Friday to choose, but I'm going to plunge straight in with the picks this time. Story of the Week is newcomer Steve Hoselitz's 'Eavesdropping' . A strong voice and quirky story makes for an excellent read. I'm sure we are all looking forward to reading more from Steve. Speaking of quirkiness, one of the most distinctive voices on ABCTales belongs to Lavadis. His work is always identifiable and...

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 13 Jan 2023 The diversity of the writing on ABC Tales is its greatest strength, and the Picks for this week are very different indeed. Story of the Week is Part One of ethancrane's 'Warchild', but that's only because I can't give it to both parts. Surreal, funny, acutely observant and completely absorbing, it's a cracking read: Warchild (part 1 of 2) | ABCtales Warchild (part 2 of 2) | ABCtales Poem of the Week is...

Our Story and Poem of the Month for December have very kindly been chosen by rjnewlyn: Pick of the Month – December 2022 Well, many congratulations to all of you – an excellent month’s writing and as spoilt for choice as ever. Prose first and a wholly arbitrary decision for Pick of the Month from such a range of styles and subjects. Particular recommendations include a really-quite-strange pandemic-type story from ethancrane that you’ll probably...

Posted by Ewan on Fri, 30 Dec 2022 People have done very well indeed, when one considers that most of the week has been Twixt-mas - or as the Scots have it "The Daft Days". Story of the Week Maddan's final monthly ghost story rounds the year off with a belter, "The Glitch". Poem of the Week I've chosen Onemorething's December Ravens as poem of the week, it's good to see the word 'bister' being used. Reading this kind of poetry is like watching...