Fiction 101

Writing great short fiction involves more than putting words to paper, drinking herbal teas and hand-painting Fabergé eggs. It takes spirit and a sense of dedication, creativity, lucidity. In Fiction 101: The Anthology by San Diego Citybeat, you’ll see more deranged minds than lucid ones, but that’s okay. Crazy is the spice of life, it makes our days more tasty. Here’s how this worked. Every year for almost the last decade, Citybeat asked writers to craft humorous, sad, tragic, scary, heart-warming, silly and abstract stories in just 101 words. It had to be fiction. Poems, diatribes, how-to manuals and ransom notes were all disqualified. Then a top notch, grade-AAA, blue ribbon (“good for nothin’” in the words of Citybeat editor Dave Rolland) panel of judges hand-selected winners to appear in that year’s fiction issue. Fiction 101: The Anthology, is the best of those stories for the last eight years, covering everything from animals to sex, and sometimes animals and sex? We’re not sure, we were too afraid to read it all so you’ll have to let us know.