I joined a writer’s workshop today. The challenge was to take a random prompt and write the synopsis of a book in 3 different genres. The prompt I got was “A man is haunted by the victims of a serial killer with his same name” and my genres were chicklit, pulp fiction, and psychological horror. Now I have to take one synopsis and create a 5-page short story to be critiqued at the next meeting.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to go with my chicklit one, because that’s my actual genre…but I do like the other two…

Chicklit – Fashion blogger, Sandy Lithglow, was down on her luck. Her following was crashing after she misjudged the popularity of the new glow-in-the-dark shoe trend, telling everyone it was this year’s must have when in fact, the dye used by the designer was causing horrible rashes and even blisters. Searching for the new “in” thing, Sandy follows a girl decked from head to toe in plastic bags. When she finally corners the mystery girl to interview her about the garb, she comes face to face with a ghost. Not just any ghost, but one that can tell her there is a serial killer with Sandy’s same name and likeness stalking models in London, cutting them to bits, and disposing their body parts in bags in the sea. Intrigued, Sandy seeks out more of the killer’s victims, while listening to their gory retelling of their brutal deaths, she can’t help but make a mental note of the way they appear to her in the knotted up plastic bags. Sandy is torn, does she help seek justice for these victims and take her knowledge of their deaths to the police, or does she work with a designer to create a new line of dresses inspired by the bagged-up body parts and relaunch her into the ahead-of-her-time fashion blogger she used to be?

Pulp Fiction – They all had one thing in common, they had overdosed on blue crystal. Other than that, the 10 ghosts that spoke to Chris Franklin were different in every way. Some female, some male, some old, some fat, one was just a child. Chris had tried to ignore them at first but they wouldn’t leave him alone, usually visiting him one at a time but more recently assaulting him in groups. Having already lost his job after his first “freak out” when one of the ghosts jumped out of his soup during his lunch break and at risk of being sent away to the pysch ward when he tries to tell his family what he is seeing, Chris decides if you can’t beat them, you have to join them. In search of the blue crystal dealer that is handing out the deadly doses, Chris enters a part of his neighborhood he had always given a wide berth to in his past and discovers more than he bargained for when he comes face to face with the dealer, his identical twin brother that he never knew existed.

Psychological Horror – Robin Mackel was living an ordinary, if boring, life. He would take his trash out on Fridays, read the Sunday paper to his dog, Max, and clock in at the insurance agency at 9am sharp every weekday. He lived this way his entire adult life. It was simple and clean and just the way he preferred it. Routine and predictable. That was, until the dreams started. The first morning that he woke up drenched in sweat, his body shivering, and the bed sheets thrown about the room, he thought he might be coming down with the flu. Until he saw that Max was hiding under the chair, afraid to come near him. As the dreams became clearer each night and Robin was able to recall more of them each morning, he had to admit, he was being haunted by not one, but several ghosts that apparently wanted to seek revenge on him for their own horrifying murders. But what had Robin Mackel done to these souls that now tortured him in his sleep? When the dreams crossed over to his awake hours, the ghosts interfering with his every day routine, that is when Robin uncovers there is a serial murder with his same name and the ghosts are after the wrong man. As new ghosts join the crowd, Robin is forced to give attention to finding the killer himself in order to regain his sanity.