From dueling families to an insane asylum, these short stories are... twisted.

During the autumn of 2016, the team behind the Chapter One Young Writers Conference mentored two talented young writers through the publishing process, giving them a head start on becoming the successful authors of tomorrow. Now, read the stories on which these up-and-coming writers worked, along with four by the Ch1Con mentors themselves.

Each of these stories comes with a twist. You'll never see what's coming next.

Purchase Links:
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Excerpt:

I shouldn't have answered the phone. Mom was going on and on and on about this boy she wanted me to meet and how he'd just moved down by me to go to my college, and I should date him, because he was her best friend's son or something like that and "you should see him with his shirt off," and-- whoa. Really, Mom?

I sighed and tucked my phone between my ear and shoulder. "Mom."

"What, honey?"

"Do you know how many people named Brown there could be here? Or heck, even Joshes. I know at least five of them, just from college. Chances are, we'll never run into each other, and you and Maggie will just have to live with that. I've got a date with someone else tonight, anyway."

“Just keep him in mind, honey.” Mom sighed. She wanted grandkids, and had never been shy about telling me that, unfortunately.

“Okay, Mom. Maybe we’ll find each other, and maybe we’ll become a thing.”

“You should.”

“Maybe.” My doorbell rang and I sighed. "That's probably the maintenance man coming to fix the leaky drain he’s already ‘fixed’ three times. I'll talk to you later."

"Love you, sweetie."

"Love you too."

My socks slid along the linoleum as I hung up and tucked my phone into my back pocket. I undid the latch and opened the front door, only to stop short when the man who appeared was definitely not Bill, our building's janitor and handyman.

"Um, hi," he said, brown eyes meeting mine. "I just wanted to come over and introduce myself. I'm Josh, your new neighbor."

Of course he was a Josh. Make that six Joshes I knew who weren’t Maggie’s son.

Oh, wait, this must be the source of all the banging next door. It wasn't actually a herd of elephants?

"I'm Kassidy," I said, opening the door the rest of the way. "Want to come in?"

			Twisted: Short Stories by Young Writers by Brett Jonas, Anne Brees, Cameron Vanderwerf, Kathleen Rae, Emma Rose Ryan, Allison Mulder, Julia Byers (2016)

It’s got my name on it! Isn’t that so cool?! (I may or may not have squealed when it popped into my inbox. LOL)

Our cover designer, Haley Crosby, did a wonderful job, and I love it!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Book Name: A Pizza My Heart: An Anthology

Book Genre: YA fiction anthology

Book release date: November 12, 2016 (National Pizza with the Works except Anchovies Day)

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30119563-a- pizza-my- heart

Gooey cheese and warm pepperoni, with a side of kissing and murder.

A Pizza My Heart is a quirky and fun anthology that crosses all genres. Fifteen extraordinary authors have united to tell stories of mystery, mayhem, romance, danger, deceit…and pizza.

Sometimes spicy, sometimes cheesy, but always delicious, A Pizza My Heart invites you to explore life, happiness, and the pursuit of pizza.

Stories Include:

A Slice of Adventure by Maria Carvalho

Between Slices by Andy Grieser

Fresh, Hot, and Deadly by Rena Olsen

KissingDancingPizzaMURDER by Darci Cole

Kneadful Things by Jenna Lehne

Love Pizza No. 9 by Vanessa Rodriguez

Madame Miraval’s Pizza Place by Kelly deVos

Password Is… by Jolene Haley

Pizza by Emily Simon

Pizza Buddy by Brian LeTendre

Pizzamergency by Brett Jonas

Survival Pizza by Rebecca Waddell

The Last Stop at the End of the World by Jamie Adams

The Pizza Guy by Jessi Shakarian

Where There’s Pizza by Jasmine Brown

About the Publisher:

Established in 2014, Hocus Pocus & Co. loves to bring unique voices and stories to fruition.

Cover Design by Haley Crosby

Join the book buzz using hashtag #Pizzathology

The anthology is called A Pizza My Heart, and it’s an anthology (or collection) of young adult stories all about pizza. Mine has baby goats and kissing and pizza (of course) and it’s super cute (in my oh-so-humble opinion).

The anthology comes out on November 12th, and in the beginning, it will only be available digitally. If it sells well enough, we will (hopefully) get to do a print run, which would be super amazing! We don’t have a cover yet, but here’s the blurb and other information:

Book Name: A Pizza My Heart: An Anthology

Book Genre: YA fiction anthology

Book release date: November 12, 2016 (National Pizza with the Works except Anchovies Day)

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30119563-a- pizza-my- heart

Gooey cheese and warm pepperoni, with a side of kissing and murder.

A Pizza My Heart is a quirky and fun anthology that crosses all genres. Fifteen extraordinary authors have united to tell stories of mystery, mayhem, romance, danger, deceit…and pizza.

Sometimes spicy, sometimes cheesy, but always delicious, A Pizza My Heart invites you to explore life, happiness, and the pursuit of pizza.

Stories Include:

A Slice of Adventure by Maria Carvalho

Between Slices by Andy Grieser

Fresh, Hot, and Deadly by Rena Olsen

KissingDancingPizzaMURDER by Darci Cole

Kneadful Things by Jenna Lehne

Love Pizza No. 9 by Vanessa Rodriguez

Madame Miraval’s Pizza Place by Kelly deVos

Password Is… by Jolene Haley

Pizza by Emily Simon

Pizza Buddy by Brian LeTendre

Pizzamergency by Brett Jonas

Survival Pizza by Rebecca Waddell

The Last Stop at the End of the World by Jamie Adams

The Pizza Guy by Jessi Shakarian

Where There’s Pizza by Jasmine Brown

About the Publisher:

Established in 2014, Hocus Pocus & Co. loves to bring unique voices and stories to fruition.

Forthcoming Cover Design by Haley Crosby

Join the book buzz using hashtag #Pizzathology

After almost 240 days of writing every single day in a row, I had two completed first drafts.

And I was done. The need to write was gone. All I wanted to do was sleep for several weeks.

But instead, in the past few weeks, I kept myself busy with (mostly) writing related things. I’ve edited Estermead into a slightly – very slightly – better second draft. I’ve beta read four books and signed up for three more. (More on that in another blog post.) I’ve done creative writing homework. I even read a book for fun! (Only one so far… but it’s progress.)

But now I’m starting to get the itch to write again. I want to sit at my keyboard and pound out the words. I want to create new characters and bring them to life. I want to explore a new world.

I’ve got an NA Contemporary idea that’s been bothering me for a while. Both NA and Contemporary would be new for me – but I’m thinking that Hanover may be the project I tackle next. We’ll see. Nano is coming and while I’m not sure I’m going to attempt the full 50k, I’d love to get a bunch of this book nailed down quickly.

I’m glad to have the itch back. I missed it.

What do you do when the writing itch disappears? And are you doing Nano?