Family Survival Fiction

When Shaylene leaves her small-town life to live with her sister Sandy in the city, she's quickly thrown into a world of hidden hustles, streetwise survival, and complicated family dynamics. As Sandy's secrets unfold, Shaylene faces the reality of her sister's life—a harsh contrast to her own ideals. Both women must navigate their love for each other against a backdrop of conflict, choices, and the pursuit of a better life. Can their bond survive the truth that threatens to tear them apart, or will the streets swallow them whole? Author: True Story

An old traveler tells his grandchildren how he survived a harsh winter alone in the American Northwest during the gold rush of the 1800s, facing brutal cold and hungry wolves, and finding help from an unexpected source. This is a short story of about 3k words.

For Kirsten McKenna, the world is crumbling. Her parents are barely speaking to each other, and her best friend has come under the spell of the school's queen bee, Brianna. Only Kirsten's younger science-geek sister is on her side. Meanwhile, for Walker Jones, the goal is to survive at the new white private school his mom has sent him to because she thinks he's going to screw up like his cousin.

Mohira's dream of leaving Central Asia for the magic of America finally comes true when she meets a man in the Peace Corps who sweeps her off her feet. But the dream doesn't live up to the reality and, when she finds divorce papers on her pillow, her world falls apart. Now she struggles to find a sense of belonging, as a foreign woman in America with no friends or family around. She's not even sure her family will accept her if she gives up and returns to them, considering their traditional Muslim beliefs about divorce. In the midst of her journey of discovering who she is and reevaluating ...

When 10-year-old Stella wakes up to discover a world full of blank screens, her family, town and, in fact, the whole world seems to have been thrown into chaos. And what about poor Grandma who is stranded at the other end of the country? Cue a rollicking madcap road trip, full of driving disasters and family fallouts, as they set off on a rescue mission. And along the way Stella and her family discover that being away from screens might not be the worst thing ever, and even though they might not be able to rely on technology anymore, they can rely on each other instead.

My story starts the day that my parents told me we must leave our adopted home forever. Because of the soldiers and the drought we barely had enough to eat and we could no longer stay to help the people in our village.

Raphael is a dumpsite boy. He spends his days wading through mountains of steaming trash, sifting it, sorting it, breathing it, sleeping next to it. Then one unlucky-lucky day, Raphael's world turns upside down. A small leather bag falls into his hands. It's a bag of clues. It's a bag of hope. It's a bag that will change everything. Soon Raphael and his friends Gardo and Rat are running for their lives. Wanted by the police, it takes all their quick-thinking, fast-talking to stay ahead. As the net tightens, they uncover a dead man's mission to put right a terrible wrong.

What would you do if your world turned off in a heartbeat? A catastrophic electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack has plunged the United States into darkness, erasing decades of progress overnight. Modern life is gone—electricity, communications, and supplies—and survival means embracing a brutal, unforgiving new reality. Frank Lowman has fought tooth and nail to reunite with his family and secure a fragile safe haven in rural Alabama. But with enemies lurking in every shadow—fanatical zealots, ruthless survivors, and a power-hungry government—no one is safe. As loyalties are tested and ...

Maddie is beyond done with her cousin Genesis' entitled and shallow entourage. Genesis is so over Miami's predictable social scene, with its velvet ropes, petty power plays, and backstabbing boyfriends. While Maddie craves family time for spring break, Genesis seeks novelty - like a last-minute getaway to an untouched beach in Colombia. And when Genesis wants something, it happens. But paradise has its price.

In "Flight of Eagles," a disgraced dam builder, Russell Troy, finds himself at the precipice of a moral abyss, facing a life-changing choice that will determine the fate of tens of thousands. Once a high-riding geophysicist in his family's international construction firm, Russell's world crumbles when his reckless older brother's gambling addiction brings ruin to their once-secure lives. Faced with humiliation and destitution, Russell contemplates a dark escape from his threatening future at the edge of a cliff. But his attempt at ending it all only deepens his despair, until an unexpected ...

When 13-year-old Valor is sent to jail, she couldn't be happier. Demidova's prison for criminal children is exactly where she wants to be. Valor's twin sister, Sasha, is serving a life sentence for stealing from the royal family, and Valor is going to help her escape...from the inside. Never mind that no one has escaped the prison in centuries. Valor has a master plan and resources most people could only dream about. But she didn't count on having to outsmart both the guards and her fellow prisoners.

After surviving the battle that erupted after Lo and the Bosha clan attacked, now Mya is looking ahead to her future with Kol. All the things that once felt so uncertain to her are finally falling into place. But the same night as Kol and Mya's betrothal announcement, Mya's brother Chev reveals his plan to marry their youngest sister, Lees, to his friend Morsk. The only way to avoid this terrible turn of events, Morsk informs Mya when he corners her later, is for Mya to take Lees' place and marry him herself.

Recruitment Day is here...if you fail, a loved one will die. For Lucian "Lucky" Spark, Recruitment Day means the Establishment, a totalitarian government, will force him to become one of five Recruits competing to join the ruthless Imposer task force. Each Recruit participates in increasingly difficult and violent military training for a chance to advance to the next level. Those who fail must choose an "Incentive" - a family member - to be brutally killed. If Lucky fails, he'll have to choose death for his only living relative: Cole, his four-year-old brother.

One month has passed since Valor broke her twin sister, Sasha, out of jail. But the girl who imprisoned her there to begin with - Princess Anastasia - has gone missing. The queen, desperate to find her daughter, asks Valor and Sasha to track Anastasia down and bring her home. But just as the girls and their friends embark on the search, the queen also vanishes, throwing the realm into utter chaos.

Until a frantic phone call from a friend with mysterious government ties, Lily thinks her biggest quandary is fixing the problems in her struggling marriage. After she learns the world as they know it is about to end, she has the difficult job of convincing her husband Ethan that it’s really happening. As they scramble to survive the approaching solar event, and prepare for the aftereffects, their marriage remains on a shaky foundation. They face the daunting task of repairing their relationship while trying to live through the apocalypse. (This was formerly titled "At The End." It is ...

Maddie thought trying to survive the last day of the puberty unit at school was going to be her biggest challenge until the question dropped from the sky like an atomic bomb hitting the lunch table. “Maddie, have you had your period yet?” Maddie always resorted to humor with a dash of sass to get through every awkward moment, but suddenly being clueless and braless wasn’t so funny. Chill Out & Stop Making This Weird takes you on a pubescent girl's heartfelt and humorous journey as she realistically navigates the complexities of puberty.

Irréelle fears she’s not quite real. Only the finest magical thread tethers her to life - and to Miss Vesper. But for all her efforts to please her cruel creator, the thread is unraveling. Irréelle is forgetful as she gathers bone dust. She is slow returning from the dark passages beneath the cemetery. Worst of all, she is unmindful of her crooked bones. When Irréelle makes one final, unforgivable mistake by destroying a frightful creature just brought to life, Miss Vesper threatens to imagine her away once and for all.

Sarah Robinson and her family intended to have a vacation adventure aboard a boat but ended up stranded on a remote and mysterious island. Along with unusual, weird creatures, they met the "Curator", a strange boy who may be an...alien. And then they met Cash, a girl who may hold the key to why Shipwreck Island has been kept a secret for so long.

Before the war, Eden's life was easy. Then the revolution happened, and everything changed. Now a powerful group called the Wolfpack controls the earth and its resources. And even though Eden has lost everything to them, she refuses to die by their hands. She knows the coordinates to the only neutral ground left in the world, a place called Sanctuary Island, and she is desperate to escape to its shores.

Stanley Potts is just an ordinary boy, but when all the jobs in Fish Quay disappear his Uncle Ernie develops an extraordinary fascination with canning fish. Suddenly their home is filled with the sound of changing machinery and the stench of mackerel, and Uncle Ernie's obsession reaches such heights that he would even can Stan's beloved goldfish! Stan, however, has his own destiny, which leads him - via a hook-a-duck stall - to Pancho Pirelli, the blue-caped madman who swims with piranhas.