Mandylifeboats speaks

Not long after ABCtales started in the year 2004 a friend of mine "Looli" heard about the site on  BBC radio. Looli and I were both living in Amsterdam at the time and were enthusiastic writers. Looli posted some poems (they're still there, I checked!) then went off to live somewhere far away so I lost touch with her.

I was working at the time as a copy editor for various international English-language magazines, which sounded good on my CV but in fact consisted of writing sidebars, standfirsts and captions. The subjects of these magazines included fashion, shipping containers, car components, jewellery and real estate. It wasn't exactly mind-blowingly interesting but ABCtales fulfilled my urge to write creatively and for my writing to be read and commented on by the few humdred or so members.

The forums were like an extention of the old Newsgroups but with people interested in creative writing and from that time I remember Liliana and Ivoryfishbone as well as a host of others that only need a slight prod to come back to mind, like the recalcitrant Mississippi.

About that time I joined an English language writing group in Amsterdam that took care of my writing needs and I stopped posting on ABCtales. I even started writing my first book, based loosely on an event that took place in my family about a century ago.

In 2007 I got divorced and decided to return to the UK after 31 years in Amsterdam. I was by then drawing my pension so I didn't need to look for work.

It took longer than I thought to settle down in England, starting in Brighton (where I went to an ABC event and met Tony Cook) and ending up in Hastings, where I now live. A new relationship appeared in 2009 and is still going strong. Hastings is an amazingly creative place and I joined three writing groups, all very different.

Then a little while ago I typed in ABCtales.com and it was oh so lovely and familiar to see the unchanged red letters! I felt like I'd come home - and they even had some of my stories! So I posted my wolf story that I was particularly fond of, and it immedately got a gilt cherry and was made story of the day and story of the week!  I felt so chuffed I posted some other recent stories as well as rewriting the intros for several others.

Now I'm back and I'm here to stay. I just hope ABCtales is too!