☆ AVAILABLE FROM AMAZON ☆ ↳ DETAILS ON MY AUTHOR'S WEBSITE [ 𝙖 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙-𝙖𝙡𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙧𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙧 𝙛𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙣𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙡𝙖 ] ❝ Some pasts are better left buried. ❞ ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ The only thing that lazy liberal arts graduate Maya García can find any purpose in, is video games and her part time position at the Mexican Society of Archaeology. Since she was born, she has had the strange ability to sense buried things. Cursed to, she would say. From lost keys buried by overexcited dogs to dinosaur bones from the Jurassic period, Maya can find anything, anytime. An abrupt invitation to a potential site near Aztec ruins then pulls Maya to Isla Cozumel, just off of the coast of the mainland. But there's something off about the eerie vegetation and crumbled temples. Something sinister, festering and impatient. The ancient warning texts are enough to unnerve her. Worse, the jade snake that haunts her dreams has begun to leak into the real world. For the first time, Maya has found something that she shouldn't have. [ WORD COUNT : ~ 21 000 ] ▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁ Where mysterious magic waits for a curse to awaken, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘔𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘺 meets 𝘛𝘰𝘮𝘣 𝘙𝘢𝘪𝘥𝘦𝘳. ____________________________________ Copyright © 2020 Stacey Willis, Ear to the Serpent. This is the beta version, and not the final book. ____________________________________ • Cover ; by sarabatdesigns

*ONC ROUND ONE QUALIFIER* *ONC ROUND TWO QUALIFIER* *ONC AMBASSADOR'S PICK* *COMMUNITY CURATOR PICK -- JULY 2020 & FEBRUARY 2021* *MINI AWARD WINNER FOR BEST DIALOGUE -- OPEN DOOR AWARDS 2021* *SUN WINNER - FIRST PLACE FOR FANTASY -- OPEN DOOR AWARDS 2021* ❝ how can you prove whether at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or whether we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? ❞ | IN WHICH THERE IS A WAKING, AND A DREAMING, AND A RETRIEVING OF MEMORIES, AND THOSE WHO SPEAK IN DREAMS DO NOT EVEN KNOW THEIR OWN TONGUE | ❝ there are no witnesses to a dream. ❞ (#ONC prompts #15 & #30) (cover by @TahliePurvis )

ONC 2020 Grand Winner ~ ~ "When the halls run red with the poison of your life, I will rest. Until then, consider your ruin a promise of mine." ~ ~ Four years ago, Yin Ruwei sold her blood to the northern god Xuanwu in return for revenge. Now, after years of perfectly orchestrated deaths at hands that are not her own, she snaps and puts red in her ledger, killing a man personally. Mu'en is more brutal, more cunning . . . and less heartless than he'd wish the world to know. Someone has been killing off his men with all the fury of a hurricane. Tearstained anger blankets every death and he almost feels sorry for the murderer - until they kill the man he loves. Ruwei and Mu'en find themselves on two sides of the same coin, counting fate like they do the stars in the sky, hoping for a better day, a happier life, a brighter world in the shadows they call home. Sometimes you must seek what you've lost to retrieve it again. Sometimes that which you've lost can no longer be retrieved. And sometimes, just sometimes, those broken pieces find their way back to you. ~ ~ ONC 2020. Prompt 4. Written: 29.02.2020 - 05.05.2020. ~ ~ A paranormal revenge story with roots in Chinese mythology. ~ ~ Please do not use or translate my work without my permission. If you would like to use something, please ask me. ~ ~ Warning: Contains violence, death, etc. Alludes to: abuse, assault, trauma. Contains: Chinese culture, Chinese mythology, LGBT+ relationships, disability.

(ONC round two qualifier!) Once upon a time. . . There was a kingdom in the midst of a war. As troops were slain mercilessly, the king turned to the gods and prayed for a blessing. Thus, the dragon goddess, Tiamat, answered. She lent her aid to the kingdom in return for a hundred souls to become her offspring. The king, in a frenzy, accepted her offer without acknowledging the weight of his decision. When the kingdom was victorious, the king decided to go back on his word. The cost was one-hundred men too many; he refused to take that many lives. Furious, Tiamat swore to the king that when she had enough power, she would cause such devastation in the kingdom the king's legacy would be nothing but a story. Her power was depleted, but her fury was unlimited. It took the vengeful goddess a thousand years to gather the strength to deliver her child into the world. This child would carry the soul of a dragon that would slowly lose its sanity until it caused chaos throughout the world; the world the king had sworn to protect. There would be only one way to stop the progression of the mania before the world plummets into disarray. Yet, that is only for the dragon to know and the world to ponder. --- Cover by: 3uttdog Book One of the Dragon Secrets duology

It only takes 2.4 seconds for a radio wave to reach the moon. After 4.5 hours, the wave reaches Pluto; by then we'd already lost Seattle. In 4 years the signal can make it to our nearest star, Proxima Centauri; by then the dead had taken over the United States of America. ︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ My name is Fernie, and I've never seen a zombie. Not alive anyway. I've seen the destruction they leave behind, the families they break apart, and the world they left us. I wasn't alive when they walked among us, but I'm here now to pick up the pieces. A one-man-cleanup crew destined to save the world-or the fifty-mile radius of the world I grew up in. Apart we survive, but together we thrive. That's what The Wave has taught me. It's told me stories, sang me songs, and spoke of our history. I want to rebuild what we lost, but I can't do it alone. The Wave will help me find others, there has to be others. My name is Fernie, and I've never seen a zombie. I don't know about the world my great-grandparents grew up in, but I sure know it was bigger than fifty-miles. It's been nearly a hundred years since the world ended, how far do you think the wave is now? ︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ How do you outrun the living dead? For three brave teenagers, the answer lies in their homes. One off the coast of what was once Alaska, one high in the mountains of South America, and another separated from them both by an endless sea. Alone they only have fragments of the history of their planet, but together they can discover where they came from. Join Fernie, Naira, and Kupe on their crusade to rebuild the world. While mountains and oceans may separate them, the waves that travel across the sky unite them. ︵‿︵‿︵‿︵‿︵ mediocre cover art by yours truly <3 OpenNovellaContest2020 entry inspired by prompt 41. "Yes son, zombies used to be a thing."

Chandler Chase remembers a lot of things about her mother: the way her chin would jut out; how she felt about responsibility; how much she despised the superheroes of Atlas City. After a terrorist attack leaves Chandler's mother dead and Chandler to live with her eternally absent ex-superhero father, she's more than upset -- she's helpless, lost, and alone. For most, there would be nothing to do but wallow inside all day, watching politicians in masks on TV. For Chandler, there's a completely separate option. Armed with a twelve-dollar mask and a fanny pack covered with astronaut kittens, and aided by fellow super teenagers who are each equally tired of the current status quo -- not to mention a very, very cute girl with enough sass to power all of Atlas -- Chandler sets out to do the impossible: be what a superhero should be.

All parents wish for their kids to surpass and outlive them. Some would do anything to ensure their children survive. Edmen died when he was only fifteen, but his father refused to lose another loved one, no matter the cost. Ingrained into the field of developmental biology Edmen's father ends up playing with the ethical disputes and his paten, Edmen, being the product of such. Finding himself alive in a now-foreign world, Edmen needs to find a new identity and with it a new responsibility. His life became responsible for more than one. ______________________________ Cover credit goes to @diwatera All feedback is welcomed!

(TOP FOUR WINNER!) When undercover investigator Kai Ewans is sent to the Steampunk world of Gaia to hunt down a serial killer, he doesn't expect to fall for the lead detective on the case at a fancy dress party. Detective Ash Calvin is attracted to Kai, until he discovers the lies... Will Ash and Kai learn to work together to find the killer? Or will the killer find them first? TOP PICK AMBYS 2023 - Novella Science Fiction WINNER - Equal Fourth place for the ONC 2020 (Steampunk / LGBT / Romance / Crime)

Minion is a regular guy: he's got a wife, a kid, and an app ruined his career as a henchman. Being a villain's sidekick used to be a good job: risky, sure, but well-paying and with top-notch life insurance. But Henchr has brought the tech revolution to the supervillain business. Now it's uncertain schedules and no worker's comp. No villain is evil enough to have dreamt up the gig economy. After one too many jobs gone wrong, Minion decides to retire. This is fine. His self-worth isn't tied to his job. But it is a little humiliating when his wife starts talking about going back to work as the supervillain Dominatrix, a career she retired from a decade ago. And now their daughter is dating a girl that Minion suspects goes out at night in a mask - as a hero, no less. Only a supervillain can sort out Minion's problems, but he can't ask his wife when she's, well, part of the problem. There's only one thing to do: it's time for Minion to become Villain. THE INCREDIBLES meets DOCTOR HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG with a dash of THE VENTURE BROS ***** Contains profanity and cartoon violence *featured on superhero's 'Anti-Heroes and Awesome Antagonists' list and antiheroesgalore's 'Shockingly Short' and 'Badass Authors' lists* Complete at 25k words

A COFFEE NOW WINE LATER NOVELLA All Cat wants out of her life was her dream job, her dream man, and her favorite coffee. She could settle for one out of three, right? Self-diagnosed coffee addict Cat Coleman believes her hard work as an unpaid intern for an entire year at a highly reputable interior design firm pays off when she excitedly accepts a full-time position with the company. However, instead of shadowing veteran designers, she's still sorting and delivering mail and making coffee runs. She simply went from unpaid intern to being the boss' personal assistant. When a very grown-up and seriously sexy David Greenlaw from her Minnesota hometown begins an internship in the same business building, Cat tries to resist his boyish charms and flirty smiles. Because she knows his deceptively evil older sister, Gail, who made Cat's high school years a living nightmare, would happily pick up where she left off and tear down the new life she built. Cat desperately wants to trust her heart and David's promises, but she distrusts Gail and her fake sweet smiles even more. When David's loyalty is tested, should Cat trust him to make the right decision or should she sacrifice her own happiness to ensure his? RATED M for MATURE AUDIENCES for strong language and sexual content. ♥️ AMAZING BOOK COVER DESIGN by @lyssa's Graphics ♥️