A recently out divorcee must explore his identity and how to not be the straight-acting man he's been his whole life. Just when he has found his footing, a flamboyant trans man jumbles up his ideas about what it means to be gay, to be masculine, to be a man. *** Edwin realises he's gay at the ripe age of 56. Coming-out should set him free to finally explore his sexuality, but honestly? He feels lost. He's getting a divorce after thirty years of marriage, half of his friends turn out to be homophobes, he feels an interloper in LGBT places, and for the first time ever, he's living alone. His only remaining certainty - the one he's risked everything for - is that he's attracted to men. To affirm his sexuality, Edwin focuses on everything masculine and seeks out gay men like him. But just when he finds his footing, a flamboyant gay man jumbles up all his ideas about what it means to be gay, to be masculine, to be a man. If Edwin wants to find his community, he'll need to re-examine what it takes to belong. *** Cover by the amazing @SmokeAndOranges! Cover image found by @galaxiesuniverses

When her parents die in an accident, 27-year-old party girl, Adelaide Becker, sets her sights on inheriting the family fortune. But when the will is read, she is not surprised to find her parents are capable of ruining her happiness even from beyond the grave. If she hopes to inherit the family estate, she has to follow one not so inviting rule: move to the English countryside and live with a long forgotten grandmother. For a year. Begrudgingly, she packs her things and leaves the sandy shores of Greece for the small, ramshackle house her mother grew up in. Between the drafty room, the terrible food, and the young carpenter who seems more intent on sweeping her off her feet than fixing the roof, Adelaide is convinced her parents set the whole thing up just to punish her for indiscretions. She's determined to beat them at their own game and survive the year, but when her grandmother hands her a ring and a letter and declares her engaged, Adelaide might finally snap. *** ONC 2021 entry for prompt # 74. CW: Death of parent.

Complete. ONC 2021 entry. ONC Longlist and a Round II Ambassador's Pick! Exclusive to Wattpad. Ulthar is a cozy, sleepy town in the Dreamlands, close to the River Skai. It is a cobblestoned, gable-roofed town of pumpkin patches and a sizable population of cats. The only law is that you must never harm a cat, but the town is quiet and peaceful. Cats, humans, fish-people, and cosmic horrors live in unity. And really, the horrors are quite pleasant. Fourteen-year-old Eileen, who escaped the waking world, helps out at the chocolate shop and lives with her inventive adoptive mother, Cecilia Haunt. Besides the occasional cat, zoog, or animate pumpkin snatching the wares away, all is well. That is, until a mysterious eye statue appears in Ulthar. Every night, it moves to a different location. It's the sign of the Great Ones, who long ago left the dark palace of Kadath and went to the sunset city. Listless and hurt over the past, and desperate for an adventure to give herself a purpose, Eileen asserts that this is her chance to make a name for herself at the risk of her own safety and identity. Over the Garden Wall + H.P. Lovecraft's Dream Cycle.

ONC 2021 Ambassador's Pick ~ Lav Sciarra's accomplishments are many: He is one of the Tower's best soldiers. He founded the Gemma Special Forces. He killed the terrorist who nearly destroyed the Tower. Lav Sciarra, they say, is a hero. Lav knows otherwise. ~ An ONC2021 entry. Based on Prompt #1: "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain."

Open Novella Contest 2021

[ONC 2021 WINNER: 3rd place] When a car accident reveals a shocking secret even he didn't know about himself, an android finds himself hunted by his own husband. BioSynth is one half of a duology of novellas. Both follow the same sequence of events from different PoVs. BioSynth is Quentin's tale; SynTracker is Ian's. Collectively, they're known as Syn. ≡≡≡ Photographer Quentin Morgan has almost everything he could ask for. With a dream job that takes him all over the world, married to the love of his life for the past eight years, it's only his husband's line of work that leaves a bad taste in his mouth. Ian is a SynTracker, someone who hunts down BioSynths - obsolete yet incredibly dangerous synthetic self-aware weapons that can pass as humans - and returns them to the government, to be reprogrammed and repurposed. Quentin finds the job distasteful, but Ian says they're weapons, and weapons don't weep. A car crash that could have killed Quentin reveals the shocking truth: he, himself, is a BioSynth. Hurt, scared, and now hunted by the man he loves, who thinks him an impostor, Quentin is thrown into a suddenly hostile world, where the stakes are his very existence. ≡≡≡ BioSynth was written for the Open Novella Contest 2021 and is based on prompt #4: You're a weapon, and weapons don't weep. It features a romance between two men. ≡≡≡ ONC Winner: 3rd Place ONC Round One Ambassador Pick Speculative Fiction Awards, Sci-Fi Category: Winner

When a simple job goes horribly awry, ghosthunter Anya must prove she has what it takes to do spirit work or risk losing her job, her brother, and a second chance with the One Who Got Away. *** Second-rate ghosthunter Anya Iteri comes from a family of metalweavers -- powerful mages who can forge iron, shape steel, and even bend blood. Down on her luck and struggling for work, Anya bribes her little brother, a city guide, to let her drum up business on one of his tours. The plan is simple. Summon a hibernating ghost to give the tour a good show, return it to its slumber, and collect a hefty tip. But the moment the tour begins, Anya encounters a ghost of a different kind: Eleira Soti, talented hunter and former love of her life, newly returned to the city after years away. El's familiar face leaves Anya fighting distraction and attraction alike on her way into the city's most haunted grounds. The night goes from bad to worse when the wrong ghost gets summoned and fingers are pointed Anya's way. A malignant spirit emerges from the veil, bent on destroying the tour and everyone on it. Racing against time, Anya must team up with El to trap the ghost, save her brother, and prove, once and for all, that her abilities aren't as second-rate as others think. *** Silverweaver is now available across all major platforms. Once titled just "Weaver," it won an honorable mention in the 2021 Open Novella Contest.

A naive young princess gets banished to a tower and is inadvertently trapped with a wizard. Now, she must navigate through a world full of magic while the fury of the king looms over her. ⋅•⋅⊰∙∘☽༓☾∘∙⊱⋅•⋅ Princess Pranee has a love for magic but it seems like the world didn't want her to do anything with it. When she gets locked away in a tower that was supposed to isolate her from the rest of the world, she unexpectedly meets an irritated wizard who claims that the tower belongs to them. She finds herself wanting to learn more about the magic world and the genderless wizard, Shashi but she can't help but feel anxious that more misfortune will strike her at any moment. Open Novella Contest 2021 entry Credit to Rayne for the cover! ONC 2021 Longlister Featured on: Wattpad Community Curator: @KateLorraine @WattpadAsianFantasy "Celebrating Asian & Pacific Islander Voices (AAPIHM)" "Featured Stories" "The Wondering Immortal" @Fantasy "Romantasy" "Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month Celebration" "Diverselit Fantasy" @WattpadMulticultural "Asian Legends" @retold "Fractured Fairytales" "Celebrating Asian & Pacific Islander Voices (AAPIHM)" @anime "Light Novels" "Celebrating Asian & Pacific Islander Heritage Month" @beauty "Asian American & Pacific Highlander Heritage Month - beauty" @AmbassadorsAR "Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month (AAPIHM)"

Aura awakens in The Sanctuary, a place known for repairing and rewiring humans. Nothing is known about their methods other than it works and those who enter leave happier. Except Aura doesn't remember signing up for their treatment plans. In fact, she doesn't remember anything at all. With her identity ripped away from her, she's filled with more questions than she can get answers for, and the worst part is that she can't leave either. When her memories begin to resurface, she starts to wish that they hadn't. - Featured On: @OpenNovellaContest - 2021 Honorable Mentions @ScienceFiction - Dystopian/Apocalyptic Fiction @PsychologicalNovel - Lost Souls @StoriesUndiscovered - Into the Abyss