[#WATTYS2018 LONGLIST] On Earth, a conspiracy theorist stumbles across the wreckage of a spacecraft. There are two corpses in strange uniforms. One is an alien - the other is not. In space, a young human agent watches in horror as the images are beamed around the world, putting the entire project to integrate humanity into the Commonwealth of Orion at risk. And across the darkness between stars, an alien armada gathers its forces, and aims them right at Earth. Deep in a cave on a remote island lies the key to everything; a small beacon containing the directions to the Hub, the crossroads of the Commonwealth. If the aliens find it and use it to access the Commonwealth's complex network of Starbridges linking its worlds together, the rest of the galaxy will be at their fingertips. Only one person knows where the beacon lies... ...for now.

I was told recently that a broken heart makes you aware of little things, like the wind and the sky. That artists need to constantly be in that state. That some people believe that God breaks your heart, again and again, until it stays open. This is to all the broken hearts, all the silent tears, and all the empty arms craving for just one more embrace.

Every Tuesday during football practice, sixteen year old Sem Bolton finds himself stealing glances at the gorgeous college boy jogging down the path next to the fields. He was his dirty little secret. His guilty pleasure. His unobtainable fantasy: safe and distant on the other side of the chainlink fence. Then, through a series of unpleasant events including being forced on a camping trip, it turns out his unobtainable fantasy is not so unobtainable after all. Not only is gorgeous college boy gay as well, he also wants to date Sem. Now, Sem was never one to play it safe. But outing himself was in a whole different league than testing his mother's patience or taking hits in the boxing ring. Was he really ready to date a guy, all consequences included? As if internal struggles weren't enough, count on girls, friends, and an estranged brother, to complicate stuff even further. Photo on the cover by: https://unsplash.com/@nickkarvounis