Watty Winners
142 stories
The Term Sheet | Wattys 2016 Winner by LucasCarlson
LucasCarlson
  • WpView
    Reads 124,021
  • WpVote
    Votes 7,546
  • WpPart
    Parts 54
2016 WATTY AWARD WINNER - HQ LOVE THE TERM SHEET is a fast-paced technothriller about entrepreneurship, startups, encryption, and the delicate balance between national security and individual privacy. Its complex characters explore thought-provoking questions about the role of technology in an ever-changing society. Step into the high-stakes game played by today's technology innovators, who push the envelope and risk it all. Get ready, this thrilling book gives you a taste of what startups are really like. _____________________________________________________ David Alexander, a young programmer in Portland, Oregon, loathed his job. Computer programming had always come naturally, but being an employee never suited him. So he tried entrepreneurship instead. After making a series of embarrassing blunders, David finally hit on a startup idea that stuck: encrypted chat. Sure there were alternatives, but as Edward Snowden has shown us, most of them (willingly or unwillingly) have backdoors for spies and bad guys. A new approach made David's app one of the most secure options out there, which caught the attention of many people, including Shawn Douglas from the Secret Service. Shawn Douglas worked with eight different presidents, preventing twenty assassination attempts, forty-three terrorist plots and two bullets. When he was promoted to a desk job overseeing and organizing travel, he picked up on a cryptic email thread that hinted at a threat to the President's life. In a race to unravel the conspiracy, Shawn and David both have to make some difficult decisions. Will Shawn stop the terrorists in time? Will David be able to navigate his startup out of a crisis and keep his entrepreneurial dream alive? Or will fate deal them both a crushing hand? Read the book to find out.
Undefined - The Zephyr Book 1 ? (completed)(#Wattys2016) by EinatSegal
EinatSegal
  • WpView
    Reads 1,520,015
  • WpVote
    Votes 91,856
  • WpPart
    Parts 44
WATTYS 2016 WINNER Untouchable. Stone. Jewel - these are some of the names used for people who are born with a gemstone at the centre of their forehead. This unfortunate phenomenon cannot be detected before birth, it cannot be prevented, if a family has a Jewelled child, there is only one outcome: Before they're sixteen, they will have to leave human society forever and serve "the Zephyr". Among the Jewels there are those who have it worse. Those who sport clear diamonds on their foreheads, the Undefined. The downtrodden, the unlucky - the doomed. Cello Riles and Syianne Locke are both Undefined. On their sixteenth birthday, they each leave their homes and travel across the country to the Zephyr, attempting to go into service. Though aside from the place, or thing, that will take them from human society forever - what IS the Zephyr? There are only questions promised, only shadowy riddles guaranteed. Yet faced with no other choice they must venture forth and plunge into the unknown - the Zephyr. [A big thanks to @stpolishook for being a wonderful friend and helping me figure out how to write a better synopsis] COVER BY Abyss-of-Crazy
Willa & the Extraordinary Internship by setphaserstostunning
setphaserstostunning
  • WpView
    Reads 575,413
  • WpVote
    Votes 35,601
  • WpPart
    Parts 49
⭐️ 2016 Watty Award Winner ⭐️ Willa Grainger is your average twenty-four-year old with one exception - she never left her university. A year after she graduated she still remains employed with Professor Paige Grimsby, acclaimed author of the popular Simeon Lee series. Her struggles to find a boyfriend, find a job, and write the next bestseller seem like a walk in the park when it comes to her volatile on-again, off-again relationship with her friend Cynthia Smoak, one-third of their best friend trio. But Cynthia's always been competing against Willa in a game Willa didn't even know she was playing. When she does something unforgivable, Willa's forced to examine her life and her friendships, leading her to a new romance with an unlikely young man - a former student who's convinced Paige stole his undergraduate novel idea. Willa's never been comfortable with change and the experiences she's encountered during her extended internship with Paige makes her question who she is and what happens when the people you're friends with aren't the people you like.
The Alpha's Oracle (SAMPLE, IronMoon #1) by merrywombat
merrywombat
  • WpView
    Reads 15,476,408
  • WpVote
    Votes 246,705
  • WpPart
    Parts 21
"Talk of the Town" Watty winner! Gianna is a Seer : blessed with visions and dreams from the Moon Goddess. Alpha Gabel intends to be the first Alpha King in five hundred years, and his ruthless cruelty and ambition are without limit. Gianna and their Bond are his toy, nothing more. Taken against her will, Marked without consent, and forced to play Gabel's cruel games, Gianna vows to be the one soul that Gabel never conquers. /** This is a short sample of a published book. The full book is for sale world-wide at Amazon, iTunes, Kobo, or Barnes & Noble. :) **/
A Day of Faces by SimonKJones
SimonKJones
  • WpView
    Reads 194,146
  • WpVote
    Votes 13,437
  • WpPart
    Parts 66
A coming-of-age story about a snake girl called Kay and her shape-shifting friend who accidentally uncover a conspiracy and wind up changing the world. ***** Kay is a sarcastic, ordinary high school girl who enjoys her weekends and doesn't think much about anything. Kay is also a green-skinned, reptilian-human variant. In her world, all children born on any given day look the same, all over the world. Nobody knows why. There are extreme mutations: tentacles, wings, fur, horns, and abilities to leap tall buildings or breathe fire. That's just how it's always been and Kay thinks nothing of it, until she meets Cal: a shape-shifter who is on the run and needs her help to uncover what's really going on. Wattys 2016 winner: Trailblazers category "This book is Jumper. . meets terminator... meets...twilight zone." shadowgirlzzz Content warning: This story includes themes of bullying and prejudice.
I Told You, Eli Oxley by ChaseManning2
ChaseManning2
  • WpView
    Reads 155,430
  • WpVote
    Votes 6,402
  • WpPart
    Parts 43
Banks will be hacked. Hearts will be broken. Watty Winner in the Best New Voices category! I TOLD YOU, ELI OXLEY is a novel about guilt, money, hacking, temptation and family secrets. Set in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the story follows would-be nomad Eli, a brilliant hacker doomed to live at home and attend Crockett State University. Eli has never used his hacking skills for illegal purposes, but when he becomes suspicious of his father's money problems, he decides to act, threatening the principles he once held dear, endangering himself, his family and his love, Allison. Eli, though knowledgable with computers, is ill-informed in every other aspect of his life: he's socially awkward, emotionally inept and sexually inexperienced. Maybe that's why he can't seem to get out of the friend zone with Allison. But will he even need to when the hot, physically forward blonde, Kara is coming on to him? Or what about when Al finally reciprocates his feelings? Then there's the intriguing hacker fraternity he joins who may or may not be acting in Eli's best interest. And to top it all off, a family secret he can't ignore that goes deeper than just missing money. Eli struggles with his feelings for the two girls while retracing his dad's digital footprints, digging for both answers and money. Will Eli get caught hacking his local bank? Will he get caught cheating on Al? In the end, escaping Chattanooga might be the least of his problems.
The Wild ✓ by emporiums
emporiums
  • WpView
    Reads 880,233
  • WpVote
    Votes 32,877
  • WpPart
    Parts 28
[ WATTY AWARD WINNER - INTERACTIVE STORYTELLING ] Lily has been on her own since she left high school, and she ventured towards the vast wilderness of the Grand Tetons where she became a waitress at a diner, met her two best friends Amaya and Bennet, and planned to start over in a more-than-hipster cabin in the foothills. The tranquility she has felt is bound to vanish eventually, and the disappearance of fellow neighbors and the arrival of strangers is what brings her peace to an end. [BOOK ONE. BOOK TWO IS "The Anomaly of Gavin Wilde".]
Longhand Letters by kenzie_chase
kenzie_chase
  • WpView
    Reads 717,414
  • WpVote
    Votes 40,268
  • WpPart
    Parts 200
Love is a messy kind of art.
Forced Royal by SugarCubes4
SugarCubes4
  • WpView
    Reads 3,147,121
  • WpVote
    Votes 69,967
  • WpPart
    Parts 50
Arizona Touris is content with her simple but beautiful life with her brother, Miles, and her best friend, Jasper. But when her eighteenth birthday comes around, Arizona is forced to marry the prince. While people tell the couple that they'll grow to love each other, they ask the very important question: What if they can't find a way to truly love each other? What if they just aren't meant to be? *Unedited* Thank you to @ML_Brooks for the cover and fan art! Watty Award 2014 Winner of the category Beginner's Luck.
By the Potomac by ellieerose_
ellieerose_
  • WpView
    Reads 46,949
  • WpVote
    Votes 2,703
  • WpPart
    Parts 22
~Wattys 2014 Beginners Luck Winner~ Liesel Mckormic was a curious girl. She always loved exploring her elegant Victorian style home situated by the Potomac River, and writing wild tales about the disappearance of her father. After a terrible accident, leaving her mother dead, Liesel gives up her hopes of becoming a famous author. That is, until a grand offer comes along that she simply can't refuse. Liesel must discover who she really is in order to follow her dreams✿ Copyright: March 2014 by @ellierose112 All rights reserved No part may be duplicated or copied in anyway ~Wonderful secondary cover by AMorganE~