Paper Monsters
As if fitting in with autism isn’t hard enough, Nicholas knows middle school is a jungle. And this year counts towards his future.
A kid’s personality decides what magical creature he’ll grow into, and there’s a hierarchy. Nicholas’s art teacher is a beloved Griffin. His principal a terrifying Goblin. Nicholas, whose brain floods with feelings faster than he can control them… Well, Nicholas is headed for Banshee, the lowest thing you can become, and he only has until age 25 to change the outcome.
Using the fact that drawings come to life, Nicholas draws himself a friend to practice on. But when his emotions boil over one time too many, and this real-world animation gets loose in a school full of children.
When the demon takes his favorite teacher – the one adult who sees Nicholas for who he is – powerful instead of broken, Nicholas must do the hardest thing his brain has ever asked of him. He must learn to control his emotions instead of being controlled by them. If he can’t, his teacher will be gone, the demon. will stay, and Nicholas will become the Banshee everyone predicted.
PAPER MONSTERS will appeal to fans of Nicki Pau Preto’s The Last Hope School for Magical Delinquents and H.E. Edgmon’s Defanged.
Stellar
Forced against her will into contact with Karina, Emily thinks the woman almost looks human, but she came off a space ship.
Fifteen hundred years after nuclear Armageddon, hundreds of spaceships land on all corners of United Earth claiming to carry the descendants of those who escaped the war. Having evolved differently from those who remained on Earth, are these beings telling the truth, or is this an alien invasion?
Karina, a representative from the ships and Emily, a native of Earth, must join forces to verify the humanity of the ship’s inhabitants and prevent Earth from succumbing to self-destruction… again.
Short Stories
Written for the International Short Story Contest NYC Midnight, these stories bring to life different marginalized voices.
Dancing Queen: Ghost Story
Damned to haunt a San Francisco nightclub seemingly forever, Rocki must help his brother find forgiveness in order to come to terms with his past.
FEEDBACK
“Oh my gosh, this was a very original, heartfelt story. Your premise was intriguing and clever, and your characterization was excellent.“
NYC Midnight Judge
Digging The Dancing Queen
Spassmacherin: Historical Fiction
Denied entry into Cuba, the passengers on the MS St. Louis must gain entry into America, or risk their lives being sent back to Nazi Germany.
FEEDBACK
“Ohhh, this is a very haunting story. Poor Anna and the guilt of living with her life-altering decisions. You do a great job at painting the scene and building a strong character arc.”
NYC Midnight Judge
Die Spaßmacherin: The Clown
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Katharine Collins
Katharine Collins was born in Taiwan, and not on an army base. Her upbringing in a family dedicated to service permeates her writings’ themes of marginalization and paradigm shifts. She is a first degree black belt in Taekwondo and lives in Los Angeles with her two kids, and practical zoo of rescue animals. Katharine is a proud member of the neurospicy community.
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