While she enjoys a fulfilling career as the English Department head and College-Career Counselor, Nevada County native Kim Culbertson can also tout that she’s penned a collection of successful, widely-released books and novels throughout her decades-long career. Culbertson, a Nevada Union graduate, hit her first stride on the national level with the release of her Young Adult novels “Songs for a Teenage Nomad,” “Instructions for a Broken Heart,” and “Catch A Falling Star” which quickly gained popularity amongst teens and other YA readers. The author said she will always have a soft spot for the YA genre, but her success has awarded her the opportunity to expand her horizons.
With that, Culbertson has two new books—one that has already been released and another novel waiting in the wings. Available now, “100-Word Stories: A Short Form for Expansive Writing” is her most recent publication, a guide of sorts for those looking to refine their writing skills while diving into a different type of creativity. The book was co-authored by Grant Faulkner, a friend, supporter, and collaborator of Culbertson’s.
The premise is simple: write a complete story in 100 words.” “So 100-Word Stories are my newest passion,” Culbertson said. “They are addictive.
They are telling a full story in 100 words. I started teaching these because my students weren’t reading. I’d assign a novel and it became super clear that maybe five of them were doing the reading.
And so I just started throwing these up on the board like, okay, here is a short story by Grant Faulkner. Who’s the character? What’s the setting? What’s the conflict? What do we know? And suddenly hands were going up; they all wanted to talk about it. It’s accessible to them, so I started assigning them both to read and to write, as a way of understanding the intrinsic architecture of a story.
So being 100 words is arbitrary, it’s just giving them that marker. It’s just fun.” Continued Culbertson: “Grant (Faulkner) and I are both novelists.
The other Faulkner, William Faulkner said, ‘A novelist is a failed short story writer and a short story writer is a failed poet.’ Like this is a famous, writerly thing to say. What I have noticed about this form and why I love it is it has made me a better novelist.
It forces me to think in terms of space and structure and time, and essential bits.” “100-Word Stories” is complete with 25 chapters, each addressing a different device, for example, point of view, setting, character, and structure. Each prompt and demonstration traverses through the architecture of a story, using the limit of 100 words as a syllabus of sorts.
Culbertson intended on providing the book as a guide for teachers, having been inspired by the idea but finding nothing to suit the criteria she had in mind. “The one thing I will say that distinguishes 100-Word Stories from poetry is the arc; conflict and resolution,” said Culbertson. “This idea about it having a clear beginning and end, it landing somewhere and having a fully realized transformative piece for it.
It’s become one of my favorite teaching exercises—this tiny little beautiful form is a spring board for everything else we are doing. The kids love it. They get so excited.
” Culbertson’s first adult novel, titled “Other People’s Kids” will be released next year, and the author said it unsurprisingly delves into the worlds of teachers and education. A proud Nevada City native, Culbertson said her hometown has never quit being a huge source of inspiration to her writing. “My editor happens to live in Grass Valley so all roads lead to Nevada County,” mused Culbertson.
“If anyone has read ‘Catch A Falling Star,’ they know that’s based on Nevada City. It’s called Little, California. It’s so much more fun for me to not try and name things as they are; I think especially that book for me because it was about Hollywood and it was important for me that the town wasn’t real.
It was its own set, its own illusion.” She went on: “The thing about hometowns is that people want to be like, ‘oh small towns’ and I’m like, ‘big life.’ I think there is such a richness and a vibrancy to living in a small town because in a lot of ways you both know people or you think you do.
And both of those things are super interesting, because you don’t know everybody. Small town people still keep their secrets and have their opinions, their divisions, their feuds..
.everything you need for a rich, interesting story exists in a small town. There’s all that tension and conflict.
You might have flipped someone off at the stop sign—I’ve never done that, by the way—and then you’re in the post office line with them the next day.” “100-Word Stories: A Short Form for Expansive Writing” is available for purchase at the Book Seller in Grass Valley as well as via Amazon.com and through www.
heinemann.com , the website for Culbertson’s publisher. “Other People’s Kids” will be released in 2025.
For additional information please see kimculbertson.com ..
