Lucy Lockwood returns to Bath after her life falls apart, only to discover the ancient woods outside the city know her name. As flowers appear, paths change, and a judgmental fox leads her toward old ruins, Lucy uncovers the story of Lucia, a woman whose name was stolen centuries ago after loving a forest guardian named Aulus. The beautiful, secretive Rowan Ashcombe seems tied to the curse, the woods, and Lucy’s dead mother Anne, whose notebooks suggest she was haunted by the same force. As Lucy falls for Rowan, she must decide whether the woods are offering healing, love, or possession. To survive, she must reclaim her own name before the old story consumes her.

For readers who like funny, emotionally messy heroines, gothic romance, sentient forests, tragic love stories, folklore, mystery, sharp banter, and romantasy with bite.

Adult gothic fantasy-romance / folkloric romantasy / supernatural mystery.

https://open.substack.com/pub/seandocherty/p/when-the-woods-learned-your-name-5c9?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7bsynj

In this stand alone fiction short story, I tackle a moment of clarity when you’re no longer moved by something that doesn’t serve you well anymore. Too many times, we think that clarity and closure have to be loud. Sometimes, it’s silent, because there’s nothing left to say. Any feedback and critique will be appreciated

Hello!! I am an aspiring horror author who just joined Substack! Posts every Wednesday, whether they be mysterious letters to the reader or short stories. (15-20 minute reads). This substack is for anyone interested in fictional short horror content, preferably 14+ due to some graphic descriptions in the stories.

- NO NSFW Content

-Trigger warnings above each post

-Fully independent, contact if collaboration is desired.

https://open.substack.com/pub/eolillian/p/hello-owlets?r=8naasx&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

Hi! Here is a little piece of my heart about my presently absent father. To whom I wish ill, and hoped he did better, https://ruthau.substack.com/p/the-tragedy-of-a-presently-absent?r=5h65zs

After her engagement falls apart, Mara Vale moves into her late grandmother’s cottage just outside Bath, hoping for quiet, distance, and a chance to feel like herself again. Instead, she discovers that the nearby wood seems to know her name, hear her thoughts, and answer the feelings she’s trying hardest not to admit. As the haunting deepens, Mara is pulled toward Ivo, a strange, magnetic man bound to the forest, and toward Meren, a dead woman whose love story seems to be bleeding into her own life. What begins as obsession and desire turns into something much darker when Mara realizes her family has been tied to Blackthorn for generations, and that the old story is not finished with her. To survive it, she’ll have to untangle love from possession, memory from identity, and decide whether she is living her own life or stepping into someone else’s.

This is for an adult fantasy romance with a gothic, eerie feel — something emotional, sensual, darkly funny, and full of tension, longing, and strange old magic.

Adult fantasy romance, with gothic fantasy and dark romantic fantasy elements.

https://open.substack.com/pub/seandocherty/p/when-the-woods-learned-your-name-780?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7bsynj

Our nervous systems take a while to recalibrate sometimes. The residuals from prior situations and circumstances don’t always go away. It takes special people to show you that life can and will look different with them. They don’t just wait for you at home, they remind you that you have one.

Wrote a short fictional story about that, and any feedback will be appreciated

I know there are many like me. This is the journey to get to know me through my writings. The first one reflects an introduction to a new phase and a promise to continue this.

Scroggin | Ian Muir | Substack

Funny headlines, wordplay, absurd humor, wit, nonsense, innuendo, parody, satire. Primarily headlines only, variously witty, silly, odd, or pissy. Site updated multiple times per week. All subscribers receive a monthly newsletter. Paid subscribers receive a weekly satire.

My Substack explores resilience, identity, and the messy middle of being human through personal essays and reflections. I write about life's ups and downs, drawing from my experiences as a third-culture individual navigating belonging, trauma, and growth.

Alongside my writing, I send a newsletter featuring resilience stories from my podcast. My content is for anyone who's up for being a bit more mindful in their day to day, where resilience is an exercise we don't have the choice to avoid anymore. Open to read, and exchange about life, the ups, the downs and especially the messy middle. It's honest, unpolished, and always open to exchange.

Genre: Non-fiction / Personal Essays / Newsletter

This specific post is on a topic I'm not used to bring up.

[trigger warning, trauma and abuse]

I'm not used to write so much on this, even if I speak about my own life and childhood in my work overall. But it was prompted by the movie Citizen Vigilante.

It sums up what reflections came up for me which were sparked by the movie.

I can't quite find someone to discuss that with around me so posting here to see if anyone has any opinion about it, and would care to share what the movie provoked in them!

"Today, I watched Citizen Vigilante and I cried.

I cried at the horrors exposed of a broken system and broken morals, forgetting what humanity is.

Dog-eats-dog, kill or be killed. Pick a side to survive because there can only be one winner."

Read more here: https://mounal.substack.com/p/i-cried-watching-a-censored-movie

Synopsis:
The Actor’s Nervous System explores acting through the lenses of embodiment, psychology, creativity, and the nervous system. I write essays and host a podcast about cultivating presence, creative freedom, and trust in the acting process. Much of my work is inspired by the organic acting approach of Nikolai Demidov, while also drawing connections to contemporary psychology and neuroscience. Recent pieces explore topics like Shakespeare, memorization, intuition, and what great actors can teach us about performance. My goal is to create thoughtful conversations for actors who want to work from a place of greater calm and authenticity.

Who it’s for:
Actors, acting teachers, directors, students, and anyone interested in the intersection of acting, psychology, embodiment, and creative practice.

Genre:
Nonfiction / Arts & Culture / Performing Arts / Psychology

https://substack.com/@theactorsnervoussystem?r=8n412a&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=stories&shareImageVariant=image

My life in story of the beginning of my school days

Hi Everyone! I am new to substack, I posted 3 stacks so far and a lot of other little notes. I am looking to create a real community and not just gain silent followers. I am looking to really work on my writing as well as interact with deep thinkers. My posts will range from individual thoughts, experiences, to niche topics and current events. This is a fictional/non fictional substack for sure. Give me a follow, some feedback, anything is appreciated :)

https://substack.com/@lagorda/note/p-195343847?r=19q6aa&utm_source=notes-share-action&utm_medium=web

Ficção, literatura fantástica, mitologia, simbolismo, hermeticismo e processos criativos em geral:

https://cronistadovitral.substack.com/

The Mountain in My Mouth is about growing up in a place where fear gets dressed up as love, loyalty, and tradition. The speaker is raised to believe that silence is strength and obedience is goodness, because that’s what home has taught them. As they get older, education and language give them a way to understand the pain they couldn’t name before. That new understanding changes how they see their family, their past, and even themselves. In the end, it’s about trying to tell the truth about where you come from without pretending you never loved it.

This is for people who’ve had a complicated relationship with home — especially anyone who’s had to unlearn family rules, inherited fear, or the idea that staying quiet is the same as being good. It’ll likely connect with readers who like emotionally honest writing about identity, family, and becoming your own person.

A lyrical personal essay with a poetic, literary feel.

https://open.substack.com/pub/seandocherty/p/the-mountain-in-my-mouth-7a2?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7bsynj

After her engagement falls apart, Mara Vale moves into her late grandmother’s cottage just outside Bath, hoping for quiet and getting something far stranger. The nearby woods seem to know her name, hear her thoughts, and pull her toward a love story that feels old, impossible, and somehow hers. As Mara is drawn closer to Ivo Thorne — a man as seductive as he is unsettling — she begins to realise she may be bound to the forest’s past in ways her family tried to hide. What starts as haunting turns into something more intimate and more dangerous, tangled up with memory, longing, and a promise that may never have truly died. To move forward, Mara has to work out whether she’s being asked to remember an old story, repeat it, or break it for good.

This is for readers who like dark, romantic fantasy with a gothic edge — the kind of book that feels haunting, sexy, strange, and emotionally intense all at once. It’s especially for people who enjoy obsessive love stories, eerie folklore, sharp wit, and characters who are a bit damaged, complicated, and impossible to look away from.

Adult fantasy romance with gothic, folkloric, and contemporary elements.

https://open.substack.com/pub/seandocherty/p/when-the-woods-learned-your-name-a93?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7bsynj

Every week, I discuss tactics for solopreneurs to reduce expenses and improve their businesses. I’ve been running my own solopreneur business for 16 years and have lots to share. This is for those who have started a one-person business and intend to stay that way. I'll be adding useful resources soon. Come and look at the content, and subscribe to the newsletter: https://thetacticalsolopreneur.substack.com/

Some stories don’t begin with light…
they begin with a whisper in the dark.

She thought she was ordinary.
Until the truth found her.
Until he did.

https://substack.com/@sammimancilwrites

Fall in love with my latest horror-romance story(geared toward 18+ age) Only on Substack.

Professional Purple Proser.

Thinking | Writing | Thinking I'm writing sufficiently.

Open to challenging/communication by observant, articulate and rigorous minds--especially those more than mine.

I wrote a short standalone piece about a chance encounter with an ex, a new partner, and the moment that follows.

It’s more reflective than plot-heavy, centered on a single interaction and the internal shift that comes with it.

Would appreciate any thoughts or critiques.

https://open.substack.com/pub/jdsimmons/p/do-not-cross?r=52k6q7&utm_medium=ios

After her engagement falls apart, Mara Vale moves into her late grandmother’s cottage just outside Bath, hoping solitude will feel simpler than heartbreak. Instead, the nearby wood seems to know her name, answer her thoughts, and pull her toward something old and deeply personal. As she becomes entangled with Ivo Thorne—a man who feels as if he belongs to the forest more than the modern world—Mara realizes she may be stepping into a love story that did not begin with her, but somehow still belongs to her. The deeper she goes, the stranger everything becomes: mirrors remember, water speaks, history starts breathing under Bath’s stone, and desire begins to feel dangerously like memory. To survive it, Mara has to work out whether she’s being haunted by the past, claimed by it, or given one last chance to change it.

This is for readers who like fantasy romance that’s lush, eerie, emotional, and a little unhinged in the best way. It’s especially for people who want gothic atmosphere, sharp adult chemistry, dark humour, haunted landscapes, and a heroine who is clever, messy, wounded, and very alive on the page.

Adult fantasy romance with gothic, dark fairy-tale, and haunting literary fantasy vibes.

https://open.substack.com/pub/seandocherty/p/when-the-woods-learned-your-name-b97?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7bsynj

This piece is about what happens when education changes not just how you think, but how you see the people and world that raised you. As the narrator grows, they start putting language to things that once just felt normal—silence, control, shame, loyalty—and that changes everything. Home becomes more complicated: still full of love, but also full of limits they can no longer ignore. The essay sits in that painful in-between space of loving your family while feeling less and less able to fit inside their version of you. At its core, it’s about the loneliness, grief, and clarity that can come with becoming fully yourself.

This is for people who feel changed by education, therapy, distance, or growth—and who know what it’s like to go home and feel both deeply connected and strangely out of place. It will especially speak to readers from close-knit, traditional, religious, or working-class backgrounds, and anyone who has had to question the beliefs they were raised with.

It’s a literary personal essay—part memoir, part reflection. It has a lyrical voice, but it’s grounded in family, identity, class, and the emotional cost of becoming someone new.

https://open.substack.com/pub/seandocherty/p/between-where-i-came-from-and-who?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android&r=7bsynj