"A red rose is valuable," he whispered, lightly fingering the flower's frail petals. "Soft, delicate, but deadly. Like the thorns." He glanced up at me with those gorgeous grey eyes. Moving closer he took my hand within his own. "Like you." I bit back a surprised gasp. It became difficult to breathe and my heart pounded loud and fast within my chest. Almost too painful to bear. He unfurled my fisted hand and drew light circles on the center my palm. "Beautiful." Placing the rose in the middle of my hand he closed my fingers around the stem. Mesmerised by the look on his face I didn't notice the trickle of blood running down my palm as the thorns bit into my flesh. His eyes suddenly grew harsh. "And always cruel." He finished taking a step back. I opened my mouth but the words froze in my throat. He shook his head and walked back. Away from me. Leaving me with a single rose, dripping with my blood.

"Photography is all about secrets. The secrets we all have and will never tell." -Kim Edwards Eleanor Morisette doesn't speak. She doesn't have an illness that causes it, and wasn't born mute; she just chooses not to talk. What reason is there to say words when no one's there to hear them? Instead, she expresses herself through the art of photography. Obsessed with the beauty in the world that overshadows her own problems, all she wants is to someday capture life to its fullest; without having to worry about her parents' declining love and the loneliness of being an outcast at school. But what happens when she accidentally takes a photo of a boy who she can't take her mind off? Will he be the one to open up her shell? Or will she continue wandering lost in her world of lonely magic?

"One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain." - Bob Marley Life for Lacey Carson hasn't been a straight road into paradise. Struggling with the death of her mother, her abusive step-father, and love for music and freedom, she's torn about who she really is, and who she's become. Growing up with a natural talent for drumming, rhythms, and beats; Lacey and her faithful drum sticks can't ever be divided. So when a national competition for a battle of the bands is announced; the reward for the winning band being a grand prize of a million dollars, a ticket to the number one recording studio in England, and being signed into one of the hottest record labels in the world, Lacey knew that it was fate. All she needed was a band to play with... But indifferent, apathetic, and cold to the rest of the world, will she be able to find a group who she could trust and befriend? Fall in love with a not-so-mysterious stranger who may or may not have feelings for her too? Discover her own true self tangled in between a web of lies? Or is it all simply just a decoy?

"I admit to being a very SICK and TWISTED person." Sadie and Levi Olivers are the closest pair of siblings that anyone has ever seen. Abandoned as toddlers and forced to live in foster home after merciless foster home, they will do anything to keep each other safe and happy. All they really want, though, is for Levi's eighteenth birthday to come around so they can legally get away and forget their miserable childhoods. The night of the special day, though, Sadie receives a phone call under Levi's caller ID. All she can hear is the screaming of her older brother and a villainous voice telling her to find her parents or she'll never see Levi again. The only problem is that she doesn't know who or where they are. She doesn't know what to do. She feels lost without her brother's guidance. Within the chaos, though, she meets Theo, a wealthy, charming boy who just so happens to be in the same situation as she is. His older sister went missing just hours before Levi's known disappearance, and he's just as scared as Sadie is. As Sadie and Theo's search begins, everything quickly spins out of control. Anything is possible and no one can be trusted. To what extremes will they go to bring back their brother and sister? © valarie rae, two thousand and fourteen. action #8 // mystery-thriller #8 amazing cover by serenay (@paradoxe)

Self-proclaimed weirdo April Hale and the notorious troublemaker Ryder Black have been living side by side for more than ten years. Both never attempted to communicate with each other, but on the night Ryder Black is thrown out by his own father, he asks her a question that might change both of their lives: "March, will you let me stay in your room?" He even got her name wrong. - A coming of age story about loss, the wonders of falling in love, and ultimately, pretending to be normal. Get inside April's distorted and yet humorous perspective, and watch as her tale unfolds into a shocking finish. COVER BY @RIVIIX

When kids are young and full of innocent wonder, they're asked the question that will haunt them far into their adult lives: what do you want to be when you're older? Kyleigh Frost's answer to this very question was that she wanted to be thin. Ever since she could remember, all she wanted to do with her life is to be the skinniest girl out of everyone she met on the streets. If she couldn't be the brightest kid in her school or win the next cycle of America's Next Top Model, she might as well be the thinnest one there. After all, to be fat is the biggest sin one could ever commit in today's society.

[Camp Nanowrimo Project] They watched him grow up from the gaps in the floorboards. They waited for his dreams to die and his hope to wither. They fed on his dying childhood. They. The monsters.

I don't think anything really last. coffee cools cigarettes ends music stops and life simply goes, on. the only thing that really last is his touch. © 2O13 explain All Rights Reserved. ((SORRY FOR NOT UPDATING, I'VE BEEN STUCK ON WRITERS BLOCK FOREVER AND I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO))

Thirty-seven-year-old John Morgan's personal life is already in disarray when he receives a phone call that his brother and niece are dead. His relationship with his father is nearly nonexistent, he barely speaks to his sister, and he has no real friends to lean on. As the tragic news slowly begins to sink in, John realizes he is floating aimlessly in the middle of an unpredictable sea of emotions with no one to rescue him. In this compelling tale that movingly illustrates the devastating effects of a dysfunctional family, John must learn to change what he can, accept what he cannot, and make the difficult decision to leave some things behind. I'm excitedly working on a second novel. Thanks for checking out my work. PS: for those that wish to own my book it can be purchased in multiple formats and found on various major online distribution channels. Thank you!