A counterfeit claim against a legendary wine ignites a high-stakes investigation in which a neurodivergent restaurateur and a forensic wine analyst must navigate forgery, deception, and their own unexpected connection to save a century-old legacy. Luc, owner of London's prestigious Le Rêve restaurant, faces a devastating crisis when a valued patron declares a prized vintage a fake. To protect his family's century-old reputation, he enlists Izzy, a brilliant but socially unconventional forensic wine analyst, eager to prove her mettle. Their shared autism initially creates an unexpected but undeniable spark of attraction, challenging their focus. But as they delve deeper into the complex world of wine fraud, they suspect a widespread conspiracy that threatens to destroy Le Rêve. Together, they must harness their unique abilities to expose the truth, safeguard the restaurant's legacy, and navigate their intensifying relationship, even as they battle their own internal worlds.

Melinda starts her first day as shift manager of Cozy Retreat with a personal disaster. After spilling coffee into the lap of the most influential food blogger online, she is sure her brief carreer as shift manager was over. An unexpected connection forms and all she needs to do is believe she deserves a second chance. But can Melinda trust her heart as she struggles to keep the secrets of her past and the footprints of her memories beat a path to her door? @XxxSistersxxX is my cover artist. Thank you for the amazing work.

When a killer feral hog invades Verity State Park, Officer Rylee Harding quarantines the entire area until the threat can be eliminated. She soon discovers doing the right thing isn't easy, because summer has just begun, and the livelihood of Verity's residents depends on the seasonal flood of tourist dollars. Facing opposition from town officials, her neighbors, and even members of her own family, Rylee stands firm in her decision and risks her life and the life of her unborn child to face down the remorseless monster. This story is written for ONC2026 using prompt number 78: You begin to realize that nothing is quite what it seems. Jowls, Copyright ©2026 by Dennis Royer, @dennisroyer All Rights Reserved. Cover art by Deviant Art / ArtVixen0520. Used by permission.

If you got anyone to describe Jessie Reynolds-Somber in one word, it would be 'lucky.' She survived childhood leukemia (twice), has the best friend-slash-roommate in the world, and she's studying something she loves at the university she's forever adored. But not even November can describe why she feels so incomplete, as though she's forgotten to do something she'll never get a chance to do. Why she feels like she's failed---no, worse, like she's a failure. [FORMERLY AN ENTRY FOR THE 2026 ONC]

Tris McCoy is having an uneventful summer. It's the summer before eleventh grade, and it's the last summer she has before she has to start worrying about driving, and college, and a career. With her mom being in the hospital and her dad enjoying the title of father out in Australia, she's left to spend the next six weeks alone. Until she (literally) stumbles across a stack of old letters from her pen pal, July Souders. July lives in British Columbia---four provinces away---but Tris knows of a camp she used to attend. Unwilling to spend the summer alone and desperate for any change, no matter the size, Tris sets off for summer camp. [FORMERLY AN ENTRY FOR THE 2024 ONC]

Mari thought that coming home to a ghost town after her mom's death was bad. It turns out it's worse having to attend her estranged father's wedding and letting her childhood best friend break down the walls she carefully built. ***** Mari Chasey's life is suspended. She returns to her hometown in a cold November day following her mother's death, after years of studying abroad in Europe. Pinewood is sleepy in the bitter cold, the deserted shoreline stretching further than she can reach, but that's okay. Mari is good with temporary things and at not lingering. She's not planning to stay for long, just enough to sort out her mother's affairs without poking at open wounds. Then her father returns. Jack Chasey, former renowned superstar, absent for most of her childhood, is getting married to a woman Mari hardly knows. He gets to begin again, build something new, while Mari grapples with a fractured life and all the scattered pieces of herself. Her mother was supposed to live forever; Jack was mercurial and always at arm's length. But now he's here to stay. Enter Kinney St. James. Once Mari's closest friend, then another person that passed by like a comet, she still knows Mari and all the shards of her. Even the sharper ones. In the stillness of winter, Mari reconnects with the quiet life Jack always wanted for her, the softer parts of her that only Kinney can tap into, and what it truly means to be her mother's daughter. ***** Open Novella Contest -- prompts 24, 29, 46, & 77 [[OPEN NOVELLA CONTEST 2026 ROUND 1 WINNER]] © 2026 caterina george // all rights reserved

** 𝑺𝒑𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆 - 𝑹𝒊𝒅𝒆 𝒂 𝒄𝒐𝒘𝒃𝒐𝒚 𝒊𝒏𝒔𝒕𝒆𝒂𝒅 - 𝑭𝒍𝒆𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒄𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒉𝒖𝒔𝒃𝒂𝒏𝒅, 𝑨𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒅𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑾𝒚𝒐𝒎𝒊𝒏𝒈-𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒆𝒏𝒅𝒔 𝒖𝒑 𝒊𝒏 𝒂𝒏 𝒆𝒎𝒐𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒍 𝒓𝒐𝒅𝒆𝒐 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝒘𝒂𝒚 𝒕𝒐𝒐 𝒎𝒖𝒄𝒉 𝒉𝒐𝒓𝒔𝒆𝒑𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓. ** After her husband not only cheated on her but also took her best friend for this little ride, Alice digs up her past, packs her bags and heads straight for the one place he's sure not to follow her: her hometown Grandfalls in Wyoming. What awaits her there is her parents' run-down ranch, dusty roads, stubborn horses - and cowboys who throw her good intentions out the window with a smile. Shortly after her arrival, Alice stumbles upon the charming cowboy Blake at a town festival and straight into a hot one-night stand that turns out to be a load of horseshit the next morning -because Blake turns out to be working at her parents' ranch. As if that weren't enough, Blake turns out to be a charming mess with a talent for chaos, while his gruffy brother Cole criticises her every idea as if it were his personal mission in life. And then there's Byron Carter: dashing, influential, and clearly too interested in the ranch... and in Alice. Between bankrupt finances, broken high heels, old enemies, and way too hot cowboys, Alice quickly learns that a heart is harder to tame than a wild ranch horse. In the end, she is faced with the all-important question: does she trust her feelings, or does she save the ranch before everything goes down the drain?

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!