To honour the villainous characters in The Shark Caller I felt that a short post was needed celebrating these amazing cephalopods.

As well as having three hearts, octopus are super-intelligent. They can solve mazes and are able to contort their muscly bodies to escape through tiny crevices. Octopi are also clever camouflagers. Some are small and highly venomous, like blue-ringed Pyrena in my story, others like the Pacific Octopus are enormous. My favourite fun fact about octopus is that their blood is blue.

Here’s an extract from The Shark Caller. It’s when Izzy meets a Giant Octopus.

The massive octopus flicks a tentacle, thick as my neck. It slaps the wall beside me. I give in to the terror clutching my throat and my scream ricochets over dripping rock. the octopus slurps and a deep rasping voice fills my mind.

No others can hear. We are the only ones …

My scream turns into sobs.

Your noise will bring shadow creatures.

Dreadful images fill my mind. I steady my breath, forcing myself to face the octopus. its tentacle arms curl as I try to stop trembling.

Happy World Octopus Day 🙂