Pithy perspectives: a smorgasbord of short, short stories
Even as I was busy writing and publishing my non-fiction books, I had been learning to write short stories. For years, the writing group to which I belonged restricted each piece to 500 words. So, I began to write pieces which were capable of extension privately. A couple of years ago, I realised, through the responses of those who had read my output of extended pieces, that some of my work was of an adequate standard. They were also clearly bicultural in perspective. Better still, some ranged from wacky to weird, others were philosophical to spiritual, yet others represented speculative fiction.
This book was thereby published purely for fun. It was initially reviewed by the NSW State President of the Federation of Australian Writers. He described the stories as “interesting,” “crazy, frightening, weird, some really lovely,” “a clever book.” The last story in the book (“quite intriguing,” “so different”) ends in a spiritual haze which envelops cats, mice, and a little girl who understands the language of animals. Subsequently, the book was also favourably reviewed by the US Review of Books.
My other writing
I have had a few articles relating to migrant settlement issues published in: ‘Asia Sentinel,’ ‘Malaysian Insider,’ ‘Webdiary,’ and the Multicultural Writers Association of Australia’s anthology “Culture is … “. The Eurobodalla Writers’ recent anthology “Where penguins fly” includes 3 pieces of fiction by me.
More recently, I have had 44 short articles (average 800 words) published on www.ezinearticles.com on a wide range of issues, most open-ended, thereby inviting intelligent readers to reach their own conclusions. I enjoy tossing out ideas to like-minded people for cogitation and possible digestion. In writing these articles, I occasionally challenge my own ideas. To me, that is the path of learning.
RAJA ARASA RATNAM 