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!

She wakes with missing hours, a burning imprint carved into her shoulder, and no memory of who put it there. Nyxara Blackvein is an assassin who survives by control. Control over her body. Her blades. Her choices. But the mark beneath her skin has a will of its own, pulling her toward Stillreach-a city protected by an impossible shield and a power no one dares to name. Torin Cross was never part of the plan. A half-elf swordsman with a charming smile and secrets of his own, he's headed in the same direction for reasons that don't quite add up. When violence forces them to fight side by side, trust forms before either of them is ready for it. Whatever waits in Stillreach is already watching. Prompts used. 32. Two assassins from rival organizations are sent on the same secret mission, only to realize the assignment holds a much bigger truth. 86. A wasteland hides pockets of thriving communities protected by mysterious shields. 99. You wake up with a strange mark on your skin after a late-night encounter you can barely remember, and its meaning grows more unsettling by the hour.

Jareth Coppersmith and Pol Flynt have one thing in common. They kill for a living. One works for GAME, the powerful Guild of Airship Mechanics and Engineers and the other, for the Royal Spymaster. But what happens when they are unknowingly sent on the same secret mission? At best they are rivals, at worst, mortal enemies. SciFi / Thriller/ Steampunk/ LGBT

Mari thought that coming home to a ghost town 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 © 2026 caterina george // all rights reserved

Coming Soon.

Spring arrives quietly.... soil rich with fertility, petals swaying and a garden that has never known wonder. Until one flower blooms where none should. When reaches for the first flower of spring, the world does not change all but It opens. A single touch pulls her into a place hidden between seasons a world where gardens guard secrets, portals breathe softly and magic has learned how to wait. What was once ordinary becomes dangerous and what blooms beautifully may burn just as fiercely.... because some flowers are not meant to be touched. Some doors do not open without consequence and some creatures long thought to be myths have been watching all along. In a story where spring is a threshold and the garden remembers everything, one choice will decide what is saved... and what is lost forever.

Celia Jones can talk to the dead, but getting on with them is a different story. She always has at least three spirits following her around, complaining about their relatives, or the inadequacy of their funeral arrangements. The latest is a murdered actress, Maude Domby, but she's less interested in denouncing her killer than in accusing the understudy of stealing her favourite pearls. When the charming but utterly fraudulent medium Stanley Winter holds a séance to contact Maude, Maude insists she and Celia should attend, to see people mourning her 'properly'. But the séance ends up implicating an innocent woman, and now Stanley Winter is banging on Celia's door, begging her to help him find Maude's real killer. Unfortunately, helping Stanley Winter could lead Celia to confront her other power - the one that's both lighter and infinitely darker than talking to the dead. ONC Prompt: 72. A real necromancer sits in on a fake séance.

Lady Marigold Lennox knows the rules of the Season. Follow mother's orders, secure a match to protect the estate, and never let longing for romance or feelings ruin a perfectly sensible plan. With her inheritance on the line and her seventeenth birthday looming, she intends to marry quickly. At a pre-Season flower arranging class for young ladies, Marigold finds unexpected allies in two other girls navigating this new world beside her. One too sweet to be seen and one too scandalous to be forgiven. Together they must enter society and await it's judgement. Then she meets Oliver Harrow. Practical, intelligent, and refreshingly uninterested in control, Oliver seems to be her perfect solution. A marriage of convenience would benefit them both. Marigold can secure her inheritance, and Oliver gains better standing in society - each free to live life largely as they please. Love, after all, is an unnecessary complication. Or so Marigold insists. But whilst Marigold is content with simple friendship, Oliver's heart begins to want what their arrangement forbids. As the Season unfolds, her friends' struggles force Marigold to confront her own heart. Friendship with the man she is to marry feels safe, but that doesn't mean it's the path she's meant to take. With her heart no longer following the plan, Marigold must decide between the safety she wanted and the love she never expected. Written for @OpenNovellaContest 2026 Prompt Used: 24. Staying as friends feels safe, but that doesn't mean it's the path you're meant to take

History forgets carefully. Names fade. Temples crumble. Gods learn how to sleep. In the old city once called Kaharba, an archaeologist uncovers a worn scripture. Its ink thinning, its meaning barely holding on. He reads it aloud without reverence, without belief. Just habit. Just sound. That night, something changes. His phone begins to behave strangely. Uncanny things happen. Voices echo where there should be silence. A name keeps trying to surface. Some things don't need faith to return. They only need to be remembered once. And whatever has awakened is running out of time. (𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐦𝐩𝐭 𝐧𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫: 𝟎𝟔 "𝐖𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐞 𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐭 𝐜𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐠𝐨𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐧 𝐠𝐨𝐝 𝐨𝐟 𝐦𝐢𝐬𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐞𝐟. 𝐀𝐟𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐞𝐱𝐩𝐥𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐢𝐫 𝐚𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞, 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞 𝐜𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐝𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐧 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮. 𝐒𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐝𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐨𝐮𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐟𝐞, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐦𝐮𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐠𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐬.") ONC 2026 entry. Copyright © ipsita 2026

- A slow-burn romantasy with fae courts, false identities, and dangerous choices - "I was taken from my world to replace a girl who was already dead. They dressed me in white, gave me her name, and promised me safety if I stayed silent. I was meant to be a bride. A symbol. A lie. But the prince I was promised to doesn't see me the way he should. And the man who brought me here is watching, waiting for me to break. I am not the girl they think I am. And if the truth comes out, it will destroy us all." #fantasy #fae #fairies #romance #slowburn #enemiestolovers #royalty #forcedmarriage #fakeidentity #darkfantasy #forbiddenlove Note: This story is taking part in the Open Novella Contest 2026 #ONC #OpenNovellaContest