The world of Para Dormus is a complicated place full of dragons, demons, magic and mystery. No one knows that more than Nivara Cross. Burdened with a grimoire too powerful to hide with mist magic alone, Nivara longs to help her fellow Traited who struggle with the same fate. But she is powerless to help. Tasked instead with locating an unusual, black grimoire, truths get tangled together as Nivara struggles to hide her past and her power from those attempting to replace her. With more and more Traited trying to find the lost grimoire of the Night Rider, she has no choice but to involve Hawkins, an unsuspecting detective with an unusual Trait of his own. As their goals drift apart and the separation proves more than necessary, Hawkins realizes a much bigger threat faces them. A young girl with an unstoppable Trait threatens to disrupt the peace from beyond Nivara's reach. Can secrets remain hidden and Cricket's power be stopped? Or are Hawkins and Nivara too late to save the black grimoire from her clutches?

'' Following unimaginable loss, a Half-Blood Elf must ally with humans to find the creature who killed her family and save the Empire. '' Book One of the Forged Series. Aviana Birchwood's world crumbles when the Keep of the Dratlan Elves where she has lived since she was a girl is attacked and torn apart by unearthly creatures. As the only survivor of the massacre, the fate of the Empire is twisted with her own. She finds herself burdened with powers none can understand and an unwilling heroine to the very people who shun her kind. She must ally herself with those who believe her. An insufferable and honour bound Captain, the last male of a dying species and a Magin who has broken away from her own kind. They are four people with their own goals, their own agendas who are forced together to save an Empire on the brink of destruction.

❈ Watty's 2019 Fantasy Winner ❈ 'I'll take pride over power and guts over greed'. The five nations of Schamaria have been in conflict for many years now. With a war breaking out and the continent being divided into two sides, irreversible damage and stigmas on the earth and the people are inevitable. But when a royal heirloom -- which happens to contain the secret to gaining magical and elemental abilities -- is stolen from the Seyali Palace, the raging flame of the battle is only fueled. A gang leader, a thief, a magic manipulator, a spy, a traitor to the crown; they know nothing about each other, yet they must come together to find the Kingfisher before everyone else. When dark secrets and unseen connections are revealed, when greed lays its golden claws on the adventurers' hearts, and when it all becomes a game of power and deception, will they be able to reach their goal? Five strangers. Five motives. One target. ⸻ Long chapters ahead! Word count ⇢ 117,363

EDITORS PICK 2020. A new student doesn't think her mother understands how magic works. Inyanga Numbia will be the first in her family to go to Magicians' College, and she's going to find out. "Why doesn't Magicians' College just let anyone in?" "Won't they make more money if they accept everyone?" "If magicians get better jobs, why not send everyone?" These are the kinds of questions one would expect a bright young applicant to ask - but maybe not the second after receiving her acceptance letter. The Constellations stories are infinite, with infinite possibilities: Immortal girls at Magicians' College learn the laws of magic are built on a lie. The inventor of time travel wanted more hours in a day in which to read books. A mother chooses to bring a baby into the world, even though it will drain her immortality. Magician scientists discover the secrets of the universe to make the future brighter. Apartment hunting to get out of the Shade, Cielo and her esposa find the dream flat, but when they turn up to move in, the unit they signed has vanished. When transitioning spells become free, Chiara transitions to female and watches all of Soliara try out the gender with her. A server at a cafe rebels when the boss magician always fails to pay back pay. Bay steals from the till to save up for magic school, but she's addicted to Story, an immersive experience drug, and she'll spend all her solidae to get it. And more. Cover by @blackhazex Highest Rankings: #2 in Contemporary Fantasy 03/19/2020 #2 in YA Fantasy 09/16/2020 #15 in Magicians 09/03/2020 #41 in science-fantasy 09/29/2020 #80 in Urban Fantasy 09/29/2020 #459 in Paranormal 09/16/2020 Fantasy - somewhere over the rainbow. If you love this story, help me rank in the Fantasy category by givin' me a star at each chapter's end!

Pirates of the Caribbean comedy and adventure meets a naive narrator, werewolves, fish people, and more in this fantastical adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless Treasure Island. After the murder of his mother, Walter Avery sets off on an expedition to a supposedly nonexistent island, led by the X-marked map that Lisa Avery had left in his possession. With this as his only lead to those that had torn his life apart, Walter disembarks with a varied cast of personalities on a voyage of revenge, while those with him seek peace, knowledge, glory, and adventure. "AUDIOBOOK" for chapters up to "The 'Just Right' Captain": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xNQrysFZubI&list=PLCZjhmwo5_DGvtPux_sn7IeVlB5p5uy-z 1st place winner in the Action/Adventure category of The Butterfly Awards 2020 1st place winner in the Adventure category of The Chaos Awards 8 2020 1st place winner in the Adventure category of the Glory Awards 2020 1st place winner in the Fantasy category of The Belle Ame Awards 2020 Featured on @ StoriesUndiscovered official reading list from March-April 2020 Featured on @ talesofthedeep official Ships Ahoy ~ Pirate Tales reading list Featured on @ Wattpad's Editors' Choice List January 2021

************************************************************************************** An outcast rogue must break a curse put on his fate, or die on his nineteenth birthday. To survive, he'll need the sword of a maiden, the aid of an immortal, and the power of forbidden magic that could cost him the only girl he ever loved. ************************************************************************************ *** THE JACK OF SOULS won a Silver IPPY this year! *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the PNWA Competition in Fantasy! * *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the Southwest Writers competition! * *** A "Featured Book" on Wattpad! * *** Now a "Staff Pick" on Kickstarter! * *** Available on Amazon in paper, hardback, and ebook ! * *** My contract with Kindle Select won't allow me to post more than 3 chapters here, but... *** Sign up for my newsletter on stephenmerlino.com for alerts when it's free on Amazon! * MY INSPIRATION I wrote this out of pure love of trickster rogues; I love the wit over brawn motif -- Odysseus over Achilles, Raven over Eagle -- so I like to play with it in my stories. In JOS I set the rogue and con-artist Harric against a foil of warriors in a land threatened by magic and civil war. Whenever possible I turn familiar tropes on their heads: instead of a handsome young Lancelot, I cast a broken-down ex-champion addicted to pain-killing herbs; instead of a dashing Squire Brian, the old knight reluctantly takes an ambitious young woman as squire. Similarly, I re-imagine the standard medieval milieu by infusing aspects of two of my favorite historical periods, Elizabethan England, and The American Frontier. Both eras boast a kind of nationalistic arrogance that borders on hubris, and a magnificent spirit of resourcefulness and re-invention that is fun to play with. SERIES The Jack of Souls is first in a series. I am posting parts of the sequel here now (The Knave of Souls), to help me refine the story.

An elf enters a street-race tournament to escape a corrupt city trapped in endless night. ***** || Voltyss is one of the last-standing cities caught in the Evernight, an endless night that spread across the land when the moon and stars fell from the sky. The city's magical neon aura is enough to ward off the monsters that lurk in the dark and anyone who leaves the city is never seen again. || Alyndra is the only elf left in the neon city and when she witnesses a murder in a back-alley, the House of Horns gives her a choice: join ranks and pledge allegiance or die. Without much of an option, she steps into the world of crime, and the House of Horns uses her enhanced speed and agility to deliver illegal light-weapons to their list of buyers. Alyndra quickly falls into place while balancing her job as a lightrunner and her strange relationship with Venjo, the boss's son who wants her gone just as much as she does. But when the boss orders a hit on an electric mage and Alyndra leaves him alive, she's screwed. Her only way out is to buy her freedom and the prize for Voltyss's street race tournament could give her that and more. On the run and living in hiding, Alyndra enlists a group of unlikely allies. Gidget, the tech-savvy girl with a wolf for a friend. Tiny, a giant orc with a sweet side. And Macon, the sarcastic, yet alluring mage Alyndra failed to kill. Planning heists to build their zoomer for the race and struggling through the mishaps along the way become a smaller problem when the neon lights around the city start to flicker and hungry Nightstalkers slip through the cracks. To save the city, Alyndra and her new allies must find a way to keep the lights on or be devoured by the night. If they don't kill each other first FAST AND FURIOUS meets GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY set in a CYBERPUNK FANTASY world. / FANTASY / SCIFI / ROMANCE / FIRST DRAFT

[Completed] The Royal Guard of the Empire has faithfully served Byzantia for nearly three centuries now. Hand picked from foreign lands, these guardsmen hold no political ties, carry no agendas, and bare no creeds except to those who sit upon the Onyx Throne. They are vanguards, protectors, loyalists. They are Vangen. Change has come to the Empire. An Empress sits upon the throne now, destroying any who would rebel against her with both fire and iron. To the east, her loyal Vangen work to quash the newest rebellion, until a letter arrives one day, marked with the Empresses seal. The contents within bare only dread and disturbance for the Guardsmen. The Black Ministry, the former Emperor's cabal of Sorcerers, have turned against the Empress. The Vangen's return is bittersweet. The city they once called home is now a battlefield, every street a choke-point. Every home a possible nesting ground for rebels. The Royal Guard will have to fight tooth and nail to put down the Ministry and protect the Empress, but the deeper they go, the harder the lines begin to blur. In a world where good and evil does not exist, where then does a man's loyalty lie? (Comments and Feedback are always appreciated)

In a world of dragons, magic and technology, a world that has been drastically changed from what we know, the weakest man alive must rise to overcome the greatest evil and discover a thousand years of mystery and secrets. Alfonso Vivyander Brockovich the third, one of the seven High Lords of Alfirea, is the weakest man to ever walk the face of the earth. But when he learns of his impending death, he sets out on his one and only adventure to face Vackzilian, an evil wizard set on controlling the Empire. Unknowingly, his actions set in motion a series of events that will change his life forever and the fate of all Alfirea. Will he succeed, or will he perish at the hands of darkness? Only time will tell.