"You have to beat the words, Marta, beat the stuttering. Learn to speak, to let your voice be heard." After her father's death, all Marta wants to do is hide. Hide from her stuttering. Hide from the world outside her home. Hide from her family who so often reminds her of him. But even Marta realizes she cannot hide forever, and staying hidden gets even harder when her mother decides they are leaving Germany for America. Trying so desperately to cling to her silence, Marta realizes her only relief is writing letters. Until she meets Emma, and the families she is forced to stay with. While the families try to help Marta find her voice; Marta realizes the only way to sail towards her family, is to sail away from her silence.

London, 1950s. Rose Kovachi wants nothing more than to forget. She wants to forget the war, the concentration camps, the mysterious violin her brother gave to her before he died. She wants to forget her poverty-stricken family, her Romani heritage. But most of all, she wants to forget her future and the expectations that come with it, including finding a respectable job or a husband to provide for her family. When she meets Ruben Faust, an upper-class German who recognizes her beloved Pedrazzini violin, Rose realizes he might be her ticket to escape. Despite her prejudices and her irritation with his nonchalant and snarky demeanor, she decides to follow him across Europe as they search for the violin's original owner. After all, it seems like the perfect opportunity to leave her own family and her pre-planned future behind. But as Rose is forced to confront her painful past, she begins to realize running away might not be so easy. She soon discovers that Ruben is in far more trouble than she ever thought and that her family is falling apart in her absence. Rose is determined to save them and get what she wants, for it seems the only way to forgive herself for failing to save her brother from the war. Yet Rose soon realizes that she can't have it both ways. But was scares her the most is the fear that nothing she does will ever be able to repair the past.

The Fiction Awards 2020 are here! All writers. All languages. Let the competition begin.

The Wood of Astfall is friend to no man. Its timbers hide packs of wolves and shadows that strip the minds of the rangers who seek to subdue it. Watchmen hold the single wall that separates the grove and its depths from the people of Arcath who struggle to survive in its shadow. Death, legend, and rumor mix together into a potion that taste of bitterness and loss but one that every person of Arcath must swallow. Aster knows it as well as any, struggling to fulfill the demands of his new position as a member of the Watch despite news of the frequent death's of his companions. But all that changes when an elven stranger appears before the city's gates with a tale of harrowing spilling from his lips. He tells of a land in the south were war has stirred and of his own people's destruction at the hands of their might foes. Finally, he tells of the mighty prowess his elven people carry with them and succeeds in stirring unprecedented curiosity among the city's woodsmen. What lies within Astfall? And, more importantly, can it be defeated? The northerner's are reluctantly convinced that perhaps whatever plagues the nearby woods is not beyond their axes or their new companion's sword. Inspired by his words, the city musters a band of hunters and fighters to seek the truth within the shadowy timbers of the forest. Chains of duty and misfortune bind Aster to this task that secretly calls him to answer a mystery of his past. But fate spins a fearful twist in the brash curiosity of the northern folk. The misty mire that envelops the band is not the only danger in those darkened parts of Niron. Foes rise and fall like shadows in this thrilling tale of danger and deceit until nothing - not even one's own heart - is above suspicion. The promise of glory as allusive as the forest's horrors until Aster finds himself fighting not for honor, family, or city but survival. #1 Unlikely Hero, #28 in Forest, #44 in Haunted, #924 in Mystery

For fans of the Princess of the Highlands Trilogy. Otherwise, I wouldn't suggest wasting your time here. ^_^

(Currently Editing) Poland, 1942. When Celina Rudaski took the evening train to Warsaw, she did not expect to return responsible for the lives of two Jews. Then again, she did not expect her father to be whisked away in the middle of the night by soldiers, nor did she expect her house to become swallowed by flames of fiery hatred. Yet it all happened in the matter of twenty-four hours. A stubborn, introverted fifteen year old girl, Celina refuses to believe the many stories of the horrific genocide against the Jews, often turning a blind eye to anything that reminds her of the war. But when she unwittingly promises to hide two Jews in a home she does not have, Celina must journey across Europe with these strangers in search of lady who might be able to rescue them. They are filthy, they are broken, and Celina cannot seem to control the hatred burning inside her. Together they travel town to town, witnessing each cities own branch of horrors, even hiding in basements of strangers. In ways painfully unimaginable to Celina, these two Jews affect her life in the deepest of ways. As they dodge bullets, stumble upon an injured enemy pilot, and attempt to escape the hands of the Germans naming them fugitives, Celina must learn to face what she has been too terrified of her entire life. ***Edited by the lovely @jgfairytales

"We shouldn't dig here." "Why...not?" "Because what's buried here is not what you think it is." • • • • • • • • • • • • [ inspired by prompt #54 and #4 of the Open Novella Contest 2020 | ONC2020 LONGLIST ] Taylor Sloan has spent the last decade digging up priceless treasures, uncovering lost empires, and discovering ancient civilizations, all due to her uncanny ability to know what's buried beneath her feet. Taylor's fiancé Riyad Banks went missing two year ago, lost at sea among the many remote Alaskan islands. Now Taylor and her charge, Riyad's teenage son, are headed for an island to join in an excavation headed by Taylor's archeologist cousin. But some secrets are better left buried, and Taylor wonders if facing the truth is worth having their hearts broken all over again. • • • • • • • • • • • • • Completed Novella [ about 25,000 words ] on March 13, 2020 • Copyright absterak 2020 • Cover Photo from Unsplash

"Some heroes have to rise from blood." Burying grief in blood and magic might not be the healthiest option, but it's the only one Master Mage Sedgewick Alverdyne can bear. When his bloodlust draws the concern of his king, however, Sedgewick is shipped off the war's front lines and sent to spy on Abreyla's enemy kingdom, Onryx. A mission gone wrong lands him captured and imprisoned in the Black Obelisk, Onryx's notorious prison tower. Cut off from his allies, Sedgewick strikes up a reluctant alliance with a fellow prisoner, the enigmatic mage, Bilara. The Black Obelisk has never been broken but a burst of magic from the inside might be just what it needs to bleed. Open Novella Contest 2020 entry Prompt: When all else fails, throw a little magic at it! Cover by mahana258

Sienna Diaz has lived the life of a nameless face, a retreater from threats, and a thief of lives. Every time she lights a match, she is transported to another world. Surviving as a woman with many pasts and identities, she can hardly call herself her own. Despite her desire for control, however, the fire -- her matches -- remain her only escape. But as a pawn to the universe and to the flames themselves, Sienna finds that escape is only a delay of the inevitable: a life of wandering and loneliness. After an accident, another burnt match Sienna lands in a new world where Fire is an entity, a deity to its citizens. The opportunity is clear: overpower Fire and rewrite her identity. This time, starting afresh would be real and permanent. Settled. But this Fire is unpredictable and temperamental, worshipped by his priests and guarded in his own temple like a treasure. When Sienna Diaz was younger and still lived in a place she remembered as Nevada, her parents told her to never play with fire. She agreed -- no, she would never play with it. She would kill it. *Open Novella Contest 2020 Entry* *Awesome cover by @CelticWarriorQueen17*