~ONC 2024 Honourable Mention~ ~~~ Alaric, the King of Silmarea, recently married to his beloved husband, needs an heir of his own blood to secure the throne. With the help of Emrys, his court magician and best friend, he recalls his youthful escapades and discovers a daughter he once had with a woman he had loved in The World Beyond The Stones (our world). He sends an unlikely but trusted trio on a quest to find her and bring her home-- a brooding dragon shifter and Highlander who owes him a favor, a dashing elf whom he loves like the son he never had, and a loyal, kindhearted dwarf, the elf's best friend. Alaric, the last scion of the old gods, weary of ruling the country and ready to retire and enjoy his love life, doesn't know that this quest will bring much more than he ever bargained for, setting in motion events plotted by the destiny that will challenge his kingdom and legacy. ~~~ Cover: My own picture.

When an orphaned, DACA, pre-med student with a secret gift and a fiery CEO with a legacy to protect are forced into a marriage of inconvenience, the Mayan Moon isn't the only thing causing turmoil. Roger Catzín, a pre-med student with a knack for healing wounds with a whisper and a touch, never imagined his nightly stroll under a blood-red moon would derail his life. But then again, Central Park has a reputation for surprises, and not all of them pleasant. Enter a dramatic old man with a cryptic message, and Roger's life flips from mundane to mystically entangled faster than you can say, Mayan Moon. On the other side of town, or more accurately, on the upscale side of life, Claire Williams navigates the corporate jungle with the grace of a seasoned CEO-a title she earned but now fears losing to the whims of fate, or worse, a grandfather who apparently moonlights as a matchmaker from beyond the grave. When Roger and Claire's worlds collide, courtesy of a will that reads more like a romantic comedy plot than a legal document, they find themselves legally bound in holy matrimony. Who said romance is dead? Mayan Moon is a novella that asks the important questions: Can a man who talks to the moon and a woman who commands the boardroom find common ground? Will they uncover the mystery behind the old man's attack and the secrets Chester Williams hid in his will? And most importantly, can two strangers fake a marriage without killing each other or, dare we say, falling in love? Dive into a story where magic is real, the moon is a guide, and love is... well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. Roger and Claire have enough on their plates trying to figure out why fate (or a very eccentric old man) decided they're a match made in legal documentation. Mayan Moon delivers laughs, gasps, and maybe, just maybe, a belief in the magic of the unexpected. Participant in the Open Novella Contest 2024 | Prompt: A midnight stroll and a meeting with a frantic stranger.