Inkitt's latest Horror
writing contest "End Game" is now open for submissions!
Inkitt is a free writing
platform that aims to help writers achieve their fullest potential. On July 13th
the site launched a new Horror writing contest:
End Game
Submit your scariest and most
menacing original horror stories! Petrify readers with tales that will trap and
drown them in your world of helpless terror, but somehow leave them itching for
more. Come. Play.
There is no minimum or
maximum word limit, and, as always, no entry fee.
Contest guidelines
Authors will retain all
rights to any and all works submitted in the contest.
Submissions close on August 10th, but voting will continue for an additional
week
Original stories of any
length are accepted.
Entries must be posted on the
Inkitt contest page to be considered eligible.
The top 10% based on reader
votes get the chance to be picked by the Inkitt staff for 1st, 2nd and 3rd
prize.
All entrants will have the
chance to show their work to a rapidly growing community of authors and readers
hungry for high-quality fiction.
How long can a heart hold on before it breaks? Most women would carry on with their lives after being thrust into widowhood, but not Charlotte Adamsland. Upon learning that her husband, Captain Sanderson Redding, was killed in a botched escape from a Confederate prison in Illinois, she clings to his promise to return to her no matter what, and quickly heads north through a war-ravaged country with only her faith in God and her beloved horse to bring her beloved Sanderson home – one way or another.
Sara Barnard is a master storyteller. The action and romance go hand in hand.
I guarantee you will keep turning pages until there are no more, and then you'll want to move on to book two!
In the beginning, there was a boy named Jack who felt he was on the verge of becoming ... something. It was the end of eighth grade. The next year would be high school, and everyone knows that's where the memories are made, but first, there was the final eighth grade dance to get through. And here he was, sitting in the basement, procrastinating ... just before the world fell apart.
No one really knew how he really felt
about Derencia. He’d worked hard to keep it from Cade, his best friend. Jack wouldn’t have been able
to walk the halls without worrying about what Cade might’ve done or said if he’d
known.
He gave himself another little
shake. Idiot, she’s up there in the gym
right now waiting for the crepe paper and here you sit looking at sci-fi stuff
like a total dor—
The lights went out.
Jack froze.
Cade’s computer winked off and then
came back on. It was plugged into the wall because it was always low on juice, but
it had built up a little charge so it was able to stay powered up.
Probably
just the wind. It always messes with the power. Thank goodness I have the laptop’s light. The following song expresses what Jack is feeling. The fact that it's about a beautiful soul dovetails nicely with the story.
On my evening constitutional with Dude -- my hubby -- this old Evanescence song came up on my iPod playlist. It's always been one of my faves, and it seems to fit what my character, Detective Kendra Dean, is going through in this scene from my Work in Progress, COPPER LAKE, the third book in the Stutter Creek suspense series from 5 Prince Books.
This scene is where Kendra and her younger partner, Woodrow, find themselves in a small bar far from home while wrapping up a prisoner transport job. Kendra is a career detective who always tried to keep her job related horror stories away from her home life. She'd thought she was doing the right thing until recently when her husband, Bill, told her he was leaving, he was tired of being in their marriage alone.
After ordering their drinks—beer
for him, White Russian for her—Woody excused himself to the men’s room.
When
he returned, his path led directly behind her chair. He must have noticed her
rubbing at her neck and shoulders because he stopped and gave her a
thirty-second massage.
“Ahh,”
she said. “Everything’s in knots.”
“I
hear ya." He rolled his own head around slowly. “Not used to riding
fourteen hours with a perp sitting behind me. Even if he was behind wire and asleep
most of the time.” He took his seat across from her again.
Kendra
shrugged and met his grin with a tired one of her own. “The things we do for
the job.” She took another sip of her drink and inspected the nearly deserted
bar. “Thank God there’s not much going on.”
Woody
nodded. “I’ll be ready to hit the sack after this.” He glanced around.
“It’d be our luck for a fight to break out. Guess we’re taking quite a chance
having a drink when we’re technically still on-the-job.”
Kendra
raised her short glass. “Here’s to taking chances.”
“Amen.”
Woody clinked his beer bottle against her glass.
When
a slow song came on the jukebox, he stood and held out his hand. “Take another
chance?”
She
took one more sip of her drink and then placed her hand in his. It’s only one
song, she remembered telling herself. But a flame of longing grew in her belly
as she allowed him to pull her in close. He didn’t press her body to his; he simply
curled his large hand around hers and held it against his chest while the music
led them around the tiny dance floor. When she chanced a glance at his face,
she was surprised to find his eyes were closed.
She
relaxed and rested her temple against the shelf of his chin. Even now, chained to the floor in this nightmarish bunker, she could
still recall the way she felt in his arms, as if she’d just arrived home from a
long, arduous, journey. Kendra also remembered wondering how long it had been
since she and Bill had gone dancing. How long it had been since they had held
each other so tenderly and carefully.
When
the music stopped, they both opened their eyes. What the hell am I doing? She stepped back, head down, not looking
at him until they paid their bill and left.
Lilac Lane is the follow up book to Stutter Creek, my bestselling Suspense novel from 5 Prince Publishing. In Lilac Lane, Ella and her ten year old son, Nick, flee their hometown of Albuquerque, NM to start a new life in a small town. Her ex-husband is in jail for abuse, and they just want to start a new life without him.
Within days they meet local wildlife biologist, Chet Boone. This is what happens after the three of them share pizza and a song together:
*
“You’re
humming that Brown Eyed Girl song aren’t you?” Nick asked.
“Hmm.
So I was. It’s an old song from way back. I’ve always liked it.” She pulled
into the carport and engaged the Jeep’s parking brake. The pine trees were
fragrant. Several branches touched the metal roof of the carport. They made a
shushing sound when the wind blew. It also sent their tangy green fragrance
into the Jeep’s open windows. “We may regret not having a garage when it snows
this winter,” she said.
“I
think he likes you,” Nick replied.
Ella
stopped with her finger on the automatic window button. The windows stopped
halfway up. “Chet Boone?”
