Some Publishing News

FlagShip magazine just released their latest issue, a special all-steampunk issue. I'm pleased to announce that a story of mine, Wondros The Clockwork Man, was chosen to appear in the issue, alongside a group of fantastic authors.

Check it out at http://flyingislandpress.com/flagship/steampunk-issue/ and let me know what you think of the story!

Three Word Wednesday

This week's words: render, impact, and eject. Hope you enjoy what I came up with!

The reporter ejects the cassette; I’m rendered speechless by it.

“What do you want?” I ask, eventually. “Money? I don’t have much…”

“You accept it that easily?” he asks, surprised. “No attempted denial? I know he betrayed you, but the Senator must be worse than I’d thought.”

“I know there’s no point in denial,” I say.

“You know the impact this will have,” he says with a smirk. “What I want is to see your reaction. Do you destroy the cassette and protect your friend, or do you publish it and get back at him?”

He hands me the cassette.

Friday Flash!

This was originally just going to be a #vss, and then it grew to a drabble. It could probably grow further, as well, but I decided to put a cap on it! I was going to post it on ficly, but since today is Friday, why not put it on here as a Friday Flash!

Trog dabbed the stick in the paint again, smearing it across the wall of the cave. He had no idea what this was meant to accomplish, or why he was painting a deer. They'd never seen deer near here.

The odd-smelling man in the strange animal skins had said it would be “a hilarious prank”; Trog didn't what that meant, nor kind of animal had originally worn the fancy silver skins the man wore. What did he know was that the man had given him enough meat and tools to feed the clan throughout winter, so he kept painting.

Three Word Wednesday

Yes, it's time for yet another round of Three Word Wednesday! This week's words: lie, adapt, glide. Lately it might seem like these are all I'm writing, because drabbles are all I've been posting here for the past while. I *do* have some other interesting projects on the go right now - just don't want to say too much about them before they're ready to be shared. You know how it is.


I watch dragonflies gliding over the swimming pool’s surface, their ebon bodies reflecting sunlight.
“You going to just lie in that hammock all day?” Susan asks, her words stabbing into the moment. “I mean, that’s what you did yesterday, and the day before. Would be nice if you did something with your life.” She didn’t wait to give me a chance to retort, and stormed back into the house.
We’ve got twenty million in a Swiss bank account, all we ever dreamed of, and she won’t let me relax my life away. Some people just don’t know how to adapt.

Three Word Wednesday

A new drabble for Three Word Wednesday. This week’s words were viable, mute, and gasp. I initially misread ‘gasp’ as ‘grasp’, which explains the end a little :o)

(note: this is not at all autobiographical)

When you’ve been trying to have a baby for a long time, you find yourself avoiding certain words in favour of others. So you don’t say “healthy” and you definitely don’t say “baby”; instead, you start to use words like “viable” and “fetus”. You don’t even say “fucking” or “lover” anymore; instead, you are “partners” “attempting to conceive”, like a pair of dancers attempting a plane landing. All that stops the first time your newborn gasps and grasps your finger. You stop caring about what you said, and what you didn’t say. You just let yourself fall, mutely, into infinity.

Name change!

Hello readers!

As some-if-not-most-of-you probably already know, the name I've been using on this blog for the past while, Ryan Underhill, is not my "real" name. It's a pen name that I decided to start using at the beginning of 2011, chosen partially because I wanted to use my birth first name and a last name that was fairly obviously a pseudonym.

The problem is, I haven't really been loving it. "Underhill" is a long name, and feels kind of clunky, even though I still like my reasoning behind picking it. So I've decided to shorten it, because what's the point in having a pseudonym if it's one you don't love?

My twitter ID's been changed as a result, as well, to @IAmRyanHill, and the same name for my email (iamryanhill@gmail.com). One thing I am going to be keeping as 'underhill', however, is the URL of this blog - I know there are a few people subscribed to RSS feeds, and a few that have linked to the blog, and I wouldn't want to mess up those things by making an address change.

Til next time, true believers!

Three Word Wednesday - On a Thursday?

I wrote this up yesterday, hoping to take part in Three Word Wednesday after a bit of an absence - and then promptly forgot to post it.  Hope you enjoy it anyway!

The words I was prompted to use this week are dose, pierce, and appear.

My piercings tell a story.

Someone once asked me if that meant they’re in Morse code – like, the studs are dots and the rings dashes, or something like that.  I don’t think about them that far in advance, though.

If you could make a time-lapse video of me, you’d see the metal appear at the major events of my life; the Industrial when I left my parents’ house; the septum ring from the day I finished school. The nipple rings were a double dose, celebrating a simultaneously-occurring champagne birthday and divorce.

They tell a story, and that story is me.