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

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...

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...

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?...

Read my ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ review of @drewgum.bsky.social 's book Saltburn here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/... I loved this book SO MUCH.

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

'Let go of the week Let go of the work' Borrowed time, by celticman: www.abctales.com/story/celtic...

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

My latest story - Prophesy: The Immortal Witch (26) Scarecrow www.abctales.com/story/marand...

Well, some times I do contemplate things, now and zen www.abctales.com/story/ewan/a...

'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...

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...

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!

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...

@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. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Lovely review of Saltburn today. It’s currently half price for Pride @renardpress.com renardpress.com/books/saltbu...

Thoroughly enjoyed the enormously funny novel 'Flamingo Hotel' by @drewgum.bsky.social My full review: tinyurl.com/5px8d7s9 #Booksky 💙📚 #Books 📚 #Literaturesky

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...

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...

Beyond thrilled to share my poem ‘Epilogue’, shortlisted by Victoria Kennefick in @vervepoetryfest.bsky.social’s Poet of the Festival competition ❤️

#poetryalert Probably not for everyone/anyone. 'Posted and Packing' Feel free to walk on by. www.abctales.com/story/ewan/p...

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...

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...

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...

My latest poem: 'A Cat-Proof Fence' Woodpeckers and palm trees www.abctales.com/story/marand...

Our wonderful Poem of the Week - Shipwreck Green, by Makis: www.abctales.com/story/makis/...

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...

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.

This substack post is dedicated to Walt. The best dog ever. open.substack.com/pub/drewgumm...

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

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...

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...

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...

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 🏳️‍🌈

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...

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.

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

Reading "Saltburn" by @drewgum.bsky.social today.

Lovely thread this of someone reading Saltburn. ☺️

Our Sunday pick captures a moment in time. A memory. A vivid and surprising piece of writing. Enjoy! www.abctales.com/story/makis/...

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...

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

Also available to buy here, just £5 at the moment! renardpress.com/books/saltbu...

‘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

My latest story - Prophesy: The Immortal Witch (25) Crows www.abctales.com/story/marand...

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.

“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

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

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 🏳️‍🌈

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!