Sarah loves Christmas time. There's only one flaw in such an enchanting time: Christmas gifts exchanges. She's the most unlucky girl ever at Christmas parties. And she hates every minute of it. Until this year.

19 year old Zara Greene - a hopeless romantic whose only Christmas wish is to finally find love - volunteers at the local mall to help get the Christmas decorations into place, but her incorrigible carelessness leaves her falling for; or in this case, on, a blue-eyed passerby. Cameron Knight, notoriously known for his knack of being extremely vindictive, agrees to let Zara make it up to him. Completely oblivious to Cameron's reticent intentions, Zara takes him to all her favourite places - including the Year End Carnival, held annually to raise funds for charity - hoping he'll come like it as much as she does, thus eventually forgiving her. Will Cameron stay his spiteful and unreasonably vengeful self? Or will he just end up falling for Zara, as she did him? This is a story on how the spirit of Christmas, mixed with the odd circumstances of life, ignites a spark between two people, faster than you can say, "Merry Christmas!" The question is, will those embers turn to flame? Word count: 2810 COVER BY @octaves

An aspiring writer finds sudden inspiration for his latest project after watching a documentary on government corruption. After working tirelessly to complete the story, he becomes paranoid that his fiction tale may be about to parallel his own life.

It's only a month to Christmas, and twenty year old Molly Simpson has only one thing on her wish list. . . To find (and kiss) the guy of her dreams before the year is out! And when her best friend Jess convinces her to sign up to Tinder, her life soon becomes one big photo -shop fest - filled with half - naked torsos and fake profiles galore! Her worst nightmare. But things soon ramp up when sex god and lead singer of a famous rock band, Josh Logan stumbles across her profile and with just one swipe she's hooked. . .

🎄 This is the early draft of A Wish with a Bow. The published edition is now available in ebook & paperback on Amazon and other retailers. Callie Ericsson isn't asking for much this Christmas-just a little peace, a drama-free family dinner, and maybe a date who won't vanish before New Year's. Instead, she finds herself juggling her sister's sharp remarks, rejection letters from colleges, and a string of anonymous notes determined to ruin her holiday spirit. The only thing keeping her (mostly) sane? Wrapping gifts at the mall. It's repetitive, sure, but Callie secretly loves knowing she's adding a little extra joy to someone else's Christmas morning. That, and the fact that Brett-the mall's maddeningly charming maintenance guy-keeps showing up at her counter. He's infuriating, unexpectedly sweet, and far too handsome to be interested in someone like her... right? But the holidays have a way of exposing secrets right along with feelings. And when it comes to matters of the heart, Callie might just discover that the best gifts can't be tied up with ribbon.

RUDOLPH NORTH'S UNOFFICIAL AND INCOMPLETE CHRISTMAS BUCKET LIST: ITEM 1: Buy jammies for his dog, Coco ITEM 2: Try online dating ITEM 3: Bake homemade cookies using the recipe he found online ITEM 4: Talk to that new, cute girl down the hallway ITEM 5: Forgive, forget, and love again © crewneck dec. 18, 2014 - #129 short story