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Posted by Ewan on Fri, 21 Oct 2022 As usual it’s very difficult to single pieces out, because, as always there is a great deal of excellent material to choose from. Story of the Week Celticman’s Ugly Puggly continues to entertain and shock in equal measure. Check out the latest – at the time of writing – here . The '70s Look And The Battle For My Soul , Lou Blodgett’s account of a 70’s childhood in the US, and its effect on him is wryly funny...

This might be of interest to some of our wonderful poets. Do let us know how you get on NATURE AND PLACE POETRY COMPETITION 2023 The Rialto working in association with the RSPB, BirdLife International, Cambridge Conservation Initiative and The University of Leeds Poetry Centre. Poems are invited that deal with any aspect of nature and place – these terms will be given a wide interpretation by the judge Ian McMillan. Closing Date March 1st 2023...

Posted by airyfairy on Sat, 15 Oct 2022 Two very different, and very thoughtful, pieces this week. Story of the Week is jxmartin's 'Ian - the aftermath', about the devastation of a hurricane. One commenter on ABC has likened this author's beautifully written diaries of American life to the BBC broadcasts by the late, great Alistair Cooke, and I would certainly agree. The same warmth and friendliness, accompanied by acute observation: Ian- the...

In July Marandina wrote to me to say that he'd submitted two of his short stories (his first submissions!) and that they'd both been accepted. Today, I'm very pleased to announce that the first of them is available from The Alien Buddha. Here are a couple of Amazon links to buy if you're in the UK: https://tinyurl.com/yjyddtsn https://tinyurl.com/bdz5fxmu A very big congratulations to Marandina from all of us at ABCTales!

Our Story and Poem of the Month for September have very kindly been chosen by Drew Gummerson: Story and Poem of month Well it’s an honour to be choosing September’s Story and Poem of the month and what a hard choice that was. Once again I am amazed by the talent on the site and by the real variety of pieces submitted. But choices I have made. In these turbulent times the Story of the Month goes to Mark Burrow and his Small Town Insurrection...

Thanks to all who've posted such brilliant pieces this week. They've been a pleasure to read. Thank you also to the editors who keep everything going. We couldn't do it without you. Very quickly before I tell you about the picks of the week, I spoke to Tony Cook the other day who you'll be pleased to hear sounds back to his normal jolly self after his couple of mini strokes - anyway he asked if we'd think of having another London reading night (...

Posted by airyfairy on Fri, 23 Sep 2022 We're living in a strange old world at the moment, one way and another, and our Story of the Week reflects this perfectly. Jane Hyphen's 'It's the year...' is sharply funny and surreal, and yet somehow all too believable. If you happen to know an Orca, now might be the time to start getting on the right side of it. It's the year. . . | ABCtales Our Poem of the Week takes the autumn equinox as its theme...

Two wonderful picks for you in this strange week where nothing feels quite normal. Our brilliant Poem of the Week is Angusfolklore's stunning 'Knowing the Crows' and our Story of the Week goes to Ewan's thought provoking ' The Day After'. Do read both - you won't regret it. https://www.abctales.com/story/angusfolklore/knowing-crows https://www.abctales.com/story/ewan/day-after Here's our new Inspiration Point: https://www.abctales.com/...

Our Story and Poem of the Month for August have been chosen by Ewan. Here's what he says: As always, singling out one of each for Picks of the Month is very difficult. Story of the Month is one of maddan’s monthly ghost stories “Sea Mist” . If you want to read them all there is a collection here . Honorable mentions go to: Celticman for his ongoing Ugly Puggly, which continues to amuse and appal in equal measure Jeand for her clear-eyed cancer...

This week's Story of the Week is maddan's latest ghostly tale, Sea Mist. I have been loving these and hoping there's a collection of them in the future. You can read it here: https://www.abctales.com/story/maddan/sea-mist Poem of the Week is skinner_jennifer's beautiful poem, View Beyond. You can read it here: https://www.abctales.com/story/skinnerjennifer/view-beyond This week's Inspiration Point can be found here: https://www.abctales.com/...