The Demon Diaries are a series of paranormal comedy stories. A HINT OF MAGIC - Prequel Dora Carridine is fed up with her life as a preacher's daughter and sets out to explore the darker side of life instead. If she can find some magic in the world, then maybe she will find a place she belongs. When she comes across a coven of witches, she takes on their trials to try and join them. But the witches aren't all they appear to be, and Dora finds herself slipping into a darker world than she imagined. She has to make a choice to do the right thing, but Dora's never been very good at doing anything right... DEMONIC DORA - Book One She's finally managed to summon her first demon... Dora Carridine is trying to summon a demon, but she's not very good at Latin and nothing ever works out the way she plans....

For months Summer is trapped in a cellar with the man who took her - and three other girls: Rose, Poppy, and Violet. His perfect, pure flowers. His family. But flowers can't survive long cut off from the sun, and time is running out...

"The unfixable; the shattered; the torn; the broken. They all come here. It's my job to remake them, because once its broken there is no going back to the way it was. It must be remade." Six individuals. Six unique stories. Five exercises. One room. One mirror. One therapist. One goal. Odette is put into group therapy after one-on-one therapy doesn't work. She meets four other people who have gone through the same thing she has. She also meets her group therapist Cleo Patricks. Cleo's methods for therapy might not be what some people call "ethical" or "compassionate" but they have been proven to work -- or that's what the medical journals say.

************************************************************************************** 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.

Cli·ché: a phrase or opinion that is overused and betrays a lack of original thought. Meet Pepper Ballard. Independent, single, and sarcastic as hell. Pepper fights her own battles with pride and is officially #done with clichés. Unshaven werewolves, pale vampires, flawless and talented female vampire hunters who instantly fall in love with the enemy even though they want to kill the hunter's entire family... Please, give her a break. The more Pepper tries to avoid these nauseating clichés and destroy them, the further she is dragged into a dark, supernatural world that is her own virtual worst nightmare. A world that includes a bunch of sexy, mysterious, and dangerous men lurking around every corner... Wait...what's the definition of "nightmare" again? * * * My writing page! Please join! http://www.facebook.com/pages/Kat-aka-katrocks247-from-Wattpad/208740202517075

[SAMPLE ONLY. PUBLISHED IN OCTOBER 2016] - LINK TO PURCHASE E-BOOK ON MY MESSAGE BOARD! "Why are you being nice to me? I'm a freak, I'm blind," Riley had once asked her, but Ellie could never answer that question, and she would never be able to. Ellie Burke is just this simple town girl, who will never look at the wrong way about anyone. Moving to Florida means everything to her - she could turn over a new leaf, start a new life, and get the chance to actually be someone -and not just this useless nerdy girl. Everything's going well for her until she meets this boy in her English class - and he's the most interesting, unique person Ellie has ever met. The boy who lost his sight. She's going to fight for what her heart wants every step of the way. This is Ellie's story, and it's going to be one bumpy, complicated romance that's nothing like the fairy tales say. A story of hope, trust and what true love really means.

For daydreamer Maddie, obsessive compulsive Clare, over dramatic Isobel and happy-go-lucky Sophie, life is more a world of tragic than magic. Maddie battles against the constant monotony of a job she hates while her heart aches to follow her dreams of setting up her own cake-making business and turn her talent into a career. But will she escape to the Wonderland world where she feels she truly belongs? Clare's inability to banish the image of the teenage ugly duckling she remembers hampers her ability to believe she is good for anyone or anything. After being coerced by well-meaning friends to sign up to an online dating site, she soon starts to realize that looks are not everything and that she is just as quick to judge a book by its cover. Isobel has the looks, the figure and the confidence...or so it appears. After landing the lead role in a new play written and directed by the beastly Guy Edmundson, she follows her mother's advice to find a gorgeous hunk in time to escort her to the after-show party. But it is only when she cuts herself free from the ties of a fake persona and stops living up to other people's expectations that the unexpected happens. Sophie has everything her girlfriends crave - a job she loves and a devoted boyfriend who worships the ground she walks on. But when she chooses to doubt her own worth and believes in a poisonous rumour, it threatens to tear her world apart. Will the girls ever be able to believe happily-ever-afters are not just reserved for fairy tale fiction and will they find the magic to put everything right?