Lovebirds and extraterrestrials

Today The Acorn reveals the winners of this year's "Fiction in a Nutshell" contest. With 115 entries in both the 18-and-over and under-18 categories, the contest easily surpassed last year's haul of 70 stories. The authors were anxious to prove their chops, and judging by the quality of work that was submitted, they succeeded.

Those who entered evidently took a hint from the contest's announcement advisory: "Make it sci-fi, drama, adventure, romance . . .," as most of the stories fell into distinct categories: extraterrestrials, death, loss, old age and transcendent love. Other popular themes were murder, food and animals, lots of animals. ("Lana swam out to the gray whale calf, climbed on his back and had the thrill of her life!")

More than once the judges were caught off guard by unexpected endings and double crosses. ("Idiot," whispered the woman. "Did you think you were the only one who wanted that money?") And the metaphors rang and the imagery sparkled. ("Her eyes shone bright like crystals in a haze of black.")

As the selection process continued, several votes were taken and some finalists—the murdering husband, the Mona Lisa lover and the spider and the fly—were eliminated.

In the end, the winner in the juvenile category was a 16-year-old Oak Park student, Michael Park, whose story about two lovebirds "half convinced they didn't know a world existed apart from them" kept the judges guessing 'til the end. Runner-up Elijah Katz, 14, told a poignant tale about a son who says goodbye to his dying father by telling him that his favorite team, the Yankees, had won a game that they really lost.

Michael Skene, a 57-year-old attorney from Agoura, turned his love of the Civil War into the winning entry in the adult category titled "Knock on Wood," an Edgar Allen Poe-Mark Twain hybrid about a Union soldier who meets a ghastly end. Nicole Ross, 23, spun a second-place tale about a craggy couple who fall hopelessly out of love.

Thanks to all of you who sent us your 100-word stories. It's not easy to tell a tall tale in a paragraph or two, but that was the fun of it.

Click here http://www.theacorn.com/Current/Columns/ for the winning stories and author bios.