HarryC

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I have 162 stories published in one collection on the site.
My stories have been read 232555 times and 179 of my stories have been cherry picked.
95 of my 725 comments have been voted Great Feedback with a total of 104 votes

HarryC's picture
Kevin Marman

Care worker, writer, memester, autist, dissenter.

I like people who not only think outside the box, but reshape the box into something else!

I've been writing since I was 10.  It's my sanctuary - though the structure often needs maintenance.  Over the last twenty or so years, I've won some writing prizes for short fiction, poetry and playwriting.  In 2013, I published my first novel, 'In the Day'.  Looking at it now, I can see all sorts of things I would change - but I suppose that shows progress.  I also have a collection of short fiction, 'Sacred Shirts', which was published in 2024.

In 2015, at the grand age of 56, I was finally diagnosed with Autistic Spectrum Condition (Asperger's).  I live alone with my cat, Daisy, and lots of books.

My stories

Cherry

Taking Care 4 (ii) - Day Centre

We came off the main route near Sittingbourne, then went along a series of narrow side roads, through a small village by a railway line, and finally...
1 likes
Cherry

Taking Care 4 (i) - Day Centre

I arrived at ten to nine the next morning to find the day centre Previa already being loaded. Malcolm was taking charge of it, like a bossy father...
1 likes
Cherry

Taking Care 3 (ii)

By eleven, I'd only managed to get through three folders. It was a massive amount of information to take in. I'd written down things like cerebral...
1 likes
Cherry

Taking Care 3 (i)

Day One at Remus Lodge - my first day of working in care... I knocked at the front door and Malcolm answered. Instead of inviting me in, he stepped...
1 likes

Test # 1

Here is a hypothetical newspaper headline with one word missing. Please insert into the blank space whichever of the words you are happiest with. '...

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95 of my comments have received 104 Great Feedback votes

1 Vote

Thanks all for your

Posted on Sun, 28 Oct 2018

Thanks all for your encouraging comments.  Much of the book is composed of episodes, divided into chapters and parts.  The first section leads up to the illness, the second is about mum's brief recovery and those months we spent together. ...

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Posted in Gift: A Son's Story (short extract 3)

1 Vote

Enjoyed this.  I know that

Posted on Sun, 14 Oct 2018

Enjoyed this.  I know that feeling.  Arrivals are often a disappointment.

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Posted in On Platform Two of Basingstoke Station One Night in October

1 Vote

Thanks, everyone.

Posted on Sat, 06 Oct 2018

Thanks, everyone.

Indeed, I could have added.... had I not been a member of ABCTales... had I not first heard about the site from a friend... had I not started writing in the first place...

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Posted in How writing (and a cat called Daisy) may have saved my life...

1 Vote

Hello again, Di,

Posted on Sat, 29 Sep 2018

Hello again, Di,

Every autistic person is unique with what they can and cannot do.  We have a savant at work who can tell you the day of the week that you were born on, but he can't tie his shoe laces and he has the emotional age of a 6-...

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Posted in A Martian in the Closet

1 Vote

Hope it could be helpful for

Posted on Sat, 29 Sep 2018

Hope it could be helpful for you, Di.

Parents can be so cruel.  What on earth is the father worried about?  That his kid will grow up being thought of as 'retarded'?  Does he not realise the potential harm he could do?  Would he put a cat...

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Posted in A Martian in the Closet

1 Vote

This captures how I'm feeling

Posted on Sun, 30 Sep 2018

This captures how I'm feeling myself, Jane.  I love this time of year... but I miss the summer, too.  I especially liked the final stanza:

Put away summer

Seal the songs and colours

In a box, to leaven...

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Posted in Put Away Summer

1 Vote

Wonderful!  Never lose that

Posted on Sun, 30 Sep 2018

Wonderful!  Never lose that inner child.  I doubt you will, though smiley

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Posted in Inner Child

1 Vote

Love it - especially that

Posted on Sat, 29 Sep 2018

Love it - especially that second stanza.  I well remember my ex and I looking askance at one another when James Naughtie on the Today programme introduced a certain Culture Secretary!

Succinctly and poignantly put.  Had me nodding...

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Posted in This Is Love

1 Vote

I like this.  An interesting

Posted on Sat, 29 Sep 2018

I like this.  An interesting analogy.  Those sudden blow-outs, too.  And I've never found a puncture outfit that's worked for love.

New loves, though?  New tyres?  There can still be hope.  So, maybe not a 'sad' poem, but a reflective one...

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Posted in A Sad Poem

1 Vote

I can't believe I overlooked

Posted on Sat, 22 Feb 2014

I can't believe I overlooked leaving a comment on this, Hespera - maybe because everyone had said it all.  But still...

Scratch is right: it's utterly convincing.  So much about it rang true for me on a personal level.  That sense of the...

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Posted in 03.02.2014 - The Noose*

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