ABCTALES AUTUMN NEWSLETTER------------

Dear ABCtales member,

There’s some great things happening on ABCtales at the moment so I
thought it
was time to alert you all to them.

First of all we have a new competition based around the theme of
‘nostalgia’. Eminent author Paul Reizin will be the judge, the
closing date
is 22nd December (but get writing now!) and there’s different
sections for
poetry and short stories. For full details go here:
[http://www.abctales.com/node/567559]

We also recently passed the 15,000 member mark and our 15,000th member
turned
out to be Rachel Mbulwa Man’geli who works in a Children’s Library
in
Mombasa, Kenya. As a result we’re appealing to all of you to send her
some
books – full details can be found here:
[http://www.abctales.com/node/567506]

Do respond to this appeal if you can – it is almost Christmas after
all!

Now, an apology for the problems we’ve had over the past week. As a
result
the site has had an enforced upgrade and is running very fast and very
smoothly
at the moment. Every cloud has a silver lining!

We’ve had some fantastic new writers on the site of late and some of
them are
featured in our Stories and Poems of the Week which showcase the very
best of
ABCtales. If you haven’t been around lately then catch up with some
truly
fantastic stories and poems here: [http://www.abctales.com/node/546293]
and
here: [http://www.abctales.com/node/546292]

This Spring will see the publication of major new novels from two
ABCtales
writers, Joe Dunthorne and Drew Gummerson – more details of those
nearer the
time – but for now you can read their work at:
[http://www.abctales.com/user/spack] and here:
[http://www.abctales.com/user/drew_gummerson]

And the last bit of good news concerns ABCtales member Juliet OC who
has been
awarded a ‘Highly Commended’ in the Commonwealth Short Story
competition
for her piece ‘In Arms’. Congratulations to Juliet from all of us
– for
full details of her incredible success see here:
http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/shortstory/cssc20...
[http://www.commonwealthfoundation.com/culturediversity/shortstory/cssc2007results/]

Juliet’s latest powerful story on ABC can be found here:
[http://www.abctales.com/story/juliet-oc/just-here-now]

So, loads of good news and more to come in the very near future I
trust!

All the very best,
Tony Cook and the team.