The Open Novella Contest is back for 2025! Join a society of writers and take on the challenge to create a timeless 20,000+ word novella in 12 weeks! Your epic quest begins February 1st, 2025 - so mark your calendars with this date!

A young woman must compete in a deadly televised competition, Grimm Games, to ensure her twin sister survives. Season 1 of Grimm Games ***** When twenty-year-old social activist Kam Wendall discovers her name among the contestants of the deadly television competition Grimm Games, she's stunned to realize her estranged twin sister, Millie, has stolen her identity to compete. Determined to save her sister, Kam enters the contest. At a secret and isolated location, they compete against others through nightmarish sets, perilous escape rooms, and sinister puzzles, and must outsmart the sadistic Grimm entities stalking them. Amidst the twisted challenges, can Kam and Millie rebuild their fractured trust all while evading the diabolical forces at play? And would even that be enough to help them survive the Grimm Games and emerge victorious? *** "Oh, I understand." I didn't blink as I spoke. "But the only way I'm ever stepping foot inside your set is if you force me." "Our contestants are volunteers," Ms. Holle went on. "We've always run the games that way and forever will. We're not accustomed to forcing anyone to partake, and that opportunity will be extended to you too."

Two dueling tornado chasers compete to impress a famous self-taught scientist and storm-chaser, follow in his footsteps, and become his renowned protege. *** Twenty year old Halle Brennan's obsession with mega storms was born out of intense grief and feelings of powerlessness after her mother, Magenta, died in a sudden tornado. Dissimilarly, her nemesis, James Winter only embraced his famous father's storm chasing legacy out of duty. Despite a shoestring budget and and her youth, Halle exhibits an uncanny ability to track down deadly twisters. With her scientific mind and uncanny intuition, she intimidates James and his wealthy cohorts who rely on technical equipment and an expensive armor-plated all terrain vehicle instead of sheer guts and expertise. As a deadly storm descends on the Oklahoma plains, Halle, James and her best friends Amy and Naseem, are thrown into a monster, rain wrapped tornado that wants to kill everyone in its path. ONC Prompt No. 85 "If you do that again, I'll throw you out the freakin window. "What are you doing?" "Checking how high the drop is to see if it's worth it." *Cover models are from the movie "Divergent".

A fun contest hosted by @onestraykid and @RookWri78. Accepting entries till January 31st 2024, 11.59 PM IST. Judging entries from February 1st - 15th Results to be announced from February 16th to 19th.

EPILOGUE WILL BE FREE STARTING JUNE 29TH, 2023! Diana wakes up in pain, tied to a bed and unable to escape. She's been trapped by a group of surgeons with a twisted passion and she's their next victim. ***** Diana Slater, a typical University student, wakes up in pain, tied to a bed and unable to see. After a mysterious figure, known only as Dr. Sweeney, nurses her back to health she finds out the truth. The Doctor has kidnapped her and given her a cat's eyes as part of a larger ploy to turn humans into collectibles. Now she's being trained by Ben, another patient, with the skin of a snake, on how to behave. Diana and Ben are forced to work together to try to escape the murderous doctors - until she discovers Ben might not be the victim he makes himself out to be. The only person Diana can trust is herself, and if she fails, her eyes won't give her another nine lives. [[Winner of the 2018 Fiction Awards for Best Horror Story]] [[word count: 80,000-90,000 words]] Cover designed by Holly Thurston

Antique store owner Liz brings home a Victorian taxidermy hound from auction, unwittingly unleashing dark forces on her wife and son. ***** Nat Loman has finally married the love of her life, Liz, and is getting used to her role as stepmother to Liz's 5-year-old son, Liam. The Loman family runs a bustling antique business so they attend a sale where a striking, black taxidermied hound is up for auction. Liz picks it up for the business, but it ends up being stored in their home, where Nat notices strange things occurring. She quickly discovers the past residents had died violently. Then she hears from a friend about the myth of "the devil's dog", a hound that perches in the shadows, tearing families apart from the inside. Soon, people around the Lomans are dying, and Liz is changing, darkening. It's up to Nat to save the woman she loves from the darkness closing in, and to save Liam from danger no matter what she has to sacrifice. [[Winner of the 2018 Wattys "Hidden Gems" category]] [[word count: 60,000-70,000 words]]

One year ago, the children of Hamelin disappeared in the middle of the night. With no clues about their whereabouts save a trail of footprints leading to the riverbank, their families believed them to be lost to the raging current. On the day of their memorial, the children return as suddenly as they left, but they are no longer the sweet kids the town lost. As the youngest person who was left behind, fourteen-year-old William is equal parts overjoyed and terrified to have his little sister back. With his father's temper as hot as his forge, William must protect Emma from the cruel treatment he has faced, but it soon becomes apparent that even greater horrors plague the children. Haunted by an alluring song that echoes in his nightmares, William must unravel the secrets of the Pied Piper's music before the rest of Hamelin falls victim to the same fate as the children. Trigger warning: This story contains physical and emotional abuse, animal abuse and death, child endangerment, suicidal thoughts, and mentions of a failed suicide attempt. Cover by @AriaOfStorms

|| WATTYS 2022 WINNER || Don't ever take anything from me. Don't ever wrong me. I try hard to be a tolerant and a forgiving person, but I am unrelenting in my vengeance and my desires. Thirty years ago, a man wronged me, stole from me the most precious thing in the world, and I've been wreaking my vengeance on him ever since. I don't give up, I don't stop, and I don't ever just go away. I'm a drinker of blood, and I live the life I choose.

Thirty days. The countdown has started, North America shivers under the shadow of a massive alien spacecraft, and humanity is hurtling toward an unknown future that lurks at the end of the timer. Somewhere, somehow, the heroes are making their plans to fight the extraterrestrials. But this isn't about them. From the team at WritersConnX comes a new anthology about the rest of us - the average, the ordinary, the unassuming - and the many paths we run when our time is cut short. And no damn aliens! Written by: WCX Writers & Creators Rodney V. Smith, M.B. Dalto, Jane Peden, A.B. Channing, Eliza Solares, Jinn Tiole, Crystal Scherer, Cayleigh Kennedy, C.C. Starfield, Nova Nicalynn, Leigh W. Stuart, Franklin Barnes, Mags Lorang, Evelyn Hail, Lorraine Tramain, Fiora Voss, Wren Arrior, J.A. Jumphol, Bethany Swafford, Jamie Lemon, Mittu Ravi. Julia Esposito, Cardin Watts, Mikaela Bender, Jovi R, Sam Camp, Mhavel Naveda, Brittannie Charmintine, Van Carley, Henry Scott, Melody Grace Hicks, David J. Thirteen, C. S. Solarys, Hannah J Nelson, Vee Lozada, Eli Gregory, Kristin Jacques, Ben Sobieck, Bianca Di Cocco Compiled by: Rodney V. Smith, Van Carley, Eliza Solares, Ina Ramos