2022 Watty Winner || At the age of ten, Sanford Crow discovers the worst secret of all--his father is a serial killer. It was the year 1969. Sanford's dream was to grow up to be a detective. Putting his intuitions to the test, he conducts an investigation into his father. The discovery he makes brings his whole world crashing down, and to the culmination of one terrible Christmas morning. Twenty five years later, it's 1994. Sanford is a divorced and a recovering alcoholic, with an eight-year-old daughter named Sadie. His dreams of becoming a detective never came to fruition. Instead, he lives vicariously through his job of being a crime scene cleaner. As therapy begins to open up doors to his past that he'd rather keep shut, the same string of murders that his father committed when he was a child are happening again all around him. Sanford starts questioning his grip on reality. The answers he finds brings his past rushing back, and has him doubting everything he thought he knew about himself, his past, and his own sanity.

Adele knows she witnessed a murder - what she doesn't know is just how personal it is. ***** A girl was brutally murdered in the basement of a sorority house in spring 2011. Adele Theroux thinks she saw the killer - and the killer definitely saw her. What she doesn't know is why this all happened and who this guy is. As she tries to solve the mystery from a distance while in witness protection, the connections keep getting weirder and more personal. Might she be able to relate to the killer in a way that no one else can? And what does that mean about her own psyche? *2019 Watty Award for Mystery/Thriller* [[word count: 50,000-60,000 words]] Cover designed by April Alforque

When a storm strands Ira Hale at the stately Beaufort Manor, she joins the household to work under the mysterious and reclusive Valeri Beaufort, but what secrets are lurking in the shadows? *** Ira Hale joins the Beaufort household under the employ of Beaufort Manor's mysterious master, Sir Valeri Beaufort. She soon comes to care for the reclusive noble and his haunted home. When a series of gruesome murders in a nearby town expose Sir Beaufort as a vampire, both the town and Beaufort Manor fall under the scrutiny of a ruthless police force known as the Amith Capil. In a world where monsters walk among humans, the true killer hides in plain sight. *** Book I of Kingdom at the End of the World series. 2021 Watty Winner in Horror *** Content warning: This story contains graphic depictions of violence and death.

"I'm not sure if I'm ready yet to find out the hard way how strong I am." Strength isn't always physical. I should know. I have plenty of that. It's mental strength that I'm lacking. I don't know what is real and what is an illusion anymore. He says he's real, but I know he can't be. Someone like me can't be blessed like that, right? Warning: Gay couples are the main couples in there, namely manxman, if you don't like it, don't read it. NOTE: This is the second book in a series starting with The Vampire's Wolf which can be found on my profile.

While investigating the chilling deaths of three teenage girls in the remote town of Briarwood, Detective Evan O'Riley is drawn into the unsolved mysteries of a notorious 1960s serial killer. Three sixteen-year-old girls have plunged from the roof of their school. The question lingers: did they jump, or were they pushed? Tasked with uncovering the truth, Evan O'Riley---seasoned by years of crime-solving in Riverton---arrives in Briarwood, determined to discover whether he's facing triple homicide or a heartbreaking suicide. As he delves into the case, Evan uncovers unsettling whispers about the town's infamous SAD Killer, whose string of brutal murders left Briarwood haunted---and whose identity was never discovered. Fifty years later, the ghosts of the past resurface as Evan combs through long-buried evidence, tracks down survivors, and seeks out old investigators tied to the original crimes. Driven to find answers for both the present and the past, Evan is relentless in his pursuit of justice. But as old secrets come to light and the investigation intensifies, Evan realizes the SAD Killer's legacy isn't as distant as he believed---the danger may be closer than anyone imagines.

After Laurel's suicide, her oldest friends gather to fulfill her final request: Scatter her ashes at her family's remote old cabin, and drink to her memory. But as the night wears on, old grudges and dark secrets begin to emerge. And when one of the mourners is found murdered, the others are left reeling with the horrifying truth: Someone among them is a killer...and there's more to the story of Laurel's death than meets the eye. Content warning for suicide, murder and mentions of sexual violence.

Jingle Hell, Jingle Hell, Jingle all the way. Oh what fun, It is to hide; To slaughter and to slay... (Winner of @Fright's Holiday Horror Contest!) Highest ranking: #10 in horror, 27th December 2016 Featured in @IncarnateMovie 'Best of Horror' reading list Featured on @Fright @Wattfest @SpeculativeFiction @ForbiddenWorlds reading lists Featured Story December 2018 (Home For the Holidays) Featured Story November 2020 (Editors' Choice) Featured Story October 2021 (Homepage, Spooky SZN) Also available on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble Includes audio Cover by @RachelS8766 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 ☺♥

When darkness falls, the vampires come out. Sixteen-year-old Kiara Morrow knows that better than anyone. She's been trained her whole life to wipe bloodsuckers off the face of the earth. But then she meets Luke. He's a vampire but he's unlike any vamp Kiara's ever known. ***** Luke may be what Kiara's been looking for her whole life, but as far as her family is concerned, the only good vampire is a dead vampire. The closer she grows to him, the more Kiara is forced to confront the foundation of lies her life has been built on. But Kiara's bloodthirsty family isn't the only problem they have to face. People in town are dying. Something evil is looming on the horizon... [[word count: 100,000 - 150,000]] Cover designed by Holly Thurston

Twenty teens. Abducted. To play a game of man hunt.

Clara Avery was a normal human girl. Or, at least, that was what she'd been made to believe. And yet amidst the dying flames of her ruined car, the few boxes of her personal belongings, and her relentless bad luck, Clara has something far more valuable than even she knows－her soul. Catastrophe and trouble turns her life inside out when she makes a regrettable deal with a demon; one that ends with her being kidnapped only to awake in the Underworld. As fate would have it, it is there she will find the truth behind the strange occurrences in her life, and her relationship with the group of demons known as the Elite. In a world where supernatural beings exist, how will Clara react to the sudden revelation of her fate? Who is she exactly, and what is her role in the events that unfold before her?