Welcome to Mystery Month on JPC Allen Writes! All the prompts and tips relate to mysteries. This October is especially exciting for me because I’ll be revealing the cover and promoting the pre-release of my debut YA mystery, A Shadow on the Snow! As part of the celebration, I’m trying something new with my prompts for Monday Sparks. All the photos this month will be prompts for a collaborative mystery.
What is a collaborative mystery? Collaborative fiction is when multiple authors write different parts of one story. Here’s how it will work on my blog:
- I’ll write two or three sentences in the comments to start the mystery.
- Anyone who wants to may write two or three more sentences.
- Please no graphic content.
- Next week, I’ll take the last sentences in the comments from this week and repeat them as the lead sentence for the next photo prompt.
- By the end of the month, we’ll have a story!
Who wants to be part of a collaborative mystery, part 1?
I couldn’t have found a better day for a shoot. The October sky was that brilliant blue you only get in the fall when all the humidity has seeped away. The sun shone clear, and the air had an apple-crisp tang to it. The cheery landscape was the perfect contrast to the derelict vehicles scattered around the abandoned junkyard. I bent to my viewfinder and focused on the ancient convertible, so green that it could pass as a weird plant species that you only–what’s that?
I straightened and stared at the far side of the car. No. It couldn’t be. I took a step closer for a better look.
As soon as I stepped closer, I wished I hadn’t. There’s a person in there, no mistaking it. Is she – dead? I scan my surroundings, and not feeling any more endangered with getting a closer look than gawking from back here, I tiptoe to the window. A young lady, breathing, thank the heavens. Wait, isn’t that Geralyn Moss, the would’ve been valedictorian who disappeared last March? And no, I’m not a creeper to recognize her. Her picture has been on every billboard for three counties. For six months. What valedictorian stages her own disappearance? Or who set her up? And what do I do now? Wake her up? Call the cops? My phone rings. Loudly. I scramble to silence it, but the girl, Geralyn, stirs in her sleep and her eyes fly open.