Weird Tales from Creepy Town
Welcome…. To Creevy Town; a small place you may never
have heard of until you got this job. We
don’t show up on any map – an oversight, most likely. I’m sure you found the bus journey over the
moors and up the hill rather long-winded.
Never mind, you’re here now – and in one piece! You’ll love it here. At least I hope so. The next bus out of here won’t be until Tuesday
next month.
Creevy Town is a unique place. It’s more than a little strange. In fact, that’s how it got its nickname –
Creepy Town. Some of our residents are
on the unusual side. You’ll meet some interesting characters. And odd things just seem to happen around here. You’re not easily scared are you?
Anyway, here at Weird Tales, we pride ourselves in
printing all the news from Creepy Town.
If it’s bizarre, unbelievable or downright creepy, you read it here
first!
We’ve been looking for a junior reporter for ages. Our last junior disappeared after investigating
the zombie-sightings in the local churchyard.
Perhaps she got a job in another city?
The junior before her left in a hurry after interviewing Mr Wozniacki
the old school teacher. I know he’s a
bit eccentric, and those pointed teeth of his are a bit alarming, but we needed
his view on the up-and-coming village fete and our junior let us down running
off like that.
We need an intrepid reporter to interview people, collect
facts, write exciting reports and investigate news stories. The ability to come up with a catchy headline
wouldn’t hurt either. I hope you stick around.
You look like you can handle the job.
Good luck!
The Editor
Meet the Team
The
Editor
For reasons I won’t be explaining to you, I feel it is
better for everyone if you know as little about me as possible.
If you ever need any help or advice, be sure to knock on
my secretary’s door. Her office is right
next to mine.
Grace
Bird
Senior
Reporter
My name is Grace Bird, originally from Vancouver, Canada.
My father was in the army and so we moved around many times when I was growing
up, including the Persian Gulf, Texas and Germany. An encounter in the Black Forest with a woman
claiming to be a witch taught me the hard way to listen to my parents and not
to accept sweets from a stranger – even if they are part of her house. I was lucky to escape.
I wrote about what happened at school the next day. My teacher wasn’t impressed and gave me a D minus
but I didn’t allow her petty attitude to discourage me. The incident in the Black Forest led me to
the path I tread today, researching and reporting the strange and unexplained
all around us. I’m sure that my old
teacher would be impressed if she were still around. I heard a witch put a curse on her and she
now spends her days as a frog. A shame
really. I have no idea how the witch found
her address.
Phineas
Fork
Photographer
Phineas here. I’m
a proud Scotsman. There’s no better
place in the world than Stirling, in Scotland, which is where I’m from. I’ve always enjoyed taking photos and got my
first camera for my birthday when I was seven.
I always had a talent for photographing things that don’t want to stay
still – cows, birds, insects… and other, stranger creatures. I tried to convince the local press that my
photo of the beast in Loch Ness was genuine but they weren’t having any of it.
I went to university and eventually became a railway
engineer, taking photos in my spare time and putting them on my web site for
fun. I never expected anything to come
of it until one day I got a phone call from the Editor offering me a job at
Weird Tales. I was delighted to accept
and am happy to be a part of the team.
TIP
Show, don’t tell.
Your first assignment
Write a short introduction about yourself for the newspaper.
You can give yourself a pen name; something you have made
up. Some of the residents don’t like being written about and your stories may come
back to haunt you so it is probably better if you don’t give your real
name! If you wish to make up a few more
details about yourself, say for example, that you’re a black belt in karate or
once lived wild in the rainforest of the Congo for six months living off
poisonous tree frogs, then do so. It
makes for a colourful article and the readers of Weird Tales will never know.
Feel free to include a photograph of yourself. If you’re shy, don’t worry. There is sure to be a good one from the
archive to use instead.
Riemsianne Zonvolt
‘Fledgling’
reporter’
“Hm?
Ah, so you’re the person who needs to know all about me? Tch, fine. You can
call me Riemsianne, Riemsianne Zonvolt. Is that my real name? I shouldn’t say
it so openly? Well, I’m not just going to tell you that, it’s for me to know
and you to not care about. I generally do what I want, so don’t expect much… I
guess I’ll play along for now, though. I’m not about to go on a huge tangent
about my life and give you a big sob story to complain about how sad it was
because, let’s face it, you don’t care anyway. Trust me, anyone could tell you
that. Your ever-so-expressive silhouette makes it obvious. Then again, if you
wanted me to make something up… No, I wouldn’t. I really don’t want to. Don’t take it personally or anything; I don’t
exactly want the editor asking for my head on a silver platter. It’s just way
too much effort. Effort that I am most certainly not willing to put in. Either way… I’m fine, not exactly ‘happy’,
as long as I’m getting the money I need out of this silly— Wait, I am getting paid for this, right?”
By Haze
****
Greetings, young reporter. I’m thrilled that you are alive and have
continued to show up for work.
Have you finished your last assignment? I need your
profile for the next issue. Don’t let me down!
Anyway, you can type that up on your lunch break. I have a new and
exciting story for you. It seems that
there was a bit of trouble at the museum last night. I need you to investigate.
I received a frantic phone call this morning. Mr Jefferson, the Head Curator at the museum
has disappeared. His assistant, Miss
Poppy, tells me that he stayed behind late last night and was still working
when she left for the evening.
He specialises in Ancient Egypt and for some time now has
been researching the art of mummification and the resurrection spells the Pharaohs’
High Priests would have used to bring people back from the dead.
He was particularly attached to an ancient book that he
wouldn’t let her or anyone else read.
This morning, the cabinets containing the museum’s
mummies were discovered vandalised, smashed glass everywhere and the mummies
within their sarcophagus – gone. There was
no sign of Mr Jefferson either.
Your assignment
I want you to go to the museum and talk to people. Find out what happened. I want you to interview Miss Poppy, Bob Perkins, the security guard who worked on the desk
last night and any police officers
who will speak to you.
Are there any other witnesses or people who knew Mr
Jefferson well? Find them and talk to
them. We need to build up a picture of
what he was doing last night and what might have happened to him.
Find out what that book was!
Write down everything they say and bring it back here. Then
we can put the story together.
Tip
Open questions are better than closed ones. If the only answer the other person can give
you is ‘yes’ or ‘no’ then it is a closed question.
The best questions begin with ‘how’, ‘what’, ‘where’,
‘when’, and ‘why’.
*********
Good afternoon, junior.
Are you enjoying that cup of tea
and biscuit? Settling in all right? Good. Now, get back to your typewriter!
I need you to write up your report about what the
disappearance of Mr Jefferson the museum curator. Use your interview notes and get me that
story!
Write your report.
You will need:
- A catchy headline. Something that will make the reader want to read on.
- The first paragraph should say briefly what the mystery is, saying when it happened and where.
- The second paragraph tells more about Mr Jefferson and what he was working on.
- The third and fourth paragraphs are about your interviews and what the people said.
- Your final paragraph sums up what you think happened
I understand a lot of this will be guess work. They haven’t found Mr Jefferson yet, dead or
alive. As long as you write a good
story, our readers will be happy.
Tip
Headlines sound more dramatic when you use alliteration –
using the same letter at the beginning of words.
For example, ‘Mystery at Museum
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