Muskoka Novel Marathon

Writers Helping Readers for 22 Years

Visit us on:

WRITER LOG IN

A Field Guide to Dragons (and Other Exotic Animals)

By Shellie Westlake
2012 Winner: Young Adult

I could think of about a hundred and forty-seven things I’d rather do than spend the next two months on a goat farm. And just for the record, none of those things involved hitching a ride in something that barely qualified as a flotation device with a hairy chauffeur named Andre. At least, I thought that was his name—it was hard to understand through all the fur on his face.

Did I mention fur-face was wearing a cloak? Like a full on, hood over the head, hem sweeping the floor, thick black cloak. This may have been normal if he had picked me up somewhere like, the Antarctic, but it struck me as an unusual choice of clothing, seeing as how we were within thirty degrees of the equator. [Read more…]

Double Take

By Paula Boon
2006 Runner Up: Young Adult

LIGHTS, CAMERAS…

Set for Life! trumpeted an army of royal blue signs in one corner of the lobby as Jason stepped off the elevator. Leaving behind the grey-haired lady who’d been eyeing his dragon tattoo since the third floor, he walked across the marble tiles, feeling conspicuous in his ripped jeans. He wondered once again if he was crazy.

The signs, swaying slightly in the air-conditioned breeze, framed a strange scene: more than a dozen teenagers were milling around in an intensely lighted space, and their every move was being recorded. [Read more…]

The Last Battlewipe

By Ruth Walker
2014 Winner: Young Adult

One: Outside Main Station

Keep low, tight to the ground.

Lesser sun is still high but soon prime sun will set and I haven’t enough to fill my tell. I stop. Listen. Lift my nose just high enough to catch what’s on the air.

Undeserving animal. Close by. The sweatstink as clear as Blessed Leader’s vision.

I hold my breath. Wait. And then I hear it. Breath of one in a struggle. Trying to keep still, knowing something’s near.

Truetell, I’m coming anyway. [Read more…]

With Sword and Salt

By Lenore Butcher
2015 Winner: Young Adult

TORY

The night before she saw the Burning Man for the first time, Tory went on her fourth date with the baddest boy from Karn Avenue and she saw her first ghost. Thinking back on it much later, after she’d gone through everything else, she couldn’t sort out if the two were related or not.

The date was at a local restaurant, a little place calling itself a ‘bistro’ that used to be a dance bar. Before it was a dance bar, it had been an upscale restaurant and before that it had been a heritage landmark, the former dwelling of one of the town’s upper muckity mucks.

It was definitely not the kind of place you’d expect to see the local drug dealer and her biker boyfriend. Tory loved shaking up the straights, going places she knew they didn’t want her. [Read more…]

I Was A Teen Aged Zombie

By Lenore Butcher
2014 Honourable Mention: Young Adult

She was facing a long night alone in the house and she didn’t think she could take it anymore. She had to get out. If she stuck around the house, she thought she might end up getting drunk again and she didn’t want to be that pathetic loser who got drunk by herself every night. That was someone else entirely, definitely not Katie Byron.

She put her jacket on and left the house. She had no idea where she was going, just she couldn’t stay home tonight. [Read more…]

That’s Me In The Corner

by Kevin Craig
2011 Winner: Young Adult

CHAPTER ONE

My circle is usually just made up of Adam, Sadie, and me. Just the three of us. It’s always been this way and I imagine it’s the way it will always be. Though, it’s kind of hard to visualize our future together. Not exactly the normal family unit, is it?

But what’s normal, right? [Read more…]

Half Dead & Fully Broken

by Kevin Craig
2010  Winner: Young Adult

CHAPTER ONE

Lately, people cry whenever they come near me. Whenever I come near them.

My life wasn’t always this way. They used to be indifferent. Before the accident, I sometimes wondered if I even existed at all. Not anymore. Now, all I have to do is walk into a room and someone is bound to burst into tears. Guaranteed.

I don’t really blame them. I haven’t been able to look in a mirror since the 6th of May, myself. I can’t bear to do it. [Read more…]

Merim & The Fourth

By Jennifer Turney
2018 Winner: Young Adult

Chapter 1

Merim and Janus clawed through another mound of soft, wet moss, the earthy scent causing each of them to sneeze in turn. She, wearing the last small pair of gloves and he, shouldering the bag and insisting she move faster at their task. It wasn’t often that they found a pocket of such fresh, lush greenery, deep in the thick and mountainous Asian landscape. They were eager to collect it before someone else came to claim it, not that the nomads ran into strangers often. It also wasn’t often that Merim and Janus were able to work together companionably.

[Read more…]

The Beautiful Summer

by Brenna Pinckard
2013 Young Adult Runner Up

Chapter One: Ready

It is the middle of June. School has ended, and there is a sense of enchantment in the air. The dream of summer has become a reality; the mere thought of it causes my body to buzz with energy. This buzz is reflected on Katie’s face as she looks over at me from her place in front of the mirror. I can see it in her – she’s lighter, happier. School isn’t just over for the year, it’s over forever. And that makes the idea of this summer, the fact that we have ten beautiful, hot weeks stretching out in front of us, seemingly for eternity, all the more appealing. [Read more…]

Dear Jo

by Christina Kilbourne
2003 Winner

November 10
Dear Diary;

Everything is black, so black I can’t see through it. When it first started closing in around me, I thought I’d be okay, that I’d let it creep in a little way and then fight it back when I had the energy. The thing is, I didn’t realize it was stronger than me and now I’m afraid I won’t ever win. [Read more…]