Story and Poem of the Month

Our Story and Poem for the month of August have very kindly been chosen by hudsonmoon:

August proved itself difficult—as usual. Hot and sticky and sprinkled with
a most uncomfortable political climate. Throw Covid-19 into the mix, shake
vigorously, then pour yourself a tall glass of Why Did I Even Get Out of Bed this Morning?

But I have to say that the writers around here never fail to pump a lot of
heart and soul back into the atmosphere.

That said . . .

Poem of the month honors go to Philip Sidney’s Illicit Exercise

https://www.abctales.com/story/philip-sidney/illicit-exercise

Philip Sidney takes us on a run through fields of herons, starlings and
middle-aged beer bellies. (The hiking trails in my own little town helped me
to soothe my somewhat shaky nerves over the last five months of lock-down induced unemployment.) I felt every step of this run through the back woods. ‘What times we live in’, indeed.

Story of the month honors to Noo’s Craft

https://www.abctales.com/story/noo/craft

Noo’s gives us a family tale that hit me smack in the gut. It resonated
with a lot of the scars in my own life. It is gut-wrenching and it is real.
Don’t miss it.

Also, I’d love to give a shout out to all those who participated in this
month’s Zoom Reading. It was fantastic, everyone was on their game. A big thank you to Mark Burrow for organizing the readings. It was a pleasure putting a face—and voice—to writers I’ve been following for the last few years. Hope there’ll be more of these readings in the future, and that more of you will join in.

Until then, on to Fall and better times ahead. (I have to believe there will
be, or I’d never put my shoes on in the morning.)