Lili is one of several supernatural "daughters" created by a powerful entity known only as Mother. Their role is to whisper instructions into the minds of humans, nudging them toward actions that supposedly maintain balance in the world. But Lili begins to suspect that these whispers aren't guidance - they're manipulation, sometimes pushing humans toward death. After questioning the system, Mother punishes her by forcing her into a fragile human body, stripping away her powers and leaving her vulnerable. Now hunted by her former sisters and watched by Mother, Lili must uncover what the whispers are actually doing to humanity. The problem: The more she learns, the more it looks like Mother is not protecting the world... she's controlling it.

Fall, 2022: On the Bayou of Southern Louisiana. Ozzy, a 14-year-old artistic honors student, is looking forward to starting high school and the talented theater program. But a whirlwind trip to the ER and an MRI reveals Ozzy has a brain tumor - and later, a pediatric cancer diagnosis - changes everything. During a year-long fight for a cure in the hospital, hope comes to Ozzy and their Mama through art, music and letters from friends, family and even strangers. There are so many that some remain unopened, collected in a box that goes home with Ozzy after they are discharged from the hospital a year later. The box sits in Mama's closet for over two years. Neither Ozzy nor Mama have opened the box as they struggle to return to "normal" life when "normal" is no longer possible. Until today, 2026: when what begins as spring cleaning turns into opening the box, reading its letters, and finding a mysterious adventure in one that neither Ozzy or Mama ever saw coming. And it just may be the adventure 17-year-old Ozzy and their Mama need to reveal the unexpected, ordinary magic that can help them heal, move forward- and live. ONC 2026 Prompts Used: #79 (Main) - Additional: #16, #28, #69, #104. Stacie Eirich @spacetodream

The Winter Folk by Jennifer McMahon meets The Haunting of the Hill House (the Netflix series) in this tale of paleoanthropological terror that plays with the famous theory of the uncanny valley by Masahiro Mori. *** PhD student Giselle Brown returns to her childhood hometown to complete her dissertation in peace, hardly expecting anything surprising to happen. It already muddled her life as it is; she doesn't need more trouble to spice it up. But when the bones of a human cadaver are discovered by the local anglers, which turn out to be the remains of her long-lost mother, Giselle's life is thrown into a tumult. Twenty years ago, Giselle's mother, Julia Brown, had disappeared from their house, leaving behind a trail of heartbreak and despair. The police never found her mother, which drove her father to suicide, her older sister to turn mute and to be admitted in an asylum, leaving the full onus of raising Giselle on her grandmother. Her mother was more a legend in their house than a person who haunted their every action and Giselle's most haunting thoughts. Somewhere deep down Giselle had always sought answers to what happened to her mother and the disturbing facets of the last week she was with their family. Now, with the corpse recovered and identified, the investigation that had once gone cold resumes upon Giselle's insistence. Yet things get stranger as the police uncover the most bizarre facts about the cadaver and the details about the last days of Julia's life. Giselle is plagued by reflections that are not quite hers, shadows that stretch too long, figures appearing at the edge of the woods close to her home and a lingering sense of being watched. Giselle doesn't know what to do. Can she really trust her mind? Or is nothing as it seems?

Edmund comes to the remote village of Black Thickett to escape the life grief has carved out of him. He wants silence. Distance. A place where memories can't follow. But Black Thickett is wrong in quiet, unsettling ways. The broken road becomes perfectly smooth the moment he crosses the boundary. The cottages are too neat, too deliberate. And on a noticeboard full of dry flyers, only one poster is wet. A missing boy, smiling as if he doesn't know he's lost. The villagers won't talk about the disappearances. The forest at the edge of the village seems to breathe, and the deeper Edmund goes, the calmer he feels... dangerously calm. The forest can quiet his pain. It can ease his grief. It can make him forget. But not everything that heals you wants you to survive. Welcome to Black Thickett, where you'll find my entry into the ONC 2026.

Welcome to a long-term poetry project created for writers who want both structure and freedom! Activites will be posted over time, whether you wanna join in, write your own or just read & relax. Use this book as needed. As practice, as play, or as a quiet place to write. Welcome to the work. Welcome to the words. Welcome to the Poetic Pulse!

The Open Novella Contest is back for 2026! Join fellow storytellers and plant the seed of a tale that will blossom into a 20,000+ word novella within 12 weeks! Your epic quest begins February 1st, 2026, so mark your calendars with this date!

Thirty days. The countdown has started, North America shivers under the shadow of a massive alien spacecraft, and humanity is hurtling toward an unknown future that lurks at the end of the timer. Somewhere, somehow, the heroes are making their plans to fight the extraterrestrials. But this isn't about them. From the team at WritersConnX comes a new anthology about the rest of us - the average, the ordinary, the unassuming - and the many paths we run when our time is cut short. And no damn aliens! Written by: WCX Writers & Creators Rodney V. Smith, M.B. Dalto, Jane Peden, A.B. Channing, Eliza Solares, Jinn Tiole, Crystal Scherer, Cayleigh Kennedy, C.C. Starfield, Nova Nicalynn, Leigh W. Stuart, Franklin Barnes, Mags Lorang, Evelyn Hail, Lorraine Tramain, Fiora Voss, Wren Arrior, J.A. Jumphol, Bethany Swafford, Jamie Lemon, Mittu Ravi. Julia Esposito, Cardin Watts, Mikaela Bender, Jovi R, Sam Camp, Mhavel Naveda, Brittannie Charmintine, Van Carley, Henry Scott, Melody Grace Hicks, David J. Thirteen, C. S. Solarys, Hannah J Nelson, Vee Lozada, Eli Gregory, Kristin Jacques, Ben Sobieck, Bianca Di Cocco Compiled by: Rodney V. Smith, Van Carley, Eliza Solares, Ina Ramos

[COMPLETED] (BOOK I IN THE DREAM SERIES) Dani Deleon has a problem. With a single touch, she can see people's nightmares. When she starts to see the nightmares of a sadistic serial killer known as The Maestro...everyone around her becomes a possible suspect. With the help of Detective Jax Michaels, will Dani be able to stop this symphony of murder? Or will this unlikely duo fall victim to the very madman they're chasing? ----- THE DREAM SERIES: Book One: Dream Catcher Book Two: Dreamscape Book Three: Dream Hunter Book Four: Dream Phantom

Jamie is visiting New York City for the first time, and there is something in the air. He hears it in the chorus of humanity and traffic. He smells it in the mingling scents of street vendors, restaurants, and rubbish bins. He can almost feel the excitement. The hope. The desperation. But he senses something else in the air, too. And he is sure it wants to kill him.