Ren Warom's Blog, page 21
March 23, 2012
Umwelt: Darkness Flows Like A River Episode 6: Anti-Kansas
'What?' snaps Margo, gaping at Rolf, her cat-green eyes swirling wells of anger, shock, dismay.
Rolf licks his lips. 'The second Moe stepped into this room with this letter we were removed from our veil. A beautifully choreographed piece of magic, I couldn't even begin to understand it. The sigils are so deep, so deftly entwined, they're almost imperceptible.'
Eerie silence holds sway over the three friends stood in Randall's small kitchen. The letter sits in Rolf's hand, innocuous to the...
March 9, 2012
Umwelt: Darkness Flows Like a River Ep 5: Through The Veils
The note from Andreus unfolds in Rolf's hand along well-worn lines of creasing, elegant as a fan. Margo and Moe see only the object; soft cream paper, made tan at the edges by frequent handling; faint, exquisite hieroglyphs, fading to vague memories of words. Nothing but surface, the final impression of collected atoms as they are observed, flat and essentially lifeless.
To his misfortune, more now than ever before, Rolf sees everything the paper truly is, and beyond. Mere paper becomes a...
February 24, 2012
Umwelt: Darkness Flows Like a River Episode 4: Little Lost Things
Sucked from the incoherent roar of the streets, the steamy interior of Randall's is quiet as breath, enfolds Moe gently as arms. The musky scent of books is a balm to soothe the pounding of his heart, to ease the tension from his shoulders and back. Either side of his spine are the faint, smouldering embers left by the beast's gaze. He tries to shudder them away, secure now between shelves of books strong as pillars.
Ahead, tucked in the round belly of the shop, stands Margo's desk, a nod to t...
February 21, 2012
What’s behind a story?
I wrote a rather odd little number for Colin Barnes City of Hell Chronicles, Volume one. I thought it might be interesting to use this particular story to share a little of the varied lightning bolts that pulse life into the dead meat of a story, as it’s something I see asked often (though of far better and better known writers than myself). Ideas are strange animals, you see, and how they come together can be even stranger.
When we were given our brief, a pdf outlining the world, the creature...
What's behind a story?
I wrote a rather odd little number for Colin Barnes City of Hell Chronicles, Volume one. I thought it might be interesting to use this particular story to share a little of the varied lightning bolts that pulse life into the dead meat of a story, as it's something I see asked often (though of far better and better known writers than myself). Ideas are strange animals, you see, and how they come together can be even stranger.
When we were given our brief, a pdf outlining the world, the...
February 10, 2012
Umwelt: Darkness Flows Like a River Episode 3: Existence Is Smoke
Existence is smoke and all are fireflies in its belly. Time is not so much a thing as a state of mind. There are but membranes between all the worlds and the man whose mind is a knife may travel between them at will. A mind is often a simple thing. Many such minds, like sheep, may be herded. These are the things Vespesian knows.
Rain falls delicate as lace. The sky lowers, a frowning eye. His feet glide, silent, upon concrete, then cobble, then stone, then concrete again. When they strike...
February 7, 2012
Speculative Poetry… 'Great Lights'
Great lights, they saw
Hovering weighless,
giant as clouds.
Bruise purple sky peppered rain,
a glistening glass shower,
made crystalline in light reflections.
And then, darkness,
resonant thrumming
like the drums of
a far off marching army.
The plinking of cooling metals,
a sulphurous burr, nostril deep,
And the night echoed empty.
© Ren Warom 2008
Filed under: Beauteous & Corrupted Words Tagged: poetry, Ren Warom, Speculative Fiction, ufo
February 1, 2012
A reflection…
What do I remember about being small? The sheer size of everything. The scope. The mind blowing range of the world around me. How everything felt fresh, wild, new and wonderful all at the same time as being terrible, violent and unsettling. I recall only feeling free when alone out in the wilds, only feeling safe then, and whole. I'd stand on a hill and breathe in the air but I wasn't breathing the air I was breathing in the hill, the open. Sucking it all into me in one fell swoop...
January 27, 2012
Umwelt: Darkness Flows Like a River Episode 2: Hidden Effigies
There is nothing so eloquent as silence. Eons nestled in the thick grip of that very state have taught it this valuable knowledge. For the Earth speaks and, without silence, it cannot be heard.
Hungry and furious it waits, hoarding the voice of the Earth to it like treasure. It has learned much. Of the fragile life force, so sparse when first it erupted onto this plane, and now rich, having spread like bacteria upon the face of the Earth.
It has learnt that some of these bacteria have obtained ...
January 19, 2012
Fascination… and the Beholder
Look.
That's what it says to you.
It says 'look'.
It's a voice compelling as a crooked finger. Whether willing or unwilling you are doomed to obey. What is it? Fascination.
To a certain extent, no matter what it is you are doing, you are going to want to provoke this in people. Of course, if you provoke it and then fail to pay off, you may never manage to provoke it again. Your lures might be forever associated with disappointment.
Equally, if you go too far in the opposite direction, provide...
