Randall Cashe, a mechanical and electrical engineer, joins a team of scientists in a Mars-mission habitat hoping to rake in a massive payday. Their goal: to produce their own air, water, and food while testing the building with simulated disasters. When the outside world succumbs to a lethal airborne pandemic, the hermetically-sealed structure is suddenly the safest place on earth. As tensions among the group of scientists rise, Cashe has every intention to not only survive, but thrive. After all, why would he let a world-wide apocalypse and a few murders prevent him from making a profit? The parts I publish initially will be 90% where I want them to be. Feel free to criticize anything.

In the silk-producing valleys of the Kingdom of Naples, Renza, the daughter of a respected silk merchant, has been raised within the careful order of family and tradition. Lucien arrives as a restless outsider, marked by a past he cannot escape. Around them move others bound by secrecy and survival, including a spy for the Inquisition trained to live between two worlds. As tensions deepen and suspicion spreads through Silk County, their lives draw toward a tragic event history has nearly erased. Echoing the ancient myth of Galatea and Acis in a 16th century setting, Silk County explores how love endures in fragile and often dangerous spaces, where even the most delicate threads can bind souls across time. #ONC2026 contest. Story is complete. Prompts: #16 - Into the forest I go, to lose my mind and find my soul. And a slightly modified version of #104 - while wandering through the woods, you dismiss the rustling behind you as nothing more than the wind through the trees until you turn around realize it isn't wind at all. Content Note: This story contains references to non-graphic sexual situations. It also draws on historical accounts of the Inquisition, including themes of religious persecution and some chapters contain acts of violence. While these elements, as well as 16th century attitudes toward women, are handled with care, they reflect the realities of the period and may be difficult for some readers. They do not reflect this author's viewpoint.

|| 𝐑𝐄𝐕𝐈𝐒𝐄𝐃 𝐄𝐃𝐈𝐓𝐈𝐎𝐍 || After a flagrant display of cosmic irreverence, 𝗘𝗹𝗶𝘇𝗮𝗯𝗲𝘁𝗵 𝗘𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘀 is left adrift. With no place to call home or plan for the future. Only a useless degree, unmedicated anxiety disorder, and a penchant for burnout. So when a lifelong friend offers her a chance to start fresh in the sleepless city, Ellie does what any hopeless soul with nothing left to lose would do; she takes it and doesn't look back. Life in NYC is more complicated than a small town girl could have imagined. And it would seem the universe still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Ellie finds herself torn between two worlds. Between her forbidden feelings for two enigmatic men. Between her wanton desires and her lifelong ambitions to finally make something of her sad, little life. The scales must be weighed. Between lust or power. Between desire or reason. And she must also ask if those are really the only options. What if she wants more? What if she wants it all? And what is she willing to do to get it? Ellie must confront not only her past, but the deepest parts of herself. Neither the city nor these two annoyingly handsome men are going to make it easy. And only two things are certain; the universe has a sense of humor and... 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙝𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙬𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙞𝙩 𝙬𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙨.

Held captive in the aftermath of a devastating attack and facing being sold as slaves, two strangers comfort each other, and as affinity grows, they conspire to overpower their guards and regain freedom. Jarvis is the son of a mariner and Gillian is of noble birth, but ignoring class differences, their mutual respect becomes love. This is a story of intense emotions and brilliant ingenuity set aboard a trading ship bound from the Caribbean to London early in the reign of King George.

❄️🌸The Ambys 2024 Romance Favourite🌸❄️ ❄️Nora, a young woman not quite content with the direction her life had taken, decides to take a step back and restart from the beginning. ❄️Leaving her city life behind, and turning a deaf ear to the advice of her very unsupportive and never-happy-with-her family (a stepmother, and two older stepsisters), she comes to live into a small, medieval spa town, where she inherited a tiny cottage set on a castle grounds. ❄️She only hopes to find a job, possibly as a guide in the wonderful castle she loves, to be able to make ends meet... However, she finds much more than that, waiting for her here-- a new life, entirely different from her previous one, happy memories of her childhood and teenage years, friendship, and maybe love. ❄️But, nothing is as easy as it may sound, especially not figuring out Martin, the charming veterinarian, Nora's new friend, who acts as if they knew each other from the beginning of times, a man shrouded in mysteries of everyday life. ❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️❄️ ❄️A chistmassy winter romance,❄including themes of several of my favourite classics--❄Cinderella, Jane Eyre, The Little Prince❄-- set around a castle❄️ ❄A story about a new beginning❄and finding love in the process❄

A dragon, a dwarf and an elf walk into a bar... But only because that bar is on their way to tracking down the lost heir in a last-ditch quest to save the kingdom from a very long list of very bad things. And also, quite possibly, because the more of the kingdom they see, the more they find themselves in need of a drink. So, grab your halberd and your mead and buckle up - it's time for a road trip, fantasy-style.

Defenceless, its heroes all gone, the world faces a new threat from the unlikeliest of sources. Desperate times call for desperate measures and desperate measures call for Section F. But for all their world-saving and/or carb-handling credentials, Agents Peregrine and Fields can't tackle this situation on their own. They're going to have to find new heroes. And, just maybe, give the definition of the term something of a stretch...

A young woman beginning her nursing career in 1950's rural Ontario is sent to provide care in the home of a dying woman. Once there, she finds herself thrust into a decade-long dysfunctional relationship between the woman, her sister, and her husband. Content: this story contains scenes of sex and sexual activity. **please note, this story is complete up to the chapter "1957," however, I have been adding marked unedited chapters.

|| A Gladiator's Queer Star-Crossed Love Story|| *** The former Champion of Champions gladiator seizes a chance to forge the next prodigy of the arena, but when his bull-headed student and would-be-lover proves to be a hardcore enemy of the Empire, they both must decide what's worth fighting for. *** Three defeated Roman legions escaped to a whole new world through a mysterious portal. Their new Empire is savage, merciless and bloodthirsty, especially toward the natives of Naciscor - - the Barbarians. This descendants of Rome love their gladiatorial games no less than the Romans on Earth. When the former Champion of Champions Maximus seizes the chance to train the next champion of the arena when his school buys a new barbarian slave, his path to the pinnacle of his career is not easy. The bull-headed student and would-be-lover proves himself a hardcore Enemy of the Empire, sworn to destroy it. Then, the Empress bids Maximus to annihilate this Enemy, offering him a lot more than the Champion of Champions' title as a reward. So, Maximus must decide if he is a puppet of Imperial propaganda, or a man who fights for more than glory, more than his own life, more than anything he used to value. *** First published: February 1, 2022