Jan 8, 2015 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT – © Copyright Jean L. Hays
Genre: Realistic Fiction (current events-inspired)
Word Count: 100 words
Unthink
©January 8th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I found myself staring at the banner near the historic sign, and mouthed the letters to myself.
Unthink?
How had I gotten here?
Here, America’s Main Street, where songs arose from the dirt, and dreams were broken in the dust of racism?
Too much thinking, that’s what it was — too much reading and too many heartbreaking stories in the news.
I feared for my son — for his beautiful dark skin, his large-black-grape eyes, his woolly puff of hair, his idealistic spirit, his bursts of sadness.
I feared for him, for the safety of all our children.
How to unthink this?
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Sorry, folks! I’d been sick, then busy with schoolwork, and there was too much heartbreak in the news in the past five weeks. I’ve missed being here, and seeing everyone’s work. I will try and be more consistent, because I MISS this!
Thanks for Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting this beautiful site, and for her use of unusual and challenging photo-prompts (for which I thank Jean L. Hays!)
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, 100-word original short story based on a photo prompt, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Route 66 photo prompt
Sep 11, 2014 Original Short Stories
Photograph copyright: Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Inferno
©September 11th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
She had come through the worst. She had been forged in fire, and had emerged tempered steel.
Nothing could reach her anymore:
Not the death of a loved one – she had lost all of her family in an fiery accident.
Not the loss of happiness– for she had none.
Not the worries of everyday life – hers had died with her family.
Still, afterwards, she awoke every morning, put on her firefighter’s uniform, went to work. Fire was her enemy. Yet, she knew that though it could destroy life, it could also renew it.
Unafraid, she walked into the four-alarm fire.
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Thanks, as always, to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting, and for the photo-prompt! I was too late to submit it for last week’s Friday Fictioneers, but thought I’d still write it. I hope some of you read this!
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, 100-word short story based on photo prompt, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction
Aug 7, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright-Björn Rudberg
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Genre: Semi-Horror Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
House (Me)
©August 7th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I am fashioned from all your dreams and all your nightmares.
You return to me in sorrow, in joy, in darkness, in light. You fall into my arms, and I soothe your senses, your soul. You drown in loneliness, but I’m here, I’m here!
Yet, you see me not for who I am.
Someday, you will.
Cobwebs and horrors crawl through my dark spaces. I scream soundlessly. I wince and sigh, when I’m hurt. I creak and moan and sob through howling winds and storms.
Yet, you hear me not.
Today, you will.
And I’ll take you with me.
Come.
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I wasn’t entirely satisfied with my 100-word story from yesterday. This house called to me. Here’s my second attempt!
(Thanks, as always to our Fairy Blog-Mother, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to Björn Rudberg, for his excellent photo-prompt!)
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, Creepy House, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, Semi-Horror Story
Aug 6, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT – Copyright-Björn Rudberg
Genre: Realistic Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Fold-Unfold
©August 6th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
Call me superstitious, but I shouldn’t have bought that house after my marriage folded.
Perched on a precipice, surrounded by a tight mass of trees, it looked picturesque. A constantly folding-unfolding, susurrating ocean looked inviting at a hazy distance.
I had some money that I’d set aside, refusing his help. I had my job, my fiction-writing on the side, my goldfish, sunlight, good looks. Of course, my heart hurt, but I’d learned to ignore it.
I loved my new place. What could possibly go wrong?
At least I wasn’t home when it caved in.
I’d just met my new love.
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Thanks, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting “Friday Fictioneers,” and thanks to Bjorn Rudberg for the great photo-prompt.
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Flash Fiction, Marriage break-up and house cave-in, Micro-Fiction
Jul 23, 2014 Original Short Stories
Here’s another one I wrote, and it’s 74 words long! I cannot believe it! This was done entirely for my daughter, who sat beside me and wondered whether I could write a shorter (than 100 words) story based on a prompt. So, to her wide-eyed astonishment, I unfolded this one from start to finish, with only one phrase and two words edited! (I know it’s weird, or even weirder than the last one, but please be kind, since I wrote this under duress!)
Another One Bites the Dust
©July 23rd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
I held up my chopsticks and surveyed them calmly.
“More hot sauce,” I snapped.
The waiter came forward in an obsequious manner.
I leaned forward and caught his nose between my chopsticks.
“Get rid of your nose! I don’t like people with big schnozzes serving me,” I said through gritted, razor-sharp teeth, which I bared menacingly, as if to help him with the project.
He turned pale and fled.
Another one bites the dust!
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story by Vijaya Sundaram, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, seventy-four word short story
Jul 23, 2014 Original Short Stories
Genre: Weird Semi-Real Fiction (I just made that up)
Word Count: 100 Words
Sauce
©July 23rd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
What? I scare you? Why? Am I not handsome? Isn’t this great food? What’s your problem?
“You are the problem,” you say? Have I harmed you? Okay, I’m from a time far from yours, but that’s no reason to hate me. You don’t believe me? Explain this then: How come I’m answering all your thoughts? Guesses? Sigh. How did I ever emerge from a race like your backward little one?
At least shake hands, then. Hey! You’ve strange hands — FIVE fingers? Check out my two — long, pointed, perfectly carved bone things. Nice, huh?
Fork! Don’t go! Try my hot sauce!
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And, as always, thanks to Rochelle Wisoff-Fields for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and for providing the prompts each week, and to Marie Gail Stratford for her photograph above.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, 100-word short story, Chopsticks, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields
Jul 16, 2014 Original Short Stories
Thanks, as always, to our wonderful Fairy Blog-Mother (I hope you don’t mind my calling you that, Rochelle), Rochelle Wisoff-Fields, for hosting Friday Fictioneers, and to Adam Ickes for the strange, unsettling photo-prompt.
Genre: (Sort of) Realistic Fiction/(Sort of) Humor
Word Count: 100 Words
Horny
©July 16th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
“What do you think?” asked Ben. He’d invited Alicia, his co-worker, home for a drink.
Alicia looked flustered.
“It’s … um … nice,” she finished lamely, staring at the corner of the wall.
“I haven’t unpacked yet,” he replied, bringing her a glass of red wine, gesturing to her to sit beside him.
“I have to go,” she said, moving towards the door.
“Did I offend you?” he asked.
“No, it’s … did you know there’s a ram in that corner?” she blurted.
She opened the door, and fled.
“What is she talking about, Father?” said Ben.
The ram ate cardboard in silence.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, 100-word story, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Photo-prompt-based story
Jul 9, 2014 Original Short Stories
Below is my short-story response to Rochelle-Wisoff Field‘s Friday Fictioneers prompt (photograph kindly provided by Kelly Sands). Thanks Rochelle and Kelly! If you are interested in reading more stories, click on this cute frog icon here:
Your curiosity will be well-rewarded with some of the most creative and diverse responses/stories you will read on the web.
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Genre: Mythological Fiction/ Science Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Titanic Emergence
©July 9th, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
No one noticed the clouds that day, because people had been forewarned.
The alarm had sounded all over the globe — even the indigenous peoples in forests and hills and distant islands had been informed. Nobody ventured out.
When the clouds parted, a beam of light shot through and sucked up the entire planet.
Where the Earth was taken, no one knew. People’s eyes were shut tight, and they felt … translated.
Later, in a newly formed Universe, a new race emerged. Twelve people straightened up. Their heads brushed the edges of space.
“Let it begin again,” said Time.
And it did.
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Tags: #Original Short Story, 100-word short story, Flash Fiction, Kronos, Micro-Fiction, Mythological Fiction, Science Fiction, The Twelve Titans in Greek Mythology
Jul 2, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT, Copyright – Claire Fuller
This is my second 100-word story-attempt based on the above photo-prompt on Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers blog-site. Hope you like it.
Genre: Mythological Fiction
Word Count: 100 words
Circe
©July 2nd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
You will not believe me, but I have to tell someone.
Come close and listen. Listen well. No, don’t look around you at the animals. Regard this statue. Doesn’t he look handsome? Doesn’t he look real?
What was that? Yes, the story.
His name was … perhaps you’ve heard of him? He was a sailor whom I lured to my island.
I was hungry for love.
Unfortunately, everything I touched turned into an animal, all, except for him. He turned to stone.
What? Release him? Why should I? I’ve crowned him king, and he won’t ever sail away.
I’m lonely here.
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Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Circe, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Odysseus
Jul 2, 2014 Original Short Stories
PHOTO PROMPT, Copyright – Claire Fuller
This is in response to the above photo-prompt for this week’s “Friday Fictioneers,” which appears on Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ blog. Every week, writers from around the world write a story based on the given photo-prompt on her site –and we have to do it in 100 words or fewer. Here’s mine.
Genre: Semi-realistic, semi-historical fiction
Word Count: 100
Reigning Supreme
©July 2nd, 2014
By Vijaya Sundaram
“Ozzie, this won’t make a difference,” said the brave Queen to the King.
Honesty was her greatest gift. It was also her downfall.
No one questioned him and lived.
The statue he commissioned was completed. Alas, the sculptor was also repaid with death, because the King wanted no replicas. He was that sort of king.
Eventually, everything in his kingdom fell apart. He died. Only the statue remained. Then, even that crumbled.
A traveller to his land found this on the pedestal: “My name is Ozymandias, king of kings:
Look on my works, ye Mighty, and despair!”*
Only dust reigned.
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*With apologies to Percy Bysshe Shelley.
Tags: #Friday Fictioneers, #Original Short Story, Flash Fiction, Micro-Fiction, Ozymandias, Percy Bysshe Shelley, photo prompt, Rochelle Wisoff-Fields