{2026 Open Novella Contest - Round 3 Qualifier} {Ranked 1 in #bandmembers (5/1-5/21)} {Ranked 1 in #songwriting (4/22-4/25)} {Ranked 2 in #drummer (5/1-6/11)} {Ranked 2 in #opennovellacontest (5/5-5/15)} {Ranked 3 in #onc2026 (6/11-6/15)} {Ranked 3 in #guitar (5/12-6/11)} {Ranked 6 in #nostalgia (6/11-6/15)} {Ranked 10 in #selfdiscovery (6/11-6/15)} {Ranked 10 in #romance-friendship (6/11-6/15)} "𝘔𝘴. 𝘔𝘪𝘴𝘴" 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘦𝘳-𝘥𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘯 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘶𝘴𝘪𝘤 𝘥𝘳𝘢𝘮𝘢 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘪𝘯𝘨, 𝘳𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘯𝘵, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘤𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘥 𝘢 𝘣𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘨𝘳𝘦𝘸 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳 - 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘸𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘵 𝘤𝘰𝘴𝘵𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘬𝘦𝘦𝘱 𝘤𝘩𝘰𝘰𝘴𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘴𝘢𝘧𝘦𝘳 𝘱𝘢𝘵𝘩 𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘭, 𝘧𝘪𝘯𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘺, 𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘥𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰. Althea has always considered herself unlucky in love. What she never realized was that love had been circling her for years, just slightly out of step. On her thirtieth birthday, the four-man band who shaped her youth arrive late (as always). One confession breaks the careful silence they've kept for years, forcing the past into the present and cracking open a decade of almosts. They chose friendship because it was safer. They stayed professional because it was necessary. And sometimes... life, simply and tragically, got in the way.

The creator of a 26th century matchmaker is anti-romantic, but when an analyst challenges her views, she relives painful memories, exposing her technology's flaws and threatening her identity. ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Kayla Lacson believes that love is a biological equation that can be solved. She is the brilliant mind behind Dorothea, the most advanced AI dating application of the 26th-century, designed to calculate compatibility with extraordinary precision. Kayla's world is crafted in data, logic, and predictable outcomes. That is, until Mathew Matel, a Behavioral Analyst whose brilliance matches hers, joins her team and challenges her views. When Dorothea's latest revision loses public trust and corporate pressure mounts, he becomes the catalyst that forces Kayla to confront buried trauma, uncovering the flaws of her creation and fracturing her carefully structured reality. Despite Dorothea's calculation of their incompatibility, Kayla finds herself drawn to Mathew. Flashes of his face begin to haunt her as she tries to unravel his unexplainable familiarity. And when her very identity is threatened by tangled feelings, she must decide whether love is something to manipulate or something to surrender to. ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ ONC 2026 Round 1 Winner and Ambassador Pick Round 2 Winner and Ambassador Pick ｡ ✴︎ ⋆⚛ 🤖 ⚛⋆ ✴︎ ｡ Genres: Romance SciFi Speculative Fiction Unconventional SciFi Hard SciFi Slow Burn Romance

#ONC2026 |🏅Round 1 Ambassador Pick | Speaking to the dead is permitted, but raising the dead is forbidden. After discovering an unlikely copy of The Necrotic Guide, budding necromancer Emelie is both delighted and disgusted by the powers the book promises. Will it be enough to speak to her lost love again?

#ONC2026! Kalila Karam has it all. Beauty, smarts and a promising career at Stillwater Research, a secretive risk analysis and special operation firm based in Washington D.C. She also has a past that few know about, one that's left her with physical and emotional scars from the bombing of a civilian bunker in Iraq. She's made her way to Stillwater for one thing: revenge for the death of her family. Seth Stillwater has a double identity. The scion of a ruthless family business, most people know him as a former soldier turned freelance operative, Ax Antonov. He's summoned to take over the family business, the very same corporation where Lila has been recently hired. When Lila and Seth meet, grand-finale style fireworks go off for both of them. Seth's overwhelming attraction to Lila has only one problem. Lila's out to kill him.