Everybody wants John to be something. His family wanted to marry him off to some rich guy. Isaac wants him to be a wizard. But John has run away from home, determined to follow his own dreams. And his dream is to be a private eye, just like in all the Raymond Chandler novels he read as a child. He can only hope that the detective skills he learned from those books are still relevant when it's 1996 and he's homeless in the big city... I was trying to write a book, all the way from initial concept to publication, in November 2024. All feedback appreciated. I managed to post a chapter every day in November, and write 5 more, but at the start of December I've still got a handful of loose ends to tie up.

| 𝟭𝟲𝘅 𝗙𝗘𝗔𝗧𝗨𝗥𝗘𝗗 · [EDITORS' CHOICE -- NOVEMBER 2020] [ONC 2020 Winner] Two strangers on separate trains, divided by uncaring glass. A bond forms between them. But will it hold when their trains are bound for different destinations? Evan's heart has been bleeding since his little family was torn apart by divorce, and his nose runs with a cold. Trying to pick up the pieces of his life, he has changed cities, and he's about to change jobs. And he has run out of tissues. A woman's blue hair catches his eye at a train station. And her smile, fortified by braces, catches his heart. Sitting in her train, Iris revels in her future perfect. Her work is finally getting published and she has found Mr. Right. Nothing could go wrong now. Gazing out of the window, she sees the stranger. He looks miserable and sneezes, but her hands want to tousle his bed hair. A random encounter at a subway station. But both of them are caught in their tracks and when their trains pull apart, they don't expect to meet again. ⭐⭐⭐ This is a slow-burn, peculiar romance; an expanded Open Novella Contest Entry based on Prompt #61 in the Romance section: "After being jilted, you move to the city to hide your embarrassment, lick your wounds, and start afresh." Cover illustrations by @EvelynHail. "Mind the Gap" is ONLY available on Wattpad. If you are reading this anywhere else, it is a plagiarized version that may contain malware. ⭐⭐⭐ 16x featured! 🏆 ONC 2020 Winner! 📘 Featured on: "Editors' Choice" ➡ @WattpadExplorer "Satisfy Your Cravings" ➡ @WattpadExplorer "Purity-Realistic Fiction" ➡ @AvantPop "Love Yourself"➡ @WattpadSpiritual "Head over Heels" ➡ @Romance "Accept Yourself" ➡ @LY "A Little Bit of Everything" ➡ @NARomance "Finding Love" ➡ @generalfiction "Melting Hearts" ➡ @adultfiction "Consequences" ➡ @ChickLit ...

Estera Montenegro grew up knowing one thing: she needs to be a wolf to survive. As an Enforcer in her community, it's her job to face off with law-breaking members in an arena while citizens watch. But when fate takes a drastic turn, she finds herself injured and homeless. That is until she crosses paths with Magnus Juarez. His community supplies electricity to the entire region, which makes them vital in the wasteland. Little does he know he just allowed a wolf through their gates because Estera is willing to do anything to survive and she's hungry for revenge on the people who wronged her. * * * 𝐅𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞𝐝 𝐎𝐧: 𝐅𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐡 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 & 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐚𝐫 ✨✨ ᏟᎾᏉᎬᏒ ᏟᏒᎬᎪᏆᎬᎠ bᎽ ᏆhᎬ ᎥmmᎬᏁsᎬᏞᎽ ᏆᎪᏞᎬᏁᏆᎬᎠ @sereneur ✨✨

[WATTYS SHORTLIST - 2021] Penny Lane, a young florist with a dislike of weddings and a dream of opening her own flower shop, has to overcome her insecurities to find love with Haze Delacroix, the charismatic owner of Underworld Delicacies, who charms his way into her heart by means of culinary delights, namely delicious pomegranates. ---------- Contemporary Romance inspired by the myth of Hades & Persephone. ******** THIS IS ONLY A SAMPLE - READ THE FULL STORY ON GALATEA

I used to be a Zombie. Until a kind stranger bought me a new brain. They told me the brain was artificial; that it had been grown in one of the continent's many brain labs. "The labs were built to help recover the human population," they said. They told me no humans were harmed in the making of my brain. They were wrong. ______ Highest Rankings: #120 in #zombie (13/02/20) #541 in #humour (13/02/20) #885 in #horror (14/02/20) #12 in #opennovellacontest2020 (08/02/20) Disclaimer: This story is rated PG13, and any comments on this story should also be suitable for 13 year olds to come across. Any comments which are not PG13 may be removed without notice. Thank you ♥

For influencer Carolyn Danes, #aboutlastnight is the best hashtag. It perfectly sums up an evening filled with adventure and excitement. And her last evening out really WAS perfect. Her dress fit perfectly, her hair and makeup were on point, and she met the man of her dreams, out-of-this-world-hot and charming Damian Bradley. It just had to be ruined by something as silly as waking up in a strange empty room, in Damian's body, her own lifeless corpse lying on the floor. No amount of screaming in the world can make the nightmare go away. Her only clue about last night is a letter from Damian himself. It can all be undone. He just made a deal with the Devil, and now the Prince of Darkness wants one small favor to set everything right. Find a tiny shard of soul. But when Carolyn can see every bit of soul the world has lost, finding one particular piece may prove impossible. 👸 This is my open novella contest 2020 entry. Yay me!

An international group of passengers are trapped aboard a cruise ship during a zombie apocalypse.

Diagnosed with a terminal illness, Peter Katz hires a hitman to take him out. But when a cure is discovered, Peter's got to outrun the assassin to stay alive! ***** When douchebag lawyer Peter Katz gets diagnosed with terminal cancer, he wants to die painlessly. Still, death seems to elude his every attempt, so he hires an assassin to kill him at a random time and place within the month. Unfortunately for Peter, right after he orders the hit, a treatment is discovered that would add decades to his life. Now Peter Katz has to start running, until the month-long deadline ends. Desperate to survive, he has to deal with tall-dwarves, unionized suicide workers, art terrorism and all the insanity that being alive has to offer. Will he make it to the end of the month? Or will Peter Katz live a life's worth of craziness in however many days he has left? For what is Comedy, but Tragedy + Time? [[word count: 100,000-150,000 words]]