July 26, 2015
hughjodonnell
Uncategorized
podcastsing, status update, summer, working, Writing
Hello readers and listeners!
Welcome to the end of July! It’s been pretty crazy around here, and I’ve been juggling a lot of stuff, both creatively and in real life. So here’s a refresher to bring you up to speed on what’s been going on with me.
First, the good news.
Last month, I launched The Freelance Hunters podcast! I’ve posted a few Freelance Hunters stories here and there over the last few years, and now I’m collecting them in audio. Check out TheFreelanceHunters.com every Monday for a new installment of serial fantasy fiction. Season one will be going on a while, with print and eBook editions coming this fall!
The Way of the Buffalo will be moving to Fridays. The Dark Wife is on hiatus until I have the editing fully complete, then will be appearing on Wednesdays. I’m hoping for a launch in September.
On the writing front, you can still find my short story “Prompt Succor” in the Dirty Magick: New Orleans anthology.
I’ve also been invited to a few other anthologies, one of which you can help get off the ground now!
The Kickstarter for Elysian Springs: Adventures from the Superhero Nursing Home is ongoing and needs your help to reach its goal. This is such a clever and unique idea, and the confirmed talent includes Gail Z. Martin, Tee Morris, and Jason Strutz! It’s going to be a really cool book and I want to be a part of it, so please give it a look!
The bad news is that to keep all these plates spinning, as well as a few secret plates that I can’t talk about here, I’m putting The Voyage on the back burner. I’m not giving it up entirely, but I’m not able to devote regular time to it every week the way I’d like. I’m going to put it on hiatus until it is complete and edited.
So that’s what’s going on with me. Thanks for reading!
June 19, 2015
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, The Voyage
140 Characters, Drabble, Francine, The Voyage
Francine lay out her Mistress’s dinner dress while Lady Caroline Wentworth engaged in her toilet. Normally, she would help with her bathing, but the cramped confines of the suite’s private bathroom made this impossible. She just finished laying out the gown when she felt arms wrap around her and kisses on her neck.
“Your Lordship! She will hear…” She said to Lord Horace, her employer and lover.
“Let her,” he said. Pressed against her, she felt the gun in his pocket. She pulled away.
“You can’t mean to…” She couldn’t finish the idea.
“Accidents happen over the Atlantic,” he said.
June 18, 2015
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, The Voyage
140 Characters, Drabble, Malcolm, The Voyage
Malcolm watched the massive airship pass from the observation platform at the top of the Star Building. After verifying the ship’s flags, he rushed downstairs and back to his typewriter.
The HMS Indomitable, newest aeroship of the private Atlantic Steam line, left York today for its third trans-Atlantic flight. Although some critics continue to raise questions of the craft’s safety, Lady Hamilton and her granddaughter and Lord and Lady Wentworth were on board, as was the ship’s prodigy designer Nelson Pembrooke If they are not delayed by weather, the Indomitable will reach London in an incredibly fast three days.
June 17, 2015
hughjodonnell
140 Characters, Free Fiction
140 Characters, Drabble, The Voyage, Viola
In the little shack next to the hangar, Viola swore and grumbled. The little rat, Molly had disappeared after tea service, and she hadn’t returned. Florence was in a right state looking for her. That left her to do the dishes the brat had left behind. It would probably be better for her not to return at all, she thought with a nasty little grin.
Above her there was a sharp crack, and she looked up just in time to see a pencil fall through the roof and plop into the sink, soaking her, but missing her head by inches.
June 16, 2015
hughjodonnell
Uncategorized
140 Characters, Drabble, Lewis, The Voyage
Lewis stood with the noisy crowd as well, although he didn’t cheer along with them. We simply watched The Indomitable rise in the morning sun, her filigreed envelope sparkling. Occasionally, he would consult a small mechanical device on a chain, and make notes in a pocket notebook. He stayed long after the crowd stopped cheering and drifted away, leaving only a few dedicated loved ones to watch the vessel’s slow rise over York. As morning turned to afternoon, the propellers finally repositioned themselves, and the craft steamed east. After one last check of his instruments, he disappeared like a shadow.
June 15, 2015
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, The Voyage
140 Characters, Drabble, Erzabet, The Voyage
The viewing stand was quite far from the airstrip, on the other side of the field. Erzabet stood in the crowd, watching the massive lighter than air craft ignite her propellers and lift off from a safe distance. She gripped her belly nervously, and watched the great ship rise into the sky like some fantastic beast. She wished that her beloved Isaac was the engineer on a train instead. It wasn’t that she feared for his safety more, but that she could have held him longer, stayed closer, and heard his voice calling to her rather than the cheering crowd.
June 14, 2015
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, The Voyage
140 Characters, Drabble, Hattie, The Voyage
Hattie was dying for a cigarette. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no place on this accursed vessel for her to smoke. They were barely off the ground but she had already been repeatedly harangued about the flammability, and the inflammability of the hydrogen gas that kept the airship aloft. It seemed perfectly daft to her. The rudeness was galling. Eventually, she ventured out onto the rail. The wind would do, she reasoned, to hide the smoke. She paused when she saw the young couple talking next to one of the roaring turbines. With a faint smile, she withdrew back inside.
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June 13, 2015
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, The Voyage
140 Characters, Drabble, Nelson, The Voyage
A dozen meters below them, a young man lay on a railing, sketching a propeller. He moved his pencil lightly but with precision, absorbed in his work.
“Aren’t you cold?” A voice asked. making him jump and drop his tools. He managed to grab the notebook, but the pencil slipped over the side and tumbled end over end to the ground far below. He rose and turned to see a beautiful girl of his own age wrapped in a shawl. “Oh, dear. I apologize,” she said. He smiled.
“I have others. I’m Nelson Pembrooke.”
“Penelope Hamilton.” She smiled dazzlingly back.
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June 12, 2015
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, The Voyage
140 Characters, Drabble, Hedwig, The Voyage
“Well I will have you know that there is a,” Hedwig paused for effect. “Resonance. I felt it the moment I stepped on board. There’s a doom about this ship.” Arthur scoffed.
“I’ll have you know my cousin is a very talented medium. We are traveling to London for the exhibition,” Lula said.
“As entertainers?” He was a skeptic, a man of reason. But they were the most fun to reel in, and she had a week. Business was waiting for her in England, but this would be for pleasure. She dismissed the itch at the back of her skull.
June 11, 2015
hughjodonnell
Free Fiction, The Voyage
140 Characters, Arthur, Drabble, The Voyage
Arthur shrugged. “Stuff and nonsense,” he said, but Lula shook her head, vehemently.
“The stone has been nothing but trouble since it came out of the ground. It was mined out west, and it left a trail of death and tragedy all the way to York! Poor Lady Hamilton lost her son and daughter in a fire, and I heard the man who mined it out was crippled in a collapse!”
“I heard about the first. They caught the fever as I recall. Certainly tragic, but hardly supernatural. As for mining, it’s a dangerous profession.” He was a serious man.
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Hugh J. O'Donnell 