[WATTY'S 2024 SHORTLIST] Seventeen-year-old, popular Athlete, Ontario Hackman struggles with identity, and the fact he may be facing something deeper-rooted than the surface, and when fellow gay boy, Nathaniel Ericson comes along, out and about, with his rainbow bracelets, and his shameless crush on the Popular Athlete, and begins experiencing torment at the hands of his peers, Ontario realizes just how much easier it is to stay hidden. But everyone knows, What's done in the dark will always come to the light - In the gilded halls of his high school, seventeen-year-old Ontario Hackman is the epitome of perfection-a star athlete, a charismatic leader, and the heartthrob of every party. But beneath the surface of his flawless facade lies a turmoil of uncertainty and hidden desires. When Nathaniel Ericson, openly gay and unapologetically himself, arrives with rainbow bracelets and an unabashed crush on Ontario, it sets off a chain reaction that shatters the delicate balance of Ontario's carefully curated life. As Nathaniel faces relentless bullying at the hands of his peers, Ontario is forced to confront the shadowed corners of his own identity. The conflict between staying hidden in the comfort of his popularity and embracing his true self becomes a battleground for Ontario's soul. As their worlds collide and intertwine, Ontario and Nathaniel must navigate the tumultuous waters of love, acceptance, and self-discovery. [Word count: 45k) #1 in mentallyunstable out of 3.97k (July 4th, 2024, 10:39 AM)

The land of Radenor is in need of salvation: the royal family and court are corrupt to their very core and full of vipers and backstabbers, the church is malevolent, people are starving, death has become a frequent guest of the mendicant people. A betrayed princess sacrifices herself to get vengeance for her ruined mind and life. A newborn prince will become the ultimate weapon for her bloody revenge. He is a half-demon necromancer who was born for an express purpose: become strong, destroy their enemies and regain the throne. Prince Alexander Leonard Radenor is starting his journey, along the way, he will have to master his skills and try to avoid losing himself in the process. After all, there is a reason why necromancy is considered the forbidden art: there is a thin line between using them and letting them use you. Still armed with his magical prowess, martial skills and the abilities granted to him by his demonic heritage, Alex presents a serious threat, the one that the royal family and the court would do well to fear. **This dark fantasy series will be updated every Tuesday and Friday**

Frank Hartman is going to prison, which means his organs are now for sale. Frank meets a cryptic old man in the neighboring cell who's been harvested eight times and knows the ins and outs of prison politics. Tension mounts when a mysterious young guard takes interest and meddles with Frank's case. Desperate to avoid harvesting, Frank relies on advice from his big sister Jane who works for the nation's largest harvesting company. But in the end, without Jane by his side, Frank realizes he has to fend for himself for any hope of exiting prison in one piece.

Gael has always been an outcast and a weirdo - but when he moves to the small town of Imperium, he finds himself in the middle of a supernatural community, he didn't know he needed, or existed. It only becomes more interesting when the local hot vampire boy asks him out on a date. As a previously lonely werewolf, with zero social life, Gael starts to finally feel comfortable - but only until the murders. An array of bodies starts showing up and the obvious suspect is the one person who turns into a monster every full moon; Gael. The supernatural society starts picking sides, with Gael in the middle, and he has to figure out who the real killer is - on top of also graduating university and keeping his relationship and friendships healthy. Content warning: graphic violence, sex, depictions of bullying and mental illness. Wattys Shortlist 2024

[ONC 2023 and Wattys 2024 winner!] Drug dealer Nathan just can't be bothered to care about some of the stranger things in his life. Like the spellbook he found, complete with working magic and all. Okay, fine, maybe he tried one spell, and maybe that ended with his curtains on fire. Lesson learned: leave forces you don't understand alone. Powerful magic or not - for Nathan, this is just another Wednesday. Not everyone shares his opinion. When YouTube sensation Jamie insists on making a video about his discovery and said video goes viral, Nathan finds himself in a spotlight he completely failed to foresee. While he struggles to adjust to his newfound fame, Jamie and her oddly charming eccentricities drag him into a wacky investigation of his magical tome's origins and true nature. Finding answers shouldn't be that hard. But Nathan's criminal associates want his spellbook for themselves. And they'll stop at nothing to get it. ~Book one in the Witchcraft Wednesday Investigations trilogy~

***2024 Watty Awards Shortlisted*** https://www.wattpad.com/list/1642504418 **Action/Adventure Second place winner of The Fabulous Writer Awards ** War. For as long as memory serves, it has consumed the lands of Druzatria, stripping away freedom and peace from the kindred who dwell there, claiming countless innocent lives as casualties. For Onyx, life has been blood and sand. She is a gladiator, made for battle, bound by chains. She was forged in the Queen's arenas, raised not as a daughter but as a weapon, honed by violence and bloodshed. Abandoned by her father and gripping to the fading memory of her mother; she's learned to bury any weakness deep, to survive at all costs. Though her power rivals that of the strongest, she is bound-imprisoned by the Queen's merciless hold, wielded only as a tool of destruction. The arena has sculpted her into an unbreakable warrior, yet she is locked in a relentless struggle with herself. Haunted by the urge for something more. Until an Orcish Halfbreed enters the pit, the clash of their blades ignites a fate neither could foresee-a fight that will alter the course of her fate forever. Setting both on a path neither expected. Will she fall further under the Queen's iron grip, or rise and claim the one thing she has fought for her entire life? Will she lose everything she has fought to keep? And is she willing to pay in blood?

Wattys 2024 Shortlist and sequel to the Wattys 2021 winning story (Sci-Fi category), "Foston Slacks - Time's Flies". Foston and Clara saved the multiverse, which was great, because Clara was the one that endangered it in the first place. Afterward, Foston left her back in her drab, boring, humdrum, safe life. For all of a few hours. Now he's back, with a new, adorable and cuddly face with news that the multiverse is in danger, which was probably also because of Clara. With time running out, and Time helping out, Clara and Foston must seek out the source of all the trouble. Well, the other source. Travelling through space and time, exploring strange new worlds, seeking out new ... wait ... wrong franchise. To save the multiverse, Clara must go to Hell and back (not a euphemism), to a world populated by very familiar people and to a Tibetan monastery two hundred years in the past where both cricket and jazz are invented far too early. Foston and Clara. Together again to save the multiverse. Again. Cover created in Canva, using stock pictures from Pixabay.

When Piper discovers she has hidden cybernetic implants, she is inducted into the secretive AmpCore Academy to master incredible gifts, in a place where the impossible and possible collide... WINNER IN THE 2024 WATTY AWARDS AND GRAND FAVOURITE IN THE 2024 AMBYS * || WHAT WOULD YOU DO IF YOU WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO EXIST? || Hadrian is a city split in two. One side lives under the iron rule of competing tech corporations. The other is a wasteland, destroyed in a schism between human and artificial intelligence, stalked by code-wraiths, mad AIs and berserk cyborg abominations. When streetkid Piper is attacked by a rogue codewraith from Hadrian South, she discovers that she has hidden implants that no normal person should possess. Not willing to tolerate such an anomaly, the corporate overlords of Hadrian rip Piper out of her life and send her to the secluded AmpCore Academy, where she is set on a new path, whether she likes it or not. At the academy it quickly becomes clear that the wraith attack was no accident. Someone, somewhere, tried to murder her. Plunging into the murky world of corporate politics, academy cliques and gangland wars, Piper has to find out who wanted her dead, and stop them before they try again. || AmpCore: Book 1 || - [COMPLETED] *NB. this story contains strong language.

At age six, Pullman Grier was abducted by a monster. Held deep underground in the Ontario wilderness, he and four other children laboured for years, scrounging for the creature's food, until the day the impossible happened: Pull slew the monster. Three children crawled out of the cold earth and made the long, bleak trek back to civilization. Now an adult in frozen Winnipeg, Pull scrapes by on a minimum-wage job, a stomach destroyed by childhood malnutrition and a grim sense of humour. The only good thing in his life is an online group that uses image recognition to search for victims of human traffickers and return them home. Then, a local boy vanishes. Unable to find help, the boy's desperate father approaches Pull's group. Only Pull sees the calling card of the monster that took him sixteen years prior. The monster that is supposedly lying dead and buried in the Canadian wilderness. Knowing the thing that stole his childhood could still be abducting children and that more will be taken if he fails, Pull scours secrets buried in his old prison. Secrets that have lurked in the darkness just beyond the firelight for all of human history.