Color Me Cristin -- The long column about Short Stories :o)
By: Cristin
CKandLL4ever@Juno.com

Hey hey we're the FoLCies. People say we monkey around, but we're too busy ficking (with an "i"!) to get anybody down. We're just trying to be friendly. Come and watch us read and chat. Yeah, we're the FoLCies and Dean Cain is all that! Yeah. :o) Hey guys and gals. Have you been reading your Kerth nominees? Well, you should be. If you aren't, be warned that this column will include **SPOILERS**. There, you can't say I didn't warn you. Well, you can, but you'd be lying and your pants might spontaneously combust or something. Anyway...

The Short Story/Vignette category for the Kerths is what I'd call, um what would I call it? Well, all the stories are by what I would call famous FoLCs. Well, they're all FoLCs known for great fic. I mean, hello, we have Pam Jernigan (all hail the queen of Pamdom!), Chris Mulder (She of "Meet Me" fame), Erin Klingler (that's Klingler with *2* "L"s... get it right ), and Misha (Notice the lack of a last name, so Madonna-ish or is it Cher-esque? ). Now you see what I mean??? If you haven't heard of those ladies, you must not read much fic. Ironically, they're also all nice chicks who occasionally hang out on IRC. Coolness abounds, eh?

Okay, we start out the category with "The Last Goodbye" by Pam Jernigan. This is probably the best deathfic I've ever read. Also, Pam is like an awesome author. So that's cool too. This story is basically a letter to Clark to be delivered after Lois dies. It made me cry!!! Any story that can touch a reader enough to make them cry deserves a Kerth nomination. That's all I have to say about that!

Next we have "It's Genetic" by Misha. In this story, Lois and Clark have kids. Clark is entertaining the kids while Lois tries to decide what to wear. Their daughter chooses Lois a dress and proves that it really is "Like mother, like daughter". This story is cute, but not my favorite for this category.

The third story in this, my favorite category, is "Where oh where do Supes clothes go?" by Erin Klingler. Erin is our Kerth coordinator. So, ya gotta give her points for that. This story won a FoLC Fave award (yay!) and is really cute. It is kinda like a revelation/episode extension/inbetweenie sort of story. In it, Lois finds Clark's clothes in a bush when he flies off to be Supes. Is Clark really Superman or is he just naked somewhere on the streets of Metropolis? Read this cute story and find out!

The last story in this category is actually two stories. "Lois Says (1)" and "Lois Says (2)" are awesome stories written by the one and only Chris Mulder. These stories are written first person, from Lois' point of view. Some people hate first person stories, but I am really partial to them if well done like these. So read them already!

Okay, those are all the nominees. Some of you may be confused. There *was* another nominee in this category, "A Night For Healing" by Ultracape. While this is a really great story, the author has withdrawn it from the Kerths for reasons unknown to me. So read it if you want (I did; it's really well written and waffy), but *DON'T* vote for it. It is not a nominee any longer, and we don't wanna give Erin a headache.

When it comes to picking a winner for this category... well, it's hard! I was totally torn even before Erin told me "A Night for Healing" was withdrawn, and I still am. See, I adore "The Last Goodbye" (I toldya it makes me cry! ). "Where oh where Do Supes Clothes Go?" cracks me up. "Lois Says (1) and (2)" are great waffy stories that I hadn't read before. (By the way, "It's Genetic" is good too, but it doesn't quite compare to these other stories for me.)

I would leave the picking up to you (not that anyone listens to what I say anyway ), but I said *I* would tell you, my readers, which story I thought most Kerthworthy for each category. I don't know what I am going to vote for, but I am kind of leaning towards the "Lois Says" stories by Chris Mulder. Why? Because we like you! Just kidding. Actually, I really respect anyone who can write in first person especially as well as Chris did. So that might just be the deciding factor for me. In any case, I should read some more stories so I will be ready to decide my pick for the next category. Until next time, "Cooking With The Kents" rocks.

Oh, on a totally unrelated note, y'all should participate in this new contest that Molly and I worked up. It is SO gonna rock. :o) Okay, that's really it for this time. Until next time, "Behold the power of cheese!"