aether i wish of breath
to slip and slip and to
butterfly to lethe away
drink to drift to float away
her mouth to mouth
of mine and sway
with hip to lip and
aether a wish away
aether wish
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aether wish
casting runes — 07may25

mannaz between blood & wine
i wish i could believe
but all i see are folks
drunk on power or drink
on hate or deceit &
it gets hard to see how
to crawl out from this holeA poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is mannaz, a rune that translates to “man” in the sense of “humankind”. The rune is associated with family and the social order, and in trusting the intuitive process or seeing clearly — both from within and from without. Mannaz influences relationships of all kinds, including those of a romantic nature, and encourages compassion, for oneself as well as for others.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
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casting runes — 07may25
wait here
& all our engines have gone to rust
or torn pages to scatter to wind
forgotten, what your good book said
& i wait here & i long here
& i wait here & i long here
& of ghost that the wrath it were
her voice has gone to calling, now
come o'er the rowan hills, fallen
& i wait here
& i fall here
& i wait here
& i fall—
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wait here
Ep 5.4 of VMH has gone live

start readingVengeance, My Heart The Argument:
…flutter…Episode 5.4 of Vengeance, My Heart (episode link), my serialized Sepulchral-Gothic Western novel, is now live at ravensweald.art.
❧
The site is designed with reader-modifiable typographic elements so that you can adjust the experience to suit your needs. Click the sliders to the right of the content to adjust.
If the sliders do not appear, be sure to “share” with a native browser or click the compass icon in WordPress Reader’s browser (which does not support the required JavaScript). If you prefer to not let scripts run in your browser, you are welcome to read it with the default settings.
❧
WordPress has elected to make it a manual process to subscribe to a site in WordPress Reader if the site is not running the Jetpack Plugin. Navigate here on how best to add this series to Reader, according to your favorite platform:
tagged:
ash & thorn, episodic fiction, gothic western, ravensweald.art, sepulchral western, serialized fiction, vengeance my heart, web novel, weird westfiled under:
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Ep 5.4 of VMH has gone live
crossbones and bloodcheek
we sit
crossbones and
bloodcheek
flintfaced and
sharpbeaked
our heart of hearts
breathesync
i know these
twine times
only slipstream
of otherhymes
careful so careful
we seek at
crossbones and
bloodcheekTo like, click comments or:
crossbones and bloodcheek
Tweaks and Geeks
Something I learned today. The old (ancient) method of letting people subscribe to your blog on WordPress Reader has been killed entirely by the Jetpack team. It was unsupported, but still worked as recently as a year ago. I tried to make it a simple process of subscribing to my RSS feed at ravensweald.art (which is attempting to remove the social elements from that blog), but that workaround no longer works around.
So, I modified the site to include instructions on how you can add the story feeds to Reader manually. I wish they would not make it a multistep process, but alas, I’m not sure they really want you to follow a site operating outside of the WordPress.com/Jetpack ecosystem — which is a little silly when you think about it, if my suspicions are true.
If you have been enjoying Vengeance, My Heart, please consider following the steps outlined on this page to add it to your feed.
Failing that, consider bookmarking the site in your browser and swinging by a couple times a week: currently M/W/F — I may take a break this Friday to polish Episode 6.1 over the weekend. The episode is mostly ready, but I think I want to make another pass at edits before publishing.
Hope y’all are doing swell. Let me know if you encounter any issues with my instructions.
tagged:
how to subscribe to a feed in WordPress Reader, Jetpack-free sites, no love, ravensweald.art, Reader tweaks, site design, vengeance my heartfiled under:
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Tweaks and Geeks
casting runes — 04may26

eihwaz head to mud
feet to sky
hanging for hanging
save for the pierce
and an eyeA rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.
Today’s rune is eihwaz, it’s name meaning “yew”, is a rune of change and transformation. It represents the cycle of life/death/rebirth and is symbolic of the axis mundi (the world tree). The yew is envisioned as a path towards both the underworld and the heavenly realms. Eihwaz is frequently associated both with poison and protection as part of its perceived dual nature.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
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casting runes — 04may26
Ep 5.3 of VMH has gone live

start readingVengeance, My Heart The Argument:
Pointed questions asked.
Answers delivered in lead.
Another spent returned to the deck.Episode 5.3 of Vengeance, My Heart (episode link), my serialized Sepulchral-Gothic Western novel, has now gone live at ravensweald.art.
❧
The site is designed with reader-modifiable typographic elements so that you can adjust the experience to suit your needs. Click the sliders to the right of the content to adjust.
If the sliders do not appear, be sure to “share” with a native browser or click the compass icon in WordPress Reader’s browser (which does not support the required JavaScript).
tagged:
ash & thorn, episodic fiction, gothic western, ravensweald.art, sepulchral western, serialized fiction, vengeance my heart, web novel, weird westfiled under:
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Ep 5.3 of VMH has gone live
One of those writing about writing posts
As the story in Vengeance, My Heart shifts from setting tone and atmosphere to character evolution and development — and quite possibly as a result of changing focus from short, snappy bite sized pieces of the story and shifting over to giving the story more room to breathe — I’ve discovered more tolerance as the writer for longer episode fragments.
My goal up through the end of Episode 5, was to make sure there was a targeted max word count for each fragment/part/sub-episode to finding in Episode 6 that character development doesn’t work so well with those kinds of metrics. I don’t think it is a significant spoiler to say it is about time to move to that tone/color-setting of the early episodes to dig down into the motivations and explain, in drip-feed fashion, the previously unexplained.
(more…)tagged:
designing for long-form reading, episodic fiction, forked site, ravensweald.art, site design, writing about writingfiled under:
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One of those writing about writing posts
casting runes — 02may26

tiwaz it is for
the lost & the freaks
the crippled & the weak
we stand stone strong
sending flames to the sky
we, too, rise tall and trueA poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.
Today’s rune is tiwaz, which is named after the Norse god Týr, and the second weekday (Tuesday) is named for the god. According to Norse myth, Týr offers his right hand to the wolf Fenrir, who bites it off when he realizes the gods have used the offering to distract the wolf while they bind him. The rune is typically considered symbolic of honor, loyalty and justice, as well as of sacrifice. It may be representative of discipline and faith. Some interpretations have associated the rune with the North Star.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
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casting runes — 02may26




