Being a 'difficult woman', Oklahoma farm-gal Mavis wasn't having much luck with the local dating pool. Her Pa signed her up to emigrate to newly terraformed Mars, because 'Mars needs women'. Maybe there she could find a good man to marry. But Mavis had no intention of getting hitched, despite what the legal contract said. Walt, the son of successful Mars merchants, had no intention of going through with a forced arranged marriage. Finding a kindred spirit in Mavis, they chose their own path. A quirky sci-fi romance with a frontier vibe. **** Open Novella Contest Short List and Honorable Mention **** **** Open Novella Contest Round Two Ambassador Pick **** **** Novella Grand Winner - 2025 NanoWatt Awards ****

#99 The royal family needs a male heir to the throne, and they're willing to accept any boy, even if he's born to their least hinged relative. ~~~ When family is twisted around madness, dark things happen. But is it really madness, or the symptom of a deeper truth than the world could bear? Ivan the Bloodthirsty rebelled against the crown and was locked up for his misdeeds. King Boris and Queen Radoslava were as unworthy of the crown as Ivan, but as they wee the couple in power, they wrote the rules on who was fit to rule and who was not. Ivan's half-brother Andrej and wife Nadia rose to power after Boris died, but as they tried to have children, every chance for an heir failed. Andrej knew what his mother, Radoslava, had done, and blamed The Cup of Madness, a demonic chalice that warped the world into bouts of decay and destruction for their current misfortunes. As he felt injustice was wrapped around their futures, he chose to secretly gain an heir off his mad brother, which meant having a woman, Milena, seduce him while he was imprisoned. Raising Prince Laszlo and Princess Leena would have been a fairytale in a happy kingdom, but decay rots their world, men are monsters, and the only protection for a little girl in need comes from the demon within the chalice. And it only holds enough power to make more demons, in order to save the world. Will the child drink deep from the cup and sacrifice herself to fix what went wrong? Trigger Warnings: Mildly Graphic Murder,

A vampire named Citlali receives an email from an old lover who broke her heart centuries ago. The message says the immortal is dead and she left a key for Citlali in a bank in New York. But the same message had been sent to two other persons whose identity Citlali ignores and the safe can only be opened if the three of them are present. Dear Citlali is a queer polyamorous paranormal romance. This story is set in the For Centuries Universe but can be read as a standalone. Cover by Bartholomé Girard

Anchor Morningstar owns and operates the Resting Point, a hole-in-the-wall tavern sitting right on the border between life and the afterlife where travelers catch a brief respite before passing through a portal for judgment day. For years, Anchor has lend a kind ear to those desperate souls and has offered words of encouragement as he polishes glasses and serves drinks. All this changes the second Cass stumbles into the bar. Carrying with her a tremendous amount of guilt and remorse, she begs Anchor to let her stay, so he offers her a warm bed and some tender loving care for the night. The outcome is not as expected. In hell, they say that soulmates are real and dangerous. They hold the power to bring someone back from the brink of death or tear their soul in half. Only the devil has no heart, and he has already claimed Cass as his soulmate. Warnings: 🌶️ High Heat Level 🤬 Swearing ☠️ Touch Her & Die 🦸🏽‍♂️ Anti-Hero 💓 Dangerous Love 💋 Two domineering, broody love interests who are hot and larger than life (but might deserve love) 😈 Dark Humor Read with caution! ~~~~~ This is my entry for ONC 2024 based on the following prompts: Prompt #7: You are the barkeeper, the owner and operator of the resting point between life and the afterlife, being a kind ear to those who have passed on. Prompt #25: Soulmates are real and dangerous. They hold the power to bring you back from the brink of death or tear your soul in half. And a devil with no heart is the soulmate that awaits you. Prompt #32: A drunk dare and the biggest mistake of your life. A sin you can't wash off your hands. After all, blood leaves its traces and so does the taking of a soul. | Round Two AMBASSADORS' PICK | ~~~~ © Sal Mason/Fire Rose 2024

Peaky Blinders meets Bonnie and Clyde. **** Eighteen-year-old Kit Jones has spent his life on the wrong side of the law. Having grown up poor in London's seedy East End, Kit has fought tooth and nail just to survive. Emily Masters cannot say the same. Born to rich parents, she's been handed everything she could ever dream of on a silver plate, but she longs for adventure. When Emily and Kit's lives collide, they find they have more in common than they first thought. Hiding from the police is one thing, but when Emily's parents come looking for her, the two must do whatever they can to avoid being caught. They quickly realise that a life on the run is no life at all, but they may have gone too far to get out. Based on Prompt 14: "My Love, believe me, waiting for you has always been a form of freedom." - Alexandra Vasiliu.

| Amby Awards 2024 Top Pick | Ever since she was injured in a terrible accident, Cordelia Williams has felt adrift. The accident claimed more than her limb; it ruined her reputation and destroyed her dream of becoming a famous painter. Worried that her disability makes her a disgrace to her prominent Regency family, Cordelia tries to find other ways to contribute to her family's legacy. But Cordelia's mother is determined to keep her hidden at their country estate--especially after a wealthy gentleman begins courting her beautiful sister. When Cordelia's father arranges her exit from high society, Cordelia is faced with a difficult decision: accept the quiet life her family planned for her, or overcome her fear of being seen. ☆ FEATURED @HistoricalFiction @ShortStory @Wattpad Ambassadors

He might become the next small town hero with stars in his eyes... and a monster in his veins. Good has a dark side. Evan Mack's football coach will do anything to win. He has the formula for success that took last year's starting quarterback, Xavier Rhodes, to the state championship and beyond. If Evan participates in the coach's secret fitness and diet program, money and fame, and even his high school crush, the girl of his dreams, Lexa Thorn, will be his for the taking. By winning all the big games, he could become a small town hero. But having your dreams come true, comes with a price, a dark side. Austin Campbell, this year's starting quarterback was found dead under mysterious circumstances, opening up the starting position for Evan. Rumors circulate that his death wasn't an accident as the police reports claimed. There could be a murderer lurking in their small town. Evan's greatest fear is monsters in the dark. The last thing he expects is to become the Monster in the dark. Problem is, that monster wants out, no matter how hard he tries to keep it locked in its cage. And when it comes out, no one is safe, not even the girl of his dreams, or the other girl-next-door with the glasses and straight A's who happens to think the world of him. Open Novella Contest Story Vampire/Werewolf Prompt #3 3. Your greatest fear is monsters in the dark. The last thing you expect is to become the Monster in the dark. Small Town Hero Cover Credits © <a href='https://www.123rf.com/profile_virtosmedia'>virtosmedia</a>, <a href='https://www.123rf.com/free-images/'>123RF Free Images</a>

Regulus died in a dark lake. Sirius died falling through the veil. The brothers both awake with lingering memories of limbo's message of trying again as well as the multiple lives they're meant to proceed through simultaneously. Disclaimer - I don't own Harry Potter. This story is one of my ONC projects for 2024, but the inspiration for this story is prompt number six. "Your life as you know it has ended. Somewhere in Limbo you're met with the message: 'Something went wrong. Please try again.'"

Zoe, a high school sophomore, has learned the hard way she wants nothing to do with dangerous love and alphaholes. Cruz is her safest bet for a prom date--a top athlete who has never been noticed in any stereotypical bad boy behavior. She has no clue he's that way for a good reason. Wild partying leads to kissing, kissing leads to passion, and passion can activate his dormant vampiric gene. So, he fixes his classic car, plays ball, and listens to Zen music on the regular. Basically, he'd do anything to avoid falling in love, even with Zoe. Too bad a certain Ancient vampire wants Cruz's unique abilities and she has no scruples about thrusting Zoe and Cruz into dangers far beyond what they have wisely tried to avoid. First published: February 6, 2024

"#97. It is your first day at your first job, and you discover the library you'll be working in is very haunted." Constance Penrose has worked before. Not for a job, but the make-work of the workhouses of Victorian England, for those they couldn't sell to the factories. That and the money made off her labor wasn't her's to keep. This was not the place an Earl's granddaughter was supposed to end up in. Reconciliation with her family landed her back in the lap of luxury, where the inevitability of her world was marrying a cousin, much like Queen Victoria, a stranger without the wealth to back a season, or a job the family wouldn't balk at. Cousins marrying in the Victorian era wasn't too uncommon, but Constance was pushed into the workhouse by Aunt Letitia's machinations once, and marrying into the family she wanted to hurt promised to be a life of misery, whether it be the polished heir Victor, the indecently wild Walter, or the rebellious child James. If only her love for them was stronger than her hate of their mother, she could give in. Instead, Constance persuades her parents to let her find work or gain an education, anything but the fate of a Tragedy. Mother's mysterious past helps introduce her to Lord Listings, and Constance is offered a job at Listings Women's Library, if she can handle the oddities that surround the Women's Library. And haunted is just the start of it.