Stringybark Open Short Story Award 2024

CLOSED

The Stringybark Malicious Mysteries Award 2018

Competition Closed: 5 November 2017

123 entries.  $1085 in prizes.

Judges: Marguerite Perkins, Maree Teychenné , Jamie Todling and David Vernon

Editor: David Vernon

Cover designer: Michael Vernon

Ausralian printer: Kainos Print

From murder and mayhem to ghosts and grave-diggers (oh, and that strange succubus that just happens to slip into your life when you aren't looking), Red Gold is an anthology of twenty-seven award-winning tales from the Stringybark Malicious Mystery Short Story Awards.  Read them if you dare!

Martin concentrated on her mouth. It was safer that way. Eyes could detect his innermost thoughts and he hated that. So he avoided the eyes and watched her lips, imagining the tongue nestling over the sublingual gland, the saliva erupting into her mouth…                                        - from 'A Place in the Heart' by David Campbell

He hunched over the bed, so close, nearly touching Lauren as she slept. The sweat on his bare upper body glowed faintly red in the gleam from the stand-by light of the small television on top of the bookcase.  Lauren murmured and turned onto her back, unaware of the bent figure closing in on her lips. His breath could have stirred her hair but his pose was static; no breath, no twitch of a muscle, no animation. The figure exhibited no life but his image shivered, perhaps in anticipation of the inevitable contact with Lauren’s teenage body.

- from 'Night Moves' by Lyn Brandon

27 published stories. One e-book and printed anthology, Red Gold

Edited by David Vernon, e-book and paperback, Stringybark Publishing,

ISBN: 978-0-6480884-3-1

A$14.95 includes postage within Australia.  Discounts for multiple purchases.  Please enquire for international orders.

Paperback

Available now

THIRD PRIZE

Leg of Frog, Eye of Newt

by

Kym Iliff-Reynolds

FIRST PRIZE

Red Gold

by

Kerry Cameron

SECOND PRIZE

The Witch

by

Tee Linden

HIGHLY COMMENDED

Recluse Bay: The View to Die For — Anne D. Arthurs

Wally's Story — John Bauer

Night Moves — Lyn Brandon

Old Twisty — Beverley Butcher

A Place in the Heart — David Campbell

Home Visits — Patricia Cation

No Sugar for Pills — Cam Dang

Fetch — C.L. Fulton

The Toy Maker — Jason Hemens

Little White Lies — Deidre Le Sueur

Turning Point — Grahame Maclean

A Mug's Game — Gordon McPherson

Unravelled — Amanda Molyneaux

The Killing — Jon Presswell

The Death of Francis Bakersfield — Eugenie Pusenjak

Golden Rings — Nikki Reid

Beneath the Heat — Deanne Seigle-Buyat

Maryanne  — Kay Spencer

The Perfect Job — Robin Storey

Malicious Murphies — Wendy Swarbrick

The Lesson in the Lens — Nicola Wardley

The Parcel for Number 66 — Mick Wiley

Turn — Jacqueline Winn

The Gravedigger — Merinda Young