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Release Announcement – The Mountain’s Shadow

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It’s official!
The Mountain’s Shadow & Other Very Short Stories is now available in Print and eBook from Amazon, as well as in ebook from Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, the Apple Bookstore, and more!
This collection features 300 of the best Everyday Drabbles from 2018-2020 and has a gorgeous cover designed by Natasja Hellenthal. It will take you from the heart of an enchanted forest to the depths of outer space and everywhere in between, all in the time it takes to have a cup of coffee!
Everyone has a story in them. Which one will be your new favorite?

Announcing The Mountain’s Shadow!

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Hello Readers!
I’m proud to announce that the long-awaited first collection of Everyday Drabbles is now available for orders and preorders on Amazon!
The Mountain’s Shadow collects three-hundred of the best Everyday Drabbles written between 2018 and 2020. I originally started the project on Wattpad, and some haven’t been published outside of that site until now! The collection features a gorgeous cover by Natasja Hellenthal and is available to order as a paperback now!
The ebook copy will be available on April 30th and is available for preorder.
This collection features a huge number of hundred-word stories that will take you from the hearts of the secret, magical forests to the fringes of outer space, and everywhere in between!
I hope you enjoy this collection of curated drabbles, and I’ll see you tomorrow for another story!

Hugh’s On Twitch!

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Hey Everybody! I just wanted to make a little announcement here that I’m streaming on Twitch! While I’m still finding my feet on the platform, you can catch me three days a week at Twitch.TV/Hatchingphoenix!

As a fiction writer, the thing I’ve always loved about video games is the unique ways they deliver a narrative. I’m fascinated by the way games can tell stories. Not just through visuals or dialogue, but through gameplay and sometimes subtler means. The genre has grown from pixelated ping-pong simulations and rescuing the princess to high-definition epics with casts of thousands. I love both the little and the big stories that games can tell, and that is the focus of my Twitch channel.

On Mondays, at 2 PM I play Indie games. Many of these games came from last year’s Itch.IO Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality, which supported worthy causes and features many games that use unique mechanics to tell interesting stories that I can’t wait to dive into.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4 PM, I play RPGs. From 8-bit classics to the latest releases, I’m playing through and examining how these create an experience. And I’m starting with the game that launched a genre, Dragon Warrior. Called Dragon Quest when it was originally released in Japan, this Nintendo Entertainment System cart was the first of its kind. I remember watching my neighbor play it as a child and thinking for the first time that games could be something deeper and grander than I had previously imagined.

So please join me as I undertake epic quests and uncover hidden gems.

Twitch.TV/Hatchingphoenix

Publication Announcement: ‘A Woman of the Old School’ in Speculative North Magazine!

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Courtesy of Speculative North

Hello readers!

It’s been a while, but I am pleased to announce that my story, “A Woman of the Old School,” is now available in Speculative North Magazine #4! And until Wednesday, February 24th, the magazine is free on Kindle, so if you hurry, you can get yourself a great deal in both the US and Canada!

US Link

Canada Link

Publication Announcement: ‘The Head That Wears the Crown’ on the No Sleep Podcast!

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Hello readers!

Just in time for Halloween, my quick chiller, “The Head That Wears the Crown” has been featured on an episode of The No Sleep Podcast!
The story starts about 10 minutes in, is produced by Phil Michalski and read by David Ault and Erika Sanderson, and they all do a phenomenal job bringing the story to life.
You can listen to the story online HERE, or support the podcast by buying the full episode or a season pass.

Thanks for your support, and I hope you enjoy the story.

Publication Announcement: Beach Reads

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SP&SS June 2020

Hello readers!

My flash story, “Beach Reads” is now available in the June 2020 issue of Spaceports & Spidersilk! This is an all-ages short fiction magazine, edited by Marcie Lynn Tentchoff, and I was thrilled to be a part of it. The magazine is available in print from the publisher’s website, as well as Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Powell’s Books.

Everyday Drabbles – NOW ON FACEBOOK!

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So it turns out, I’m bad at marketing.
I started Everyday Drabbles as a daily challenge to myself in 2019, based on a friend’s ongoing Facebook group of daily writing prompt pictures. I saw it as a way to teach myself good habits as well as get my work out there. I’ve always liked drabbles. They’re quick and punchy, the four-panel comic of short fiction.
I originally started the project using Wattpad. I’d used it for my previous Drabble project, The City. And while that project did okay, I wasn’t getting much traction, and by the end of the year, I found myself out of space due to the platform’s two-hundred chapter limit. So I migrated over to my blog, and that has been going pretty well, but I am worried that the stories aren’t as visible.
So, I’m happy to announce that Everyday Drabbles now has a dedicated Facebook page!
Facebook.com/EverydayDrabbles
If you are subscribed to this page, don’t worry! Drabbles will still be posted here on the blog. I’ll just also be posting them on their dedicated Facebook page, so now it’s even easier to get your daily hundred-word short story, right in your news feed!
I’ve also created a dedicated Twitter account to send out these blog posts, so if that is your social media of choice, go ahead and follow twitter.com/everydaydrabble!
So pleas go like the page, and let me know what you think! I’ve got some other Everyday Drabbles plans in development as well, so please stay tuned!
Thanks for your support!

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May Update: Digging Ditches

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EDWinter.png

Hello readers!
It’s been a wild May. It was a busy month, but like many times where I’ve got my head down working, it feels like I’m running in place.
I’m still working on Everyday Drabbles and the associated ebook, as well as not progressing as much as I’d like on my other fiction writing, and made my goal of releasing two Nostalgia Pilots episodes this month. So while I’m not super pumped about my progress, I’m still taking steps to reach my goals, and that’s the important thing. I’m still working on the first Everyday Drabbles ebook, but I feel like the cover is missing something. Please let me know what you think.
I did participate in this year’s Sky Ride, and it was a beautiful day, for the most part. I did a lovely ten-mile route over Route 5 with the view of the lake and grain elevators before winding back through Canalside and La Salle park. I feel like I hadn’t really trained as much as I should have, but didn’t do too badly. I’m looking forward to a long season of riding ahead of me.
On the baking front, I was busy this month. I made lemon lavender cutouts and strawberry sandwich cookies for Mother’s Day and gingersnaps and matcha shortbread for Memorial Day, and was happy with all of them. I also made another try at blueberry pie, which turned out much better this time.
May’s a difficult month because even though I got a lot done, it was all incremental. It didn’t help that I skipped Balticon again this year. The Maryland convention has been harder for me to attend since it moved to Baltimore’s Inner Harbor, and this is the second one I’ve missed. On the one hand, it was nice to have a quiet Memorial Day weekend baking, cleaning, and grilling with friends, but there is a lot of validation that comes from seeing my podcast family that I sorely need these days.
June’s goals promise to be much of the same, with more head-down writing and practice time and the real start of summer weather. See you then!

Podcast Promo: Nostalgia Pilots

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BeatsByTreize

Hello listeners!

Nostalgia Pilots finally has a promo!

Have a listen!

Special thanks to Rish Outfield for voicing the narrator in this promo. If you have a podcast, and play promos, please spread the love. And if you’d like your podcast promo played on Nostalgia Pilots, please leave a comment with a link!

“Masks,” Now published in Iridium Zine!

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Hello readers!

Holy cow has it been a busy couple of weeks! Between a triumphant return to the Smoky Writers retreat and a whole bunch of positive but dizzying developments in my day job, I’ve been running in circles. I haven’t even had time to properly promote my brand-new short story from the fine folks at Iridium Magazine!

Masks” is a very personal flash story I wrote last year, and it’s probably the most political thing I’ve ever written. It was inspired by a picture in Dave Robison’s most excellent Daily Flash group, an island of writerly refuge that has really kept me working when I was tempted to slack off over the past year. Members of the group got a preview of the story, as did supporters of now-on-hold Patreon campaign. I’m happy to finally be able to share it with a wider audience.

Iridium is a free web-based magazine, and I’m thrilled to be in their first issue. Go take a look, read the other stories too, and let them know what you think.

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