🌊The Shortys 2025 Shortlist🌊 A short story, my entry for the Shortys 2025, followed by a few poems for the same contest. The short story is inspired by the Flannan Isles lighthouse mystery. The poems are all lighthouse themed.

~The Wattys 2025 Shortlist~ ~The Ambys 2025 Grand Favourite~ ~ONC 2024 Honourable Mention~ ~~~ Alaric, the King of Silmarea, recently married to his beloved husband, needs an heir of his own blood to secure the throne. With the help of Emrys, his court magician and best friend, he recalls his youthful escapades and discovers a daughter he once had with a woman he had loved in The World Beyond The Stones (our world). He sends an unlikely but trusted trio on a quest to find her and bring her home-- a brooding dragon shifter and Highlander who owes him a favor, a dashing elf whom he loves like the son he never had, and a loyal, kindhearted dwarf, the elf's best friend. Alaric, the last scion of the old gods, weary of ruling the country and ready to retire and enjoy his love life, doesn't know that this quest will bring much more than he ever bargained for, setting in motion events plotted by the destiny that will challenge his kingdom and legacy.

ONC 2025 Short List: Aden Dekker easily slays on the dating front, but as one to go with the flow rather than dive into the dark uncertainties and mysteries clouding his life, he's avoided giving serious consideration to what qualities he's looking for in a girl beyond a pretty smile. But when a blood-starved vampire queen comes hunting him, he quickly figures out exactly what he wants in a girl when it comes to wicked, nighttime company -- arcane book smarts, steel nerves, and a loaded crossbow. This story was written for the Open Novella Competition, ONC 2025, prompt 11. Reader advisory: bad language, horror elements (bitey, vampiric violence and seduction), a pinch of sexy spice.

In the aftermath of a long and bloody war, the daughter of a king, no longer a princess, Mussumi, has to bend the knee to the man who has defeated her father. With only a small escort to lead her back to her homeland, Mussumi soon realises that the warlord does not intend for her to reach home alive. Only the intervention of a skilled warrior, who identifies herself only as 'Duty', allows Mussumi to escape, but a desperate chase ensues and only 'Duty' can get her to the ship that will carry her to safety. With the enemy sniping at their heels at every turn, Mussumi and Duty have to face dangerous paths and deadly creatures to reach the port. But can Duty be trusted, or is she only another assassin waiting to strike? An ONC novella, based on Prompt 31: "Next time, ask yourself if your integrity can withstand the truth."

There's nothing more dangerous than a book, especially in the wrong hands. And, in this world of magic, wars and an alarming number of self-serving, gratuitously selfish people, there are a lot of wrong hands to take advantage. When the world's foremost mage, Anpound Pudbatter (fresh from a magical accident that had turned him back into a teenager with all the associated raging hormones) meets Gammer Goodhiding, the world's most polite, yet indefinably terrifying witch, and Bindi, a Druid who almost has a filthy mouth, they come together to search for an object that could very well spell the end of the world as they know it. Or change it in ways they cannot imagine. From the intermittently high Mount Pintel, to the vast, unending Library, to the indeterminately located city of Lost Vagueness, where hope, and Coin, go to wallow in despair, to the world's most important, prominent, and tiniest city, the three of them must follow the magical chaos wrought by the presence of the book. And with warlords bent on conquest, thieves out for a quick score and a djinn with a mischievous attention to detail in the way, things may not go quite according to plan. And what, exactly, is the origin of the book? Only The Archivist's All-knowing Almanac knows for sure. A love-letter to the works of Terry Pratchett and Douglas Adams. The first novel of the ongoing Discworld inspired series.

Yamashita's Gold. During the occupation of the Philippines, Japanese military looted everything - temples, homes, and government offices, amassing a huge fortune in treasure. When it could no longer be shipped back to Japan, Prisoners of war were forced to bury it. Much has been recovered since the war - but not all. Our story concerns a number of competing groups vying over information of a site, uncovered through a letter delivered by a dying man, as a last act of a promise made.

ONC 2022 Short List: The emergence of a more virulent lycanthrope virus decimated civilisation. As a street scavenger, Gulliver Chase risks his life in his home city's derelict streets hunting for resources for his fellow survivors. But it isn't food or fuel his colony needs him to find tonight; it's one of the Changed. If humanity is to have a future, they need to start salvaging their own. A story inspired by ONC 2022 prompt 28. Reader advisory: violence, horror, bad language

Wattys shortlist 2021. One morning the sun rises a few hours early, striking levitating skyscrapers in Soliara ahead of schedule. People in the streets stop to look up at the sky and then down at their watches. Most of them, puzzled but disbelieving, adjust the hour on their timepieces, hoping they aren't late for meetings. Constellation invented magic. It fuels Soliara's stellar teleportation system, rapid civil expansion, and skyscrapers that soar. After a takeover at Constellation, elite executives control the power of the stars. The son of a wealthy exec, Cristo feels entitled to a better future. To most, the early sunrise is the only indicator that today is any different from those that came before it. To some, it is a portent of their fears that an empire at its pinnacle has no way to go but down. To Cristo, the sign couldn't be clearer. He is the perfect candidate to change the results of the takeover at the Constellation company, but the early dawn is telling him to stop. "If the world didn't want to change, it should never have allowed him to speak." Words and magic compete for power in Soliara, an empire full of magicians who can channel the magic of the stars. Welcome to a novel in the Constellations universe. Rankings: #3 in Contemporary Fantasy 10/09/2020 #12 in Magicians 08/09/2021 #125 urban fantasy 03/01/2020 #448 in fantasy-romance 10/02/2020 #413 paranormal 08/11/2021 Fantasy: Somewhere over the rainbow. If you love this story, help it rank in Fantasy by sharing and voting on each chapter :) A girl can dream! Thank you!