FANCY yourself as the next Malcolm Pryce? The Comet is offering you the opportunity to see your work in print as part of our short story competition in association with 1book4stevenage, for which Pryce s comic thriller Aberystwyth, Mon Amour is this year

FANCY yourself as the next Malcolm Pryce?

The Comet is offering you the opportunity to see your work in print as part of our short story competition in association with 1book4stevenage, for which Pryce's comic thriller Aberystwyth, Mon Amour is this year's chosen title.

To be in with a chance of winning a collection of books supplied by Bloomsbury Publishing and book tokens courtesy of Ottakar's all you need to do is write a 400 word thriller set in Stevenage and send it in to The Comet.

The competition is open to two age groups - under 16s and 16 and over - and each story will be read by our panel of judges, including international best-selling author Ken Follett.

Mr Follett said: "One piece of advice I would say would be for people to rewrite because you can always improve it.

"It's also always nice to have a zinger at the end, something to surprise the reader, and make them think about the story."

Mr Follett has penned A Stevenage Mystery as an example of a concise story with a sting in its tail.

The closing date for the competition is July 11 and The Comet will publish the names of the winner, and their story, on July 20.

Stories should be sent to editorial@thecomet.net