EDITORS' PICK (November 2019) || COMPLETE Nick Buckingham is three things if nothing else: salty, antisocial, and the quintessential gay theatre nerd. He's content to drift through the rest of senior year throwing himself into productions to avoid his peers - until it arrives. As an anonymous classmate begins courting Nick via text, he's suddenly desperate to figure out just who this dashing secret admirer is--even if it means actually socialising. He'll be fine--so long as he keeps his wits about him and doesn't fall for this probably-catfisher. Can't be too hard, right?

Rachel, Al, Lauren, Joe and Sunny grew up together in Queensborough in the late Seventies, solidifying their friendship by forming the Lawrence Street Detective Club. They found a lost pet or two, and even gained brief fame by helping a kid escape his abusive father with the help of Martha Anderson, a kind older woman on their street. They eventually moved away, but never forgot each other, and thirty years later the memorial for Mrs. Anderson reunites them. Rachel, an accountant fired over an embezzlement scandal, divorced, broke and persecuted on social media, would rather not have her old friends know about her troubles, or about her new friend, who may or may not be a symptom of her deteriorating mental condition, but her sudden assignment as executor for Mrs. Anderson's estate forces her to depend on them. Al, infatuated with Rachel since they were children, helps her catalogue the contents of Mrs. Anderson's house but discovers a new mystery requiring the Lawrence Street Detective Club to get back on the case. Lauren, now a private investigator and married to Joe, never lost the knack for the work they did when they were kids, and works to clear Rachel's name while also reconciling with her own feelings for her. Sunny, the lawyer representing Mrs. Anderson's estate, helps Rachel fight back when the man who originally framed her for embezzlement now wants her removed as executor. And when a shocking development draws them all into helping another of his victims, they'll need to rely on each other more than ever before as they risk losing everything they worked for.

An ONC shortlister! The long-forgotten god of chaos awakes when a small child drops a piece of candy onto his altar, unwittingly becoming the high priest of chaos. The god is beholden to his priest and his priest's people--AKA: his kindergarten classmates. The children are all-too-delighted to serve the whims of mayhem until the chaos becomes too much, even for them. They forbid the god from using his power. But when disaster strikes and the whole school is in danger, a bit of bedlam might be the only thing that can save the children, the town, and the god's budding romance with a schoolteacher. Based on the Open Novella Contest 2023 prompt: #73 - You are a long-forgotten god. A small kid leaves candy at your shrine and you awaken. Now, you must do everything to protect your High Priest/Priestess, the kid, and their entire kindergarten class, your worshippers. #ONC2023 #OpenNovellaContest