{ONC2021 2nd Place Overall, Round Two Ambassador Picks & Shortlist} When Max O'Brien receives an almond with a skull painted on it, he initially plays it off as a prank. But, after his wife leaves town, he begins discovering more of the nuts hidden around the house. More disturbing than that is that some unseen intruder is keeping an accurate running count. The more almonds Max finds, the stranger things get. Mysterious noises. Moving Objects. Damaged valuables. It's a haunting that grows in power with each success in the involuntary scavenger hunt. As the almonds pile up so do the threats until Max realizes he may just not survive. __________ ONC2021 Prompt 62 Cover by @mensemortuis 1st Place in Horror/Paranormal - The Opulence Writer's Awards Also posted on Royal Road

Is it possible to fall in love with someone you've never met? When Amos Castillo buys a vintage guitar at a pawnshop, he discovers more than an SG Gibson inside the hard leather case. A hidden compartment filled with journal entries gives him a glimpse into Carmela's tumultuous relationship with her addict rockstar husband, Rodrigo. She's a young woman, navigating a world she wasn't ready for, and suffering in silence as she loses herself to his addiction and manipulations. The more Amos reads, the more he realizes their lives aren't so different. While Carmela struggles to find her voice in a toxic marriage, Amos finds himself in a five-year relationship going nowhere. As he silently roots for Carmela to leave her husband, he reclaims his life by figuring out what he needs to be happy. >A dual POV story told in 1st and 3rd person< If you liked It Ends With Us and Daisy Jones & the Six, you will like this. ~~~~~~~~~~~ [[Top 5 Winner - 4th Place]] 𝐈𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐧 𝐍𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐚 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏 [[ ONC Round One Winner - 2nd Place ]] 𝙋𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙩 #29 "𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙢𝙤𝙤𝙙 𝙩𝙤 𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙤𝙡𝙫𝙚 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙠𝙮" -𝙑𝙞𝙧𝙜𝙞𝙣𝙞𝙖 𝙒𝙤𝙤𝙡𝙛 [[1st Place Winner]] 𝐆𝐞𝐧𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐅𝐢𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 - 𝐓𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐨𝐟 𝐃𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐦 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟏

ONC 2021 Honourable Mention! Amby's 2022 Historical Fiction winner Based on prompt 45: 'The war has begun and soldiers are needed. You have two choices: serve as a soldier, or defy the call and disguise yourself as a shepherd.' (C)Spruce_Goose

When Hell and Earth collide, sparks are bound to fly. Saddened by the death of her lover, Tora tries to take her own life only to learn that her name is missing from the system of the Fates. She sets out on a journey to correct the glitch but lands herself in trouble, becoming a wanted criminal on the run. Trapped in a dangerous realm, making friends and foes and trying to evade eternal punishment, Tora finds safety in the arms of Death himself. Will this forbidden love survive the test of time? Life, Death or Immortality - what will Tora choose in Pataal Lok? And are the legends of good vs evil, as straight as they're narrated to us?

Formerly the first draft of BRIARHEART

ONC longlister! Yay Featured on @YA @newlywrittenbooks @Storiesundiscovered (December) @Teenfiction (wicked little creatures) @Ambassadors (Speculative fiction) When a drastic soul-wrenching incident takes place in Aini's life, she decides to take a leap into her life and move on. All goes well until one night, she dreams of a horrifying dream within a dream. ____________________ You can see the future of someone through their eyes. However, if you tell them about it, it won't come to fruition. One day, you lock eyes with yourself in the mirror. "Everything you see or seem is a dream within a dream" Edgar Allan Poe **************** DISCLAIMERS I'm rating this story mature due to self-harm, death, pain, suicide and other violence. This story doesn't portray any kind of sexual content. Unedited first drafts

☆ONC 2021 Honourable Mention and Shortlister☆ ☆One of Round Two Top Five Winners☆ ☆Multiple times featured☆ ☆☆☆ ☆This is a story about H. Ch. Andersen, about how he became a writer and why most of his stories are so sad and melancholic. Also, about why he never found real love... Yes, that's what I read about him (among other things)-- he kept falling in love with unatteinable women. My story portrays Hans Christian Andersen as a young, fourteen-years-old boy. It's set in Odense, Denmark, in the late summer of 1818-- soon after Hans' mother, a poor washerwoman, remarried (two years after his father's death) and shortly before he was sent to a school for poor children where he had to support himself. Where he became, to be able to afford his schooling, first a weaver's, then a tailor's apprentice, a singer, an actor and finally, once his excellent soprano voice changed, a writer. Hans and Louise, his (fictional) step-sister, seek refuge from a summer storm in an old shed. There, they meet Rosalind, a lost Flower Fairy. When they decide to help her find the Butterfly Fairy boy she loves and intends to marry, she takes them into a fantastical world of Terra Sonalis, her home. A land of dreams populated by fairies, goblins, elves, mermaids, talking animals... All those mysterious creatures that fuelled Andersen's imagination for the rest of his life. ☆☆☆

(HONORABLE MENTION) Rik Sandro is a dimension traveller. Jumping from one version of the world to another was intriguing at first, until he discovered he can never go home. Now all these new beginnings are just a pain. Maybe it's time to stay in one place. Maybe it's time to settle down. Maybe it's time to fall in love. However, when his latest lover is murdered, Rik fears that he's being stalked and now, he might not have any control over how, where, or when, his life will end. (HONORABLE MENTION and ROUND TWO WINNER ONC2021 ) A clockpunk adventure, my entry for the ONC 2021. (Clockpunk / LGBTQ / Romance / Horror)

[ONC Shortlist | ROUND ONE Top 5 Winner | Based on ONC2021 prompt #13] What would you do if you woke up in a fairytale? A young, fourteen year old Ruby-Rose wakes up in a medieval castle unsure how she got there. But soon, with the help of an unexpected chambermaid and a scary dwarf who isn't a dwarf, Ruby discovers the world is none other than that of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Except, this is not exactly the fairytale she's grown up with. Snow White isn't the sweet, innocent Princess but the Evil Queen herself, her seven dwarfs are in fact fearsome knights, and Ruby-Rose isn't your average human. [This is the first, original draft of this story, written for the ONC 2021. Coming SOON, the expanded version as 'Ruby Rose'.] FEATURED IN: Round One Top 5 - ONC 2021 Round Two Qualifier - ONC 2021 @classicauthors - Grimm Retellings and Other Fairytales (March 2021) @retold - Fractured Fairytales (May 2021) @retold - Book of the Month (May 2021) ALL RIGHTS RESERVED © Eva Acharya, 2021. Cover made using Canva Pro.

In Eden Rutledge's dreams, she travels to a distant past while she spends her days living in the shadow of her parents' expectations. As a founding family of the picturesque town of Echary, reputation was of the utmost importance, especially after her sister's untimely death. On the town's anniversary, the Rutledges hold a lavished masked ball. When Eden falls into Ethan Baker's arms, she is thrust into the past yet again and finds herself feeling an eerie connection to the mysterious stranger. The two are drawn together like a moth to a flame, but as the past unravels so will Eden. Falling in love is inevitable, but withstanding the tests of fate may be unfathomable. *** This story is inspired by prompt #87 in the Teen Fiction section of the Open Novella Contest 2021: "With the Kingdom Heir coming of age celebration fast approaching, the search for a match begins. It is decreed a dance will be held; an anonymous masked ball."