Once upon a time in a land far far away there was a lonely poet, who spent his days writing ballads and eating pheasant. He never spoke to anyone, noone ever read his magical verse and he thought he was the only soul on the earth who spoke in the magical language of poetry. One night he was visited by three ghosts...
the ghost of literature past who showed him a happier time when everyone read poetry and beer was tuppence a pint.
the gost of poetry present who showed him just how sad and lonely his existence was
the ghost of poetry future who showed him a bleak future of hostile publishers and his death which would be a culmination of all his songs unsung.
Determined to change the future he changed his ways and ran out into the streets to share the good news...
and abctales was born.
The About Us does tell you a little - but I will try and get round to writing something up about how and why we started.
Rest assured, it's still the same team!
John Bird. The Big Issue founder. We've been here before. I was at a creative writing group run by The Big Issue, there was talk of an on-line creative writing group. End of.
So how come ABC tales has only just celebrated it's fifth birhday yet there's members 6 years plus? Maytbe those who've 'been here before' aint actually got a clue what they're on about when they dismiss it in such a way. or maybe you're using John Birds name to add a bit of respect and clout for yourself as you obviously wasn't with him when he made this decision.
nobody
I can assure you that John Bird was one of the founders and is still one of the owners of this site - as is Gordon Roddick. I have run the site, for better or worse, since its inception in December 2000.
It was conceived as part of a larger project that fell through when the internet 'bubble' burst but we decided to carry on with it nevertheless. In terms of providing an outlet for writing, for self-empowering those who have come on here and in many other ways it has been a great success. As a financially secure business it has not - but we continue to work on that!
Harry/nobody, the membership details are screwed up. If you click on my username you will see that I have been a member for 44 weeks. That's crap: I was eating a dodgy macD's hamburger in my car one lunchtime in December 2000 when I heard John Bird being interviewed on Radio5 about the launch of abctales.
I joined this site a week later which means my details should show as 5 years and X weeks. I think it's something to do with the site's several attempts to regenerate. In an attempt to show how bolloxed the 'member since' list is i give you this:
I created an alter-ego in 2001 in order to test out a theory of mine about the editors that then existed (i've not used it since). I've just searched out this ID and it says it has been a member for 6yrs and 11 weeks. Total bollocks.
btw, I have the first four issues of the abctales print mag (dated 2000/2001- in pristine condition) and Talecatching was featured back then. The last abc function I attended was in May 2005 and the best reading - IMHO - was by the guy, I forget his name but he was brilliant, who read a tale 'caught' by the 'Talecatching' scheme.
Does that answer your question Harry or you laying in wait ready to pounce on some self-percieved injustice?
Tony - yes I knew already about John Bird and Gordon Roddicks involvement in setting up abc tales, I was told about the site a long time ago by the journalist Joy Francis while in prison. I just wanted to know a litle more
Stormy Petrel, I dunno what that last few words were all about, so I'm not gonna even comment. I have found in life in general that people think that everyone's mind works the same as their's. I guess you're creation of an alter ego to suss out editors speaks volumns.
nobody
There's nothing more mind-teasing than the incomprehensible eagerly avowed -
Dennett
Liana