on the cover / By North Coast Journal Readers

Flash Fiction Winners

(March 5, 2009)  Grim. Grim, grim, grim. That about sums up the overall tenor of the entries in the North Coast Journal‘s first-ever flash fiction contest. We asked you, our readers, to send us your stories, encapsulated in 99 words or fewer. And you — you murderous, unhappy lot — took that as an imperative to make us tremble, cry and sink into a vague depression. Or, worse, rejoice in revenge.

Sure, there were the odd brainteasers, philosophical puzzlers and scenic mood pieces. And, inevitably, there were one or two sappy, go-nowhere tales of happiness (who needs happiness?!), at least two serious cases of purple prose and a smattering of triumphant I-did-somethings that did not involve offing one’s best friend or lover.

GALLERY >

But in more than half of the stories, people dropped like flies, suffered nasty breakups, begged for food and money or endured crumbling minds. Or, worse, had their balls knocked off. Among the 125 entries, we counted 43 deaths (24 accidental deaths, 15 murders, four suicides), two near-deaths, one world annihilation, three cars submerged in water (resulting in five of the deaths), seven breakups, four cases of Alzheimer’s, nine scenarios with beggars and two with zombies, plus numerous instances of emotional or spiritual loss. On the cheerful side: two sets of happy lovers and a bunch of animals (bears were popular). Plus there was one lord, one emperor, one witch, one “benevolent ham and cheese” and one naked lady. Alas, however, there was only one gentleman.

To judge these nuggets, we chose the proprietors and staff of three independent, locally owned bookstores: Northtown Books in Arcata and Booklegger and Eureka Books in Eureka. Who better to judge fiction than the people who sell it all day long? We gave each bookstore a blind copy of all the entries — no names attached — and they judged each story on a 1-10 point system. We combined the three scores and ranked the stories.

Our judges didn’t complain about all the mayhem. They did, however, get a little testy here and there. Booklegger’s Jennifer McFadden, just six stories into the task, scribbled on the page, “Do I have to keep reading after being subjected to this?” Jay Herzog, one of our Northtown Books judges, wrote beside an especially frisky, misty, adjective-laden tale, “Go toward the white light!”And Eureka Books’ Scott Brown, who generally only noted good things when he saw them and otherwise kept his counsel, couldn’t help writing “Grammatical nightmare” next to a revenge piece featuring stuff you flush.

Actually, many of the judges had nice things to say — but why spoil the mood by repeating them? And we, at least, are thankful to the hardy folks at those three bookstores for the time and thought they devoted to the contest. Even more, we thank the people who contributed their stories. You’re wonderful.

We now present you with our judges’ top 25 stories plus two more stories which, though they did not rate high in the bookstore judges’ hearts, made some of us here at the Journal smile. The overall winner gets a $50 gift certificate to dine at either Abruzzi, Plaza Grill or Moonstone Grill — ayiii, do we smell murder mystery dinner theater? Plus, each bookstore singled out one story for a special prize, which comes with a title and a $25 gift certificate for that bookstore. Runners-up, you get the satisfaction of seeing your stories in print. Losers? We shudder to think …

— Heidi Walters

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