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Ty Undone
A Novella by Kai D. Waddell
On the outskirts of Tucson, among the desert flowers of the Bella Adobe Nursery, twenty-year-old Ty has finally found his safe place. Three years after running from home, he’s found a quiet gardener’s life, learning to nurture and be nurtured. He works, he survives, and he keeps the world outside at arm's length. He isn't looking for a connection, and he certainly isn't looking for something more.
But one morning, a charming man stops by the nursery. Ben, twenty-nine, is a graphic designer who also works long hours and lives a quiet, tidy life. When he asks Ty to make custom planters for his balcony, an unexpected friendship begins. And what starts as a simple project grows into shared meals, quirky conversations, and sudden confrontations—bringing two men from worlds apart to a life-changing crossroad.
Set against glowing desert skies and quiet booths at Ana's Diner, this slow-burn romance explores the terrifying, beautiful work of opening your heart when staying put is the scariest thing you can do. Ty wants to stay, even if staying means risking it all. Ben must reopen a part of himself he’d long since packed up and filed away. Together, both have bound up hearts waiting to be undone.
Home isn't a place you left – it’s someone you choose to stay for.
Ty Undone is a tender, slow-burn queer romance about two guarded souls who discover a safe harbor in each other. A heartwarming tale of attraction, healing, and courage.
Contact writerkai@proton.me to download the ARC.
Warm Blue Waters
A Novel by Kai D. Waddell
At 22, Sarah is done with college, and done with her father's expectations. Done with everything except escaping her zero life. Her salvation lies halfway across the world, in Vietnam, on her grandfather's sailboat, the Ella Revela.
Enter Lucy—a hired Filipina skipper with calloused hands, and zero patience for silly rich girls who can't tie a bowline. Lucy is cold and distant, but she sails Ella with a quiet skill that commands respect.
Forced together on the South Pacific, they're oil and water. But the vast ocean doesn't care, and when Grandpa Ted becomes sick and the storms hit, together, they must figure out how to get Ella to a safe harbor. In the darkness of night watches and endless ocean currents, fear and exhaustion set in, but a bond dawns and pulls them together. Tender moments let them find their way to a connection neither expected.
WARM BLUE WATERS is a contemporary sapphic romance about opposites who must accept, survive, and learn that salvation isn't a destination—it's the person weathering this storm beside you.
The Last Rain of Summer
A Novel by Kai D. Waddell
Meeka thought she had things figured out. Keep your head down, keep your secrets safe, live alone, work at Herb's resort just down the beach, and hang out with Fa, her best and only friend--and barista extraordinaire. Avoid everyone else and never, ever let anyone get close. It's a simple life in a sleepy Thai village—quiet, predictable, safe. Until the day she spills an enormous red slushie all over herself and meets Torn for the first time.
He's just passing through. A marine biology grad student from Bangkok, here to finish his thesis at the local research lab. Polite, a little awkward, and frustratingly persistent about showing up at Fa's coffee shop every single day. Meeka tries to ignore him. She's perfected the art of keeping people at arm's length, and she's not about to let some cute guy with messy hair and a kind smile change that. Especially since he doesn't really know Meeka's past, or her beginning. And he carries his own scars and confusion.
But Torn isn't like the others who've drifted through her life. He helps out when Fa's shop gets slammed. He fixes broken things at the resort without being asked. He listens when Meeka talks, really listens, and doesn't expect anything in return. Slowly, against every instinct screaming at her to run, Meeka starts to let him in.
Then comes the night of Fa's birthday party. The rain. The kiss that changes everything. And Meeka's absolute certainty that she's about to ruin the best thing that's ever walked into her life.
Perfect for readers who love slow-burn romance, found family, and the fringe world of Thailand's third gender, the characters show their courage and risk their hearts before a fateful summer ends.
Trigger Fish
A Novel by Kai D. Waddell, et al.
Suri has always been an outsider in his own life. Nicknamed “Ikan Pemicu,” the Little Triggerfish, for his ability to navigate Jakarta’s social waters, he’s kept his heart behind a glass wall, certain he’s incapable of the passion his family expects. But when his father’s "business" turns deadly and a forced marriage looms, Suri flees to the rainy streets of Vancouver. Stranded and hunted by his father’s hitmen, Suri is taken in by Max, a soulful gay club DJ. What starts as a desperate arrangement, Suri, a shut-in and Max's live-in "houseboy", slowly turns into something much deeper.
Between the scent of spicy sambal in the kitchen and finding that he and Max connect as roomies and then more, Suri’s walls begin to crumble. For the first time, Suri isn't just a pawn in his father's crooked world; he’s growing up and discovering his own truth. But with a target on his back, "happily ever after" isn't guaranteed. To claim a future with Max, Suri will have to outsmart a killer and prove that the Little Triggerfish has a bite no one saw coming.
Todd TTS Audiobook Builder - Early Beta | Feb 2026 : AI-voiced narration service built for novelists.
Story Character Images for Ty Undone : Story scenes and characters from Midjourney (beware of spoilers).
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Contact Kai at writerkai@proton.me