Shannon Hilson
Bio
Pro copywriter chasing wonder, weirdness, and the stories that won’t leave me alone. Fiction, poetry, and reflections live here.
You can check out my blog, newsletters, socials, and other active profiles via my Linktree.
Stories (33)
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Burnt, Buried, and Banished. Content Warning.
Carice had no children as most people would define the word, but she considered herself a mother all the same. After all, it wasn’t her fault that Nathaniel hadn’t figured out he didn’t want to be a father after all until after they were married and he’d moved them both away to the top of this mountain.
By Shannon Hilsonabout a month ago in Fiction
Instructions for Returning to a Place That No Longer Exists. Runner-Up in Instructions Included Challenge.
I. Purpose of This Document These instructions exist because return has been explicitly requested. Please note that they are not an endorsement of the request, nor should their existence be interpreted as confirmation that return is advisable, safe, or even possible in any way commonly understood. This document addresses procedure only.
By Shannon Hilsonabout a month ago in Fiction
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 Hilson2 months 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 Hilson2 months 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 Hilson3 months 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 Hilson3 months 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 Hilson3 months 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 Hilson3 months ago in Fiction
