Listed below are the Second Rounders of the 8th Annual Launch Pad Prose Competition. Congratulations to the writers who have made it this far and thanks to all for submitting!
Stay tuned for the Top 100 announcement on July 12th here and on Twitter! And if you’d like to receive a notification when this contest re-opens for entries, you can subscribe for updates via Coverfly here.
Here are the Second Rounders:
| “Boardwalk Babylon” | Daniel Waters |
| “The Winking Marlin” | Michael Kenney |
| < PYGMALION > | Faith Consiglio |
| 0800HELL4U | Maria Wickens |
| 2020 | Stephen Cole |
| 2088: The Harvest | Marcus Stricklin |
| 7734 | Ryan Benson |
| A Glimpse at the Eclipse | Susan Lee Hahn |
| A Haunting Deception | Micah Briarmoon |
| A Moment of Your Time | Ester Bloom |
| A Practical Guide to Escorting | Daria Salamon |
| A Seeping Wound | Darryl Wimberley |
| A Touch of Color | Pat Branch |
| A Wasp at a Funeral | Shelby Renjifo |
| The Cat That Played Chess | Catarrina Cummings |
| After The Howling | J.R. Johnson |
| Again and Again Then The End | Benjamin Font |
| ALIENA | Penelope Boyer |
| All Good Quests | Joe Graber |
| AMONG US | Tammy Klembith |
| An Excellent Heart | Lori Hunt |
| An Inconsolable Grief | Paul Kayaian |
| Angel | Thomas Thonson |
| Animal Control | Jen Knox |
| Apartment 3A | Alysha Haran |
| ARTEMESIA | DC Mallery |
| As Nature Intended | Barbara Ward Thall |
| Automatic Approval | Carlos Perez |
| Autumn’s Captive | Kelda Poynot |
| Bad Blood Sisters | Saralyn Richard |
| BECOMING SCRAPPY: How I Battled Bullies, Politicians and Alcohol | Scrappy Jackson |
| Betwixt | Susan Arscott |
| Beyond the Rivers of Time | Ronald McGuire |
| Blood Quantum | Nicole Newman |
| Blood Sports | Jeromie Carr |
| Blue Dress | David Fulton |
| Botica | Matt Healy |
| Bunny’s Garden | Nick Holterman |
| But I Knew You | Tara Wallace |
| C Square | Bear Kosik, Paul Barone |
| Can’t Feel a Thing | Noah Burns |
| CASSIA | DC Mallery |
| Catherine’s Mercy | Nicole Evelina |
| Cipher / We Live at the River | Wendy Naava Smolash |
| Condolences and Casseroles | Vanessa Gray |
| Corpse Flower | Allison Mick |
| Coy Callum and the Wings of Light | Andre Bradley |
| Curse of The Kavorka | JV Smith |
| Cyclone | Jason Mandell |
| Dan’s Favorite Color Is Blue | Saoirse McGurrin |
| Death at the Sundial Motel | Aaron Clark |
| Demo | Saleh Karaman |
| Devil’s Planet | Tanya Klein |
| Diary of a Mad Girl | Zena Logan |
| Dilemma on Mars | Fred Shackelford |
| Disappeared | Becky Schoener |
| Distraction & Anesthesia | James L Head |
| Drained | Marc Daniel Acriche |
| Dropout | Hunter Senft |
| Drown ‘Em Like Puppies | Maria Wickens |
| Eden | Tiyan Newman |
| Ellie/Rena | Amy L. Bernstein |
| Embracing the Skies | Melissa Otis |
| Enraged with Happiness | Olivia Klassen |
| EPOCH | Kathryn Livingston |
| Evergreen | Matt Harry |
| Fitting In | Ronald McGuire |
| Flew Too High: A Memoir | Louie Mandrapilias |
| FRANKENBOT GPT | Nathan Allen |
| FREEBIRD | Jung Park |
| George | Charlotte Fiehn |
| Giant Steps | Ben Fussiner |
| Girl: The Hard Way | Larissa Duclisse |
| Give Me Truth or Give Me Silence | Melissa Mendelson |
| GOATSUCKER | Kathryn Christopher |
| God, the Mafia, My Dad, and Me | Lori Lee Peters |
| Goliath | D.T. Yang |
| Gone To Ground | Morgan Hatch |
| Good Humor | Michael Elsey |
| Gravity Is Heartless: The Heartless Series Book One | Sarah Lahey |
| Gray Song | Sean Johnson |
| Gulag Ratz | Dalo Deka |
| Haint Blue & Other Hues | Aaron Brock Dehn |
| Heir to Oblivion | Riley Kilmore |
| Hellfire | Taylor Gunn |
| Hemingway Slept Here | Brett Block |
| Hotline to Heaven | Andy Farrant |
| How I Met Your [Jewish] Mother | Eric Suben |
| How the Other Half Lives | Meg Schimelpfenig |
| Huey | Bill Gusky |
| Hypatia: In Her Own Words | Lukman Clark |
| I Knew You Then | Kelly Kirwan |
| In the Box | Robert Dall |
| In The Clouds | Marius Stan |
| Infinite Drift | Brent Hartinger |
| Into the Marrow | Gary Allison |
| It Rained Frogs Last Nite | Joseph X Casillas |
| It’s Not Black and White, Obviously | Emily Wright |
| Jack In The Box | Billy Glad |
| Jackson Hole | Jessica Friedman |
| Japanese Hotel | Moe Jefferson |
| Jeb Wright, Colonial Assassin | David Meek |
| Josaphat’s Field | Melinda Meyer |
| Judas Moon | Joshua Rodgers |
| Karma, LLC | Shado Evans |
| Keeping It In the Family | Kevin Regan |
| Killer | Joe Villanti |
| Kolphoros | Fergus Sweeney |
| Kyd’s Game | Marc Rosenberg |
| Leave Them in Alaska | Felicity Landa |
| Let’s Get Lost | Steven Ramirez |
| Library Naps | Michelle Blair Wilker |
| Life Skills | Teju Prasad |
| Little Catastrophes, Ordinary Joy | Morgan Kovacs |
| Lonerock After Midnight | Troy Widner |
| Love Lost on Cloud 9 | K.C. Brote |
| Lunaris | Daniel Parra |
| M*M*A*S*H | Arjan Sudick |
| Madonna of the Steps | Catherine Jones |
| Mary Shelley’s League of Supernatural Hunters | Sheila English |
| Masquerade Ballgame | Dennis Ricci |
| Meddling Mages | S.G. Blaise |
| Midway | Amanda Sullivan, Susanne Stahl |
| Monkey Jungle | Maria Wickens |
| Mouse Princess Through Hell | Christabel Soo |
| My Taylor Era | Debbie Trecek Volkens |
| My World Ends Again | Mere Walton |
| Neosapien Born | Michael McGranaghan |
| Newman’s Choice | Mark Connelly |
| Noah and the Nighttime Things | Harrison Demchick |
| North of Sunrise | Gavin Fee |
| Not the One or the Other | Christopher Mark Rose |
| Nothing Left To Lose | Danny Singer |
| Nurture | Jackie Fenn |
| Ocean Pacific | Alex Simon |
| Octavos | Ann Heberlein |
| October Seven | Steven Stiefel |
| October Skin | Joshua Rodgers |
| On The Brink | Arthur Geis Ph.D. |
| On The Surface | Rachel McGuire |
| Painting Lessons | Jennifer MacDormand |
| Paragons | Curtis Clark |
| Pawns of Dusk | Drew Bogert |
| PHINA | Kelda Poynot |
| Phoenix | Christopher Robin Hood |
| Pip Asked Why | Thomas Ukinski |
| Pitchforks | Michael Burke |
| Poisoned Pine | JJ Moore |
| Possessions | Natalie Brown |
| Rip’d: A Tall Tale | Joachim Blunck |
| Ronald Reagan and the Men from Mars | Nicolas Alexandre |
| Sam Seeks Ultimate Vengeance on the Cancer That Killed His Mother  | Home less |
| Scarlet Ribbons (Annie’s Song) | Julie Ann Slaby |
| Scars & Honey | Jo Powner |
| Secret Fences | Zakiya Raines |
| Sex & Death | Thomas Thonson |
| SHAYTANIA | Steven Bordelon |
| Silver Tsunami | Monica Lee |
| Skin Deep | Cierra Lockett |
| Sleep | E K Johnson (Haskett) |
| Soul Transplant | Izabela Borowska |
| Spex | Alan Slack |
| Spy Stories | L Michael Hager |
| Stardust Girl | Christine Beatty |
| Summer of Silence | Francis DiClemente |
| Susan Benda | PJ C |
| Swamp Girl | Ruth Knafo Setton |
| Terminal Deception | A.M. Khalifa |
| The Angelmakers of Nagyrév | Liz McClintock |
| The Aqua Miner | Nina Urbex |
| The Ares Agenda | Jeffrey Glatz |
| The Axe | David Shawn Klein |
| The Balmoral File | Carl Innes |
| The Best Coffee in the World | Andy Farrant |
| The Bones of Hope | Maria Ostrowski |
| The Boy Who Cried Tomorrow | Ilia Epifanov |
| The Brand | Lauren Wells |
| The Broken Hallelujah | Wendy Adair |
| The Bunny Man’s Campfire Tales | Gary Dimmett |
| The Christmas Eve Party | Kyle Krasney |
| The Clearing in the Woods | Kimberly Walker |
| The Complex | Esther Blago |
| The Darkling | Kimberly Ellis |
| The Darkness | Robbi Bryant |
| The Day Sarah Grace Found Religion | Julie Ann Slaby |
| The Death of Noble Barfolomew | Jeffrey Freeman |
| The Devil’s Paintbrush | SL Wolfson |
| The Dream Maker’s Tale | Strul Fieldgrass |
| The Easy Way Out | Greg Rempel |
| The Empty Kayak | Jode Millman |
| The Faint Aroma of Performing Seals | Torrey Paquette |
| The Ferryman | Brent Hartinger |
| The Final Spectacle | Julie Ann Slaby |
| The Founders’ Plot | Frank Victoria |
| The Gazer and The Initiate | Saul Rubin |
| The Girl in the Water | Joseph Howse |
| The Gods Chosen | Ashley Tropea |
| The Grace of Crows, Second Edition | Tracy Shawn |
| The Hellraiser of the Hollywood Hills | Sally J Smith |
| The Hidden | Freya Jensen-Brandt |
| The Hole | Roshan Kalghatgi |
| The Jewels of Fate | Tyler Snure |
| The Judas Apocalypse | Dan McNeil |
| The Last Lights of Beijing | Erin Branning |
| The Lost and Found: The Green Light | Lexa Hayes |
| The Magic Mirror | Joanne Rose |
| The Man In The Vending Machine | Pedro Salinas |
| The Matildas | Dave Pasquantonio |
| The Meat They Feed On | Stephanie Early Green |
| The Miracle Code | Brittany McChesney |
| the night shift | Matt Spataro |
| The Offering | J Bryan McGeever |
| The Party | C.T. Roemer |
| THE PATH | John Covarrubias |
| The Pimento Cheese Incident | Chris Jenkins |
| The Plow Horse | Jane Therese |
| The Rag Princess | Ellie Jay |
| The Real Boys | Matthew Brady |
| The Reckoning | Julie Ann Slaby |
| The Resurrection | Geraldine Creed |
| The Ringer | Bill Gusky |
| The Sex Offender. Wrongly Convicted | Rocky Taormina |
| The Snow Globe Queen | John Faust |
| The Starre, the Moone, the Sunne | Ron Destro |
| The Superb Fairywren | Thomas de Herrera |
| The Third Coast Chronicles: Prophet Rising | Jenna Dickson |
| The White-Eyed Girl | Gianluca Danieli |
| The World Beyond the Redbud Tree | Madison Brightwell |
| There’s Something about Lucy | Julie Ann Slaby |
| This Is the Work of One Hundred Best Citizens | Julie Ann Slaby |
| Tomorrow God Spoke. | Brannon OBrennan |
| Turning of the Bones | Mike X Welch |
| Two Riders | Josh Taylor |
| Unto the Day | Evan Laughlin |
| Vacationland | Scott Liapis |
| View From the Alley | James Stetina |
| Waiting | Kim Lee Winslow |
| We Keep Our Own | Thom Evans |
| West Coast Ghosts | Boris Liebman |
| What The Dead Can Do | Peter Rosch |
| What Unbreakable Looks Like | Kathryn Smith |
| When the North Wind Blows | Kary English |
| Where it is always winter | Mauro Piva |
| Where the Sunflowers Grow | Michelle Lindsey |
| Where We Go From Here | Matthew Haynes |
| Whiteout | Christopher Robin Hood |
| Who Let the Wallflowers Out? | Virginia Austin |
| Will It Be Like This Forever? | Lindsay Grossman |
| Wrench in the Plan | Jay Shirtz |
| WWW | Dustin Clendenen |
