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I have a dilemma. When I went to judge the Drabble contest this morning, I found that there were two stories that I liked best, the ones by Estela and BN Lippy. That happens all the time in contest entries, but in this case I found that I didn't find myself leaning more to one than the other. In fact, I like them both equally, a rare occurrence. Normally, I would then just award 2 prizes and say, "Yeah!" But this weekend I truly only have time for one critique and to try to do 2 would either result in 2 lesser critiques or 1 just not getting done. So, I find I have to award only one winner.

And that's where you come in. I'm going to open the contest up to voting. I'm going to post both stories here, and then you, dear readers, will vote for the winner. Now, I've limited voting to once a computer (although if you have multiple computers I suppose you can pack the pot), and voting is only open through 11:45 Tuesday night.

Presenting my two contestants (in order of their posts):

HALF BAKED

I opened the carton and groaned. "One egg is not enough."

I prayed to Recipe, the Egyptian goddess of the kitchen. Just then, the doorbell rang. My neighbors. "We're leaving town. Could you use some eggs?"

"Absolutely!"

Then I couldn't find chocolate chips. I prayed to Recipe again.

"Cool." yelled my brother a moment later. "A chocolate bar under the sofa cushions!"

"I need that."

I mixed, put everything in the oven, and turned on the TV.

"What's that burning smell?"

Suddenly, Recipe appeared. "You are hopeless, even for a mortal. Here's some money. Go buy yourself an ice cream."

THE BOOK OF YET TO COME

Ryan is drawn to a worn leather book with no publisher or author listed.

Under the title on the first page he reads the following, “Ryan opens the book and sees no publisher or author. Curious, he watches as each word appears.”

“Ryan, this book is not for you,” says the librarian quietly. “It’s mischievous and from a different time.”

Ryan looks up with glazed eyes.

She takes the book.

“Here’s a book about Omm Ali Cocoa you’ll enjoy.”

The spell is broken when the book leaves his hands

He won’t remember the mysterious book; until it finds him again.

© Copyright 2006-2010 Madeline Smoot. All rights reserved. May be excerpted and duplicated for educational purposes.

One of my favorite types of short story is the the microfiction or flash fiction style of short story. Although varying in length, these tales are told in extremely limited word counts -- often under 500 words. And unlike a picture book manuscript of a similar length, these stories are published unillustrated forcing the author to rely solely on words. Some good examples of children's microfiction include Aesop's Fables and some of the shorter fairy tales.

As with all short stories, these have at least one major character and a full plot with beginning , middle, and end. There is a conflict and some sort of obstacle for the protagonist to overcome. The story can be action-packed or quietly introspective, but one thing all of them have in common is their length. A micro-fiction is short.

And that brings me to this week's #storystarts Twitter contest. It is to think up a short story title. The winner of the Twitter contest will get an ARC copy of The Beastly Bride, a short story collection edited by Datlow & Windling. They do some really great teen anthologies that are themed around various folk, fairy tale, or mythological theme.

However, when you choose your title think carefully. On Friday I will be doing a blog contest that will be incorporating my #storystarts contests. I'm not going to tell you exactly what the contest is until Friday, but I will let you know that the prize will be a three chapter (or 3 PB manuscript) critique.

© Copyright 2006-2010 Madeline Smoot. All rights reserved. May be excerpted and duplicated for educational purposes.

Short Story Library (US) is accepting submissions of all forms of short writing: micro fiction (500 words), flash fiction (1000 words), short stories (5000 words) and poetry. More details...