Picasso Painted Dinosaurs and the Art of 100 Word Fiction

By Decater Collins

Picasso Painted Dinosaurs is a collection of microfiction from author Decater Collins. Spanning genres and tone, the stories are bite-sized works of exactly 100 words each. Perfect for consumption in the digital age, these mini-narratives are designed to both entertain and inspire creativity. It features original artwork from Seattle artist Mike Simon.

The collection also includes two essays, one on the Art of Microfiction, and the other on Finding Daily Inspiration. It is our hope that something in here will inspire you to start writing microfiction of your own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Decater Collins
• Release date: Aug 18, 2013

Decater Collins

Decater Collins is an author, blogger, photographer, and filmmaker. His collection of microfiction, Picasso Painted Dinosaurs, is now available for sale. His mash-up novel, Ahab's Adventures in Wonderland, is coming out this fall. His first full-length novel, Quitting The Grave, is coming out next year. These days, he spends most of his time at the beck and call of his beagle.

Book preview

Picasso Painted Dinosaurs

and

The Art of 100 Word Fiction

by Decater Orlando Collins

with artwork by Mike Simon

An Entropy² Production

Published by Decater Orlando Collins at Smashwords

© Copyright 2012 by Decater Orlando Collins. All rights reserved.

Ordering and Queries: [e-mail]

The cover art and design and interior illustrations are by Mike Simon.

Microfiction, Short Fiction.

This is a work of fiction. All characters and stories appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental. Except for the story about King Henry. That could very well be true.

If you are reading this book, and you did not purchase it, please consider going online and writing a review. Thanks.

Introduction

Welcome to Picasso Painted Dinosaurs. Over the past three years, as part of a daily exercise, I’ve created hundreds of 100-word stories. Over that time, I’ve grown as a writer, generated countless ideas for longer works, and discovered there’s an audience out there for my writing. With this e-book, I’ve collected the best of those stories in a format that I think will be a perfect way for even more readers to experience what I like to call tiny bursts of literature.

I’ve become a big proponent of microfiction, not just as a form of storytelling, but as a way of really exploring my creativity. At the end of this e-book, you’ll find two essays, one on the art of the 100-word story, and the other on finding daily inspiration. It’s my hope that something in here will help encourage you to start writing microfiction of your own.

Most of all, I’d like to thank all of you for reading. Please enjoy!

About the Author

Decater is a writer, photographer, and filmmaker based in Beijing, China. His mashup novel, Ahab’s Adventures in Wonderland, is coming out in the fall of 2013. His first full-length novel, Quitting The Grave, will be published in early 2014. You can read his daily ramblings at The Chaos Factory or follow him on Twitter. He finds that life is a constant battle versus his own entropy.

You can read more 100-word stories, and submit your own, at http://entropy2.com/blogs/100words/

About the Artist

Mike Simon is an artist, writer, and programmer living in Redmond, Washington. He currently works in Seattle and is deliberately evasive about his time spent as a Chinese woman

You can view more of Mike’s artwork at http://mikesimon.com/

Tower 42

He sat tower 42 like a vulture, watching for destruction. With none to be had, he spent most of his time reading Thoreau and Steinbeck, or the Reader's Digest from 1986 used to prop up the short leg of what served as the only table.

He thought constantly about Suzie Farkas as well, but the solitude he hoped would offer a better perspective on how to deal with her loss proved to be just as featureless and askew as the wave of pine trees in every direction.

He saw neither a fire nor the hope of one the entire summer.

The Most Beautiful Widow In Town

She lived in a shack, if you could call the ramshackle geometry of aluminum and cork a shack. It almost blocked the rain, and if the naked mattress was collapsed and a bit mildewed, at least it was dry.

She never lacked for visitors. It didn't matter that she was Indian, or had a pack of children scavenging round the place like stray dogs. The fact that she rarely spoke to anyone--and when she did, her accent was so thick as to be almost completely unintelligible--spoke highly in her favor.

She was the most beautiful widow in town.

The Greatest Balderdash Ever Conceived

The word ‘bedizen’ has a unique origin in the history of etymology.

Oscar Wilde, the word’s architect, was one evening afflicted with the company of Adm. Reginald Bacon. Few of Bacon's contemporaries denied his brilliance, but many felt he was also blinkered, arrogant, slow to acknowledge his mistakes, and a famous boor.

Most unpalatable of all, to Wilde’s thinking, was that for all his tactical brilliance, the admiral was actually quite dull. Ostensibly, Wilde conjured the word as a complement to his guest’s comportment, but in reality it