Writing Prompt Story Starter: Post-Party Mystery


What The "Friend" Means

You might have heard that we’ve been celebrating this week… 150 years old. I know – and we look so young!

There are blogposts about it all over our website at the moment. We’re having a brilliant time celebrating and are super-eager to share our excitement. I don’t have much to add to Alex’s description of our wonderful party night, but want to highlight some – er – highlights.

My highlights

Number 1 is that some of our readers were able to join us, because the magazine is all about them. And when Anne Bufton-McCoy stood up and spoke from the heart about what the Friend means to her and her fellow readers, well, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house. Thank you, Anne, and you are more than welcome.

Number 2 is….the way everyone joined in. We had colleagues from all over the wider DC Thomson business, from Chairman Mr Andrew Thomson, to our advertising associates up from our Fleet Street offices, to Barry from the depths of our archives…. And everyone was in the mood to party.

Number 3 is….meeting so many of our contributors. We take the modern approach much of the time, corresponding by email. Nice, but…it’s not face to face, is it? And it was lovely that those writers could then meet some of the illustrators who illustrate their stories, and our production team colleagues who sub-edit them.

Number 4 is….the cake. Delicious!

I could go on….and on….

Story Starter image

But it’s Friday and it’s Story Starter day, so….a little post-party mystery. I came up to my desk when the party finished to collect my bag and coat and shut down my computer. And I found a button on the floor, and a wine-glass ring on my desk. Who? When? It doesn’t matter, but if there had been something else – like evidence of industrial espionage or a body, and they were the only clues…

So that’s this week’s Writing Prompt Story Starter.

[Oh, and if that button’s yours let me know and I’ll pop it in the post!]

Shirley Blair

Fiction Ed Shirley’s been with the “Friend” since 2007 and calls it her dream job because she gets to read fiction all day every day. Hobbies? Well, that would be reading! She also enjoys writing fiction when she has time, long walks, travel, and watching Scandi thrillers on TV.