Prizes will be awarded for the best overall stories and for those that are judged to be the winners of each individual category.
In order to be eligible for a category prize, stories must incorporate the themes of that category.
Please note: you may enter a single story in as many categories as you want (for the one entry fee) if it fits the criteria.
Here are the category definitions:
Art and Crime
Your story’s central theme is around a crime or mystery in the world of arts. It can include artists, body art, galleries or museums, photography, the music world, crafts, jewellery or anywhere else that creative arts happen.
Body in the Library
Your story must include the words ‘body in the library’. There is a broad scope to play with here, you can have a traditional library, or one set in an unusual location (eg. hospital, business, community group, home). Your protagonist doesn’t need to have a formal attachment to a library.
Cosy Cat Capers
In this new category your story will feature a feline, or as many of them as you want to include. The cats need to be a central character in your story, somehow involved in either solving a crime or mystery – or committing one. This is a cosy caper, so no graphic or gratuitous violence and please avoid any temptation to make a cat your victim of violent crime.
Cross-genre
Your story will cross the traditional crime genre with horror, speculative fiction, fantasy or science fiction. While it must include crime or mystery as its core, you can fire up your imagination and create characters, new or old worlds, and even crimes that are drawn from these other genres.
Forensic Clue
The story must be inspired by this image and what it suggests to you. A service dog, a scary doll and a seemingly discarded stiletto lends itself to a multitude of scenarios.