May is National Share-a-Story month, an initiative run by the FCBG (Federation of Children’s Book Groups) in the UK.

2021’s theme is Myth, Magic and Mayhem, and I’m delighted that I’ve been asked to write one of the three prompts for this year’s FCBG’s Story Starter competition!

I know a lot of you have been asking me to bring back my website prompts, which I stopped at the end of last year when my father became ill. I think this is a great way to do that, and also give a lot of you the opportunity to enter an official writing competition. So, May’s prompt is my FCBG story starter! It goes like this:

Mysteries always happen when you least expect them. And that morning, which might have seemed to anyone not a detective like the most ordinary, boring morning in the world, was in fact the beginning of the most exciting mystery ever …

The rules for this month are a bit different than usual! You need to use my prompt as the beginning of your story. Your story can’t be more than 750 words long, and it has to be finished within that word count. When you’re done you can post it as a comment here, as usual, and if you want you can also email it to the FCBG’s competition before the 15th of June 2021 (more details on their website). Because the FCBG is a national organisation based in the UK, you can only enter if you live in the UK – but of course you can post your story here wherever in the world you are!

Good luck, Detectives – thank you for being patient this year, the writing prompts are back!