A letter from the reef
A fisherman's letter, sent home from a ship that anchored too close to a black reef, arrives in Arkham months after the ship was lost.
A letter reaches an Arkham address four months after the ship it was written aboard went down with everyone on it. The envelope is salt-stained but the paper is dry. Write the letter, or write what happens in the house where it is opened. The one thing the letter must do is stay a letter: it can only know what the writer knew, in the order he learned it.
- Length
- 400–1200 words
- Wanted
- story
- Tone
- A private voice, plain and increasingly precise.
What would contradict the canon
Reviewers check an entry against these. They are the difference between a decline and a seal.
- No narrator outside the letter, unless you write the household scene instead.
- The reef and what lies under it are never named outright by the writer.
- The ship's loss is a matter of public record. Do not undo it.
Already sealed, and binding
Read these before you write. Your entry can add to them; it cannot undo them.
One way it might open
An example, not a requirement. Take it, change it, or ignore it.
You will have had the telegram by now, and I am sorry it came before this did.
Write it now. Nothing is needed to begin, your draft stays in this browser, and a name is asked for once, when you send it. 3 readers decide whether it is sealed.
Write this