ABCtales
@abctales.bsky.social
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http://ABCtales.com
is the place for writers to share, discuss and develop their talent.
Another gripping tale from the world of Less Miserables SoulFire77’s ‘The Less Miserables Face the Council’ is today’s Pick of the Day.
www.abctales.com/story/soulfi...
This is part one of three. Do read them all! Please share if you can
about 13 hours ago
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Today's Pick of the Day is the latest part of Ivan-the-Ok-ish's drily funny, well written and a pleasure to read Bron, which you can find here
www.abctales.com/story/ivan-o...
If you need to start at the beginning, go here.
www.abctales.com/story/ivan-o...
1 day ago
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And today’s pick is Unni Kumaran’s excellent Listen: The Cosmos is Talking to You. It’ll take you from the look of a cow, to the planets in the sky and back again.
www.abctales.com/story/unniku...
2 days ago
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Drew Gummerson
5 days ago
Thanks to Rae Toon for this video of all my books ranked.
@beardedbadgerbooks.bsky.social
@renardpress.com
- my favourite two are also your favourite two and represent what I want to be doing - the angst of Flamingo and the queer joy of Saltburn.
youtu.be/CIvQtX6N4BM?...
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All Drew Gummerson books RANKED!
YouTube video by Rare Reads
https://youtu.be/CIvQtX6N4BM?is=pKhiyK1fX2fe2CK5
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Linda M. Bayley
4 days ago
Read my ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review of
@drewgum.bsky.social
's book Saltburn here:
www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
I loved this book SO MUCH.
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See what your friends are reading
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/8686842476
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Drew Gummerson
4 days ago
Brilliant new review of Saltburn. “this is the gayest book I've ever read…a beautiful treatise on love and acceptance that will make you see the world in a different, more humane way.” ☺️🙏🌈 Still half price for
#Pride
renardpress.com/books/saltbu...
@renardpress.com
add a skeleton here at some point
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'Let go of the week Let go of the work' Borrowed time, by celticman:
www.abctales.com/story/celtic...
4 days ago
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An inspirational story told in a grounded way. Beanzie's 'meta boozing' is Friday's Pick of the Day
www.abctales.com/story/beanzi...
Please share if you can
5 days ago
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marandina
6 days ago
My latest story - Prophesy: The Immortal Witch (26) Scarecrow
www.abctales.com/story/marand...
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Ewan Lawrie,
5 days ago
Well, some times I do contemplate things, now and zen
www.abctales.com/story/ewan/a...
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'Tracy and Ben hadn't even worked their notice, that was the level of desperation they’d felt to get the hell out of there.'. Bernadette has other ideas in this wickedly funny story by Jane Hyphen:
www.abctales.com/story/jane-h...
6 days ago
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Drew Gummerson
7 days ago
This week’s substack is flying free. On Going Viral and Not Writing Again featuring
@renardpress.com
@beardedbadgerbooks.bsky.social
@roadsongbooks.bsky.social
@sunburntsaints.bsky.social
& much more. Well, not that much more. Please share if your heart allows.
open.substack.com/pub/drewgumm...
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On going viral and not writing again.
Short stories and dogs.
https://open.substack.com/pub/drewgummerson/p/on-going-viral-and-not-writing-again?r=rg1n9&utm_medium=ios
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High calibre writing, the wonderful setting of historic York and an unsettling story arc of unexplained phenomena. Can’t wait for more of airyfairy’s ‘Somewhere’ Chapter 2, Part 2 is today’s Pick of the Day.
www.abctales.com/story/airyfa...
Do go back to the beginning and read from the start!
7 days ago
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Turlough returns, with his latest wonderful Diary entry, which is Pick of the Day! Please do share, if you can
www.abctales.com/story/turlou...
7 days ago
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Linda M. Bayley
10 days ago
@drewgum.bsky.social
's book Saltburn is one of the most satisfying books I've read in a while. I didn't want it to end, but at the same time, I don't feel like I'm left wanting. Saltburn is about the absurd, but it's also about acceptance, I think. About loving who you are. Read this book. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
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Drew Gummerson
9 days ago
Lovely review of Saltburn today. It’s currently half price for Pride
@renardpress.com
renardpress.com/books/saltbu...
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Dave Appleby
9 days ago
Thoroughly enjoyed the enormously funny novel 'Flamingo Hotel' by
@drewgum.bsky.social
My full review:
tinyurl.com/5px8d7s9
#Booksky
💙📚
#Books
📚
#Literaturesky
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"Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel" by Drew Gummerson
Narrated in the anonymous second person, present tense, this week in the life of dishwasher employed at the hotel who, like Walter Mitty, re...
https://tinyurl.com/5px8d7s9
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Drew Gummerson
8 days ago
Great new review of my book Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel published by tiny indie publisher
@beardedbadgerbooks.bsky.social
- came out in 2020 but a new edition at end of last year. On sale here -
www.beardedbadgerpublishing.com/online-store...
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Drew Gummerson
10 days ago
Cycling to work 630 Sunday morning. The sky is full of balloons. You can read my balloon story here.
revolutionjohnjournal.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/a...
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Bex Hainsworth
9 days ago
Beyond thrilled to share my poem ‘Epilogue’, shortlisted by Victoria Kennefick in
@vervepoetryfest.bsky.social
’s Poet of the Festival competition ❤️
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Ewan Lawrie,
9 days ago
#poetryalert
Probably not for everyone/anyone. 'Posted and Packing' Feel free to walk on by.
www.abctales.com/story/ewan/p...
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Quirkily funny, with a uneasy touch of the unseen.
#York
is a place full of history, this piece creates a sense of place with great skill. It's our
#PickoftheDay
Please do share
www.abctales.com/.../air.../s...
If you need to visit Part 1 first, go here
www.abctales.com/.../air.../s...
8 days ago
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Our Sunday Pick is the first part of a new episode with SoulFire77's brilliant characters, the Less Miserables. Working out what you really want is never easy, but sometimes a friend can help:
www.abctales.com/story/soulfi...
9 days ago
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This first half of a wonderful new story from Maddan, is spooky Pick of the Day! Please do share if you can
www.abctales.com/story/maddan...
10 days ago
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marandina
12 days ago
My latest poem: 'A Cat-Proof Fence' Woodpeckers and palm trees
www.abctales.com/story/marand...
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Our wonderful Poem of the Week - Shipwreck Green, by Makis:
www.abctales.com/story/makis/...
11 days ago
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Drew Gummerson
15 days ago
And I wrote my own balloon story here - very strangely I wrote about the Cincinnati Balloon Festival. It turns out Cincinnati was the balloon capital of 19th century America.
revolutionjohnjournal.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/a...
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April 23, 2026: Fiction by Drew Gummerson
That bastard Lyle, he said, he’s just come and collected the Chevy. Him and two big guys. He and Audrey have apparently contested the will. It wasn’t signed. It wasn’t witnessed. It ain’t worth shi…
https://revolutionjohnjournal.wordpress.com/2026/04/23/april-23-2026-fiction-by-drew-gummerson/
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Drew Gummerson
14 days ago
Sat in bed photographing my story Teeth - which appeared on Radio 4 and which I don’t have a digital copy of - so I can grab the text and paste it into a Word document. I want to include it in my Hotdog short story collection. Teeth also won the Leicestershire Short Story Competition.
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Drew Gummerson
13 days ago
This substack post is dedicated to Walt. The best dog ever.
open.substack.com/pub/drewgumm...
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On saying goodbye to Walt
I was going to write about Walt and then I couldn’t.
https://open.substack.com/pub/drewgummerson/p/on-saying-goodbye-to-walt?r=rg1n9&utm_medium=ios
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Ashton Macaulay (Author)
14 days ago
Just in time for Summer yeti beach read season (definitely a thing), Whiteout is now available on every Ebook platform at a discounted price ($3.99). Nothing says summer like drunken monster hunting adventures in the Himalayas.
books2read.com/NickVentnerW...
#BookSky
#Fantasy
#Cryptids
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Some brilliant pieces posted over the last few days. Very hard to choose just one story or poem. However.. LizF’s ‘Safe to Open’ is beautifully done and will give you a chill right down the back of your spine. It is today’s Pick of the Day.
www.abctales.com/story/lizf/s...
13 days ago
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Our Pick of the Day today is a very funny extract from Colin.b’s book Family Man. Please read and share and watch out - there’s danger in the streets!
www.abctales.com/story/colinb...
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Extract from my new book - Family Man | ABCtales
Aldo and Jennifer (Aldo's stepdaughter) drop by to visit Mrs Henderson (Aldo's old neighbour). The visit takes an unexpected turn when Mrs Henderson reveals what's been happening in the local area. ...
https://www.abctales.com/story/colinb/extract-my-new-book-family-man
13 days ago
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A great IP response to "colour", samhennig's wonderful poem shows how wild places are important not only to the creatures who live there, but to us, too. That's why it is Pick of the Day! Please do share, if you can
www.abctales.com/story/samhen...
13 days ago
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Drew Gummerson
16 days ago
My fifth book Saltburn was published last year by Haywood Books,
@renardpress.com
- Saltburn is a celebration with its queer cast of characters across the spectrum of sexualities. It’s currently half price for Pride -
renardpress.com/books/saltbu...
- Happy Pride 🏳️🌈
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Today's Pick of the Day is Hudson Moon's Nighthawks. I live in hope of one day seeing all of Craven Danger's adventures in a paperback with a suitably pulp cover, do please share this one.
www.abctales.com/story/hudson...
15 days ago
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Sean McNulty
17 days ago
youtu.be/crwsNBNwSGs?...
LISTEN to Chapter One of my novel EXCAVATUM which tells the story of a group of priests who become saddled with a dead body while travelling to Greenland. It's a story of faith, wolves, whales, sexual repression, religious corruption, deformity, and sunflowers.
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EXCAVATUM 1
YouTube video by Malbrained
https://youtu.be/crwsNBNwSGs?is=B6fACa_TFEhffIRE
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Drew Gummerson
17 days ago
My 4th book, You; From Pissed to Publication came just a year after Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel. A chapbook, 28 pages long, featuring the protagonist from Flamingo Hotel talking about his path to publication. TLS called it ‘indecently Bukowskian’. Happy
#Pride
🏳️🌈
tinyurl.com/2p86ehd7
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Linda M. Bayley
17 days ago
Reading "Saltburn" by
@drewgum.bsky.social
today.
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Drew Gummerson
16 days ago
Lovely thread this of someone reading Saltburn. ☺️
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Our Sunday pick captures a moment in time. A memory. A vivid and surprising piece of writing. Enjoy!
www.abctales.com/story/makis/...
16 days ago
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Pick of the Day. The final part of a series of 5 short pieces by Soulfire. Very evocative and I think left up to the reader to decide what they're about.
www.abctales.com/story/soulfi...
17 days ago
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Drew Gummerson
18 days ago
My 3rd book, Seven Nights at the Flamingo Hotel, came out 6 years ago, 12 years after my previous one. I’d given up on being published. Then I saw a new local publisher was setting up, Bearded Badger Books. Flamingo Hotel was finished so I thought, why not? Happy Pride 🏳️🌈.
tinyurl.com/74b93u8a
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Rachel Deering
18 days ago
Also available to buy here, just £5 at the moment!
renardpress.com/books/saltbu...
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Saltburn – Renard Press
May the residents of the real Saltburn-by-the-Sea and neighbouring towns forgive my mermaids, my nuclear power stations, my foetus museums and so on and so on. They were written with love. Welcome to ...
https://renardpress.com/books/saltburn/
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Rachel Deering
18 days ago
‘Arkwright led Arthur outside, down to the seafront and under the full moon they tramped across the mudflats to the nuclear plant. In the distance, out at sea, the seals churned…’ ~
@drewgum.bsky.social
Saltburn for
#BookWormSat
1/2 🖼️ Wellcome Collection
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marandina
19 days ago
My latest story - Prophesy: The Immortal Witch (25) Crows
www.abctales.com/story/marand...
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marandina
18 days ago
Thoroughly enjoyed reading 'FOR ALL WE KNOW WE DON'T' by
@thispersona.bsky.social
Short stories set in the 80s centre around 3 lads in Ireland navigating life & the transition to senior school. For me, it's a coming of age tale with 'boys will be boys' at its heart. Highly recommended.
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Drew Gummerson
20 days ago
“Chapbooks are small, printed booklets that originate from the sixteenth century, reaching a height of popularity in the eighteenth century and so called because they were sold by wandering salespeople known as Chapmen. And we think it's time for their revival.”
@sunburntsaints.bsky.social
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Drew Gummerson
20 days ago
My first book, The Lodger, came out 24 years ago. It was published by Gay Mens Press. A sampler of it was given away with Gay Times. It was a Lambda Award finalist and No. 1 on Amazon’s Gay and Lesbian chart. Happy Pride everyone!
#Pride
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Drew Gummerson
19 days ago
My second book, Me and Mickie James came out 18 years ago. I had an agent. It was sold to an imprint of a Big Five publisher, Jonathan Cape. It got reviewed in The Guardian, Time Out, the gay press. Happy Pride 🏳️🌈
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Bex Hainsworth
19 days ago
Delighted to have a poem on the shortlist of this year’s Artemesia Arts Poetry Competition alongside
@victoriaspires.bsky.social
and
@ella-b-winters.bsky.social
❤️ Huge thanks to Malika Booker for judging and Kate from Artemesia Arts for keeping us all in the loop!
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