On a routine training patrol, the last thing Lt. Commander Wraia Clay and the crew of the SNV Cobra are expecting is trouble. But when a frontier colony seems to vanish off the face of the universe, they are dispatched to find out what happened. What they discover is an apocalyptic trail of destruction on an interstellar scale. Following the carnage through system after ravaged system, Clay soon finds herself in a race against time, hunting for an enemy unlike anything she's ever known. And if she fails, billions of people will pay the price.

[Completed] The Royal Guard of the Empire has faithfully served Byzantia for nearly three centuries now. Hand picked from foreign lands, these guardsmen hold no political ties, carry no agendas, and bare no creeds except to those who sit upon the Onyx Throne. They are vanguards, protectors, loyalists. They are Vangen. Change has come to the Empire. An Empress sits upon the throne now, destroying any who would rebel against her with both fire and iron. To the east, her loyal Vangen work to quash the newest rebellion, until a letter arrives one day, marked with the Empresses seal. The contents within bare only dread and disturbance for the Guardsmen. The Black Ministry, the former Emperor's cabal of Sorcerers, have turned against the Empress. The Vangen's return is bittersweet. The city they once called home is now a battlefield, every street a choke-point. Every home a possible nesting ground for rebels. The Royal Guard will have to fight tooth and nail to put down the Ministry and protect the Empress, but the deeper they go, the harder the lines begin to blur. In a world where good and evil does not exist, where then does a man's loyalty lie? (Comments and Feedback are always appreciated)

Selina Rose leads a normal life as a princess: attending balls, tending to her garden, and going to school. But soon enough things start to fall apart. Nothing makes sense in this princess's castle: the walls seem to hear secrets, the library seems to talk, and her family does not seem to be quite normal after all. Selina and her older sister Alyssa untangle the mysteries that lie behind their own history, as well as the land that they rule. Hidden and twisted between lies beyond repairing, these sisters use all their wits to crack the case. Best Rank: #3 in Elegance

************************************************************************************** An outcast rogue must break a curse put on his fate, or die on his nineteenth birthday. To survive, he'll need the sword of a maiden, the aid of an immortal, and the power of forbidden magic that could cost him the only girl he ever loved. ************************************************************************************ *** THE JACK OF SOULS won a Silver IPPY this year! *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the PNWA Competition in Fantasy! * *** THE JACK OF SOULS won 1st place in the Southwest Writers competition! * *** A "Featured Book" on Wattpad! * *** Now a "Staff Pick" on Kickstarter! * *** Available on Amazon in paper, hardback, and ebook ! * *** My contract with Kindle Select won't allow me to post more than 3 chapters here, but... *** Sign up for my newsletter on stephenmerlino.com for alerts when it's free on Amazon! * MY INSPIRATION I wrote this out of pure love of trickster rogues; I love the wit over brawn motif -- Odysseus over Achilles, Raven over Eagle -- so I like to play with it in my stories. In JOS I set the rogue and con-artist Harric against a foil of warriors in a land threatened by magic and civil war. Whenever possible I turn familiar tropes on their heads: instead of a handsome young Lancelot, I cast a broken-down ex-champion addicted to pain-killing herbs; instead of a dashing Squire Brian, the old knight reluctantly takes an ambitious young woman as squire. Similarly, I re-imagine the standard medieval milieu by infusing aspects of two of my favorite historical periods, Elizabethan England, and The American Frontier. Both eras boast a kind of nationalistic arrogance that borders on hubris, and a magnificent spirit of resourcefulness and re-invention that is fun to play with. SERIES The Jack of Souls is first in a series. I am posting parts of the sequel here now (The Knave of Souls), to help me refine the story.

Complete || Grand WinnerNanoWatt2024 || A SciFi Lite Adventure in small town America. Blurb: Lacy just wished she hadn't seen what she did in the distant night sky over the small country town she called home. But she had seen it. In her mind she relived the events she had witnessed tonight, and yet all explanations fled except for the one that made the most sense to her. They were being invaded. ━━━━━━ ◦🛸◦ ━━━━━━ 𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝗧𝗼 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝘄 𝗧𝗼𝘄𝗻 Not far from the Gulf Coast the small, very ordinary town of Brew Town, Alabama was established around the only industry that existed there in 1879. The local brewery. If you lived in Brew Town your job was bottling beer and then after work, you imbibed what you bottled. Macallan Crete has lived here his entire life. But he hasn't let that little fact disrupt his perfect little life. Sarcasm and bar fights rule the day for Macallan and that was a normal reality for him. Until it wasn't. Lacy Thibodaux. The sweetheart of Brew Town. Daughter of Deputy Storey Thibodaux. Also a life long resident of Brew Town with a true love/hate relationship for Macallan Crete because she just never needed his kind of drama making her look bad all over town. But what would happen when the normalcy of Brew Town was suddenly invaded by strange flying objects, leaving it's quaint landscape riddled with fear and loss. Could Macallan save the day? Could Lacy depend on him? Could she even trust him? As Brew Town devolves into anything but normal, thrusting these life long frenemies together for better or worse the whole town stumbles along with them to fight an unseen terror that threatens life on earth in ways none of them could have ever imagined. About Brew Town Loosely based around the real live town of Brewton, Alabama, a quaint and beautiful town in South Central Alabama about 100 miles from the panhandle of Florida and the Gulf Coast. WendyyWolfe

In 1600s Virginia, a small colonial village sprang up unceremoniously on the sacred burial grounds of the Native American people it was taken from, the Nottoway. Now, an ancient evil has been awakened in the form of Elementals known as The Bird People and it is suspected that the Nottoway Tribe has cursed the ground in revenge for being encroached upon by colonial settlers. After failed crops, still births, deaths, burnt homes and facing starvation, superstitions run rampant and the townspeople do the only thing they can think of in the late 1600s to appease these angry and destructive spirits. Give them an offering. It is quietly decided by the elders of the community, in an effort to keep these spirits of the bird people at bay, that every woman should give up her first born infant daughter to them. One such young mother cannot bear this resolution much less imagine giving up her only child. In order to keep her only child, a daughter, she makes a baby out of straw and gives that instead, bringing chaos to their puritan village. A cursed girl. The man who loves her. A questionable death. Native American Lore. Elemental Guardians. A village built on sacred burial grounds. What could go wrong? -An ONC Shortlisted Winner- -ONC Ambassadors Pick- MAIN PROMPT No. 56 In a world where humans and magical creatures coexist a detective must solve a murder case that threatens to plunge the two communities into war. **My twist of the prompt is that the 'other community' are Wendigos. Wendigos are similar in effect to Skin-Walkers. Ⓜ️𝗥𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 Will include: Paranormal Activity, Ritual Activity, Superstitions, Early American Colonial Life, Native American Lore/Subjects, Descriptions of child birth and death. Maybe some difficult situations.

Series #1 "In the heart of the Lake City, amidst whispers of corruption and shadows of the past, Natalia Waverly, a private investigator, is drawn into a web of grisly murders that unveil a haunting truth: sometimes, the darkest secrets lie closer to home than we dare to imagine." Original Work All rights reserved to me _______ Updated Weekly on Saturdays and Wednesdays.

The young man Ye Tian obtains the ability to copy the talents of others and now fights against the heavens to change his fate. He struggles to survive and protect his sister from the apocalypse of the alien beast invasion. In order to become stronger, he begins to explore the unknown world and gradually reveals the secret behind the invasion of the alien dimensions... ... Ye Tian: Hello there, my friend. Your Metal Armor Rhinoceros is quite impressive. Can I touch it? A certain girl genius nodded, confused. Ye Tian touched the Metal Armor Rhinoceros and secretly replicated its [Defense] talent. Ye Tian: Let's be friends! Ye Tian extended his right hand to shake hands with a prodigy who had a puzzled expression on his face and secretly replicated his [Regeneration] talent while oddly smiling. From 2019 to a world 100 years later, Ye Tian declared that there is no talent that he cannot replicate in this era . With this, A man with the ultimate and strongest talent is born. Ye Tian: In this life, I'll go beyond the stars. ... Hey everyone! If you're enjoying the story, please leave a rating and review on Wattpad or Novel Updates! For announcements or to report mistakes, please join my Discord: https://discord.gg/WvPmVkAgFC Thanks for your support!

What happens when Ms Innocent, Chelsea-Anne Richards is kicked out of her dorm room and has no place to stay? What happens when a curly-haired stranger offers her a place with his best friend? His best friend, Kyle Chambers aka Mr Rude. Rude is an understatement, not to mention that he's a womanizer too. He can't stand her and makes sure to mention it every time. She hates to admit it but the guy is drop-dead gorgeous. He looks like a page straight out of a Calvin Klein magazine. What happens when Chelsea is dragged into the dangerous rollercoaster that is Kyle's life? Will Chelsea be able to deal with all these changes? Also... will they ever be friends? Probably less. But... maybe M O R E. Join Chelsea and Kyle through their ups, downs, college life, ridiculous rules, illegal activities, many many arguments, psycho brothers, dangerous fathers, missing sisters, bitter exes, arch-nemesis and most importantly... their crazy, crazy friends. You don't want to miss it. #1 in dragracing [23/04/2020] #10 in roommates [23/04/2020]

Series #1 "In the Lake City plagued by darkness, a tormented police sergeant moonlights as a vigilante serial killer, walking a razor-thin line between justice and madness, as a new sadistic killer emerges, threatening to expose her deadly double life." Original Work All rights reserved to me _______ Weekly updates on Fridays And Mondays.