*The Wattys 2022 Shortlister* Hooked: The Untold True Story of Captain Hook His name is whispered in fear but no one knows how the pirate Captain with a hook for a hand got his moniker... until now. Sebastian Einar, Crown Prince to the Kingdom of Nydeliar, hates the idea of becoming king. Since his return from the Five-Year-War, Bastian has tried to distance himself from the Crown, longing to explore the sea that lies adjacent to his coastal kingdom home. It seems like he will forever be grounded on land, unable to venture out and find the mysteries of the ocean for himself. But when Bastian's father, King Jasper, is unexpectedly assassinated in the night, Bastian knows that bringing his father's killer to justice is something that only he can accomplish. Abdicating the throne to his younger brother's care, Bastian sets sail on a journey of magic, pirates, and revenge that will alter his life forever. *ONC 2021 ROUND 1 AMBASSADOR PICK, Shortlister, and Honourable Mention* Written for Open Novella Contest 2021 (Prompt #1: "You either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become the villain" ) and extended in length for the Wattys

When the sun goes down, the gravestone statues in Willow Hills Cemetery come to life--including Gretta. As a granite guardian of the dead, it's her job to make sure her charge--the snarky, hot-headed, lesbian spirit Quinn Rivera--crosses over and finds spiritual peace. But that's a little hard to do when Quinn's twin brother Jason blames himself for her premature death. And for Quinn to agree to cross over, he must learn the truth of her accidental passing and the bipolar episodes that led her to shut him out beforehand. But reaching out to the living is against the rules, and to break them would mean facing the most power-hungry and terrifying spirit of all: Death. *** Inspired by 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘈𝘥𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘴 𝘰𝘧 𝘗𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘤𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘰 (but not a retelling), Willow Hills is a southern gothic story with paranormal/horror elements. 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐 𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐭𝐲'𝐬 𝐖𝐢𝐧𝐧𝐞𝐫 (𝐏𝐚𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐦𝐚𝐥) C/W: Gore, some violence, and light to moderate swearing. Neurodiverse and LGBT #ownvoice rep.

2022 Watty Winner || At the age of ten, Sanford Crow discovers the worst secret of all--his father is a serial killer. It was the year 1969. Sanford's dream was to grow up to be a detective. Putting his intuitions to the test, he conducts an investigation into his father. The discovery he makes brings his whole world crashing down, and to the culmination of one terrible Christmas morning. Twenty five years later, it's 1994. Sanford is a divorced and a recovering alcoholic, with an eight-year-old daughter named Sadie. His dreams of becoming a detective never came to fruition. Instead, he lives vicariously through his job of being a crime scene cleaner. As therapy begins to open up doors to his past that he'd rather keep shut, the same string of murders that his father committed when he was a child are happening again all around him. Sanford starts questioning his grip on reality. The answers he finds brings his past rushing back, and has him doubting everything he thought he knew about himself, his past, and his own sanity.

A genderqueer hillbilly and a haunted woman must break a generational curse that has entwined their lives in the abandoned coal-stripped mountains of the Pennsylvania Wilds. *** Desperate to flee a dark past, Finley drives off a cliff and prays to the ancient hemlocks below to catch her fall. But in the abandoned hollows of the Pennsylvania Wilds, everything comes at a price. Tasked by an undead Not-Deer, Finley must find the three talismans that mark the mountain's boundaries in order to break a century old curse, one that has not only haunted the women in her family for generations, but has also bound the supernatural beings to the mountain, including the dead. Fortunately, the handsome genderqueer hillbilly up the road, River Hawthorne, is just as eager [maybe too eager] to break the curse. Together, they navigate the woods where hungry trees walk and other demonic haunts roam, growing closer every moment. But breaking the curse also comes at a price and Finley must decide what freedom is worth when her past comes crawling back through the woods to haunt her. HEARTWOOD blends gothic folk horror with cabincore sapphic romance. Rated Mature for violence, gore, sex, language Content Warnings: body horror, alcohol/drug use, transphobic attack, animal death/hunting, DV/abusive relationships, generational trauma, mentions of suicide & infant death Rankings: 1 in #appalachia 1 in #folkhorror 1 in #transmasc 5 in #gothicromance 8 in #sapphic

PREVIEW ONLY | WATTYS WINNER 2022 | If killing a superhero were easy, everyone would do it. But for Julian Godfrey, defeating Storm Warning was far from the hardest part. What began as victory over the city's biggest hero quickly unravels into a mess, once he learns that the mysterious source of Storm Warning's power has found a new host. Charlotte Hathaway has no idea how to use her new abilities, but she won't stop trying until she destroys Julian's alter ego, Citadel. Julian should have taken her new powers from her when he had the chance, but he let her go in favor of a new plan: training her for a real fight. It's the only way to prove he didn't get lucky when he killed Storm Warning, and show the city--and the other villains--that he's a force to be reckoned with. Getting close to Charlotte comes with far more than Julian bargained for. She's the perfect hero. Determined, confident, and selfless above all else. She's even nice to him, of all people. But if Julian doesn't follow through with his plan despite his growing feelings for her, he has another force to reckon with: Blazar, the villain who raised him and taught him to use his powers. It seems that no matter what choice Julian makes, he's going to lose. And it's not just his life in danger. With its biggest hero gone, the fate of the city of New Atlas hangs in the balance. *ANTIHEROES GALORE Badass Author Feature*

Featured on Wattpad - Editors' Choice, Epic Fantasy & Extraordinary Realms (2023) 🏅Wattys 2022 Short Listed 🥇Short Listed for the ONC 2021 There is nothing more terrifying than waking up in an unfamiliar place with no idea of what happened. Alexis knows firsthand what this fear is like, considering she woke up stranded on a sandy beach. The icing on the cake? Zeus whisked her away to the ancient kingdom of Troy. The very Troy from the epic legend, the Iliad. Alexis finds herself ensconced in a world on the brink of war, at the mercy of the gods, and conflicted in her feelings for a young man destined to bring the fall of the great city of Troy. ⭐ WattpadTimeTravel ⭐ MythandLegend ⭐ retold ⭐ TheWarriorGoddess ⭐ BadassReads ⭐ Fantasy ⭐ WattGreek ⭐ WattpadLitFic ⭐ WattpadMulticultural ⭐ WattpadExplorer

[Wattys 2022 Shortlist] The Elven battlemage Gynefra Caul-Marrel has fought many foes over her two centuries. Humans have proven the most obstinate, yet they have forgotten the lessons that led to the War of the Great Coalition. That short-lived race has now spread into the shattered former battlefields of that conflict, building villages atop barrows of ancient dead, toiling away in mines better left abandoned. When a plague spreads through their lands, she is dispatched by the Watchful Tower to investigate. The horrors are much worse than she'd imagined. An unholy alliance has formed in the depths below, which threatens to tear apart the fragile order that's existed since the War of the Great Coalition. It's not enough to simply fight-the Great Evil they face requires a unified defense from every realm. Yet even saving human refugees isn't enough to dampen the paranoia of the Inquisition. The grievances between Elves and humanity have been built over millennia and seem impossible to mend. Yet if they cannot succeed, kingdom by kingdom will fall, until the mortal world is swept clean. Under Gynefra's leadership, a new War of the Great Coalition must be waged-yet this time united in struggle against the Twisted One, who threatens to devour their realms.

Two runaway children steal a baby and attempt to raise it themselves in the world's most haunted hotel. To Ben and Sophie the abandoned hotel seems like the perfect place to hide. No adult will ever find them there. Within its strange walls they can be whatever they imagine: the world's youngest hoteliers, husband and wife - even parents. Then guests start arriving: the Ape and its master, the Egyptian man and his young daughter, and of course, Death. As Ben and Sophie slowly unravel the hotel's secrets, they realise they could become Death's next victims. They must find a way to warn him. If only they could talk to ghosts. Hotel Ambrose is an urban fantasy novel set in the 1980s. It will appeal to fans of Piranesi, Stranger Things, and Stephen King.

Wattys 2022 Shortlist Nominee Inspired by the delightful Curse of Strahd campaign! Darius Starbán, disgraced King of Starkovia, joins up with Demon-Spawn Inquisitor Urien, his ex-boyfriend and wealthy aristocrat Yra, and new friend Astrid as they tromp across the countryside fixing Darius' 400-year-old messes and finding a cure for Darius' vampirism. Based roughly off a Dungeons and Dragons campaign.

(The Madison Chronicles #1) WINNER Wattys 2022! Unlock the power of music, magic, and memory. Inspired by 'His Dark Materials' and the 'Mortal Engines' books, 'Sadie Madison and the Boy in the Crimson Scarf' is the first book in 'The Madison Chronicles': an epic tale of music, magic, and memory. Since the beginning of time, the Narrowers have collected and stored every memory that was ever forgotten in a dimension known as the Vents. Now, at the turn of the twentieth century, the Foretelling-a prophecy that threatens to tear theVents apart-is poised to reveal itself. Twelve-year-old Sadie Madison cannot forget. Anything. Sadie lives with her family in the town of Iron Bridge, on the banks of the River Myr, deep in the Shadow Valley, where she loves reading scary books and playing make-believe. But when her father tells her a bedtime story about the Narrowers, Sadie wonders whether her ability to remember is somehow linked to the Vents; connected to every memory, hope, and secret that has ever been...