All entries for the TCWG monthly Short Story Competition

January: The Speyside Regiment – theme ‘Intoxication’. Matthew is attracted to his colleague David’s wife Ella and plans to undermine their marriage by plying David with whisky, but his plan misfires.

February:  The Stone – theme ‘Ghosts and other Apparitions’. Rogelio, a Mexican avocado farm hand, instinctively knows he must not move a certain rock from forest being cleared for avocado planting.

March – Missing Hours – theme ‘Treasures’. Aidan, holidaying by the sea on the West Coast of Ireland, wakes up on the beach with a few hours missing and ancient gold in his wetsuit pocket. Can he resist the lure of the bewitched treasure ship and keep Beth safe?

April – ‘A Tale of Two Lifestyles’ – theme ‘Quality over Quantity’. Wendy, a recent widow, whose husband dreamed of retiring to Ireland, moves into the house they bought together. But can it become her home?

May – A Five Course Lunch – theme ‘Dinner Date’. Helen and Marco, both involved at a high level in drug crime, enjoy five courses, during which Marco learns who killed their colleague Haroon, and what is going to happen to him.

June – Knightsbridge, 1967 – theme ‘Art’s a Tart’. A pushy father takes his young ‘child genius’s’ painting to an expensive art dealer.

July – A darkness in the light -theme ‘A light in the darkness or a darkness in the light’. An invisible spaceship corrupts a town and by the time it becomes visible it is too late.

August – Curiosities of literature -theme- ‘No Good Deed goes Unpunished’. Christine is terminally ill but her son Nick does not want the doctor to tell her. A book in her late husband’s collection reassures her about her imminent death, but will she ever say a proper goodbye to Nick and his sister?

December – Bilberries in January. A time-shift story in which a brother and sister find themselves in Wexford, Ireland, at the time of the 1798 Rebellion against British rule.