Hello, dear reader. Last week, I entered into a Substack writing contest titled Wildflower Whispers, a spring writing challenge hosted by The YA Section. I submitted a short story, that I really shouldn’t have been writing… it’s from a very distracting side project of mine, filled with Black fantasy characters and tribal battles, forest spirits and ocean horrors. And oh, the Pinterest aesthetics…

But I did write the thing, and it ended up placing silver in the contest! *happy dance* The YA Section featured the story on their blog, and I’m so grateful to them for hosting this contest. If you like short stories with mysterious action, forest reverence, and a touch of romance, click the picture below!

Here’s a link for the people who wisely do not click random pictures: https://yasection.substack.com/p/the-chosen

For all you know, that picture could’ve been a rickroll.

(As I was finding this link and trying to see if it would pop up on Google, I realized I accidentally named this short story after a very popular series… that is pretty unrelated. Whoops.)

Stay cool,

~ Z.Rise