Novel & Cerita Flannery O'connor Short Fiction Award

Connor Lockwood abandons me at the hospital's entrance even though I'm bleeding in the middle of my pregnancy. He insists on sending his client, a divorcée, home. The blood flows down my legs, but he hurries off without another look back. He should've been at the hospital and by my side, but instead, I see him in his client's social media update. It's captioned, "Thank goodness for my wonderful lawyer. Do you know who gets to have hangover soup when they're drunk? Me!" I spend the rest of the night wide awake. The following morning, I calmly dial a number. "Dad, I've made up my mind. I'll return home in three days to take over the company."

Arren never knew that night, a man would kidnap and label her as a 'slave'! She woke up confused and in pain throughout her body. "Your father sold you to me. Now, your life is in my hands!" The man, Leonard Connor, is a cruel mafia's lord who won a gamble. In return, he received a virgin girl named Arrendice Hart. "Let me go! You're truly, Bastard!" Arren couldn't accept the sudden cruelty fate had brought upon her. However much Arren tried to escape, Leon pursued and ensnared her with passion and obsession. Eventually, Leon realized that the passion and obsession had transformed into ... love. "I... can't live without you." *** What happened with their love journey when past tragedies fracture their trust in each other? *** The bittersweet tragic love story between Leon and Arren begins now!

Aliyah is obliged to work for the Connors, the most influential werewolf clan in the US. Although she has no choice, Aliyah promises to break free and follow her dreams. However, Brayden Connor, the next alpha in line, forced her to become his mate, ruining her life. That's the moment Lycan King Ashton Donovan comes to Aliyah's rescue, and offers her a chance to seek revenge against those who wronged her. Aliyah grabs the opportunity, but in the end, she finds herself falling in love with him. Her fate even improves when King Ashton makes her his mate. But what if Alpha Brayden shows up again, bringing information about her grandma's death? What if her urge to exact revenge is clouded by a voice in her head whispering "mate" the moment she sees him again?

Declan Archer is a trained assassin with no emotional ties or complications. But his life is about to change forever when a brother he never knew he had, finds him, and a woman he has only dreamt of shows him that emotional ties can be seductively sweet. Santana’s a determined woman trying to survive in a harsh world. As a young girl, she was burdened with the responsibility of caring for her stepbrother, Connor. Resigned to never fall in love, Santana focuses on making life easier for her and her stepbrother. That is until she encounters a mysterious stranger who makes her question her feelings. Too bad that she will never see him again─or so she thinks. When Connor finds a mysterious picture of a brother he never knew he had. He and Santana will find themselves pulled into the shadowy world of the Confradia, and series of events that will change their lives forever.

Deal Series #1: Waiting For Patry Kira May Lucas lives alone. She enjoys being single and watching her boyfriends all the time, talking about Korean, Japanese, and Chinese actors. Not until she met one of her friends' brother, Patry Bautista, with oozing handsomeness and ideal guy look-a-like that she read in fiction novels. She thought at first that it won't work because she's 2 years older than him and Patry's a snob, but being that stubborn girl she is…. the unsure romantic story began. Deal Series is a series of novels which talks about the deal that Pashnea's Squad started. It was the deal in which the person inside the squad who will get a lover first will treat the rest whatever they want in an expensive restaurant.

"You guys know what the situation is like in this industry this year. I need to cut our end-of-the-year bonus by half in order to overcome this difficult period." My boss, Peter Hurley, claims that things are difficult in the industry right now, yet his wrist still showcases the luxury watch that he's just bought. My 20,000-dollar bonus is reduced to 700 dollars. In addition, I also received a plaque that says "Award for Outstanding Contribution". "This plaque is worth a lot, Soren. It represents the acknowledgement this company has for you. Don't be so petty when it comes to money." As I stare at the plaque in my hand, I can't help but scoff furiously. "Fine. I won't be that petty when it comes to money. I hope you won't be that petty either when you're paying next month's rent." Peter is stunned momentarily. "What do you mean by that?" I toss the plaque into the trash can. "What I mean is, I'm the landlord of this building. From next month onward, the rent will be increased ten times. If you refuse to accept the new rent, you can pack up and scram."

The AFA 2020, or the Antonio Facundo Awards, is a competition for journalists like Avery Taylor. It is also often open to writers and directors. They will take a subject, a prevalent person with people, and publish to the public how that person lives. Avery earns the honor of being an exceptional reporter and journalist every year. She won AFA 2019 last year, and he will never relinquish her seat. She will make sure she gets the same award again this year. All she had to do is find someone, a person everyone looked up to with a mysterious identity. Cormac Carter, one of the richest bachelors in the entire Philippines and owns one of the most popular car brands globally — C.C Cars, will be Avery’s target. He’s the gem of the competition. That man already has all the ‘ingredients’ for that, and Avery will not let the opportunity slide. With that desire, she had so much to go through, but Avery never expected that by digging into his past, she would find her past that was buried into her mind for a long time ago. The incident that caused her to be hit by a car and develop amnesia, the incident that made her feel the hardship of the past fifteen years..

When the Earth slipped into a relentless, record-breaking heat, I exhausted everything I had to develop a constant-temperature shelter. Yet, my fiancée, Janine O’Connor, insisted on wearing a bikini and going out to sunbathe with her personal secretary. In my previous life, I stopped her. I warned her that an apocalyptic heatwave was coming, and that countless people would be burned to death simply by being exposed to the heat. However, her personal secretary looked as though he had suffered a great injustice. “I’m sorry, Will,” he said. “But I can’t bear to see Miss Janine stuck in a shelter for the rest of her life. I’ve done my research. This is a period of natural selection for the Earth. Only by adapting quickly to the environment can people truly survive.” Even so, I threatened my own life and forcibly brought Janine back into the shelter. Relying on the shelter I built, Janine survived the apocalypse and rapidly built a survivor base. However, on the second day after she became the base’s leader, she had me hanged outside the shelter and burned alive. “If you hadn’t forced me to come back, Mark wouldn’t have been devastated and killed himself in the heat! He was about to develop a new type of shelter, yet you stole all the credit! I’ll make you pay with your life!” Even after my death, her hatred didn’t fade. She ordered someone to skin me and turn my hide into a rug, stepping on it every day. When I opened my eyes again, I was back to the day I tried to stop her from sunbathing with Mark Davis.

Peggy Flannery, the new recruit who's being mentored by my husband, Eugene Shaw, insists on practicing how to carve words onto a patient's heart. It so happens that my mother-in-law has suffered from a sudden heart attack. So, I quickly take her to the hospital so that Eugene, who's also known as a genius surgeon, can save her life. Unbeknownst to me, Eugene is quick to entrust my mother-in-law to Peggy, who has barely joined the hospital for three days, so that she can practice her carving on her. Peggy is very careless with her strength. When she's in the middle of carving something onto my mother-in-law's heart, she accidentally punctures a heart valve, resulting in my mother-in-law's instant death. Once the death happens, Peggy wails to Eugene, "That hag is really frail and delicate! I'm not even done carving my name onto her heart! What should I do now?" Eugene wipes her tears away gently. There's heartbreak in his eyes as he says, "It's fine. No one will be able to bully you with me around." Once Eugene exits the operating theater, he declares that the surgery is a failure and that I should start preparing the funeral matters. Unable to accept reality, I grab him by the shoulders and keep questioning him. "Isn't this just a minimally invasive surgery? How did Mom die just like that? I want to see the surgical footage!" But Eugene responds by slapping me angrily. "Your mom is already old, to begin with! How dare you pin the blame on others when her frail and weak body is the main cause of her death! I haven't even begun to settle the score with you for giving Peggy such a huge fright! "Hurry up and sign the letter of forgiveness! If this incident does affect Peggy in any way, I'll file for a divorce right away!" Needless to say, I'm so furious that I can't even utter a single word after hearing Eugene's shameless words. Does he seriously think that my mother is the one who's dead? I merely chuckle icily in return. "Honestly speaking, you have more right to sign the letter of forgiveness than I do."

**Mature Audience Only** This is a collection of steamy short stories, showing that a relationship does not need to be all about s*x... But its a good start... The first story was about Luke, who had a chance to be a tutor to the girl he was in love with. Will they have happy endings? See and find out.