Grownupreads Stories

"Bridget Jones with a lot more wine! This story is hilarious, feel-good and relatable in all the best ways!" - Grace K @ HQ. She's just quit her high-flying job, and her marriage is coasting on fumes. Can Alice find a sense of purpose in the wreckage? ***** Alice's life isn't going to plan. She's tied to her phone, pointlessly managing PR for a sinking corporate megalith. She's become a bit player in her kids' lives, and her marriage is coasting on fumes. Forcing herself into action with a rash resignation, Alice sets out to make a positive impact on the world around her. But how? Meditation leads to napping, and her attempts to get closer to her teenage daughter result in the discovery of a secret that leaves her at a loss. As the months tick by and a sense of purpose continues to elude her, Alice finds herself forming bonds with the most unlikely characters: the young woman who panhandles outside her old office; the homeless boy who sits cross-legged outside the liquor store with his ginger cat; her own dog walker who, it turns out, knows a thing or two about developing a good crema. Testing the limits of marriage, motherhood and the Toronto subway system -- can Alice find her way into a purpose-driven life? Or will it all be one giant hangover? [*Wattpad Editor's Pick 2018*] [[word count: 70,000-80,000 words]] Readers say: "This had me laughing so loud that my sister came to check up on me to see if I'm OK!!!" "...the new Bridget Jones, a working woman's take on the digital age." About the Author: Working mother and red wine enthusiast, Renee lives in Toronto with her flawed but wonderful family (seriously, who left socks on the kitchen counter?) in a flawed but wonderful house (what *is* that smell in the basement?) where she writes flawed but wonderful stories about what it is to be a woman today.

Schoolteacher Fiona is on a mission for grandpa - find a missing Zimbabwean artefact, the precious soapstone "Bird of the Gods". Conrad - dodgy archaeologist contracted to the stunning influencer Amanda aka #mandalove - has the same job. When Fiona and Conrad's paths cross, what was supposed to be a straightforward quest turns into a crazy race around the world. With antagonists popping up at every corner - from mountain tops to underground settings like Serbian caves, frozen Canadian crypts, and the silver mines of the old West, Fiona and Conrad have to work together to catch their bird. Mutual respect grows into something more intimate. But not everything is quite as it seems, and they had better watch their backs lest they too end up underground, this time permanently.

Schoolteacher Fiona is on a mission for grandpa - find a missing Zimbabwean artefact, the precious soapstone "Bird of the Gods". Conrad - dodgy archaeologist contracted to the stunning influencer Amanda aka #mandalove - has the same job. When Fiona and Conrad's paths cross, what was supposed to be a straightforward quest turns into a crazy race around the world. With antagonists popping up at every corner - a lot of them underground in Serbian caves, frozen Canadian crypts, Egyptian tombs, and the silver mines of the old West, Fiona and Conrad have to work together to catch their bird. Mutual respect grows into something more intimate. But not everything is quite as it seems, and they had better watch their backs lest they too end up underground, this time permanently... This is my chapter in the Writer's Relay. It won't make any sense if you read it without reading all the rest! So go to @basketballdemon and read Chapter 1!

There are fates worse than death... 2.9k words. Rated PG 16.

{Poetry} We're keepers of each other's stories; you make me real.

In a world where tall ships have led to expansive conquests, people are saying a masked man is leading a resistance against the imperial occupiers. Able Houser, a scholar struggling with a stalled career, is both skeptical of the stories yet hopeful that they could be hiding the trail of the insurgents his father was helping when he vanished twelve years ago. After turning up hints of a government cover-up, Able sails across the sea to investigate further and becomes entangled not only in the conflict between the imperial enforcers and the native people but also in a long-standing conspiracy.

The ancient and tragic journey of the vampire Vittoria de Luca Bonenfant as she so vividly recalls. The struggles of an immortality she deems to be forsaken by God. A Christian who is loath to see her faith wain. A vampire with the profound inability to take mortal life and allow the warmth of human blood to make florid her pallor skin so that she might not be, in her view, this grotesque and perfect vision of conscious death. A vampire at a loss as she wanders the grey twilight- » » With you I leave my confessions, as in those wretched wooden rooms. Do with it as you like; tell it to your one, or to many, or burn it with my rosary, which I surely have blasphemed. How long ago the mortal soul in me was lost, I do not know. How long ago since I said, "Take me," with such hatred in my eyes. "Take me now from this cruelty!" But non, He would not. I know He has left me, my God, my Savior, my Abandoner, turned His crystalline gaze from my ruin. But with nervous hands and nervous breath did I pray to Him still, my breast cracked asunder as I strained to hear Him. But lo, that I heard the cold laughter of the Morning Star, and was blinded by the Son of Dawn. I said the words, "I will not go with you, Devil," and the Devil, who became the serpent of my rosary, and like a strange stigmata, bit my praying palm, pressed my fingerstips to his pallid lids, as though he felt a pull at his heart like so many strings. I loath him and do unto him cruel things. I like to do it. Because it is I, alas, who had become the Devil in the end, a savage Devil with sweet, ruddy tears at the rending of mortal flesh. Now, I daresay, no earthly living thing binds me to gracious mortal empathy, that mortal beating heart in its miserable rhythm. I have not eyes for their mourning visage, nor ears for their desperate cries. No heart for them. No heart. No heart that He may never forgive. #1 Poetic Prose #1 Musing photo credit: Laura Makabresku

Tom loved his master, his job and the wonderful society he lived in - until one day, somebody hacked his tattoo and his world changed forever. Cyberpunk / LGBT short story

A collection of short stories and random thoughts, covering various genres and tropes. Expect the unusual.

Elizabeth Elliot has been through foster care for so long and 4 years ago,she was set free. Trying to piece her life back after the terrible luck experience with her foster homes,which will always be a part of her. Getting a shitty job at a club at night,trying to ward off men old enough to father her and putting herself through school on all her own. Her luck takes a turn on the day of her college graduation ceremony,meeting a man who seemed to hate everything around. Caleb Stone,owner of Stone industries. Having a long chain of industries to his name,a revolving door of women,having a strange case of mean disorder,but hey!the women love it. And when he is asked to speak at a college graduation,he makes a decision unlike any other he chooses to accept their invitation. On meeting her,the urge to have her as his is compelling... watch these two as they collide and sparks fly and something more...

Yuki had a crush on Kaname forever. When she learns that he also has a crush on her. The plot thickens as they learn more about each other and found that they're parents set up an arranged marriage years ago. What will the new couple do? ©2018 Nadine van der Merwe

PUBLISHED ON AMAZON/KU *** 4 CHAPTER SAMPLE HERE *** Life has not been easy for Mary. With the loss of her mother to cancer, her overbearing father gives her the role of housekeeper, cook, and punching bag for his grief. These lonely jobs don't allow time for a social life or even a close friend to lean on. Despite all these challenges, she keeps her chin up and it pays off on the day a cute boy asks her out on a date and steals her heart.

Christian and the kids are working on making Ana's birthday special. Read for more. Note it is a short story.

Buehler's just a regular mook, a bar owner making book on the side. Good life. Until Freddy knocks, sending Buehler's life sideways. * Excerpted from the novel "Livewire Voodoo."

The cyborg was huge, built like a juggernaut, and carrying a weapon the size of a rocket launcher. All to hunt down a skinny hooker, weighing a hundred pounds on a good day. It was pretty funny really, when you thought about it. She almost smiled before the terror kicked back in. Portal. A collection of Sci-Fi short stories, written for ForbiddenPlanet's smackdown SFSD 7. Includes Portal, Metropolitan, One Night at the Pub, and Star Fallen. My final entry Star Clash won the smackdown and now appears as a free download on Amazon etc

A collection of mainly sweet, gay, short stories - newest first. PS Birthday Fantasy is still the hottest, and most popular! *New story: The Coffee Machine* Includes Martian Rendezvous, A Christmas Encounter A Mammoth Adventure, The Anniversary and many more

Gray walls. Gray clothes. Gray lifestyle. At the Ceremony, thirteen year olds have to choose between the underground and above. The people who live underground are tagged government haters, and those who are above are the government lovers. Or, as many like to call them, "Gover-Lovers". Emily Rinwood shouldn't be underground. But because of a deal she made years ago with her best friend, Scott, she finds that she is. Scott Owens never wanted to hurt Emily. But bringing her underground was important. He - and his other friend, Noah - have more than a few tricks up their sleeves. Harper, a crazy, energetic girl finds herself looped into the madness of the mission. Together, they team up for the quest that could shape the whole world.

Birgitta the nun, the grumpiest sister ever taking vows, is forever hiding in the Monastery. She wants nothing but to mind her own business - pleasantly seated in her favorite chair in front of a good fire - but is forced on an adventure, as a wizard suddenly turns up at the monastery, bringing her wayward manners and useless staff. The adventure, such as it turns out to be, brings heaps of misunderstandings, some hope lost, and a bundle of broken trusts. Birgitta the nun, in the end, finds herself on a quest, searching for friendship just as much as longing for solitude.

As a band of weary travelers make their way across the wild new country in search of treasures and opportunities, they trade frightening tales around the campfire each night. A preacher battles with hungry wolves, an Army cook uses inventive ways to bring revenge upon his cruel commanders, and a timid school teacher finds something strange about a certain ghostly student.

On nearly every timeline so far, it ended like this, with a game of Welters. Dean Fogg against the Beast. This time, however, the Dean finds out why the Beast took his eyes and hands rather than killing him outright.