Shannon Hilson
Bio
Pro writer chasing wonder, weirdness, and the stories that won’t leave me alone. Fiction, poetry, and reflections live here. I also have a blog, newsletters, socials, and more, all available at the link below.
linktr.ee/shannonhilson
Achievements (1)
Stories (17)
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You Don’t Need a “New You” in the Dead of Winter
I’ve been fairly preoccupied with pressing personal matters this holiday season (plus a family emergency for extra fun), because the universe’s timing is perfect as always with this stuff. But from the looks of my social media feeds, society still woke up [on January 1st] and decided it’s time for everyone’s yearly dose of intensity porn.
By Shannon Hilson4 days ago in Motivation
Cold Air, Warm Fire, Repeat. Runner-Up in The Ritual of Winter Challenge.
Winter always has a way of sneaking up on me, expecting me to be ready and waiting for it. As if there will ever be a world in which I stretch, yawn, see my breath in the air first thing in the morning, and immediately think, “Yes, absolutely, let’s do months of this.”
By Shannon Hilson29 days ago in Humans
Sea Changes
In our world, there’s really no such thing as a pair of people who are exactly alike. Even identical twins, formed from the same snarl of cells and genetically identical at their origins, have small differences between them. They possess different fingerprints. They can come to be unlike one another in many ways given the chance to grow in differing directions. They are their own people — individuals in every way that truly matters.
By Shannon Hilsonabout a month ago in Fiction
The Color of Venus
They say it’s always dark at the end, but the same can almost always be said of beginnings. Starts and finishes are, after all, like mismatched twins that don’t quite get along and hate hearing how similar they are to one another. But hating something never makes it any less true, no matter how much we may wish otherwise.
By Shannon Hilsonabout a month ago in Fiction
The House at the End of the World
The sound the ocean makes as it cascades over the edge of the actual world into nothingness is impossible to fathom — simultaneously too loud because of the ocean’s immeasurable volume and not loud enough, as there’s nowhere for the water to land below. If you’ve been to the house at the end of the world, then you know what that sounds like. You also know that it’s impossible to describe to another living soul with any accuracy.
By Shannon Hilsonabout a month ago in Fiction
Fire Season
Something was very wrong with the fields in Drift City, but no one could say exactly what the problem was. What was once a fertile valley where just about every crop you could think of grew as abundantly as can be was now barren and empty. One year everything was as it always had been and the next, it was as if the fields had been heavily salted. Or as if they’d been cursed.
By Shannon Hilsonabout a month ago in Fiction
Satellites and Violets
Gina was old now by nearly anyone’s standards. Her face was wrinkled and her joints creaked when she moved, especially first thing in the morning or when rain was on the way. The young people she passed in the streets on the way to buy bread and vegetables from the market saw someone else’s grandmother in a tattered grey cardigan and a faded, flowered skirt — a stranger they didn’t know and couldn’t relate to.
By Shannon Hilsonabout a month ago in Fiction
Sky Magic
When the world was first born, every atom of every stone and tree crackled with magic — contained energy that could be accessed by anyone at any time. In fact, magic was so commonplace, no one thought anything of it when the seemingly impossible would occur. The earth was like a new battery, fully charged and capable of making just about anything happen. All it needed was a small push in the right direction.
By Shannon Hilsonabout a month ago in Fiction
