Imagine the second you're born, a consultant removes you from your mother's grasp and runs a battery of genetic and physiological tests on you. Thirty minutes later they give you a score out of one hundred which denotes your level of perfection. If your score is above eighty and you work hard to maintain that score you will have a charmed life; well fed, well-rewarded, spoiled. But fall below eighty and you're labelled Flawed, and life will not be so kind. Hannah is adopted by a Flawed family when her birth parents choose their social standing over their daughter and endures a life of struggle, hunger and service. One day Hannah is escorted to the regional government office and told that the Consultant who delivered her, who labelled her Flawed got it wrong! Now, she is being relocated back to her birth parents, to live as one of the Ninety-Five- all medically and legally judged as perfect. Entering this new life Hannah has an impossible decision to make which puts not only hers, but the lives of everyone she cares about at great risk. "The Numbered- where no one wants to be number one". Authors notes: -This is a first draft of my story and will be edited soon. -2013 Began writing Flawed -2015 Watty Winner/ Named changed to The Numbered -2016 Completed The Numbered -2019 Optioned by eOne for development into a TV show.

Twelve-year-old Carmen has a secret: she can talk to her cat Grim. But the powerful Brotherhood has banned pets, and the penalty is death. Ward is the most wanted boy in the world. The only thing standing between him and the hangman's noose is master criminal Saint Nick. In exchange for Nick's protection, Ward must find the long-lost horn called the Oliphant, said to have the power to wake legendary beings known as the Sleepers, whom Nick believes can aid him in his guerilla war against the Brotherhood. This leads Ward to Carmen, whose family has a long and mysterious association with the Oliphant. Ward and Carmen are soon hot on the trail of the horn, but the Brotherhood are closing in on Carmen's family. Ward and Carmen realise that waking the Sleepers may be the only thing that can save Carmen's parents from certain death. If only they knew how. FOR READERS WHO LIKED Scarlett & Browne - Jonathan Stroud Fly By Night - Frances Hardinge His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman

One of the winners of the Once Upon Now contest! Feet Aren't Made for Walking will be renamed Truth Be Told and will be published by Gallery Books, an imprint of Simon and Schuster, on October 11, 2016 in the Once Upon Now Anthology! ---------------------------- Leo Clark is having a really bad day. He's been transported into a topsy-turvy alternate universe (not a good thing when your mom's expecting you home for dinner), he's recently acquired wooden extremities and is physically incapable of telling a lie (an even worse thing when you pride yourself on not sharing your emotions), and his little sister has been kidnapped, mistaken for the lost princess of the Land of Pittsborough (the worst thing of all because...please refer back to the part about Mom making dinner). In order to save his sister and find a way home, Leo will have to confront an evil queen who lives in an office cubicle, a few mice with horrible fashion sense, and a girl with green skin and webbed toes (but hey, at least she's kind of cute). And he'll have to do it all before the clock strikes midnight or risk being trapped in Pittsborough forever. Now if only he could figure out how to walk on his wooden feet... --------------------------- This short story is a modern day fairytale mashup, partially inspired by Pinocchio, The Frog Prince, and many others. Enjoy!

I'm pretty extraordinary (read: absolutely normal) for an average guy named Patrick- Patrick Kraker, and before you ask, no, I do not want a cracker; neither does Polly. Polly's sick of crackers. a) My summer job may or may not involve spray painting myself completely silver and standing motionless in the park. Of course not. b) I also may or may not be investigating and communicating with a homeless guy who is (possibly): one, not actually homeless and two, part of a cult of (probably) bloodthirsty satanic worshippers. *** Copyright © 2015 by unfurled All rights reserved #34 Humour Featured as of 28/04/16

Six teens are devoted to a game with one rule: If a player gets tagged, they must change their life within the next fifteen minutes. The better the player, the bigger the change. One might give their car away, or punch the school bully. Another might change identities or sacrifice their virginity. Anything to keep evolving, to avoid fitting into a label or caring about the junk they own. But their quest for enlightenment has taken a rotten final turn - one of the players has murdered the game's creator, the teen prophet (cult leader?) David Bloom. Our narrator is being framed for the crime; can he clear his name and discover which of his lifelong friends is the murderer before he takes the fall? [sic] is a gritty teen murder mystery that delves into the psychology of enlightenment among the criminally dysfunctional.

-1997- Willow Monroe and Kennedy Danes have been best friends since drawings were assignments in school. They've been joined at the hip for years. They love riding bikes together, smiling for real, and laughing, even at the wrong times. Once their senior year of high school comes around, Kennedy becomes terminally ill. Though he has plans that don't involve sadness, he still needs to find a way to tell Willow he only has six more months to live. Willow and Kennedy can never say the word 'goodbye'. They have this agreement to say Hello up until their last time spent together. The sixteenth of August in the year of 1997 is when Willow and Kennedy say Hello for the last time. -2006- Nine years later finds Willow in the smallest hospital of Chicago, working as a registered nurse. There she meets Wyatt Blanquette, a curmudgeonly patient with untapped wisdom and heart, beneath a stony exterior. When they agree to be nice to each other instead of abundantly rude, Wyatt eventually shows the fact that he sees a light in Willow that cannot burn out. Everything changes once Wyatt reveals to Willow his heart-wrenching secret. Willow's thoughts bicker and she has to determine whether she should suppress the feelings she's afraid of reliving, or to let them be seen - with her heart wide open. #10 in General Fiction | hit the featured list