The crime fiction fairy tale contest results are here. First things first: This was very difficult. I didn’t really know what to expect from my first attempt at running a short fiction contest. I had no idea how many entries I would receive, nor the quality of that work. The answers are: more than I expected and very, very high. When I hit upon this premise, literally while reading a fairy tale book to my 3 year old, I wondered if anyone else would think it was a good idea, let alone be inspired to come up with something based on it.

I needn’t have worried. Sixteen great writers answered the call, writing some inventive, clever, funny and twisted takes on fairy tales and nursery rhymes. Alas, as good as every single story was, there can only be one winner, and that writer is:

Nigel Bird, for his dark take on “Sing a Song of Sixpence.” Nigel’s storytelling is always top-notch, and that was on display here. He blends  a great eye for detail with an economy that makes every sentence count.

In second place is “The Flying Trunk” by Jack Bates. Based on an Aesop fable of the same name, Jack’s story was one of the longest submitted, but he kept my interest throughout with steadily building action, some real drama and a great  last line.

Third place goes to Loren Eaton‘s “King Flounder: A Monologue.” There was a lot to like here. A monlogue of this length is tough to pull off, but Loren does so admirably with a lot of detail that never feels one dimensional. And his take on, from what I can tell, is a fairly obscure Grimm tale, really takes off creatively from the initial premise.

Nigel wins two short story collections from the wonderful Tyrus Books, while Jack will receive on Tyrus collection. Loren wins an ebook forthcoming from the generosity of Spinetingler‘s Brian Lindenmuth.

I wish, of course, that I could give an award to everyone, as the stories were that uniformly solid. The good news is that every one of those 16 stories is out there for your reading pleasure. And perhaps wiser people than me will be able to figure out how to do something with all of this great work in the same way the folks behind the “Discount Noir” collection did.

Thanks again to everyone who submitted, read the stories and commented. It was a blast. I’ll definitely be doing this again.

And, as promised, here’s my story, the idea that kicked off this entire endeavor, “The Master Cat.”

The crime fiction fairy tale contest is closed to entries, and I now have 16 great stories to read to determine the winners. There was a flurry of entries as the final hours ticked away, so now, after having kept up pretty well, I have quite a bit of reading to do.

I’ll plan to announce the winners on Friday, Jan. 21. I’ll post my own story at that time as well.

While you wait for the results, do yourself a favor and go check out these stories. There is some top-notch fiction to be found, and some very inventive twists on the premise of basing a crime fiction story on a fairy tale.

“The Flying Trunk” by Jack Bates
“Coal Black” by Eric Beetner
“Sing a Song of Sixpence” by Nigel Bird
“Henry, Gina and the Gingerbread House“by Kaye George
“Mary” by Eric Gumeny
“Han and Greta” by Blu Gilliand
“The Flying Trunk” by Jack Bates
“Divided We Stand” by Sean Patrick Reardon
“Taking Back” by Sandra Seamans
“Candy House” by R.L. Kelstrom
“Joseph and Justine” by Patti Abbott
“King Flounder: A Monlogue” by Loren Eaton
“Life is a Fairy Tale” by BV Larson
“You Dirty Rats” by Absolutely*Kate and Harry B, Sanderford
“How I Came Into My Inheritance” by Seana Graham
“Skyler Hobbs and the Magic Solution“  by Evan Lewis
“Interview with the Pram Driver” by B. Nagel

There is one week to go on my fairy tale crime fiction challenge, and the response thus far has been fantastic. Already, six writers have submitted top-notch stories, and I have heard from more than a dozen more that plan to submit something.

To refresh the memory, here’s the original pitch:

Write a crime fiction story of between 1,000 and 3,000 words (with some flexibility on either end) that is based on the premise of an actual children’s fairy tale. For example, a story about a predatory thief based on “Little Red Riding Hood.” Post it to your blog or web site, or find someone who will do that for you. Put the link in the comments here.  Do so by midnight on Jan. 14, Cinderella, or your coach to (the relative) fame and fortune (of modest web-based attention) will turn back into a pumpkin.

You don’t need to reveal which fairy tale you used as source material. While some will probably be obvious, others may not. Guessing can be part of the fun.

I since have fielded questions about the length requirements and how stringently the “fairy tale” rule will be applied. The word-count guidelines are just that — guidelines.  If you’re story needs 500 words or 3,500, that’s fine. Don’t send a novella, but anything else will be considered. As for the source material, those who want to try nursery rhymes instead of more traditional fairy tales have certainly piqued my interest, so give it a shot.

I’ll select three winners: First place will receive two short fiction anthologies from the wonderful folks at Tyrus Books, while second place will receive one Tyrus collection. Third place will receive an eBook from the generosity of Brian Lindenmuth with the great Spinetingler site.

UPDATE: Want to see what your peers have cooked up? Here are the six entries thus far:

Perhaps it is a symptom of reading a lot from a book of fairy tales to my two-year-old of late, but I have been thinking of ways to update Aesop, the Brothers Grimm, et al as modern day crime fiction stories. It’s not a stretch: these stories are filled with sinister people committing fiendish acts against innocents.

Seeing how similar challenges across the web have yielded some top-notch fiction, I thought I would issue a challenge of my own:

Write a crime fiction story of between 1,000 and 3,000 words (with some flexibility on either end) that is based on the premise of an actual children’s fairy tale. For example, a story about a predatory thief based on “Little Red Riding Hood.” Post it to your blog or web site, or find someone who will do that for you. Put the link in the comments here.  Do so by midnight on Jan. 14, Cinderella, or your coach to (the relative) fame and fortune (of modest web-based attention) will turn back into a pumpkin.

You don’t need to reveal which fairy tale you used as source material. While some will probably be obvious, others may not. Guessing can be part of the fun.

UPDATE: I will judge the stories, selecting first, second and third place stories. In addition, I’ll have a special “most inventive recasting of a fairy tale” award to present. Prizes come for the great and very generous folks at Tyrus Books. The winner will select two of their top-notch short story collections, and the second and third place finishers will each receive one. The special award will receive the mystery PDF book promised by Spinetingler’s Brian Lindenmuth in the comments below.

So, for those without young kids, refresh your memory of some favorite fairy tales, recast the entire thing as a crime fiction story, and get writing!

The folks at Algonquin Books generously provided me with three copies of Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records to give away to TIRBD readers. To enter, leave a comment on this post sharing your favorite Merge release and why you like it. Do so by midnight, Friday, Sept. 25 to be eligible. Three commenters selected at random will receive a copy of the book.

I finished my copy of Our Noise: The Story of Merge Records (Algonquin, $18.95, 294 p.) weeks ago, but haven’t found a way to jump into a review. It’s a massive book full of interesting information, surprises, fond reminiscences and a true indie rock vibe, and I kept waiting for divine inspiration. Barring that, I realized I just needed to dive in. That’s fitting, I suppose. Mac McCaughan and Laura Ballance did just that 20 years ago when they started the label to put out 7″ singles from their own and other bands.

The book, written by Gawker writer John Cook with McCaughan and Ballance, seemed at first blush like the kind of thing I would skim. I left Superchunk behind many albums ago, and never picked up the likes of Pipe, Breadwinner, Butterglory and the like. I was interested in how the label formed, how it grew and how it worked its way into what is without question the best indie label in the country. But did I need to know everything?

Turns out, I did. Casual flipping through the first chapter led to more intense reading of the next which led to my picking it up at every spare moment, sad when I finished. Credit goes to Cook, of course, for assembling a coherent narrative from the disparate bits of oral history gathered from nearly every major player in the label’s history (only Neutral Milk Hotel’s Jeff Magnum, unsurprisingly, declines to participate), but the real credit goes to the label and everyone behind it for creating such a compelling story over the past two decades.

The book can be read any number of ways. I found it to be several books in one: A Superchunk bio, a label history, a treatise on the state of indie rock and indie distribution as the 1990s gave way to the 2000s, and a collection of short profiles of Neutral Milk Hotel, Arcade Fire, Magnetic Fields, Spoon and Lambchop. Perhaps the best testament to Cook’s skill is that I read chapters about acts I’d never heard a note of (Butterglory/Matt Suggs) or admire much more than I like (Lambchop, Magnetic Fields).

The book, the label’s 20th anniversary and all of the attendant hoopla surrounding both make it a great time to be an indie music fan. Mac and Laura have done several interviews, and you can see them perform at some in store appearances, including here and here. Converse.com has some videos from the label’s XX Merge 20th anniversary concert series. Lastly, Merge has a second book forthcoming, the Merge Companion, a limited-edition, 350-page book that features every album, CD, single and DVD cover released by the label over the past two decades.

The takeaway here is that the label survived because it put out music that it liked. Sometimes (often) that meant small sales or losses, but occasionally its tastes and that of the masses aligned and it ended up with something like Arcade Fire’s Neon Bible, which debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard charts.

“Whatever the future holds for the music business, Mac and Laura aren’t too occupied with trying to figure it out,” Cook writes. “Merge didn’t get where it is by planning for the future, or concocting growth strategies, or trying to get out ahead of its competitors. It simply tried to find music that Mac and Laura loved, and sell it to people who also loved it.”