Julius Q. Bygone: Supernatural Sleuth of Shadows When a Brooklyn smoke shop is hit by a vengeful ghost, desperate lovers call Julius Q. Bygone-a hard-boiled paranormal investigator with a fedora, a red feather, and a talent for dealing with the dead. What begins as a routine haunting explodes into a noir spiral of betrayal, greed, murder, and redemption, where the living are far more dangerous than the ghosts.

When a vengeful ghost begins haunting New York's City Hall, Mayor Adam Winter has only one option left: Julius Q Bygone, Supernatural Sleuth of Shadows.

Aunt Mabel is dead, found lying amongst her daisies in her garden. Two eyes anxiously watch over her. The police arrive, but questions soon crop up. Is it actually Aunt Mabel? And who or what did it? A wild animal? A person? A baby dragon? Something strange is afoot in the Auntie's garden and it's up to Officer Holt Martinez, Estelle, and her cousin Julia, to figure it all out before it's too late. Little does she know that an unplanned trip to the Dragon's Lair Bookshop will upend everything she thought she knew about life, this world, and those beyond. * Respectfully submitted to Wattpad's Open Novella Contest 2026, under prompt #3, with subtle influences from prompt #41.

✨ Wattys 2023 winner ✨ Special award for best storyline ✨ The Moffet family is just like any other family. They lead a simple, quiet life in a pretty little two-story house on the outskirts of London... That is until they receive, from a strange deliveryman, a mysterious package that will catapult them into an unknown and fantastic world; an upside-down kingdom populated by talking sticks and chattering pebbles, welcoming shoes, stone keepers, enchanted lamps and magic cauldrons, prankster soothsayers and screaming matches that can reveal secret paths. A magical and adventurous journey that will take the protagonists through difficult trials, solve puzzles, traverse rough paths and clash with dark, malevolent forces. Status: complete

*This story is written for participation in Open Novella Contest and no earlier draft exist before 1st Feb. The story is based on prompts provided by the event . The Hollowridge Inn has one rule. No humans. Tucked deep within a forest that refuses to appear on any map, the Inn has sheltered witches, vampires, shapeshifters, and beings far older than language for over a century. It is neutral ground. Sanctuary. A carefully balanced refuge for the unseen world. And it has never made a mistake. Until Ethan Carter checks in. Stranded after a mysterious car failure, Ethan is impossibly human-and somehow allowed past wards that have never failed. As the Inn begins to react to him in ways no one understands, one terrifying truth becomes clear: He wasn't invited by accident. When an ancient entity known only as a Collector arrives to claim what it calls "a key," the dysfunctional family that runs the Inn must make a choice-hand Ethan over to protect their fragile peace, or defy powers older than the house itself. But the Inn has already chosen. And it may be willing to burn the worlds down to keep him.

In a dark Benedictine Abbey, high in the cold mountains of Helvetia, where stone and earth remember older laws than kings, a legendary weapon rests in silence. It lies within the Kloster Einsiedeln, a mountain abbey sworn to the Cantors of the region of Oath Fellowship, its fresco painted walls with tales of a history that is much different than the truth it conceals. For generations, the weapon has slept beneath legend, its purpose misremembered, its history softened into a heroic myth. But weapons do not forget. When the lies that bound it begins to unravel, and the abbey's sealed records stir, old borders awaken. Wolves who once feared only the glint of steel begin to fear something else as the weapon reveals what it was never meant to be. Not an instrument of slaughter, but a measure of law. What rises in its wake is neither hunter nor monster, but something the world has not known for centuries. The Wardens of the Limes. Some weapons are forged to kill. Others are forged to decide. This weapon requires HEIRS. And Miteinander; working together. Or it won't work at all... The surprising heirs of the weapon, rivals since childhood, staunch upholders of the lies believed throughout family generations, must now overcome, to step into their chosen destiny. "They stand at the Threshold." ✠ ✠ ✠ ONC26 Prompt # 1. Two rivals discover they're the chosen heirs to a legendary weapon that will only activate if they work together. Some Historical references: The Kloster Einsiedeln Abbey was first founded as a Benedictine monastery in 934 CE on the site of a former hermitage. Its origins, however, date back to approximately 835 CE, when the hermit monk Saint Meinrad first established a small cell in the "Dark Forest" of the region. LIMES definition: Latin. Originally meaning a path or boundary line. A limes (plural: limites) was a fortified border or frontier system of the Roman Empire.

THE RISE OF THE BLOOD DRAGON Amid the slow burning of war and love, a historical romantasy burns for you. ♡♡ "When the Steppe chooses its sovereign, even kings must kneel." On the far reaches of the Western Steppes, where kingdoms rise on sand and fall to silence, a young woman with unbound hair and fire in her veins is about to shake the world. Elspeth, daughter of a debt-ridden tradesman, has lived quietly behind her shop of flowers - until the day she is taken by a man who claims to be the true heir to the throne she has always feared. Ceyzaar, the hidden son of a harsh ruler, forged in exile and sharpened by betrayal, has waited a lifetime to reclaim the crown that was stolen from him. But the key to his triumph lies in the woman he stole from them and in the power she has carried all her life without knowing it. As war storms gather and old empires tremble, Elspeth's first cry of defiance on the battlefield awakens something ancient beneath the Steppe - a force that has not stirred in generations. A force that recognizes her. Now, with lightning cracking over Morrhal, traitors rising from within, and the Kaiser unleashing horrors long buried, Elspeth and Ceyzaar must forge a bond strong enough to survive both destiny and desire. For the Steppe has chosen its Rose. The Blood Dragon has risen. And the world will burn or be reborn by their united hand. The Rise of the Blood Dragon Where oaths are forged in fire. Where roses bloom in war. Where a girl becomes the weapon that reshapes the world. ═════════════ The Steppe Dynasty Books ©WendyyWolfe Ⓜ️🄼🄰🅃🅄🅁🄴 [ᵀʰⁱˢ ᵇᵒᵒᵏ ᶜᵒⁿᵗᵃⁱⁿˢ ᵐᵃᵗᵘʳᵉ ᵗʰᵉᵐᵉˢ ᶜᵒᵉˣⁱˢᵗᵉⁿᵗ ʷⁱᵗʰ ᵗʰᵉ ᵍᵉⁿʳᵉ ᵒᶠ ʰⁱˢᵗᵒʳⁱᶜᵃˡ ʳᵒᵐᵃⁿᶜᵉ]

ONC2025 Round 2 Ambassador Pick 𝐖𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐎𝐬𝐤𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐬 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐫𝐨𝐲𝐚𝐥 𝐩𝐚𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞, 𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐦𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐬𝐨𝐦𝐞𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐤𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞-𝐚 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐜𝐨𝐫𝐧'𝐬 𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐧, 𝐬𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐟𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐛𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐝. Unicorns are sacred in the kingdom of Unara, their magic a gift only bestowed upon the worthy-or stolen through death. Someone is hunting them, and if the killings continue, their magic will fall into the wrong hands. Determined to uncover the truth, Oskar sets out to find the culprit. But the deeper he digs, the darker the secrets he unearths--secrets that could shake the very foundation of the kingdom. A standalone fantasy adventure, The Unicorn's Blessing follows Prince Oskar before the events of The Girl with Scars, revealing the choices that shaped the man he would become. Entered into the Open Novella Contest 2025 | @OpenNovellaContest - Rules & Guidelines: https://www.wattpad.com/story/387452246 **Main Prompt** 12. While hiking through a forest, you stumble upon a unicorn's horn. **Secondary Prompt** 130. Protect this with your life. ©2025 E. S. Elias All Rights Reserved. Book Created & Published to Wattpad: 02.01.2025 Book Marked as Completed: 04.08.2025 Cover: Me @DesignsbyEH I used Canva.com | Cover is temporary and subject to several changes. Word Count: 26,234 / 20,000 Goals: Round 1 ✔ | 2,000 words ✔ | Round 1 Winner ✔ Round 2 ✔ | 8,000 words ✔ Round 3 _ | 20,000 words ✔ LONGLIST _ | SHORTLIST _ Honorable Mention? _ | Ambassadors' Pick ✔ Mentioned in Ambassador Newsletter ✔ Rankings: #ONC2025: #21 on 02.02.2025 | #15 on 02.03.2025 | #12 on 03.24.2025 #opennovellacontest2025: #15 on

Round 3 Ambassador Pick Finalist: Top 4 Once, you were a character in a story, your life crafted by an unseen hand, your destiny inked into pages. But that story was deleted, erased from existence. Now, you wake up in the Hidden Library, a place where discarded characters and abandoned tales linger. You have no name, no memory, only the weight of an existence that no longer belongs anywhere. But the Library is in turmoil. Books are unraveling, their worlds colliding in chaos-romance heroes stranded in dystopian landscapes, fairy-tale villains haunting contemporary settings, cookbooks whispering eerie prophecies. The ink that binds these stories is breaking. A voice calls out to you from the pages: "Tell me your story, and perhaps I'll grant you the love others failed to find." Guided by an ancient entity known as "The Archivist", you must restore order to the Library by weaving these fragmented stories into one cohesive masterpiece. But as you travel through the wreckage of broken narratives, something stirs in the ink. A truth long buried within the Library's depths a secret about who you really were before your story was erased. Can you rewrite your fate? Or will the Library consume you, turning you into just another forgotten page? #ONC2025 Main Prompt: #40 Sub Prompts: #100 & #59