Where Flash Fiction is the Haiku of prose, these pieces would be the Reader's Digest version of short stories. The first two were prestigious Topic Award Winners at the Southern California Writers Conference (SCWC). To demonstrate the magnitude of the Prestigious Factor, mere monetary rewards are dispensed with, and, instead, the winner gets a ceremonial hug from the conference founder after the assemblage has been treated to a reading of the prestigious Topic Award Winner's impressive creation. (By the way, that was another example of the blustering hype I warned you about). The rules for this contest are simple: 1) the conference hosts announce a single topic word at the beginning of the weekend, and 2) your piece based on this word -- no longer than 250 words -- must be submitted by Sunday afternoon. So, it is basically an exercise in how late you want to stay up Saturday night honing your hot little baby, forgoing all the other fun conference stuff going on.         The last piece is more or less an amalgamation of interviews from my early years.