Category Archives: Flash Fiction

…It’s How You Play the Game

photo by Jake Oates via Unsplash.


Plenty of parents hated Joe and thought nothing of letting him know right to his face, in no uncertain terms, that he was the worst coach in the league. 

The Little Monsters hadn’t won a game all season; even worse they hadn’t even scored a run, not one.

But I saw a different side to Joe, and came to appreciate him all the more because my kid came home from every game, not sad that they had lost, but happy and proud that he had played his best and because he’d had fun.

kat – 9 March 2017

For Sonya’s Three Line Tale Challenge based on this prompt photo by Jake Oates via Unsplash.


Aak Attack

No automatic alt text available.

PHOTO PROMPT © Shaktiki Sharma

“Tell me what happened,” said the detective.

“Well, she came in…sat at the bar. This guy, he’s a regular, took a shining to her, but he’d had a few and I guess he got carried away. He grabbed her, you know, where he shouldn’t of. She told him to stop. When he didn’t she sprayed this awful smelling stuff on him. He dropped dead, on the spot.”

When Scientists at the Etymology Experimental Lab across town heard the story they celebrated.The suspect was likely the person who had stolen a vial of “Aak Attack”, an anti-rapist agent. It worked!

~kat – 8 March 2017
(100 Words)

For Rochelle Wiseoff-Fields Friday Fictioneers 100 Word Story Challenge.

A bit of background on the grasshopper you see above from Wikipedia:

Poekilocerus pictus is a large brightly colored grasshopper from India. Nymphs of the species are notorious for squirting a jet of liquid up to several inches away when grasped. It is also known as Aak grasshopper or locally in few tribal areas called titighodo

Adult Form

The half-grown immature form is greenish-yellow with fine black markings and small crimson spots. The mature grasshopper has canary yellow and turquoise stripes on its body, green tegmina with yellow spots, and pale red hind wings.

The grasshopper feeds on the poisonous plant Calotropis gigantea (Giant Milkweed).

Upon slight pinching of the head or abdomen, the half-grown immature form ejects liquid in a sharp and sudden jet, with a range of two inches or more, from a dorsal opening between the first and second abdominal segments. The discharge is directed towards the pinched area and may be repeated several times. The liquid is pale and milky, slightly viscous and bad-tasting, containing cardiac glycosides* that the insect obtains from the plant it feeds upon. In the adult, the discharge occurs under the tegmina and collects as viscous bubbly heap along the sides of the body.

*From ancient times, humans have used cardiac-glycoside-containing plants and their crude extracts as arrow coatings, homicidal or suicidal aids, rat poisons, heart tonics, diuretics and emetics. Today these steroids are processed to treat heart conditions.


Twittering Tales #20 – 6 March 2017

About the challenge: Each Tuesday I will provide a prompt photo. Your mission is to tell a story based on that prompt in 140 characters or less.

If you accept the challenge, be sure to let me know in the comments with a link to your tale.

A final note: if you need help tracking the number of characters in your story, there is a nifty online tool that will count for you at charactercountonline.com.

I will do a roundup each Tuesday, along with providing a new prompt. Have Fun!

Here is our round up for this week’s prompt. I love everyone’s take. So many topics! Romance, Mystery, Heartache, Anger, Drama, Life and Death and the meaning of it all! Thanks so much to everyone who gave it a try this week. Here’s the prompt pic again, followed by your fabulous tales! If I missed your take, please be sure to let me know so I can add it to the round up.

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Twittering Tale #19 – 28 March 2017

Michael at Morpethroad:
The burning flame ignites passions.
She reaches out
He takes her hand
Steadies her lighting the candle
Illuminating the essence of their love.
(138 Characters)

Sri Sudha K at Naa Prapancham, My World

She could no longer bear the pain of separation; so,she set herself on fire to join his beloved soul..Her husband who died fighting cancer..
(140 Characters)
&
His smoking habit killed her-she was bitten by lung cancer; Her only fault was loving him the way he was. But,he realised her love only after he lost her.
(154 Characters)

Reena at Reinventions

Tabloids screamed of the star’s affair, upsetting his wife. The editor’s wife, a divorce lawyer told her, “There is no smoke without fire.”
(139 Characters)

Di at Pensitivity101

A flash, so bright,
Penetrates the night,
The smell of smoke
Lingers to choke
That final sigh,
And then we die.

(105 characters)

Sangbad at Thoughts of Words

He saw a shadow in the light of his last match. It was not of his. As light dim he heard another strike of match or was it the “clap”.
(134 Characters)

Lorraine at in 25 words more or less

smoke vapour curls round flower flame. flash point. sliver of a moment. cosmic spark. quicken. embrace. to be born is to die.
(126 Characters)

Jane from Jane Dougherty Writes

Orangehead hung onto the post with his failing strength but the earthwinds, too strong for his wispy frame, dispersed his atoms like mist.
(138 Characters)

Willow at Willowdot21

A moment in time. Smoke wisps grey, flame as yellow as the forgotten sun As the red tip expired with the heat she died her life done
(140 Characters )

Kathryn at Another Foodie Blogger

“After the tunnel collapsed upon them, Jim found a lone match in his pants to strike. Can they find an escape route before it burns out?”
(137 Characters)

Francine at Woman Walking Max

Gondolier: Carnival is over Colombine. Your lover Harlequin lies in the crypt. Be brave, follow this light.
(107 Characters)

Kirst at KirstWrites

Light a candle. That’s all you can do. Focus on the flame. Maybe the smoke will carry our hopes to some god or kindly fairy up there.
(133 characters)

Leara at Leara Writes and Takes Pics

A word lit the flame. Hooded figures chanted. The fire grew, and smoke billowed. This world, a failed experiment, would burn to start anew.
(139 Characters)

Irena at Books and Hot Tea

Matches burn slowly, as smoke dances around. She burned up quickly, in the outburst of once tamed anger. Her smoke swallowed all it touched.
(140 characters)

Peter at Peter’s Pondering

Sulphur and brine
a view that is mine
our food just isn’t the same
we haven’t a hope
til we see how we cope
with preservatives put to the flame
(140 characters)

and my little tale to start the things off:

The bitter-sweet fusion of sulfur and gasoline seared her nostrils. She flung the match into the darkened room; the past best left to ashes.
(140 Characters)

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Twittering Tale #20 – 7 March 2017

I like what everyone did with last week’s abstract image. You all are so creative! Here’s another odd photo for you to simmer on. What is the story behind this photo? Mmmmm. I do hope you’ll give it a go. Have fun! My tale is below.

Photo from Pixabay.com

“I will never forgive you!” she cried. “It was my grandma’s.”

“I’m so sorry,” he lamented. He knew she wasn’t crying about a broken glass.

~kat
(138 Characters)


Beautiful Sky

“It’s so beautiful daddy. It’s like daytime in the middle of the night!”

Wayne drew his family close, tears streaming down his face. All around them other families huddled in loving clusters to witness the event. It was a scene replicated around the world.

Days earlier, world leaders and their wealthy friends boarded space vessels that would transport them to a new planet galaxies away. The ozone they had depleted in their lust for greed and power left the earth vulnerable to the impending solar flare.

“It is beautiful Zoe,” Wayne whispered, as a great flash of light consumed them.

kat – 2 March 2017
(100 Words)

For Rochelle Wiseoff-Fields’ Friday Fictioneers. A flash fiction challenge inspired by her beautiful photo of the sky. 


Mission Accomplished – A Three Line Tale

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Photo by Fleur Treurniet via Unsplash

Mission Accomplished!

Agent  Jones, boarded a flight to the remote island, with alias credentials in tow and strict orders to remain under cover at the local inn until she received a green light from command.

On the morning of the mission, an alert pinged from her laptop providing a detailed map that showed where she would find her mark, as well as instructions to wear the disguise that had been waiting for her in her room.

The costume, though it made her chuckle, was brilliant as it turned out, and the secret weapon that guaranteed the mission’s success because it allowed Agent Jones, aka “Unicorn”, to slip anonymously through the crowds of the festival to the abandoned storeroom where she found the kidnapped child.

~kat – 2 March 2017

A Three Line Tale for Sonya’s challenge this week, based on the photo above by Fleur Treurniet via Unsplash.