the High-Calorie Collection

Erin Scott-Ross had always believed that she was destined for big things.

And yes, it sounded cliché when you said it out loud. But she’d been living out every day like it was less of a saying and more of a motto. Whether or not she was actually destined for greatness was irrelevant—she worked hard, kept her nose to the grindstone, and managed to surmount any obstacles that had stood in her way with no fumbles.

Erin had a way of tackling her problems head-on, something that had earned her the respect and fear of her colleagues in the corporate world. She had quickly gained the reputation of being a battle-axe, a ball buster, and whatever other names you might call a powerful woman who wasn’t afraid to mince words. She wouldn’t take a back seat, and all of her thoughts would be heard.

It had made life as a copy editor absolutely unbearable, and it had only made things in her career tougher ever since.

Funny how a “negative attitude” and “determination” can be misconstrued as the same thing.

But over the years, Erin had clawed her way up from one rung of the corporate ladder to the next using nothing but her candor and determination. Complaints about her attitude slowly fell to the wayside as she steamrolled her way into the corporate world from nothing—something that she was hardly shy about bringing up whenever someone wanted to try to test their oneupsmanship against hers.

To put it bluntly, what Erin set her mind to she almost always accomplished.

And that was the problem—why she’d called Phoebe Lang.

People had been talking about the Elysium Archipelago since before the Eloi Resort had been built on its eastern island—it had been a hot topic for quite a long time, in fact. Such a drastic move by the ultra-rich, to literally build a set of land masses so far off of the shores of the Western world had been unheard of at the time, and had only stirred controversy since its announcement.

But when Kim and a bunch of other "fortunate" folks win an all-expenses-paid trip to the enigmatic resort for the Ultra-Rich, a viral infection going around in the mainland forces them to stay where they are. Among the luxury and among the amenities. Drowning in food and overencumbered by a lack of want, there couldn't possibly be anything more sinister at hand... could there?

Now, onto business.

Hannah Hammond is one of the characters that stars in my breakout interactive over on Writing.com, Buttercombe Academy. She also shows up for Daven's Port all grown up, as well as in the two "spin-off" stories Super-Sized: the Mel Carlyle Story, and Packing on the Pounds: the Piper Black Story. She's been a fan favorite character for... oh, since the dawn of time I think. This is part of the canonical story that I have in mind for her. Certain characters will receive this treatment moving forward like Harper Black in (the still-being-worked-on-don't-hate-me) Put on the Red Light.

This story takes place some years after the canonical "end" of Daven's Port, so around the same time as PotRL. Hannah's in her late twenties now. Why is someone in their late twenties running a hotel with very few checks and balances? Nepotism. But that's neither here nor there.

I, uh... I write a lot.

Like a lot a lot—and I've been doing it for years!

So instead of just posting my longer stories, I've decided to reserve this branch exclusively for short stories that other people really seem to like.