A retelling of Pinocchio's most infamous detour, for the 2026 Summer Island Getaway Challenge. When Pinocchio runs away with a friend to Pleasant Island instead of coming home to become a real boy, he discovers the island has a very particular transformation in store for its visitors. And not everyone who escapes the island gets away clean.

“Brock,” she said. “Oh, Brock, look at you.

Last to Know
by Suzan Donamas

Authors Note: This will be the last chapter of Mud Creek I post here. I finished the book recently and have been editing, adding, and rewriting some scenes. There are 2 chapters left after this one. Thank you for everyone who read and especially, Dallas, Emma Anne, Joanne, Teri Ann, Patricia, KayD and anyone else who commented. Those comments kept me writing all through the Winter to finish this. I can't thank you ladies enough. As for Mud Creek Sarah, her story is complete for now. As for this Sarah, who knows we're still writing.

Love you!

The Dead Pixel Society

© 2026 Zoë Taylor

The character I dreamt of that night was one of the many not-quite-human species my wild childhood imagination had invented during the period after I had learned how sex works and was imagining other ways that it could work. Aries was not the ram from the zodiac, but a member of a species called the Sea Men. The pun on semen wasn’t intended at the time I named these people. They’re actually based on the seahorse!

When teenage superhero Prodigious Girl accompanies her mentor to a mysterious tropical resort for superheroes and supervillains, her best friend Caleb gets transformed into the pigtailed heroine Hissyfit—and what starts as a chaotic island getaway turns into a romantic, reality-bending identity crisis. (A tale of Faraday City. It's a superhero adventure/comedy sequel to my story Identity Crisis, but it's accessible to new readers if you want to jump right in!)

Chapter 5

As Geraldine and I made our way to sign in, she wanted to know how I was advertising the tennis gear with a life-size picture.

“It was something that happened during summer. I was working with my aunt at her hotel in Brighton, which is the overnight home for executives for the shops in the big centre across the road. They wanted someone to model for them and I got some money, this outfit and two racquets out of it. It was a bit of fun at the time.”

The pool is busier at seven than it would have been in the afternoon - the family rush, kids in from a day of sightseeing, a few couples, a group of men at the far end who've brought drinks from the bar. The air thick with chlorine and sunscreen and the noise of an enclosed pool space, shrieks bouncing off the tile.

I'm in the trunks I've owned for years. They fit differently now - the waistband sitting on hips that have moved, the fabric pulling across the seat, the legs gapping at the inner thighs where the crotch expects geometry that's no longer there.

Chapter 61: The Summoning

Drew Balor was at 1st fairway of Three Rivers Country Club in a tux pacing back and forth while taking a long drag from his cigarette. He wished he could calm down but knew he would not. His nervousness has been building up for the last year so how he felt has been par for the course for him. This state of mind all started by him asking Becky Stewart to be his wife. All the groom wanted was for this day to be perfect for who he saw as his perfect mate.

The Journal of a Junior Station Master
Or
Stories from the Knockanure Railway
By
Rebecca Anna Coleman

Introduction