Februrary 2024

Brief: Follow storyblocks link below. Listen to the thriller music samples on the first page and select a piece of music or sound effect which inspires you to write a 300 words psychological thriller piece.  Storyblocks

In Cold and Tender Water – Chapter 1

DCI Charlie Wykeham had received the poem three days before the body was found. Written with quill and ink, its coarse handmade paper contrasted sharply with the crisp, white envelope in which it had been delivered to Wykeham’s home address. The postmark indicated it had been posted in Winchester the day before. At the time, he had been both intrigued and mildly concerned but there had been no obvious action he could take, except to carefully file the envelope and letter in an evidence bag in his office desk. Now, as he walked past the boathouse and followed the river downstream, the words of the poem resurfaced in his mind.

    While fields submit to winter's white campaign,

    clouds kiss and bruise the hills with grey,

    the wind pins the sky to earth's window frame

    and I flee the town to climb my favourite way.

    Atop the hill, the hard and frosty sward

    is cut by dark and winding lines.  I ask what strange,

    mad maze is this, with only but a single path?

    No answer heard, just winter's wild refrain.

    You could not know whose feet would trace your craft.

    But now my steps between the frigid turf

    decode your labyrinthine cryptograph

    and bring me to the centre of your work. 

    And though you’re gone, I still remain, a mourner

    To your death below, in cold and tender water.

After a minute of trudging through the soft mud and puddles of the towpath, Wykeham came to a small tableau.  Stopping at the Crime Scene – Do Not Enter tape, he nodded to a uniformed constable who recorded Wykeham’s arrival on a clipboard. A figure dressed head to toe in blue coveralls emerged from the white tent that had been erected by the riverside, and seeing Wykeham, came over. As she removed her mask, he saw it was the pathologist, Dr Rebecca Ferguson.

“Early days of course, but there are several indications this may not have been an accidental drowning.”

(329 words)

(This received a Highly Commended)

March 2024

Brief: Picture Book Text.  

In no more than four spreads of a picture book (less than 250 words) write something that comes from your heart.

Illustration notes will not be included within word count.

Amy Sparkes’ Story Godmother site has a useful page on writing in picture book spreads. See link here.

Banana and Elephant go to the Park

Spread 1

A summer day, a green park, with trees and a skateboard bowl

Banana and Elephant in the park one day,

Enjoying the sunshine and seeking some play.

They came across a big concrete bowl in the ground

And on the top was a plank with wheels round and round.

Spread 2

(left)

Banana jumped on the plank - and whizzed across the bowl.

He zoomed up the side, he was in perfect control.

That looks fun’’ said Elephant. “Can I have a go?”

Elephant hrumphed down his trunk. He wanted to do it too.

(right)

So, Elephant tried to get on the board,

But there was only room for two of his feet and not all four.

Then he thought of the humans he’d seen at the zoo

And reared up in the air so he was standing on two.

Spread 3

(left)

Elephant sped down the bowl at a tremendous rate.

‘How do I steer,’ he trumpeted, though really it was too late.

He came off the board with a terrible crump!

And came back to earth with a sickening bump!!

(right)

Elephant looked to see what Banana thought of his fall

But nowhere could he see Banana, not anywhere at all.

But underneath Elephant he felt something rather soggy.

Oh dear, Banana’s skin was now a full three feet from his body.

Spread 4

Elephant said, “I’m afraid there’s nothing for it

Because no one can ever unmake a banana split”.

So, he eat the banana and was heard to remark:

“A banana skin can cause a nasty accident in a skateboard park”.

(243 words)

April 2024

Brief: Pitch your book, as you would want it to appear in your query email that you send to agents. 150 words maximum, but can be short and sweet if you prefer. It needs to entice the agent and make them want to read your submission package. Many agents will make an initial decision based on the pitch alone.

Dear Jemima,

I am writing to seek representation for my romantic thriller, The Well in the Crypt, complete at 80k.

On the rebound from a failed love affair with Charlotte, NATO chaplain Peter illegally brings an orphan into the UK, embezzling church funds to do so. 25 years later, with the unexpected help of Father Hugh, a 12th Century Benedictine monk, he must confront the consequences of his past actions, both to protect those he loves and to regain Charlotte’s acceptance.

After a 30 year career in the computer industry, I recently completed a Creative Writing MA at MMU. This is my first novel, set in my home city of Winchester and uses supernatural, gothic and speculative elements to explore how the difference between good and bad is often simply a matter of perspective. Readers who enjoyed Diane Gabaldon’s Outlander or Daphne Du Maurier’s The House on the Strand are likely to enjoy my book too.

I attach the first three chapters.

Yours sincerely,

(Note to adjudicator: for a real letter I would substitute Diane Gabaldon’s Outlander with an appropriate author/book that is already on the agent’s list, to give an indication I had researched the agent’s interests.)

version 2:

After a failed love affair with Charlotte in the 1980s, Peter Green loses his way in life and seeks a purpose in life by joining the Anglican priesthood. During training for his ordination, he discovers a portal in time in the crypt of Winchester cathedral where he meets the 12th century Benedictine Father Hugh. Circumstances compel them to break their vows and use violent acts to prevent the poisoning of the Lady Cecilia. In the 20th century Peter is sent as a chaplain on secondment to the NATO forces in the Yugoslavian war. Deeply affected by the acts of ethnic cleansing he encounters he once again turns to violence to save an orphan, Anya.  Using embezzled church funds, he conceals his actions and brings her to the UK. In 2010, now a Canon of Winchester cathedral, Peter is blackmailed about the fraud. With help from Father Hugh, and Anya, Peter must use the Cathedral portal to expunge his fraud and finally gain redemption with Charlotte.

(165 words)