Keely Staub has grown up. At least that's what she thinks has happened. No longer a naive eighteen year old being introduced to a music industry that's equal parts grandeur and grime, she might even be considered a veteran. At just twenty six, she's lived almost too much of a life in the intervening years since she first came to New York. A great love and a great band, not to mention more than a few unsavoury addictions picked up along the way in the time honoured traditions of the rock stars before her. And she gave it all up - except the rock star part, of course. That was a different Keely Staub, a more innocent and wild one all at the same time. She's determined that person and all the things that came with her will stay in the past, and has a very clear path laid in front of her. A measured, smart, hopefully one day respected, path. The problem is the past refuses to remain the past.

Stereotypes. I hate them. On my first day at my new school, a girl in a blue and white cheerleader's uniform told me I 'looked like a cheerleader' and asked me to come to tryouts. I almost decked her. Blonde hair and blue eyes do not a cheerleader make. Cheerleaders can be bitchy and mean but they can also act all happy and excited and they can drool and swoon over Finn Wallace – the hands-down hottest guy in school – like there's no tomorrow. Me? Well, I'm just bitchy and mean. So someone please tell me why Finn Wallace is suddenly chasing after me? *This is NOT a Bridgit Mendler fan fiction* Copyright © 2013 CrayonChomper

A devastating blast destroys civilization as Beatrice knows it, forcing her to face an entirely new kind of life. But life after the blast has more wonder and hope in it than she imagined. ***** After a series of atomic blasts force Beatrice Hicks and her family into their prepper bunker, they emerge to discover they are among the survivors of a nuclear apocalypse. Soon they find themselves clashing with rogue groups and contending with death in their quest to survive and build a new life in this daunting world. Amidst it all, Beatrice must fight to maintain her humanity, so that she can learn to see the beauty in her life after the blast and even find love where she least expects it. 2014 Watty Award Winner! Content Warning: death, gun violence, and assault