*03/03/2020 - 𝙐𝙉𝘿𝙄𝙎𝘾𝙊𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙀𝘿 𝙁𝙀𝘼𝙏𝙐𝙍𝙀𝘿 𝙇𝙄𝙎𝙏* _̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲ Everybody at Black Hill knows about the lake by the old house. They know never to let an open wound bleed out in the murky waters. Never to take their eyes off the pine trees lining the banks. Then Annalise Madigan moves in, and she can't believe her luck when the popular kids invite her for a swim in the lake. But when she dives under the depths of the water, her life unravels. After swimming up, 2 months have passed and her new friends lie dead on the surface. As time goes on, Annalise can't keep track of the days, losing hours where she's unable to remember what she's done. And there's always a trail of dead kids on the water behind her. Drawn into a mystery of dark creatures and police investigations, Annalise must find out what happened at the bottom of the lake that night. Or else risk losing her soul forever. _̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲_̲ ONC 2020 Entry

Grace, the illegitimate daughter of Edward IV, finds her life turned upside down when he dies and her family flees into sanctuary when her uncle takes power. Torn between family loyalties and her need for love and stability, Grace struggles to survive a dangerous world. A historical fiction story set during the War of the Roses. One fateful night, a young woman flees with her family to take sanctuary in the church. The illegitimate daughter of the late king, Grace, is told her uncle Richard has stolen her half-brother, the new king and is seizing power. Her stepmother, Elizabeth Woodville, takes her children and Grace into sanctuary and begins recruiting others to take down Richard. Young Grace is sent on a mission and meets her uncle. His kindness makes her doubt that he is as bad as her stepmother claims. But she sticks to her loyalty to her family even as everything falls apart. Elizabeth's plan fails, Grace's half-brother is taken by force out of sanctuary, and Richard reveals Elizabeth was never legally married to Grace's father, making Richard the king. Elizabeth refuses to leave sanctuary, keeping Grace and her half-sisters trapped as rumors grow about the disappearance of the girls' brothers. The only bright spot of Grace's life is meeting with a messenger, a young man who is the first person to see this forgotten king's daughter. As much as she wants to leave, her loyalty keeps her buried alive. Shortlisted in the Open Novella Contest 2020 Shortlisted in the Wattys 2021 and Wattys 2022

→ finished ← Claustrophobic and agoraphobic, Alaska Gouramie doesn't leave the house much. She whiles her days away nurturing her goldfish, Gordon. Her life is passing her by. Elver Harrison James is scared of fish. He won't go near the pond at the bottom of his garden. He will do anything to stay away from those water-loving freaks. Alaska's mother forces her to leave the house. It's just a trip to the park, no big deal. Until Alaska falls in the pond. And Elver is the only one around. Teen Fiction #118

Nandini Varma owns the only bookstore in town and is content with hiding her awkward self behind bestsellers. What she doesn't know is that her favorite author has moved near her, and that perhaps she could finally have a love story of her own, even if it's an awkward one. ***** Ryan Callahan wants to move on from his writing career and just work for the police. It's hard though, when the town's book lady happens to be a huge fan of his. She's smart, funny, beautiful, and kind - a lethal combination. He wants to get to know her more, but something seems to be holding her back. Who is this mysterious woman that Ryan can't stop thinking about? Content/trigger warning: This story contains themes of sexism and verbal abuse. [[word count: 70,000 - 80,000]] Cover designed by Joe Resch

"Mixed emotions, love in question, adventurous intuition, hate omission" "State your case, Time and place, Embrace beauty, lead the quest"

Ever since people could remember only men were allowed to enter the House of Beardsley, but for the first time four young girls with nothing in common have been hired to work in the mansion as live-in housekeepers. Shuyan, a Chinese orphan living in Victorian England, has always had a hard time finding a job, so she applies without much thought to the infamous House of Beardsley. Her co-workers, Bethany, Clo, and Rhiannon, on the other hand, seem to have no desire to work. Although they have been warned to keep their contact with the seven men of Beardsley as minimal as possible, Shuyan comes close to overstepping the boundaries when she makes contact with the crippled and gentle master Eugene. When she finds out the girls are hired for a much more sinister reason from the cold and mysterious Tobias, will she choose to stay in the House of Beardsley? More importantly, with each secret she unearths and relation she makes will she be able to leave...? #1 in Victorian-era (1/31/20) #1 in Asiansinlit (2/13/20) #1 in nobility (2/25/20) #1 in Edwardian (3/31/20) #1 in earl (4/22/20) #1 in Asian (8/9/20) #1 in gothicromance (1/4/21) #2 in debutante (4/18/20) #2 in regencyromance (10/3/20) #3 in Victorian (2/20/20) #1 in gothic (9/7/24)

A painful breakup pushes Kyla Evans to get into a fake relationship with the person her ex-boyfriend hates the most: Seth Everett. But what will she do when the game starts to feel too real? ***** Seventeen-year-old Kyla has sworn off love. After getting dumped all too suddenly by her longtime boyfriend Cedric, she becomes convinced that people are never really who you think they are. So when notorious playboy Seth Everett suggests that Kyla fake date him to get back at Cedric, it seems like the perfect plan... as long as she doesn't end up falling for him. Content and/or trigger warning: This story mentions cancer, which may be triggering for some readers. [[word count: 150,000-200,000 words]]

"Love is..." I explored my brain to find the most suitable word in my dictionary that could fit in the definition I was trying to say; the definition that could make the jerk, sitting opposite me with a smirk on his face, believe in 'love'. "Bullshit?" He offered with a huge arrogant smirk on his face and no matter how much I agreed with him on this particular matter, I couldn't agree. So, instead of nodding my head in agreement, I scowled at him. His smirk grew bigger and he leaned away from me, gazing at me with his piercing grey eyes. "Finding it hard to make me believe in love when you yourself don't believe in that shit, huh?" With his piercing grey gaze fixed on my every move, I realized that 'being the devil's cupid' was going to be a lot tougher than I had initially thought. (By the author of 'And We Meet Again')

If you mentioned Ally Scythe to someone, they'd say one of three things. 1) That girl can skate. 2) Doesn't she work at the bookshop? or 3) Poor thing, her mother's death was a tragedy. Nobody would even consider the fact that she is battling something nobody should ever half to deal with. When she meets Cooper, she finally begins to believe there is good in people. With the help of her new boyfriend and the kindly old lady she works for, Ally makes a decision that changes her path of life forever.

Ivy Lynch has been babysitting practically her whole life. She is known around town, getting job offer after job offer. It pays. This summer, she receives an offer to be a full-time nanny for the Kennedy family while the mom goes on a mission trip to Haiti. Unable to turn down the job due to the promised payment, Ivy agrees to spend her summer living with the Kennedy family. That includes oldest son, Elliott, the rebellious boy from Ivy's high school whose mom doesn't trust him enough to take care of his siblings for three months. A lot can change in three months.