It's all fiction, not just the stories.
Read the latest tales of betrayal and broken dreams.
Coming Soon: The Writers
Meet the voices that articulate the void.
Coming Soon: Kai's Blog
Musings from the gutter, once the snow melts.
Read the latest tales of betrayal and broken dreams.
Meet the voices that articulate the void.
Musings from the gutter, once the snow melts.
Ty Undone
A Novella by Seth Poole and Kai D. Waddell
Twenty-year-old Ty has spent the last three years drifting between temporary jobs and temporary homes, running from a brutal past in Syracuse. When he lands at Bella Adobes Nursery in Tucson, he tells himself it's just another three-month gig—until Isabella, the kind-hearted owner, becomes the mother figure he's always needed, and the desert heat starts to feel like home.
Then Ben Nakamura walks into the nursery.
Ben is twenty-nine, talented, and carries himself with the quiet confidence of someone who has life figured out. But beneath his polished exterior, he's adrift too—going through the motions of a successful career while wondering why nothing feels quite right. When he hires the quirky, sharp-tongued Ty to design custom planters for his balcony, neither expects the connection that sparks between them.
What begins as casual dinners and art gallery visits becomes something neither can ignore. But Ty has spent years protecting his heart, and Ben has never questioned the straight path he thought his life would take. As their friendship deepens into something more, both must confront difficult truths: Can Ty trust someone enough to stay? Can Ben embrace who he really is, and risk everything he's built?
In the glow of Arizona sunsets and over shared meals at Ana's Diner, two wounded souls discover that love doesn't always announce itself with fireworks—sometimes it arrives quietly, like a seed taking root in unexpected soil. This tender, slow-burn romance explores the courage it takes to choose love when the world expects you to choose something else.
Release Date: December 22, 2025
Contact writerkai@proton.me for a pre-release full length PDF.
Warm Blue Waters
A Novel by Kai D. Waddell
Warm Blue Waters is a vibrant, deeply felt story of escape, self-discovery, and the unexpected warmth found in the most chaotic circumstances. Sarah Lindell, at 22, is running away from a disaster: a failed college semester, chronic depression, and a lifetime spent meeting the impossibly high expectations of her corporate father, Tim. Rather than accept the dreadful fate of a job in an Orlando call center, Sarah makes an impulsive choice, tossing nearly all her possessions in a dumpster and hopping a last-minute flight to the Far East. Her destination? The coastal town of Phan Thiết, Vietnam, and the welcoming arms of her beloved grandfather, Ted, on his sturdy sailboat, the Ella Revela.
The quiet life Sarah seeks is immediately disrupted by the demands of life at sea. Her carefree, often dramatic attitude quickly clashes with the harsh realities of ocean sailing. The stakes rise critically when Ted falls ill with gallstones, requiring an emergency detour to the Philippines. To manage the challenging passage, Ted hires a temporary skipper: Lucy Flores. Lucy is everything Sarah is not: intensely focused, rigorously disciplined, emotionally stoic, and profoundly competent. The volatile mix of the chaotic American "princess" and the pragmatic Filipina "boba boss" creates immediate friction, especially when the two must weather severe storms and navigate deadly shipping lanes alone while rushing Ted to a hospital.
Confined to the small, rocking cabin and stripped bare by exhaustion and fear, their relationship shifts from antagonism to deep, vital reliance. This closeness ignites a powerful, unexpected romance, sealed by a desperate kiss in the dark. This new connection forces Sarah to discard her past self, rejecting her father’s control and choosing to stay by Lucy’s side. Meanwhile, Lucy struggles with deep-seated insecurity and fears—worrying that Sarah is merely "experimenting," or that her poverty and professional vulnerability mean Sarah will eventually "dump" her. Sarah fights hard against these doubts, proving her commitment by declaring she has "no plans to go back" to her old life. Their journey becomes a commitment to each other and a refusal to be parted by social expectations or distance. The couple’s voyage culminates in a joyous return to Vietnam and a hopeful family reunion, where Sarah finds clarity about her mother’s painful departure and proudly introduces Lucy as her girlfriend to her newly reunited family. Having found direction—and each other—Sarah and Lucy decide to continue sailing, heading East toward Palau and the open ocean ahead.
Release Date: Early Spring 2026
Contact writerkai@proton.me for a pre-release full length PDF.
The Last Rain of Summer
A Novel by Kai D. Waddell
Meeka thought she had everything figured out. Keep your head down, work hard at Herb's beachside resort, run every morning before the tourists wake up, and never, ever let anyone get too close. It's a simple life in a sleepy Thai village—quiet, predictable, safe. Until the day she spills an enormous red slushie all over herself and meets Torn for the first time.
He's just passing through. A marine biology grad student from Bangkok, here to finish his thesis at the local research lab. Polite, a little awkward, and frustratingly persistent about showing up at Fa's coffee shop every single day. Meeka tries to ignore him. She's perfected the art of keeping people at arm's length, and she's not about to let some cute guy with messy hair and a kind smile change that.
But Torn isn't like the others who've drifted through her life. He helps out when Fa's shop gets slammed. He fixes broken things at the resort without being asked. He listens when Meeka talks, really listens, and doesn't expect anything in return. Slowly, against every instinct screaming at her to run, Meeka starts to let him in.
Then comes the night of Fa's birthday party. The rain. The kiss that changes everything. And Meeka's absolute certainty that she's about to ruin the best thing that's ever happened to her.
Perfect for readers who love slow-burn romance, found family, and characters brave enough to risk their hearts when the world tells them they shouldn't.
Release Date: Summer 2026
Contact writerkai@proton.me for a pre-release full length PDF.
The Girl who Licks Wolves
A Novel by Chad Huntley
A send up take off on those dark romances
He's just passing through.
But she can't take her eyes off his broken zipper.
Perfect for readers who are so jaded they'd prefer an enema to a handshake.
Release Date: What the Heck 2026
Contact writerkai@proton.me for a pre-release full length PDF.
Marna Lucretia-Stone, Sales & Marketing
A former HOA treasurer, Marna Lucretia-Stone, aka "Feral Karen", has channeled the same incandescent rage that once defined her audit of the community pool pass system into her career as a literary provocateur. She has become the voice of the aggrieved after her legendary altercation in a T J Maxx parking lot involving a misplaced coupon and a sturdy handbag. Now, with her lease on a Mercedes G-Wagon dangling by a thread and the repo truck circling like a shark, she offers a raw, unfiltered perspective the decline of Western civilization as defined by her credit score.
Marna is a woman who believes that a restraining order is not a legal boundary, but a sign of her work's visceral impact. She'd love to sell you some Amway lotion if you're not busy.
Rufus LaGuerre, agent
A former Korfball legend, Rufus La Guerre, has used that same viral tenacity that once defined his semi-angst career into a fringe literary agent. He has become a champion of the unsellable, a connoisseur of the pretentious and confounding, and a cheerleader for any writer whose goal is clicks and two novels a week. While his competitors are busy minting money with celebrity memoirs, cookbooks, and cookie-cutter thrillers, Rufus is deep in the trenches of futility, valiantly pushing for the publication of a 900-page novel about a man who talks to his socks. "It's the next Ulysses!"
Rufus is a man who believes that his inability to sell a book is not a failure, but a sign of its profound artistic commitment. "The thousands of us who now write, we can all succeed, if we just want it bad enough." His one viral moment was in 2009: . That's Rufus on the right.
Other Contributors and Shadow Brokers
Currently offline.
Let's bemoan our circumstances.
https://substack.com/home/post/p-173648447
Because buried beneath the landfill are indie authors who care. Authors who sweat over every sentence, who pay out of pocket for professional editing, who design covers that could sit proudly on a Waterstones display. Authors who respect readers enough to deliver something polished, gripping, and worth their time. I’ve met plenty of them, I’ve worked alongside them, and their work often leaves traditional publishing looking slow, bloated, and frankly amateurish.
The tragedy is that these voices are outnumbered ten-to-one by the hacks chasing a quick buck.
Random from discord skunkmonkey — 11/29/2024 6:40 PM The Nerdy Novelist recently reminded me of a phrase I liked: Warren McKenzie said "The first 10,000 pots are the hardest." Meaning everyone sucks in the beginning, don't try for perfection when you're starting out. You'll just get yourself bogged down in endless revisions. It's better to just keep writing, and let yourself improve with each book. Now obviously you aren't going to want to publish your books until they are good, but if you're just starting out then why even worry about publishing? Writing is about having fun. If you think you're going to make money by writing, then I'd say stop watching YouTube. Those guys just want views. The term starving artist applies to authors more than any other profession. Your early books will probably come with a price tag instead of a paycheck. There's no need to race to the publisher.