to catch a skylark || onc2022

❝and what wonders hide in the spaces between our worlds?❞

A Normie's Guide To Mind-Reading | ONC 2023

If you'd like to pick up mind-reading, look no further! This unorthodox guide by a normie draws on first-hand encounters with mind-readers, which means you get an outsider's perspective. If one day you find yourself unable to read minds anymore, or it suddenly occurs to you that you could never read minds, pray that 1...

Amateur

Mac Dorvis is surviving life - and even that's a stretch. She hates her job, her dad takes off without a look back, and she gets mugged by the poor soul she was trying to help. Word to the wise: riptides hide below the calmest surfaces.

Bunker 77

"The pain of freedom is better than the pain of slavery." - Saladin *** For almost a century, a part of humanity has lived underground, in a bunker designated to shelter the vulnerable from the unending war. The people in the bunker, known as the Division Two people, had no knowledge of the outside world except from t...

Blank Slate | ONC2023

|| ONC2023 SHORTLISTER x 3 FEATURED || "𝙰 𝚋𝚕𝚊𝚗𝚔 𝚜𝚕𝚊𝚝𝚎 𝚒𝚜 𝚗𝚘𝚝 𝚗𝚎𝚌𝚎𝚜𝚜𝚊𝚛𝚒𝚕𝚢 𝚊 𝚌𝚕𝚎𝚊𝚗 𝚘𝚗𝚎." Denizen is Blank Slate, the number one villain in the region-except he doesn't remember it. With only a cryptic note telling him his eight rules, he sets out to discover just exactly who he is and...

Perturbed Kind | ONC 2023

Four strangers are trapped in an elevator and forced to reveal details about their most malicious deeds within the hour to prevent a fall to their death. But as secrets are exposed, tension escalates, leading to a reality no one is prepared for. ***** Tasha Pierce receives an anonymous invitation she believes is from...

Inside Man | ONC2023

SHORTLISTED. Paul Finn wakes to discover that not only is he feeling horribly sick but, more worryingly, the naked stranger in his bed isn't moving. If only he could remember what happened... My story for the ONC 2023, a thriller scifi adventure, with a touch of romance. (SciFi /Adventure / LGBT)

Dragon & Dreamer | ONC 2023 honourable mention

Liha wants to avenge his family. If he has to become one of the king's men to do this, he will. But in the capital Penira, the golden city, he learns fast a man has to prove his worth. Sword in hand, if needs be. Dánirah hates the city, and people of her tribe are not welcome there. But she must deliver a message to o...

Bones on Mars - A paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy romance

The mission - colonize the slopes of Olympus Mons on Mars before the Pacific Alliance lands. The challenge - something isn't quite right with the site foreseen for the colony. Explorations reveal a cave where the support struts for the home dome are supposed to go. It gets worse - not only does the cave move, but it...

Deliciously Deadly: a Red Riding Hood retelling

When stupid little Lottie threw a stick to throw off a monster (spoiler: it didn't work), she did not expect that it would lead her down the path of an unordinary life with a very unordinary husband. ✽ ✽ ✽ All Lottie had ever wanted was to live an ordinary life out of the shadows of the mistakes she had made as a seve...

Red Flag

Reviewing restaurants is normally a safe pursuit, but Kate and Lorne face torture and death when they try to unravel organised crime's infiltration of the fine dining scene. Kate is a novelist and a dining columnist. Lorne is a lawyer, a prominent wine writer and an incognito restaurant reviewer who, since his teens...

Ghosts ⚔️ Blackbeard's Treasure

A cunning Pirate's long-lost treasure. A three hundred-year-old curse. A wicked taste of rum. ------ When dangerous paranormal activity threatens her life, teen psychic, Lizzy Summers, decides to quit her job with Boston's Chills N' Thrills Ghost Tour franchise. She starts a new life in the Bay Area with her boyfriend...

The Lease Up

Rescued from a blind date from hell, a career woman's one night stand with her would be savior has unforeseen consequences. **** Up and coming New York apartment manager, Vanessa Torres' life is going perfectly according to her five year plan. Well, everything except...

A Cat-alytic Taxi Ride | ✓

"Excuse me, mister, but why did everything suddenly turn black and white?" A miserable adult who prefers to ignore everything, including their dying father. A concerned neighbor/friend/something more with curious connections. A taxi driver who doesn't bother to ask where the passenger wants to go. And a cat with unc...

Aeipathy | ONC 2023

🏆ONC 2023 || Ambassador's Pick 🏆ONC 2023 || Round Two Qualifier One night is all it takes to change a life. There's something wrong with Felicity Farr. It's how she can't seem to do her job right no matter how hard she tries, and how she's still under her parents' thumb years after moving out, and how she looks at...

Ikshan's Library [Completed]

Zoé is a young immortal. She is only 186 years old. Currently, she works in an incredible library of the occult, located in Budapest and curated by a very old immortal called Ikshan. Unfortunately, one day she stumbles upon a terrifying monster in a hallway of this very library. That was definitely not in the job desc...

The Balance Game | ONC 2023

Legend speaks of a man with crows in his hair and stitches in his lips who will teach you his greatest trades. Some call him a monster. Most call him the Needle-Mouthed Man. But only the shadows know his true name, and they call him Master. As one of the dead, Minseo Park is a creature of the night, doomed to eternal...

Son of Mah

[Pride Awards 2023, hosted by official lgbtq , Romance Category Winner and 5th Place Grandwinner] The foster son of a former cupbearer marries the cursed king of Persia, becoming not only the first consort to survive after the wedding, but also a threat to many conspirators. **** Shahrya...

Veins of Smoke and Shadow ✔️ || ONC 2023

Buried in the wreckage of a Compound meant to imprison her, Faine awakens a shell of her former self. With no memories and a growing taste for revenge, she is given the ultimate decision. She must save the city, or herself. Round One 》✅️ 2k 》✅️ Round Two 》 ✅️ 8k 》✅️ Round Three 》✅️ 20k 》✅️ Longlisted 》 ✅️ 》Fe...

First Frost (ONC 2023 Novella, MxM Paranormal)

A contemporary Scandinavian adaption of the legend of Jack Frost/Jokul Frosti. *** A first kiss changes everything. When Joakim kisses his childhood friend Anton it puts their relationship and also the weather in turmoil. Snow starts to whirl over Stockholm, turning the capital into a chaotic state. Is Joakim's emotio...

The Weekend in Room 512 | ONC 2023

Ethan Wong, an ex-prodigy violinist, thinks it's not meant to be. After his latest mental breakdown at his last violin competition, where he placed tenth out of ten contestants, he's not sure why his music professor appointed him the soloist for their New York concerto. Cameron Langley, the star college baseball ath...

Hang It Up | ONC 2023

Canadian Piper Ouellet is going to Paris. She knows the language, she knows the city, and most of all, she knows her ballet. Offered a place in the corps de ballet in the most prestigious ballet in the world, Piper and her best friend Rafael don't even think twice before they accept. They cannot wait for the grand ad...

The Book of Miranda | gxg | ✔︎

Desdemona ''Des'' Winchester wants nothing to do with Melliford Academy. In fact, she's pretty sure her parents shipped her off to boarding school just to get her out of their hair. It's a move they'll come to regret if she has any say in the matter. Nothing humiliates posh folk like having a daughter sent home from t...

Idiots to Lovers (bxb)

||WATTY WINNER 2023🌟|| Two strangers pretend to be a couple to win a dumb bet. The wager: they must enrol in couples therapy and fool their counselor. _________ Updates every Friday at 2pm (BST) _________ Six non-refundable couples counseling sessions. That's how many Clementine booked for him and his girlfriend to...