Category: writing

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…)
04 Feb 26
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.
04 Feb 26

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?

04 Feb 26

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.
(more…)
03 Feb 26

briar tangled between

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

03 Feb 26

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.
03 Feb 26

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

02 Feb 26

shadow to light

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

02 Feb 26

casting runes — 02feb26
hagalaz
```
in dream confusion
hands changing hands
eyes changing eyes
under a foxfire glow
in slipstream shift
along parallel rows
```
A rune poem, based on an Elder Futhark rune selected at random.
Today’s rune is hagalaz, which has a core meaning of “hail”, which was associated with potential, transformation, renewal and change; hail is imagined a seed from which change will arise. Hagalaz is also seen as representative of things beyond our control: a clash between fire and ice.
Please visit my Elder Futhark pages at sceadugenga.com for additional interpretations of the runes based on multiple references and personal reflection.
02 Feb 26

slip away

chasing deaths head moths
through night gardens no more
and trying to catch falling stars 
ribbon cuts hands and so
i wrap myself in nadir's velvet
and slip away from shore

01 Feb 26