What would you give up to dive into your favourite story? Romantic, sharp-tongued, with a tendency to fall in love with tall, dark-haired, brooding men--Leah is the archetype of the "Pride and Prejudice" fan. TV series, movies, comics, musicals: she has seen and read them all. For her birthday, Leah's friends and family pool together to get her the ultimate Janeite gift: the Bridge, a virtual-reality gaming device. By granting access to her five senses, she can live her favourite novel as the iconic Elizabeth Bennet! As she explores Regency England and quarrels with the infamous Darcy, Leah cannot help but digress from the original plot to suit her modern-woman convictions. The longer she plays, the weirder her beloved characters act, until the lines between fiction and reality blur. ⚠️ Content and/or trigger warning ⚠️ This story contains one scene of (unsuccessful) sexual coercion, and mentions domestic violence and death by domestic violence, which may be triggering for some readers. 📖 Featured 19 times! Seen on: 📖 @beauty @SpeculativeFiction @Humor @ContemporaryLit @retold @WattRevenge @ScienceFiction @mystery @StoriesUndiscovered @WattpadGaming @ChickLit @Fanfic @NA @generalfiction @classicauthors @WattpadHistoricalRomance @HistoricalFiction

Prompt 29 for Sci-fi page's open novella 2020 contest. A man leaves home, unsatisfied with his kingdom's actions. He learns of a foreign empire. Free cover image off of Pixabay.com.

"We shouldn't dig here." "Why...not?" "Because what's buried here is not what you think it is." • • • • • • • • • • • • [ inspired by prompt #54 and #4 of the Open Novella Contest 2020 | ONC2020 LONGLIST ] Taylor Sloan has spent the last decade digging up priceless treasures, uncovering lost empires, and discovering ancient civilizations, all due to her uncanny ability to know what's buried beneath her feet. Taylor's fiancé Riyad Banks went missing two year ago, lost at sea among the many remote Alaskan islands. Now Taylor and her charge, Riyad's teenage son, are headed for an island to join in an excavation headed by Taylor's archeologist cousin. But some secrets are better left buried, and Taylor wonders if facing the truth is worth having their hearts broken all over again. • • • • • • • • • • • • • Completed Novella [ about 25,000 words ] on March 13, 2020 • Copyright absterak 2020 • Cover Photo from Unsplash

Just as history is being written off as a lost cause, a signal from space promises answers to the riddles of time. A 20K word novella.

[ CURRENTLY ON HOLD = NO UPDATES UNTIL I FINISH MY OTHER BOOK OFF WATTPAD ] "you're in a waiting room of a clinic that promises to cure writer's block" Giving up on draft after drafts of half-thought out stories for the last five years, Gwen Storm was certain that her writing career would never take off. That is, until she finds a flyer slid under her apartment door promoting a new clinic that had just opened round the block. A clinic that promises to cure writer's block. That first step into the clinic and the advice she receives convinces her to return yet again, and subsequently join the clinic as its newest worker. Meeting people from all walks of life, delivering an odd assortment of items to houses and nearly getting bitten by a Chihuahua on more than one occasion, having deep conversations with her co-workers, and getting advice from someone she was supposed to be coaching were all not what Gwen had expected. That whole summer was unlike what she had thought would be. But that's what you do right? Life throws you papers full of different options, you hurry up and fill up that goddamn paper with ticks and crosses before life throws you another paper. That's what you do. You survive. You survive life like a damn pro. #OPENNOVELLACONTEST2020 - contains swear words - - slow burn is really. damn. slow. - highest achievement: #4 in #clinic (sometime in may 2020) #16 in #writersblock (sometime in may 2020)

Hazel Reyes is struck with a curse and a sacrifice. In order to free herself, she will have to lose herself and the ones she love. Torn by choices, scarred by what's beneath her skin, and intertwined with fate, she will have to choose: an endless burden or tainted freedom. -

Ambassador's Pick and Longlisted entry for the Open Novella Contest. Famous author Serena Scarlet will do anything to defeat writer's block and get her novel written. When she visits a clinic that claims to cure writer's block, she gets transported inside her unfinished book. Trapped in her story, with most of her characters trying to kill her and nothing going the way she'd planned, she has to figure out how to escape her own writing-- before it's too late. Cover by @diwatera.

Thoughtful and unassuming Phoebe feels like a side character in her own life. She is average amongst her talented siblings and feels small amongst her ambitious peers. Soon, she needs to decide what she wants to do with her life and quite frankly she is lost. Reserved and ingenious Aodhán navigates a world where he has to hide who he truly is and the people he can rely on are few and far between. He yearns for a place where he can be himself and freely breathe. Can a shared train to school bring them together? Will they be able to find the answers they are looking for through each other?

Two aliens on the run, manage to bump into each other on a distant planet at just the right time. ✨~✨~✨ Liri Delaney, the only child of Dubrovn planetary moguls, is accused of murder. Scouring several solar systems to find the true murderer, she runs into trouble in New Seattle. Ardon Rowe, a sweet-talking High-Draconian hybrid, sees her plight and offers his unconventional services. The two find more trouble than they ever bargained for with wrongfully imprisoned Shape Shifters, military battleship chases, and needy lovers. Lustral: rite of purification. ✨ ONC 2020 Shortlister! ✨ ✨ Featured on: ✨ @ScienceFiction ~ Intergalactic Reads (Space Opera). @YAMystery ~ Can Somebody Get This Walking Carpet Out of My Way. @SpeculativeFiction ~ Breaking the Space Time Continuum. @BeyondSol ~ Andromeda Action/adventure @Readers Choice Awards 2020 winner. @Winter Rose awards 2nd place winner. @PrettyInPunkBC 2022 third place winner. @TheAmbys ~ Space Opera winner '22. 👽 Lustral is the type of SciFi I adore. Strong characters, creative worlds and species, and a plot that keeps you at the edge of the seat and so many twists that will leave you dizzy. ~ @SallyMason1

[ON HOLD - Longlisted ONC 2020] After her boyfriend broke up with her, Poppy Flores declared that she wanted to start over somewhere new. The next morning, she woke up in 1951. It wasn't exactly what she was thinking when she'd said somewhere new. Every disorienting morning after that brought Poppy to a new year and a new place. But she soon realized that there was one thing that stayed the same. The handsome man with the mysterious smile and disheveled auburn hair. She saw his face in the crowds every day. -- Oliver Rockwell was a 19th century man with a very odd, very annoying task-to guide 21st century Poppy Flores through her journey in time. Oliver doesn't understand this new role of his, and he certainly doesn't understand Poppy. But when he finally figures both out, what happens when he has to give them up? ONC Prompt 36