|AMBYS 2024 GRAND FAVORITE! · SERIALIZED STORY · ACT I OF THROUGH THE WORMHOLE|
|19X FEATURED|
Daniel Matton wasn't ready for an adventure, not until 3025 sent him into space on a journey to prehistoric times. The prehistoric animals test his patience, but Dan must endure all the pain and suffering to return home safely.
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Seventeen-year-old Daniel Matton, still grieving after his mother's death five years ago, is given the adventure of a lifetime when he's selected as the Star of 3025's PPMC Project for a journey through a black hole, wormhole, and white hole to prehistoric times. Now, does Dan want to be the Star? Heck no, but he has loved paleontology ever since a bittersweet memory with his mom twelve years earlier.
Programmed to resemble Dan's mother's personality, PPMC vows to keep him safe on his journey, but it's difficult when the stubborn teen constantly gets in trouble, not just with himself but also with prehistoric anomalies: volcanic eruptions, eight-foot-long millipedes, terrifying saber-toothed cats, and, above all, disaster.
Now nearly trapped in time, Dan and PPMC must work together to escape the geologic time scale before Dan's love for paleontology and the mighty Quetzalcoatlus prevent him from learning how to truly trust PPMC and "let go" of the burden that's weighed him down for five years.
A teen, a starship, and Becca...
Have you ever wanted to see where life first began?
***
*Moral: Accept where you belong.*
JUDGES AND REVIEWERS!
The world of Through the Wormhole is enormous, and I cannot touch on every nook and cranny of it in merely five chapters. Please keep that in mind.
Be patient with Dan, too, please. He lost five years of rearing after his mother died and is supposed to be immature.
Word Count: 20,000-30,000
|WATTYS 2022 WINNER - HORROR|
Shawn, a convicted criminal, never thought she'd see the sun again, let alone call another star system her home. When she's offered an out from her prison sentence, she embarks on a dangerous interstellar expedition along with 18 of Earth's most intelligent criminals.
Their task is to set up a base on a supposedly habitable planet and prepare it for colonization. Although the planet has liquid water and a breathable atmosphere, it is believed to host only microbial life. However, upon arriving, Shawn and the rest of the colonists learn that assumption was grossly incorrect.
In a brutal attack from rampaging wildlife, everyone but Shawn and four other colonists are killed. The five survivors retreat to the cavernous network beneath the ground seeking safety, but they soon come to a terrible discovery. These caves aren't ordinary caves, and they are no safer down under than they were on the surface.
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This was originally my entry for the 2021 Open Novella Contest, and it received an honorable mention! It has now been expanded into a full length novel. I used prompt number 53:
"When wildlife starts rampaging, all the humans are forced underground. However, they come to a terrible discovery that being underground is no safer than being on the surface."