April Fool originally started life as my entry into the 2014 April A to Z Challenge. The premise behind the challenge is that entrants post a blog every day except Sundays. This means there are 26 posts needed and each one should be linked in some way to the next letter of the alphabet.

Once I got started I realised that there was the potential to write a novella with each day being the next chapter in the story. It was a fascinating experience and written as it was I had no idea where the story was going until I wrote the following day’s chapter.

It got a little tricky nearing the end, trying to make sure everything come together but not until final day’s post.

After the project was over, I reviewed what I had written, tweaked and edited it and my novella April Fool was born.

Here is an extract from the book. Enjoy!

J is for January

I’ve been planning this since January. Four whole months and everything is going well. This has to be my best New Year’s resolution ever. I got a little low in February, when it looked like he was going to report the poison pen letters. I don’t know what stopped him, but I suppose even the bad guys have to get a little lucky every once in a while.

Everything is going to plan so far. I need to keep an eye out for that policeman but he’s no Sherlock Holmes. He hasn’t even worked out what it’s all about. He’s doing everything I expected him to do. I’m still one step ahead of him.

My master stroke was the letters. The police worked out pretty quickly the three I had sent. I can’t believe he thought the use of the student newsletter was a mistake. Does he really think I would be so stupid?

Shame Grandma rang when she did. I was hoping she would be incommunicado for a lot longer. Her living in a Spanish back water was a dream come true to my master plan. It got them out of the house and gave me the chance I needed.

The finger was harder to get than I thought. Getting it into the pile of presents was the easy bit. I’m a bit disappointed they haven’t spotted my clue on the wrapping paper yet, but you never know. Forensics takes a lot longer than you think in the real world.

Not long now and everything will finally come together. I can’t wait to see their faces when they realise it was me all along. Then they’ll realise what this is all about, but not before I get exactly what I want.

Biog

Jo Jenner started writing professionally at the age of 40 and hasn’t looked back since.

Jo still works as a certified accountant and manages to fit her writing in during evenings and weekends.

She enjoys writing short stories and a number of flash fiction stories have been published under the title of ‘So the Feeling Shows’.

Always one for a challenge Jo took on the A to Z challenge in April 2014. This resulted in ‘April Fool,’, which was written over 26 days in April, using a different letter of the alphabet for each chapter.

Jo lives with her husband on the south coast of England, her dream location, and says walks along the sea front always help generate story ideas.

Jo can be found on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/#!/jojennerauthor

Or twitter @jojenner40

And regularly blogs on http://jojenner.blogspot.co.uk