Fictionaut April Fools' Challenge (or: cockroaches and monkeys)

"the challenge: write a story (or poem) with the words: “just kidding” in them somewhere. the deadline: April Fool’s Day."

it is done. the challenge line crossed. and the stories... are all up here: April Fool's Day Stories

• the winning story is "Cockroach" by Susan Tepper
• runner-up (or: climber-up) is my monkey story: "Going Bananas"
• closely followed by Finnegan Flawnt's "Flatulence"

to celebrate the april stories, there is a special "Fictionaut Faves: April Fools' Edition" - it also includes this short feature i wrote:

"My favorite April Fool’s Day Challenge story? – Good question. There were so many great stories with brilliant lines and surprise takes on “just kidding”. The story that kept pinching me, though, was “April 1, 2013” by Susan Gibb, this neat + cruel story of a man who wakes in hospital to the (fake) news that he has lain unconscious for 3 years.

How far would people go for a joke? That’s what I discussed with a friend some days later, and retold the April 2013 story from memory. My friend commented with a (modern) german saying: “Lieber einen Freund verlieren als einen guten Witz auslassen” – “Rather lose a friend than skip a good joke.”

parallel to the fictionaut favs, Kevin Myrick, who hosted the challenge, wrote short reviews for almost all participating texts. here's what he said about "Going Bananas":

"I wasn’t too sure what to think at first about Dorothee Lang’s “Going Bananas.” At first, I had the thought in mind it was one of those pseudo-ridiculous-but-funny stories that editors love more than they should nowadays.
But then something struck me as I read her piece. It was a little voice in the back of my head asking me “what is it about this story?” I’ll tell you what it is. It’s lifelike. It all seems insane yet real, chocked full of little details. NYPD Blue. Milkshakes. Life on the run. Maybe I liked it so much because I could see it in a Quentin Tarantino film."

to which Finnegan Flawnt added: "like the tarantino thought, great review. this was a hell of a good story, just crazy enough and well crafted."

the whole list of reviews is up here: April Day Challenge 2010 + reviews (Kevin: big thanks for getting all this together!)