Original Fiction

Four Core Fiction

Edited by Kimberly Kessler and Rebecca Monterusso

Getting to the Heart of Story Every story has a moment we’re waiting for—a climactic scene that sends an electric pulse of emotion through us—a moment of catharsis. In the Story Grid Universe, we’ve analyzed hundreds of stories looking for the source of that electricity. And now we’ve gotten to the heart of the matter… Read more »

Home Truths

By Mark McGinn
Edited by Rachelle Stewart Ramirez

Introducing New Zealand’s Jonah Solomon, a cop In the broody, bloody, and brilliant tradition of Ian Rankin’s Detective Inspector John Rebus Detective Sergeant Jonah Solomon is used to navigating the ruins of Christchurch, New Zealand, a city nowhere near recovery more than a year after a devastating earthquake. He’s also used to navigating the prejudice… Read more »

I Am Justice

By D. P. Watkins
Edited by Randall Surles

Justice Winters is doing her best to live like an ordinary college student, keeping all her secrets—past and present—buried deep. Even Cadence, the friend she calls “sister,” doesn’t know how Justice earns the cash to cover rent, much less the unspeakable truth about Pop and the sisters she left behind. On the night a careless… Read more »

The Sand Sea

By Michael McClellan
Edited by Shawn Coyne

“An astounding epic novel of J.R.R. Tolkien proportions!”

— Steven Pressfield, Bestselling author of Gates of Fire and The War of Art

Raiders of the Lost Ark playing A Game of Thrones

The Sand Sea takes place on an alternative Earth roiled by war and conquest that mirrors our own Gilded Age. The treasure that ignites greed and folly in this parallel world is not petroleum, but beserite—a mineral of immeasurable value.

Captivated by an ancient prophecy and the call of adventure, inexperienced nobleman and scholar Peter Harmon (think of a young Winston Churchill-like naif) joins an expedition to stake his nation’s claim to a global empire.

Harmon’s destination is a vast and inhospitable desert halfway around the world, dominated by the iron-fisted Grand Vizer Jemojeen Jongdar. A tyrant on a mission to secure the ancient and supernatural Staff of the Ram, the Lion, and the Serpent, Jongdar knows the truth that others can only imagine: The one who controls the staff will possess the power to rule the world.

Before he can seize his destiny, Jongdar must find and destroy the one person capable of thwarting his ambition, the rightful heir to the Sand Sea realm, an innocent woman named Selena Savanar.

Can the brave and indomitable Selena accept her true destiny and rally her people in the eye of a gathering storm? To do so will require her to outwit the man who burned her father alive and left her an orphan and beggar a lifetime ago. Or will Peter Harmon and the cadre of opportunists he rides with conquer the divided empire?

With the mythic structure of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy in a world as rich and real as George R.R. Martin’s Westeros, The Sand Sea is an immersive experience made to order for epic fantasy fans and anyone who enjoys grand-scale historical fiction.

The Shithead

By Tim Grahl
Edited by Shawn Coyne

Faust meets Fleishman Is In Trouble. Eric Bauer—son, husband, father, and small business owner—is slowly losing his grip on reality. Drowning in debt and a never-ending to-do list, he finally catches a break. To trade the torment of barely scraping by for the riches of Nashville’s elite Pinnacle Club, he only needs to keep doing… Read more »

The Threshing

By Tim Grahl
Edited by Shawn Coyne

After four years in the making on the Story Grid Podcast, Tim Grahl’s first novel is now available!

1. If you win, you survive.

2. If you lose, you and everyone you love slowly starve to death.

Years before twelve-year-old Jessie was born, everyday life tipped into this dystopia when firestorms burned through millions upon millions of acres of sustainable farmland. Now there’s not enough food for too many people. Leaders from around the globe came together and conceived of the most extraordinary competition imaginable. The results determine who gets what and how much.

This battlefield lies within the grid, a virtual world where the people mine credits to stake their claim for their daily bread. When everyone else is living a virtual life honing unreal skills, only the truly gifted have the courage and know-how to be real.

And Jessie might be the most gifted competitor in The Threshing.

Ever.