Author: michael raven

  • Twenty years of WordPress

    I wonder if I’m eligible for the Dyson bladeless fan or if that’s 25 years…

    [If not obvious, this is an example of my not-very-funny sense of humor. WordPress does not give out anniversary gifts as far as I am aware.]

  • It Never Rains in Southern California — prompted flash fiction

    I’ve decided to up my flash fiction output after trying out two of the prompts from Jolene’s site. I need to try and stretch out that muscle and strengthen it a bit after letting it atrophy for a long spell.

    Unless otherwise specified, I am leveraging Google’s Gemini AI to give me daily prompts. I don’t currently know the frequency at which I will actually post the flash fiction developed as a response to the prompts, but probably not on a daily basis.

    In this current series, I am going to explore random subgenres of speculative fiction, fantasy and horror.

    Required Plot Elements (per Gemini)

    1. A rain-slicked neon alleyway
    2. A prototype “memory drive” that contains an animal the protagonist has never seen [edit: I replaced “sunset” with “animal”]
    3. A debt collector who accepts childhood nostalgia as payment.

    Genre: Cyberpunk / Noir

    Someone felt the need to share their affliction for retro-premillennial oldie covers with the alleyway. As if the neon were not headache-inducing loud enough on the eyes by itself, they blared some nonsense song that echoed though the narrow chasm between decrepit brick buildings built around the same era as the music.

    (more…)

  • casting runes — 04feb26

    ansuz
    sharp breath intake,
    razor sharp shredding
    everything inside

    an uncaged spirit
    given to fresh singing

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is ansuz, which has a core meaning “a god” (intended to be Odin), “mouth” or “breath”. Odin is representative of many, many things… in this case, ansuz is most representative of the mouth/breath (speech) that gives life to poetry, magic, song, language, and spirit — largely inseparable in the Viking worldview — and Odin is considered the supreme master of these intertwined concepts. By way of the Anglo-Saxon Futhorc, the rune is named æsc, which is translated to “ash”, a tree associated with Odin and is representative of resilience and strength.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

  • undesirable

    when they came with
    their rail cars and
    their razor wire,
    will it be a step too far
    then? 

    or will you look away
    as you say, at least
    it's not us, it's them?

  • The Bell Palimpsest — a prompted fiction exercise

    Photo by Peter Herrmann on Unsplash

    The following is written from another fiction prompt from Jolene (Chico’s Mom). On-the-fly, off-the-cuff and keeping edits to a minimum (my personal rules). The required included elements from her prompt are:

    1. Person who never gives up
    2. Plastic surgeon
    3. Secret meeting
    4. Library

    As expected, it ended up like another Twilight Zone reject, and I expect that’s just the way my mind is wired. I may make small edits in the next day or so as I read it with a fresh mind, but I don’t expect anything substantial to change during that time.

    Doctor Eliot Thorne was not a patient man in the best of times. And he was losing what patience he had as he waited for Miss Clara Bell in the candlelit library of her ancestral home in the wealthy end of town. He had thought to ask for more lighting, and had turned to the butler to ask for the lighting to be increased, but Gunter, her manservant, was already through the double-hung doors before he could think to ask.

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  • briar tangled between

    Photo by Justin Wilkens on Unsplash
    all that is owned is empty or
    flaking rust from dull razors
    drawing ley from
    rope raw wrist to
    hangman's etching,
    all briar tangled between

  • casting runes — 03feb26

    laguz
    well met we at the sieidi
    standing at watch of water
    a hand change hand
    a breath touch song
    a call to crow new dawns

    A poem prompted by a randomly selected Elder Futhark rune.

    Today’s rune is laguz, which has a core meaning of “lake” and, by extension, may be interpreted as “river”, “ocean”, “sea”, “waterfall” or a general body of water. Some alternative interpretations define as “leek”. Following the more commonly accepted meaning, bodies of water were considered liminal spaces, a place between life and death or the threshold space between which spirit and substance resides. Laguz is often associated with feminine energies and journeys via water.

    Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.

  • dreamtest bust

    Just to follow-up on my little experiment, the results were a bust. That doesn’t disprove the idea that people can be connected by dream, it’s just that this particular case was not a mutually-shared experience.

    Several salient details I wondered if I might hear about after posting:

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  • one breath &

    ache on more mantic &
    less onto dreaming
    hand pat knee thigh
    tears eye entwine
    a dollar thin love
    cut from small bones 
    touch a tear to tongue
    & linger nectar sweet...

    something stolen in
    that silence between
    one breath & the next

  • shadow to light

    Photo by Jimmy Liu on Unsplash
    something dies

    something arises

    both will end
    in blood and in tears
    wetting chapped lips
    sharp ends dragged
    ragged across
    it all

    come close to hold
    both to small and in mouse
    let us gaze upon limeslit
    scrim and heavy
    past aged oak and envy
    here is the tale of night
    in where

    something dies

    something arises

    something comes of
    shadow to light