Midwest Stories

[Wattys 2022 Winner!] Vanessa Brooks, an anxious and cynical seventeen year-old, discovers she can travel to the summer of 1953 through the run-down community pool in her rural Michigan town and risks her future as she falls for a boy who lives in the past. ****** On the last day of junior year, Vanessa Brooks joins her friends for a traditional jump into the city pool to celebrate the beginning of summer and the last year they plan to spend in Palmer, Michigan; a dead-end riverside town with an eerily abandoned historic main street and decaying Victorian mansions. But when she resurfaces her classmates have been replaced by girls in retro swimsuits and bathing caps and guys in thigh-baring briefs with cigarettes tucked behind their ears. When Pete Harrison, an unfamiliar face who seems somewhat familiar with hers, offers a dizzy and confused Vanessa a towel and a ride home, she discovers her house and family missing. She has somehow slipped into 1953, the year her grandparents graduated high school. Using the pool and vivid imaginings of her grandfather's memories, Vanessa continues to escape to 1953- and to Pete, who, despite his unaffected kindness and optimism, has a mysterious bad reputation around town. But as she dives deeper into the summer her grandparents fell in love, she finds herself unable to return to the present without venturing even further into the past to correct a mistake that threatens her family and future. *Content Warning: this story contains scenes of near drowning and other perils on the sea, swearing, smoking and alcohol use* This story is complete at ~90,000 words. Wattys Winner 2022- Catchiest Hook and Wild Card Shortlisted Wattys 2021 Featured on @WattpadTimeTravel Featured on @WattpadHistoricalRomance Featured on @TeenFiction Editor's choice list, December 2022, May 2023 Cover by @eva3382

WHERE GRACE GOES | ❝wherever she goes, a little bit of grace follows her.❞ ( k.rudd x d.whitaker ) THE PITT s1  s? started | 04 Apr. 2026 published | 10 Apr. 2026

This is a collection of the Jake and Ray stories. Most of these are contained in other anthologies, but I thought it might serve to have them all here in one place. Please enjoy!

Laney lives in her head, she hates everyone but her family and her best friend's, and her long-term crush Michael Waters. She ends up falling at a party and having her prince save her. Is this when she'll finally get her high school experience? What even is the high school experience, at this point she's watched enough movies to not actually know what that is. Drinking, love, education, trips around the world?? She's so unsure of everything that all of this seems so distant when its right in front of her. Literally in front of her, Micheal has something to tell her but can't seem to get the words out. Does he love her? Maybe he just needs to know where the bathroom is...read to find out.

Hi everyone, just a quick heads-up: this is the very first book I've ever written, so pls go easy on me haha! Set in Kansas City, Missouri, Midwest Boys, Late Summer, follows Caleb Turner and Evan Holt, two boys raised on church pews, summer storms, and unspoken rules. Best friends since childhood, they've grown up inseparable - and quietly in love - in a place where certain feelings are never named. Caleb, the taller of the two, has always been overprotective of Evan. Evan however, has always shown.. stronger affection to Caleb.. Caleb isnt really good at, showing emotion. Only around Evan, he feels thorough. As tornado sirens cut through humid nights and adulthood looms closer, Caleb and Evan learn what it means to want something they were taught to fear. This is a story about closeted love in the Bible Belt, about silence that feels holy and dangerous, and about the kind of romance that survives in stolen glances and almost-touches.

A young girl lost looking for love, in midst of it, she finds a boy... a man rather, one that would show her thrilling times for sure.

May Lynn has nowhere to go, but she can't stay put. JD's got a truck and a heart full of love for the girl. In Iowa, on their way to the Field of Dreams, an old man and his granddaughter just might be May Lynn and JD's key to getting out of this place.

Elizabeth Kays knew leaving home behind would be one of the hardest things she had ever done. But after 22 years of heartbreak, failures, and memories she knew it was time to move on. She knew Haysworth, Indiana a boring, small town was just what she needed. But, what she didn't know was that sometimes your past catches up to you. Unfinished business from her past wasn't the only thing that was that would haunt her in her quest for a new beginning. Wesley McAurther made sure of that.

All she needed was a little warmth. Now Charlie is out in the cold. After failing to rekindle the passion in her marriage, a desperate woman leaves her unconscious husband to die in a field. But when the historic blizzard that is meant to cover her tracks amounts to nothing more than a dusting, she is left to deal with the body.

"Policy" Revised Freedom Seekers "Originally in Dutch" a call and response to 'Ain't I a Woman?" By Sojourner Truth from the modern day Elizabeth Packard everywhere.

Little snippets of prompts and my own ideas about living out west. GOTTA GET THAT BIBLE BELT PROMO

This story is about a boy who gets sent back in time to relive the gruesome past. It's a story built with romance, adventure and magic. Who will he meet, what will happen? Stay tuned every week for a new chapter!

It's back to school season in zombie country. A new teacher is in town, the administration is cracking down, and the custodian is coerced to sacrifice his life for school supplies. Math, reading, and squirrel is on the menu, so get out the pencils and buckle down; the zombies are coming.

He's having an identity crises. It's 1997, and he's not sure how he ended up this way--a freak of nature, an actor in his own life--but Jack's always been there for him, and there's no way these feelings are going to go away, not now, not ever. Perhaps he should just blame it on the corn.

This is the story of Charles Redman, written in the form of a journal. You'll follow Charles as he explores the Plains Commonwealth within Nebraska, and the surrounding states. He is also a Ghoul. For once, you'll know what it feels like, through Charles, how life is as a ghoul. If you are unsure what something is, then follow this link: http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Fallout_Wiki It will take you to the Fallout Wiki

When the tornado sirens sound, do you run to the basement or to the window? Ten-year-old Darrel Jr. hasn't made up his mind. Inside, his family is solid and steadfast, but Darrel is still working out just how worried he should be by the storms raging outside.

Moving to California is a commonplace event in America since it is a wonderful spot to live. Consistently, an enormous number of guests go to California due to its wonderful climate. Likewise, assuming you're migrating to Texas for work, you ought to know that it's additionally a phenomenal spot to live.