| ᴏɴᴄ 2024 ʜᴏɴᴏᴜʀᴀʀʏ ᴍᴇɴᴛɪᴏɴ | ᴏɴᴄ 2024 ꜱʜᴏʀᴛʟɪꜱᴛᴇʀ​ | ᴏɴᴄ 2024 ᴀᴍʙᴀꜱꜱᴀᴅᴏʀ ᴘɪᴄᴋ | x10 ꜰᴇᴀᴛᴜʀᴇᴅ | ❝ ᴀ ꜱᴡᴇᴇᴛ ᴛʀᴇᴀᴛ ᴄᴏᴜʟᴅ ʙᴇ ʏᴏᴜʀ ᴅᴇᴍɪꜱᴇ. ❞ Deathly Delights is a bakery specialised in the art to kill. Poisoned filled muffins, venom coated pastries, cakes decorated with toxins - if you can name it, Taerane Aviris can make the delicacy designed to slaughter. However, when a request comes in from a royal guard to create a pie to end the King's enemy, Tae finds there's a confection she can't make after all. Recruiting the help of a village bounty hunter to assist her in finding a secret ingredient, Tae and Oryal head deep into the enchanted forest in search of the poison. Can Tae bake the pie in time to save her kingdom? Or will her life be paid in forfeit for her failure? COMPLETE COVER BY @-DeeIsDead- (Me) 2024 © -DeeIsDead-

[ONC '24 SHORTLISTER] When a group of assassins is onto her irritating escort, a happy-go-lucky bodyguard must ensure they survive their trip before his escort's past demons catch up to them. * * * No one expected easygoing Aspen Mendoza to be accepted into Interpol as a field agent, but she couldn't be any more excited to finally land her dream job. Her first assignment? Escort Lucas Tan, a public figure with an enigmatic past and an attitude to match, to Davao City aboard a new train system connecting every major island in the Philippines. When their five-day journey is disrupted by the poisoning of one of its passengers, it's up to Aspen and Lucas to catch the culprit before anyone else gets hurt. But little does Aspen know, Lucas is keeping a secret that threatens the lives of every passenger on the train, and she must figure it out before his past demons catch up to them. * * * | 20,000 - 25,000 words. First, rough draft. | Based on ONC 2024 prompts 28 and 60. Cover by @sardonictabby.

Kindness is magic, or so they say. Gabriella has always done her best to turn the other cheek. Even when her family pushes that cheek into the mud she finds ways to forgive and forget. She's got plans to leva one day anyway so what's a few bad days? A chance meeting and a dance at a ball escalates her timeline and she's desperate to escape. Then her family shreds her las ounce of forgiveness. This time, she isn't waiting for midnight.

Death is no mystery to Peggy after living as a vampire for over half a century. That doesn't mean the death of her best friend isn't devastating. Add to that the threat of someone going after that friend's great granddaughter, Maya, and suddenly death has a new fear to it. She'll have to push the boundaries of life itself to uncover what and why Maya has suddenly become a high priority target for a secret society. There might just be answers to her own murder hidden in the web of secrets.

Torn between following a family tradition of being a bounty hunter-one that he's not particularly fond of-and following his dreams of being a private detective, Niel has always struggled to land himself a job and put the food on his table. Few people were willing to hire an untraditional bounty hunter like him, so when he gets an urgent invitation from the eldest son of the wealthy Ravillet family, he is more than surprised. Enticed with the promise of a generous payment, Niel is determined to find the runaway young lady of the Ravillet family despite the lack of clues. With the help of an eccentric adventurer, he follows the trail of mysterious Kasena and her accomplice all the way to an esteemed swordsmanship tournament. But with no clues to go off of, can they really find someone who seems to have vanished into thin air? ⁕⁕⁕ STARTED: 2/17/2024 FINISHED: 11/15/2024 Word count: 27.8k words

Nineteen-year-old Lily Rhodes thought she knew all there was to know about Jacob Turner. The son of a Lord, he's always been known for his rakish ways and outlandish behaviour that makes him the topic of gossip amongst the servants. When Jacob suddenly returns home from London, Lily quickly realises that the stories she's been told couldn't be further from the truth. When Margaret Bolton, a potential match for Jacob, arrives at the house for a visit, Lily finds herself entangled in an affair far more complex than it seems. Based on Prompt 28: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."

Jade is on the run. To escape her old coven, she pretends to be normal. Just some run-off-the-mill witch. Certainly not someone powerful and especially not a life weaver. Taking on the position of the town witch in a seemingly idyllic, quiet, and desolate town seemed like the perfect plan to lay low for a while until she meets Paxton--shifter, Supernatural Security Division agent, and worst of all: witch hunter. When a dark ritual is performed just outside of town, all signs point to the works of a powerful witch. The only problem: Jade is the only witch. Now she has to work with Paxton to find the real culprit before her identity is exposed. The longer she stays, the harder it gets to leave. As the investigation unfolds, it becomes apparent that a high politician is not only behind the attacks, but after something specific. The town guards its own secret, one that forces Jade to compromise her carefully crafted identity or risk the safety of her new home. When her past and present collide, Jade needs to finally face those who have been after her powers all this time without losing everything she's built in her new home. *** Cover made by @allrenwrote

Seventeen-year-old Daisy Rios is the heiress to the throne of The Mystic Kingdom but due to her Earthling origins, she must prove that she is worthy to become the current Queen's successor. For that very reason, a test is set in place to prove that she's a true fairy. Assigned to help a chosen candidate find their true happiness, to succeed, Daisy must not break the following rules: - Don't tell anyone she's a fairy; - Don't fall in love. For years she has fought to be accepted by the mystic people and this test won't destroy her plans to become a queen. On paper, the test looks simple, but when her chosen candidate turns out to be a wealthy family with seven siblings, Daisy isn't sure she can help them without falling for their charm. Being a queen is her greatest dream, but she never thought the path toward that dream would be more challenging than she ever imagined. An ONC '24 entry based on prompts 24 and 36.

Confined to the family's estate since birth, three sisters have never seen the outside world. Taught they are unable to leave home due to their long hair, Lexi, Lulu, and Fia secretly envy their volatile father and narcissistic mother whose short locks allow them to come and go whenever they wish. Raised believing their grandparents live in the TV set, the young women's knowledge about the outside world is skewed. On the eve of Fia's eighteenth birthday, life as they know it is altered when the girls find a young man unconscious in their yard. Believing he is an angel, they hide him in the guest house. Soon Fia's feelings for the man bloom and she finds herself sneaking to the guest house to be with him. When the lies the sisters have been told begin to unravel, Fia decides she will do whatever it takes to escape. The only thing holding her back is her long dark hair. Dogtooth x Rapunzel x The Castle of Purity Warning for abuse, swearing, romantic themes, alcohol addiction, blood, and typical Christine darkness. There is no SA. Best rank: #1 IN OPENNOVELLACONTEST2024 I started writing this story for the ONC 2024. Due to work and life, I could not finish it for the contest. Which made me sad...but I continued...at a snail's pace. Thanks to everyone who kept reading!

Fated for heartbreak or lucky in love? -- Juliana Guo's carefully planned life has gone off the rails. Her once promising legal career is dead, her chances for love lie in tatters around her, and her painstakingly penned magnum opus - an investigative nonfiction book about the Japanese mafia - has been stolen by a homeless man and destroyed in a dumpster fire. Literally. So when she receives the news that her no-nonsense, straitlaced immigrant mother has sold all their worldly possessions to purchase a quaint Alaskan lodge retreat and invited the entire family to winter there for the Lunar New Year, Juliana sees no better option than to pack up her life and travel across the country. But little does she know that her mother has invited another guest: Elliot Chan, the annoyingly handsome son of a family friend and Juliana's most hated academic and professional rival - and what's more, her mother has a matchmaking scheme in mind. With no future prospects and no way home, Juliana is forced to stay at the retreat where she discovers that there is a strange magic swirling in the quiet, whimsical northern town - and that there might be more between her and Elliot than she realized. No matter what happens, Juliana will find out that her idea of a perfect-not-so-perfect life might look very different than she could have ever imagined... -- A cozy and comedic Lunar New Year holiday read, filled with wintry romance, magic, and just a little bit of luck. ;) My entry for the Open Novella Contest!