Things get scary

Prepare for a shiver down your spine. Hornsea Writers have been dabbling in the occult.

East Yorkshire publisher, Fantastic Books Publishing, has been running a horror competition with a difference. Entrants are invited to submit a horror tale of exactly 666 words. Play the short trailer on THIS PAGE to listen to Dan their CEO intone his spooky competition trailer. He calls these 666 stories fantabbles.

Fantabbles? Stories of exactly 666 words? Yes, we thought, we could write those. No problem. Of course we didn’t write a single word, let alone 666. We just left it at ‘we could if we wanted to.’

Then Dan called our bluff.

‘I want some 666 stories from Hornsea Writers,’ he told us.

All of Fantastic Books’ anthologies include invited professional contributions and on this occasion one of those professionals is to be our own Linda Acaster. As members of the group we have heard and shuddered at her 666 words, but I’m afraid you will have to wait.

However, you won’t have to wait to hear two other contributions. As well as his invited professionals, Dan asked me and one of his other authors to provide contributions he could use to help launch his new sound studio.

Read by the actor, Penelope McDonald, Music at Full Moon and my own Opening Doors are already available as audio downloads and will probably be included in the final anthology although they won’t be in the pot competitively.

So whose fantabbles will win the cash prizes? No one knows. The winning entries might not even have been written yet. None of the invited contributions mentioned above are eligible. The competition doesn't close until 31 March. HERE’S THE LINK. Sharpen your quill! The winner might be you.