December 2019. Issue 25.

Welcome to issue 25, where we take on time travel. This was one of those issues where I really could have done with a time machine to keep everything on track but it’s here and, thanks to our authors, it’s terrific.

One of our authors, R.S. Bohn, said she thought time travel was a melancholy concept, and while not every story here shows the symptoms, there is certainly a strong vein of melancholia running through the issue, a deep sadness, a soft and bittersweet sorrow, handled with a deft and delicate touch.

There is, as a rule, some driving force that sends someone through the corridors of time, some strong emotion. In here we have revenge, we have heartache, we have love (and then sometimes, it’s just a job). There’s murder, there’s always murder, but I think this is the first time at 101 Fiction someone has murdered... well, I won’t spoil it.

There’s an exploration of mechanisms: a machine of some sort, an innate ability, a mobile phone or... a cardboard box? And of consequences, the toll it takes on a person, on the future, on the world.

And it just wouldn’t be a time travel issue without dinosaurs, would it?

Read.

Absorb.

Enjoy.

____

Keep on scrolling for the stories (and let's face it, you're here for the stories, not my waffle), or bring up the whole issue here, or if you want a copy for keepsies, for reading wherever you like, whenever you like (just remember to fully charge your device before travelling to pre-electricity eras), then there is also a .pdf version available, for free.

December 2019. Issue 25. Postscript.

You have reached the end of the issue but perhaps, like a time traveller, you did not arrive here from the beginning, in the usual order. In fact, if today is Sunday 15th December then you have arrived at creation, the beginning of all things (well, this issue), and more stories will be going live throughout the day. We encourage you to loop back round in time and come back for more as the day goes on.

If today is beyond that day, then you are in the future, you have (we hope) read the whole issue, but do not despair! There is more, so much more, tiny fiction if you dive deeper down our timeline. Twenty four more quarterly issues await you, and even further back, in the protozoic period of 101 Fiction, stories were publishing on a weekly basis.

Thank you for being here, for reading our stories.

Thank you to everyone who puts the word out, who helps make our tiny voices heard. The tweets and retweets, the blogs, the writing groups. You're all brilliant.

The biggest thanks, always, always, always, goes to our contributors. This place is built of your imagination, skill and passion. We wouldn't be what we are, without you. Thank you.

And you can be a part of it. All of you. Just keep an eye here or on our twitter for details and announcement of the next submissions theme and period.

Keep writing.

Keep reading.

Have fun.

- John Xero

December issue open for submissions.

Now closed for submissions.

From now until November 17th we are OPEN for submissions!

The theme cycle this year has been the ways we observe and record our world. We've had maps, pictures, and books so far and we always like to do something a little different for the end of the cycle, so the theme is time, or more specifically: TIME TRAVEL.

We're genuinely excited to see what hits our inbox over the next month. Killing Hitler has been done, time and time again, but we're sure the creativity and originality we see here issue after issue is going to shine through with some truly thrilling stuff.

It could be a machine that stitches points in time together, but cannot separate them again. Or a colossal clockwork time machine spinning faster and faster, out of control, dragging everyone and everything with it. A Victorian daemon hunter, pursuing his mark through an arcane portal, finding himself in its birthplace, the military gene factories of 2101 AD. Maybe a harmless disease, unthinkingly brought back to an era without immunity, becomes a plague. Or it could be a wizard of the barren plains and black seas travelling back to witness creation, and finding us, staring at screens as our world melts around us.

We're primarily a genre magazine, although our focus often drifts, so sci-fi, horror, fantasy, also surreal, literary, crime (and the great thing about time travel is it provides such rich opportunities for genre mash-ups), but ultimately, the stories we accept are the ones that won't let go, the ones that light a fire within us, the ones that demand to be re-read, time after time.

The theme of time travel must be present in the story (although the actual act does not need to take place within the story). The title cannot be time or travel or any variation of those, and the story must be exactly 100 words, with a 1 word title. Full guidelines are here.

Imagine.

Create.

Have fun!

September 2019. Issue 24.

Welcome to issue 24: A little library of tiny bookish tales. You’ll find a different take on the book theme with every turn of the page, showcasing the breadth of imagination, creativity and humanity that has become the hallmark of 101 Fiction.

From dark dystopias to the modern home. Books born of death, to life crawling off the page. Heartache and heroes, oppression and introspection, magic and booze.

There’s fire in this issue, in defiance, in defence, in books on the pyre. There’s knowledge, and truth, and all the dangers they can bring. There are aching hearts, through loss and love. There are forests, real and unreal. Some of the stories metaphorically dissect humanity, others more literally. There are monsters raised from the page, others who look just like you and I. And, as with all books, there are characters doomed to retread the same paths again and again.

Books are worlds you can live in, and the best flash fiction feels like a world encapsulated, an open door you only need to walk through to be there in that other world. Here we have nineteen living worlds, just waiting for you to step into.

Read.

Absorb.

Enjoy.

____

Keep on scrolling for the stories, or you can bring the whole issue up here. Alternatively, there is a free .pdf version available to download here (right click and save), which you can keep, forever, and dip into whenever you like, even when you're not connected, when there's no signal and no wifi (the modern horror story...).

September 2019. Issue 24. Postscript.

The end.

Or is it? The best books never really finish, their stories live on in you, the same is true of the best tiny fiction, it is a seed, the kernel at the heart of the story. In a more literal sense, this might not really be the end of issue 24 either.

If today is Saturday 14th September 2019 then this is, in fact, the beginning! Tiny stories will be going live throughout the day as issue 24 grows into a towering pine (before we chop it down to make the paper that makes the books that make this issue...). Keep popping back and we'll keep the stories coming.

If today is after that date then, actually, this is the end of issue 24. But it stands to reason there are 23 more issues before this one (and there are). And we were even publishing before that. There are literally hundreds of stories back thattaway, just keep on going, you won't be disappointed.

Thanks for reading.

And a big thank you to everyone who amplifies our tiny signal - the retweets, tweets, blogs - you folk are awesome, you make a little thing loud. And then the biggest thank you of all, always, to our contributors; the seeds here fell from your imaginations, this lush forest of words is your doing.

If you want to be a part of this, if you think you can make magic in a hundred words, then keep an eye out right here, or follow us on twitter, for details of the next submissions period and theme.

Keep reading.

Keep writing.

Have fun.

- John Xero

September issue open for submissions.

Now closed for submissions.

From now until Sunday 11th August we are open for submissions!

So far this year we've had maps and pictures themed issues (go check them out - 37 fantastic little stories, and a great intro to 101 Fiction if you're new here). This year's theme cycle is the ways we record our world(s), and so our new theme is: books.

If you're here then you're a writer or a reader and likely both which means a passion for books and everything they might contain. Whether that's a single great roll of parchment, brushstrokes visible in each pictograph, or an exquisite leather bound book with gold-edged pages, or a holographically projected e-library implant containing every work ever published.

Your hero could be the librarian, defending his library with monsters conjured from the horror section, or it could be the fictionaut, diving into imagined worlds and returning with unreal treasures. Perhaps in a post-apocalyptic world survivors find escapism by snorting the ashes in a burnt out library, or a rebuilding society models itself on a handful of surviving books, their gospels, not realising they are works of fiction. Maybe a horror book tells of an insipid creeping madness infecting the human mind as the brain absorbs certain eldritch knowledge, knowledge the book itself contains...

A book or books of some form must be central to the story but other than that, go wild. We're primarily a genre magazine - horror, sci fi, fantasy - but we try not to limit ourselves, if it makes us sit up and pay attention, if it pings the wow centre in our brain, if it makes us want to re-read for all the right reasons then it's what we're looking for.

The story must be exactly 100 words, with a one word title. The title cannot be 'book' or any variation thereof. And for our full guidelines and submissions email click here.

Imagine.

Create.

Have fun!

June 2019. Issue 23.

Welcome to issue 23, our picture-themed issue: enter the gallery, take in the exhibition. We have nineteen images conjured in words for you to observe, to absorb, to witness... from photos to paintings, analogue to digital, the real world and far, far beyond.

There’s everything you would expect from a picture-themed issue. Darkness and light; meaning and metaphor; shifting tones. The close-ups: the human stories, the deep horrors of real life, or the magic of a child’s love, and the panoramas: universe spanning, space-travelling, reality warping weirdness and grandeur.

There’s everything you would expect from an issue of 101 Fiction. Death and revenge, creation and destruction, a little weirdness, a little cold sober reality, magic, heartache and stars. Stories that really key into the modern age and resonate all the more deeply for it. Tales that delve into the shadows of the human soul and explore the infinity of colours that bind us all together.

But there’s more: a wolf that stalks below the skin; a second chance, taken alone; memories adrift on a painted sea; a love leant eternity on canvas; images that steal a little more than light; an assortment of astronauts; brides without faces...

Read.

Absorb.

Enjoy.

____

Keep scrolling down for the stories, or you can bring the whole issue up here. Alternatively, if you want a free little .pdf copy to take with you wherever you like, to read whenever you like (even without an internet connection! If you can countenance such a thing...), then right click here and save.

June 2019. Issue 23. Postscript.

Make the most of the failing light, for the sun is setting and the darkness at the end of things will soon be upon us. This marks the end of issue 23. Unless you are here on Monday 10th June, 2019, in which case your eyes deceive you and this thin light is the herald of dawn, the rising of a new sun as our June issue goes live this very day. Return to us throughout the day and explore the expanding exhibition of tiny stories... entry to the gallery is always free.

If you have read issue 23 from beginning to end then there is no reason to stop there. Logic dictates there are 22 issues before this one, and logic is right (not always so in our stories...). Keep on scrolling back for more themed issues, and then keep scrolling back because before we were a quarterly we were already publishing 100 word stories one by one. We've been doing this since 2011...!

Thank you for reading, we hope you've enjoyed what you've read and that you'll come back for more.

Thank you always to everyone our amplifies our tiny signal and spreads it far and wide, all those tweets and retweets, blogs and nods. You make a tiny thing big.

And thank you, of course and most importantly, to our contributors. It's all the shades of your varied imaginations that bring this place to life, that make it a pleasure to put every issue together.

If you want to be a part of our little big dreams then watch this space or follow us on twitter for the next announced theme and submissions period.

Keep writing.

Keep reading.

Have fun.

-John Xero.

June issue open for submissions.

Submissions now closed.

From now until Sunday 12th May we are open for submissions!

This year's cycle of themes kicked off with maps, and what an inspiring theme that turned out to be (do check out the eighteen excellent stories that made the cut). Following the picturesque path we find our next theme... We're looking for 100 word stories with a focus on pictures (be that paintings, drawings or photos).

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, but I dispute that - I've seen the pictures our authors can paint with only a hundred words.

It could be the famous fashion photographer, hanging a photo in his private gallery, smiling as the supermodel's soul pounds at the glass with tiny fists, walking away to the rising murmur of hundreds of tiny fists. The painter whose alien landscapes are so evocative that viewers swear they see the twisted trees and lurid rivers moving, who paints strange ragged toothy creatures into his latest work; creatures that emerge from the canvas after dark. Three spurned friends lighting candles, drinking wine and incinerating photos of their exes, waking the next day to hear that those same exes burned to death in the night. The portrait artist who never seems to age while his subjects waste away within months of sitting for him. The magic pencil that grants its user whatever superpower they can sketch themselves having. The huge portrait of a kingdom's founder, hung behind the throne, his benevolent smile shifting unpleasantly as his voice compels each new king who sits upon the throne, making his reign truly unending.

Pictures must be central to the story in some way, it is not enough to simply mention one in the background. The picture can be of any kind - a painting, a drawing, a photo. It could be shot on the most expensive camera and displayed on an ultra HD screen the size of a house, or it can be a child's crayon drawing on the kitchen floor. Let your imagination loose.

We primarily accept genre fiction - horror, sci-fi, fantasy, a little crime and surrealism - but if a story stands out, if it gets our attention and excites us, then we're going to jump on it.

The story must be 100 words exactly, it must have a single word title and that title cannot be 'picture' or any variation thereof (in this case that includes photo, drawing, painting etc. too). For full details check out our guidelines here.

Imagine.

Create.

Have fun!

March 2019. Issue 22.

You found your way to issue 22; welcome. I’d ask about the journey – the journey is always key – but this time we’re more interested in the map. After all, this is our map-themed issue. Come on in, explore our eighteen different and tiny takes on the theme. Let us lead you down paths unexpected.

From treasure maps to tactical maps, magical maps, world maps, heists and holidays, maps are ever-present in our lives, in our fiction and non-fiction, in films and in games. Maps are a part of our common language. They are a way of describing our world, of attempting to know the unknown. And because the idea of maps is so deeply imbedded in our collective psyche it easily makes the leap to metaphor, we understand we are being shown a representation, an interpretation, of territory, whether it be internal or external.

Our eighteen stories traverse boundaries and explore diverse genres. Some of these diversions will lead you through the heart, and the hurt that comes with it, the longing, the lust. There are dark streams flowing through and through, from supernatural horror, to human horror, to everyday horror. There are maps of humanity, maps of murder, and maps that transcend time. There are even actual maps. There are tattoos and sea captains, treasure and distant shores, as is only right.

The maps theme inspired our authors in all the ways we hoped it would, and a few we never thought it could. All the stories here will take you places you didn’t expect, they will show you the path then lead you astray... I’m afraid it’s up to you to find your way back home.

Read.

Absorb.

Enjoy.

____

Head south for the stories (scroll down), or bring up the whole issue by clicking here. Alternatively, if you want to have the issue on hand for those out of signal areas (here be monsters), there's a handy free .pdf available here.

March 2019. Issue 22. Postscript.

The end of the road, or perhaps, if today is Sunday 10th March 2019, this is only the beginning of your journey. If the 'You Are Here' on the map of your life is indeed pointing to that day then welcome, and join us! As the day passes like a rolling landscape outside our windows, stories will appear, villages to visit briefly, stops along the way that will transport you to different lives, minds, worlds. Come along with us for the ride.

If that's a journey you have already taken, however, a day beyond that date, and you have walked issue 22's paths and arrived at the end then perhaps take a rest, join us in the Pub Between Worlds. And when you are ready, set off deeper into the woods and wild lands of 101 Fiction. There are 21 issues before this one, all exploring a particular theme through a number of genres and voices. And even before issue 1, 101 Fiction regularly published stories. We've been here for 8 years and in that time we've published around five hundred stories! All available for you to wander on through and discover. And enjoy.

We hope you do enjoy them. We hope you've enjoyed this issue. Thank you for visiting, and for reading.

In fact, this is where we drop all our thank yous. Thank you to everyone who helps put us on the map, with tweets, retweets, and likes; with blog posts; by word of mouth. We wouldn't be where we are without you. The biggest thank you, always, goes to our contributors, to everyone who takes the time to put ink to paper (or fingers to keys, really), everyone who dives deep inside and discovers something interesting, exciting, outstanding and then shares it, with us and our readers. Thank you all.

And if you want to be a part of this little big thing we urge you to have a go, all are welcome. Just keep an eye out here, 101fiction.com, or our twitter, @101fiction, for details of our next theme and submissions period.

Keep writing.

Keep reading.

Have fun.

-John Xero.

March Issue Open for Submissions.

We are now closed for submissions.

From now until Sunday 10th February we are open for submissions!

And with a new year comes a new cycle of themes, and this year is something a little different. For our first step on the path we're looking for 100 word stories revolving around, or featuring: maps.

Maps describe our landscape, any landscape; they show a route through danger, uncertainty, or into adventure; sometimes they show us what we don't know and... Here be monsters.

Where will your story take us...? It could be a star map or a treasure map or a map to lost Atlantis. It could be a child's crayon scribblings, actually the topography of her inner imaginings, a father's only hope of finding her where she is lost. Perhaps the map is described in an ancient song, passed from generation to generation. Maybe it is inscribed on a dragon's scale - a ferocious still-living ice dragon. Perhaps it shows the only safe passage through treacherous reefs to reach the Isle of Eternity, and the legendary Aeon Tree. Or maybe the Horotrix have lost their one true map of all time and space, that looks uncannily like a model of a human brain with flickering neurons, the pathways between stars dancing across the cosmos like dreams and secret thoughts. Or maybe we're following the Witch Guard, as they attempt to map the tidal landscape of the Ley Lands.

The story must include a map in some way, though the map can take any form or could even be one that hasn't yet been made. Other than that, it is your journey to take us on. We mostly publish horror, science fiction, and fantasy. We publish a little surreal and crime fiction. But anything that stops us in our tracks and makes us want to re-tread our steps and re-read your story is what we're after.

In brief... The story must be exactly 100 words, with a one word title, and the title cannot be 'map' or any variation thereof. Our full submissions guidelines are here.

Show us the way...

Imagine.

Create.

Have fun!

December 2018. Issue 21.

Curl up someplace warm, try to keep the cold from your bones; check the locks, check behind the sofa (just to be sure). That chill’s not just winter at the door, it’s the sixteen tiny ghost stories right here, waiting to haunt you. Welcome them in... Welcome to issue 21.

Ghost stories strike a chord, there’s something about ghastly visions and voices from beyond that thrill us as much as they chill us. We love that shiver, in the safety of our own cosy homes. Ghost stories can run a whole rainbow of emotions though. We’ve got revenge and retribution, naturally, the dead who won’t, who can’t, let go. Then there are those aching for what they’ve lost: heartache, reflections and memory, echoes of lives and loves gone before. There’s fear and freedom, guilt and obsession.

There’s murder, of course there’s murder; nothing like an unnatural death to spawn an unquiet spirit. There’s a deep yearning, from both sides; from the dead for the simple things of life, or for life itself; from the living for what has been taken from them. There are soldiers and sailors. There’s a duke, a highwayman, tech support and... a pigeon.

What our authors have all achieved, whether their story be spooky or scary or heart-wrenching, is something that will haunt you, something that will linger even after the words are no longer before you. The stories, in their own ways, echo, they create their own ghosts, wandering through the walls of your mind.

Read.

Absorb.

Enjoy.

____

Keep on scrolling for the stories, or bring up the whole issue here.

Alternatively, if you want issue 21 to forever haunt your digital devices, to read later when you have no signal (horror of horrors), when you're hiding behind the sofa or under the covers, there's a .pdf available for free right here (right click and save).

December 2018. Issue 21. Postscript.

The after that comes before, the ghost of the future, this postscript marks the end of issue 21. Unless today is Saturday 8th December, 2018, in which case rejoice! For today is the day the ghosts rise, today is the day this issue comes to (un)life, so keep coming back through the day and there will be more and more tiny ghost stories to send shivers down your spine, to bring a little of the winter chill into your cosy home.

But if that date is behind you (try not to look over your shoulder, who knows what might be lurking there), then the issue is truly done, but have no fear! Stick right here, keep reading, there are twenty issues to read before this one (twenty!). Ghosts are the last of this year's cycle of mythical creatures, following unicorns, fairies and werethings. And even before we became a quarterly 'zine we were regularly publishing tiny stories. 101 Fiction has been publishing one hundred word stories for nearly 8 years as I write this, so there are plenty back there, just waiting for you to discover them.

Hopefully you've enjoyed your visit (and the ghosts haven't scared you away from coming back next issue). Thank you for reading.

And always, always, always, thank you to everyone that helps make our tiny 'zine a little bigger. Thank you to everyone who pushes us out there, in tweets and retweets and blogs. And thank you doubly, of course, to our contributors, who breathe life and imagination and craft into their words and worlds; it's a pleasure and a privilege to work with you.

If you want to be a part of this, if you want a run at a 100 word story (it's fun!), then keep an eye out here on 101fiction.com or our twitter, @101fiction, for the next theme and submission period announcement.

Keep writing.

Keep reading.

Have fun.

-John Xero

December Issue Open for Submissions.

Now closed for submissions.

From now until Sunday 11th November we are open for submissions!

This year we've been on a mythical cycle, with unicorn, fairy and werething themes so far. We're at the darker end of the year now and the chill is stalking close behind us, a shiver up the spine, an icy breath on our necks... and to round out the cycle our new theme is: Ghosts.

It could be the flickering spirits caught in an eternal dance at the heart of a new power station. The pale figure passing through the walls of a deep space listening post, a man inexplicably dressed in the uniform of a World War I U-boat captain. The spectres that haunt a lifeless planet of glittering ice, assumed to be a trick of the light until a young boy discovers the vast catacombs beneath. The Victorian detective, forever haunted by the one man whose murder he failed to solve. The old king, his tattered soul caught forever on the witch assassin's blade. Or the guardian spirit of the elephant graveyard, poachers' bullets passing through her ethereal body while her tusks tear into reality and flesh alike.

A traditional ghost story is absolutely fine, if it gives us those deep deep chills, or darker horror, but we publish a spectrum of genres and we'd love to see something with a sci-fi, fantasy or even crime edge too (which isn't to say it couldn't fall into several of those categories).

This will be our December issue so feel free to add some sort of winter or even Christmas flavour, but that is in no way essential. The key thing is to wow us with the writing, to surprise, scare or entertain us with the story.

The usual broad rules apply - the story must be exactly one hundred words long, the title exactly one word. The title cannot be Ghost or any variation thereof. Full guidelines and submissions details are here.

Imagine.

Create.

Have fun!

September 2018. Issue 20.

Welcome to the werewolf issue. More accurately, werewolves and other werethings, so it seems appropriate that half the stories are werewolf and the other half are, well, other. With nineteen tiny stories it’s our biggest issue yet. Welcome to issue 20.

Something about the were-theme struck a chord and we had more submissions than we’ve ever had before, bringing a breadth of voices and creativity to the issue. Sure we’ve got your werewolf stories, with some great twists in the tail, but what about that other? The werecats and the werebear. The weremoth. The werexxxxxx (I can’t spoil that one!). The creatures too terrible to name. And one that isn’t even a living thing... or is it?

There’s violence in here, naturally; fear and frenzy, blood and gore, corpses and dismemberment. And who’s to say if that violence comes from the wolf or the human. But there is life too, a first kiss, first dates, a proposal, werewolf wives, werepups.

The moon waxes large throughout the issue, only appropriate as the year stalks onwards and darkness claims a greater tithe from each successive day. Shapeshifting in fiction is used as a way to explore different aspects of human nature, often darker ones, and we think all of the stories here, in one way or another, do the exactly that.

Read.

Absorb.

Enjoy.

____

Keep scrolling on for the tiny werestories, or bring up the whole issue here.

Or, if your hands are paws or flippers or wings right now, then you can download issue 20 as a .pdf and save it for later, when you have fingers more suited for scrolling. Right click and save right here.

September 2018. Issue 20. Postscript.

The moon has set; that warm glow on the horizon is night's end; time for all good monsters to go to bed. You have reached the end of issue 20, our dances with werewolves (and other werethings) have drawn to a close. Unless...! Unless today is Sunday 2nd September 2018, in which case you're in for a treat, because issue 20 is going live all through the day. Keep heading back this way for more and more tiny stories, nineteen in total, our biggest issue yet.

But if today is the future and you have read issue 20, if you have devoured our werecreatures and still hunger for more, then stick with 101 Fiction and we'll do our best to sate the insatiable beast. Before this we had our all flavours of fairy issue, and 2018 kicked off with unicorns. Read on through the seventeen previous issues, and even that only takes you back to the moment moonlight struck and 101 Fiction shifted into its current form. Before issue 1 you will find even more tasty morsels to get your teeth into.

We hope you've enjoyed your visit, we hope you'll visit again. Thank you for reading.

And thank you to everyone who helps promote us, everyone who tweets and retweets and gives us a shout out - everyone who shines a little moonlight our way and helps us grow that little bit bigger. But the biggest thank you, as ever, is reserved for our contributors, for everyone who takes the time to write something for us, it's always a pleasure putting an issue together, and it could never happen without you and your imaginations.

If you want to be a part of this tiny special place with big dreams then keep an eye out for our next submissions period. It's announced here on 101fiction.com and we always shout about it over on twitter.

Keep writing.

Keep reading.

Have fun.

-John Xero

September Issue Open for Submissions.

Now closed for submissions.

From now until Sunday 12th August we are open for submissions.

We're past the solstice and as the sun begins to wain the shadows lengthen, a little more darkness creeps in every day. It may be summer now but autumn approacheth and autumn is a season for change. In keeping with this and the mythical beings cycle we're on this year (unicorns and faeries so far), the theme for our September issue is: Werewolves and other were-things.

Perhaps moonlight slants in through a morgue window and the body on the slab, the silver bullets removed in autopsy, twitches, convulses, shifts to something between wolf and man, and growls. It could be a scientist studying lycanthropy, ridiculed by his peers, out of funding, infecting himself in desperation. Or maybe the victims of the Whitechapel murders have organs expertly removed, but with wounds that show more similarities to claw than scalpel. Perhaps the injections for a new beauty treatment must be kept away from moonlight. Or an experimental warp drive punches an ark through space, but when they arrive the human passengers cannot find the animals they brought with them, until the the second sun rises and something twists inside them. A witch might take in a black cat on a moonlit night, only to find when the moon sets a young prince asleep on her kitchen floor.

Maybe the moon brings on the shift, or stress, anger, arousal, or some more unusual trigger. Maybe the transformation is completely to animal shape, or into some anthropomorphic horror in between. Think of change, think of the darker side of human nature represented in animal form.

While we wouldn't normally hold you back in any way, for this theme the one creative restriction we insist upon is that one half of the were-thing is human. Other than that, go wild...

There are, of course, the usual editorial restrictions. The story must be exactly one hundred words and the title only one word. The title cannot be Werewolf or Were[insert animal here] or any variation thereof. Full guidelines and submissions details are here.

We're primarily looking for science fiction, fantasy, horror or surreal but great writing always wins out, regardless of genre. Surprise us, delight us, entertain us.

Imagine. Create. Have fun!

June 2018. Issue 19.

Welcome to issue 19, an issue of fey things and faeries, fairies and fair folk. The first issue of this cycle was unicorns, and this time we’ve delved further into folklore and legend, into those tricksy and mischievous fey, in all their forms, from the tiny to the tall. We’ve tried to capture the intangible, define the indefinable, and unveil things only ever seen at the periphery of vision

We have fairies in jars, in chains, in pieces. Fey on the run, on a plate, hiding behind the tea cups. And then there are those leading humans astray, whisking them away, toying with them; the mischief, the threats and the straight up violence. To some the wee ones are pests, a nuisance, a curiosity, barely more than another insect for the collector’s net.

Think you can trust your eyes? Check again, in the slippery shadows, between the stalks and stems of the garden, amongst the music and lights of the fairground...

People have always looked for ways to explain the unexplainable, or at least that which they do not yet understand. Hence gods, to explain the weather, the harvest, the grand movements of the earth and sky. And fairies (and their ilk), to explain the little things: the keys that aren’t where we left them; the shift in a child’s mood; milk gone sour. Nowadays science explains these things, or perhaps that’s just a modern way to explain away the gods and fair folk that we still don’t understand.

We think you should make your own mind up, but you should always be open for at least a little wonder in the world.

Read.

Absorb.

Enjoy.



____

Keep scrolling down for the tiny fairy tales, or click here to bring up issue 19 in its entirety.

Or maybe you want a copy to keep for later, for the bus or the bath or with breakfast, and you can have one, a teeny tiny free .pdf, downloadable (right click and save) right here.

June 2018. Issue 19. Postscript.

The end. It's never really the end though, is it? Especially if you're here on Sunday 3rd June, 2018. If that day is today, then today is the very day this issue is happening, with tiny stories and big mischief flying in on shimmering wings through the hours. Keep checking back for more stories.

It's not even the end if this is a later date and you've read everything issue 19 has to offer. The beauty of an issue 19 is that there are 18 issues before it. 4 full theme cycles, a Halloween special and the first issue of this cycle - March's unicorn issue. And we're not even done there! Before we went quarterly we published stories every week, often two or more, for over two years. Just keep scrolling back, they're all there. Can you hear them, like distant music, tempting you in? But like a fairy mound, you might wander in for an hour, and wander out again to find years passed in the real world.

The end is also where we say thank you. Thank you for visiting, and reading. Thank you to everyone who blogs, tweets and retweets; everyone who passes on the word; everyone who gives our tiny stories tiny wings of their own. As always, the biggest thank you of all goes to the contributors, our authors make this place happen and we are forever grateful to them.

If you want to join in, to be a part of our world of tiny wonders, then keep an eye on 101 Fiction or on our twitter for our next theme and submissions period. We'll try to shout about it when it happens too.

Until then...

Keep writing.

Keep reading.

Have fun.

-John Xero.