First work published is dark tale of horror
CHARLOTTE GREEN
AN aspiring writer has had his first work published in an anthology which beat Stephen King to top the horror genre.
Dad- of- two Kris Rickards, from Haslingden, was picked to be featured in the ‘ Twisted50’ book - a collection of 50 terrifying horror stories written by new authors released for Halloween chosen from around 500 entries.
In his dark tale ‘Spellings’ Kris, 39, blurs the boundary between fiction and reality as readers accidentally invoke a demon by reading special words and phrases within the text.
Kris, who has also written drafts for children’s books and screenplays, said he was ‘ thrilled’ to be published for the first time.
He said: “For the past five years I have been writing scripts, short stories, and sending them off everywhere and it’s great to get finally recognised. My nine- year- old has been bragging about ●● Kris Rickards it in school. He’s really proud, it’s a bit daft - it’s only a two-page short story but it’s so much bigger in his mind.
“It took 39 years to get a two-page story published, and it’s just fantastic to see it up against Stephen King.”
Kris, who lives on North Street with wife Polly and sons George, nine, and Charlie, five, won the competition with writing forum Create50 to be part of the anthology.
He said Polly was the driving force behind getting him to put pen to paper.
He said: “She’s been so encouraging, she was the one who finally bought me a load of pencils and notepads and said ‘do it’.”
Kris, who also works as a pollster for research company Ipsos Mori, said: “Spellings is the evolution of an idea which I’ve had over the years and was originally based on a script set on Pendle Hill about people trying to invoke an angel using a live TV audience.
“Its effectiveness is because it brings the reader in as a character in my story. With the reader taking part it puts them a little more at risk, and makes it more scary.”
After being released on Kindle, Twisted50 managed to knock renowned horror writer Stephen King off the top spot on the bestseller list for the genre on internet seller Amazon.
Kris added: “Hopefully this will be the launching pad to bigger and better projects. To be a full time writer is of course the dream.”
The paper-back edition of the anthology is being published in December. ●● Pupils Oliver Rostron, two, and Matilda Lias, three, with the chocolate tombola NURSERY school children learned that charity can be sweet when they raised more than £100 for Cancer Research with a chocolate tombola.
Pupils from the Good as Gold Childcare Centre in Waterfoot raised £121 in memory of former teacher at the centre Natalie Bridge, who lost her battle with cancer in 2007.
Headteacher Kimberley Hartley said: “We just told them that their pennies were going to help to make poorly people better.”