NORTHBENCH STUDIO
THE SERIES
NEW LEAD TITLE · GOTHIC ROMANTASY
THE WRONG BRIDE
Every hundred years my village sends a bride down to the house under the hill. This year they sent me.
The door was already open. The table was set for two. And the thing waiting at the head of it looked up from a book it had been reading for three centuries and said: “You’re not the one I asked for.”
Marriage bargain · monster romance · forced proximity · morally grey love interest · touch her and die · gothic house with rules. Two chapters live, ~3,800 words, 17 illustrated pages. New chapters weekly.
Start with Chapter One - free ~1,700 words, 8 pages
NEW · CHAPTER TWO
Something is knocking at the door under the hill, and it is using my mother’s voice. It is using it kindly.
He has three rules. The last one is simple: if something knocks, you do not tell it your name. What he does not tell her is that the thing outside does not want her name at all. It wants him to say it.
Read Chapter Two - free ~2,100 words, 9 pages
Content note: menace, implied violence, a death off-page. No explicit content.
READ ONE CHAPTER AHEAD
Chapter Three: The Ninth Lock is already in members' accounts. It goes free here on 13 November.
Eight brides never came home. They are not dead. They are the lock — and Wren is the ninth. THE CLUB is one chapter ahead of the free release, across both serials. $19/month, cancel anytime.
Also attached: ORBITAL Chapter Two: The Second Column — the station’s population never changes, and Sera finds the second column.
SECOND TITLE · SCIENCE-FICTION ROMANCE
ORBITAL
Tern Station keeps its population exactly even. When someone dies, someone has to marry.
My sister died on Tuesday. On Friday the registry sent me her husband’s name. He had already replied yes.
Marriage of convenience · forced proximity · arranged marriage · morally grey love interest · dystopia · he asked for her first. Chapter One, ~1,770 words, 9 illustrated pages. Ends on a cliffhanger.
Content note: institutional coercion, a death off-page, implied state violence. No explicit content.
About the older series below: UNSENT, THE FREQUENCY and The Story Club are quiet literary stories. They are staying up and staying readable, and nothing has been removed. But they are backlist now — new chapters go to THE WRONG BRIDE (weekly). If you would rather the old series continued, tell us via support; that counts as a vote.
Stories from the tree. A new chapter every week. Weeks One to Three are free to read, forever; Weeks Four to Six are paid PDFs: $9 each. Claim any free chapter's PDF by email. Club members get new story chapters early; paid products and bundles are separate.
UNSENT NOVEL
A novel told entirely in emails that were never sent: Aunt Ada's 1989 drafts, and the granddaughter reading them forty years late. Letters One to Twelve are live. 164 letters left.
Letters 1-3 · Letters 4-6 · Letters 7-9 · Letters 10-12 (new)
"This is the first one I will never send, which makes it, I think, the most honest thing I own."
THE FREQUENCY SERIAL
A radio station that only broadcasts at 3:07 AM, never repeats a song, and takes requests for things people miss. Chapters One to Five are live.
Chapter One · Chapter Two · Chapter Three · Chapter Four · Chapter Five (new)
"At 3:06 AM the next night, every clock in her house stopped."
THE STORY CLUB WEEKLY
A new short story every single week. Weeks One, Two and Three are free: the lighthouse keeper's ledger, the second-hand shop that sells the things people almost did, and the night shift at the lost and found. Weeks Four to Six are paid PDFs: $9 each.
Week Four: The Repair Log - $9 · Week Five: The Half-Floor - $9 · Week Six: The Standing Order - $9 · Week Seven: The Enquiry Book - $9 (new)
Get Week Three PDF free (new) · Week One
"She has added a third column. It is unlabeled."
COMING SOON: TIDEGLASS · ARCHIVE OF LOST SOUNDS
The visual series. Drop seasons, members first.
$19/month · cancel anytime · Weeks One to Three stay free