FAQs

PirateCat is project launched and run by indie author Crystal Crawford, with collaboration from indie author M.J. Padgett. Both of us believe that clean young adult fiction should be more accessible, and that readers should be able to browse within a portal for YA books that interest them, without concerns over unexpected sexual content, profanity, graphic violence, or other extreme content. We also believe that interactive reading experiences are more enjoyable for both the authors and the readers -- so we have made interaction, commenting, chat groups, and more into key features on this site. We hope to build a thriving, interactive community around clean YA fiction.

Right now, the PirateCat portal includes exclusively M.J. Padgett's and Crystal Crawford's YA books and stories -- but that already totals more than 20 preloaded novels, 4 preloaded novellas, several books posting in ongoing weekly installments, and more than 30 short stories...and we'll be adding more content regularly. We have chat rooms set up, commenting features on every chapter of every story, plans to host Q&As, and more. We truly want this to be an interactive, exciting community to be part of! As a member, you'll get ALL of this--for less than the cost of a fancy cup of coffee per month!

In the future, we plan to include other indie authors' fiction as well, and we already have a waiting list of authors who want to be included! We also plan to eventually expand to include some online classes and community outreach (including writing classes for teens, among other things).

You're here in time to get in on the ground floor of PirateCat--and we would love for you to be a part of helping us grow! If you have any questions not answered in these FAQs or our About and/or Join pages, please email us at giveusameow@piratecatpublishing.com and ask away!

At PirateCat, we consider YA fiction "Clean" if it adheres to the following standards:

• no on-page sexual content

• romance stops at "just kisses"

• violence PG-13 or less (not overly graphic)

• language PG-13 or less

Every single book and story you will find on this platform has been screened to meet these minimum standards.

Each story (or series) in our PirateCat portal is also assigned a "Chill Factor" rating from 1 to 5, with 5/5 being the highest level of "chill" (meaning, you can relax; there is no content we felt warranted concern for young adult readers). We do permit fiction that addresses difficult subject matter and intense situations, but these are generally marked as a 4/5 or 3/5 (depending on the content), and we include a "Content Warning" on the entry portal to each series that notes any potential concerns. We do not include any fiction that rates below a 3/5 on our site.

Yes! We've recently added a Nonfiction section, as well as a Learn (Writing Guides & Resources) page which includes an in-depth guide to fiction writing for beginners! All NonFiction on our site adheres to the same Clean standards as our fiction. We plan to continue expanding the Nonfiction and Writing Guides & Resources sections of our site as we grow!

Right now, all the content inside PirateCat is authored by Crystal Crawford and M.J. Padgett.

We are two homeschooling moms and indie authors who are passionate about clean YA fiction. You can find more info (including mini bios on each of us) on our About page -- or check us out on our social media accounts (you can find links in the footer of any page on this site) or at our respective websites:

(Note: Many of the books and stories you will find for sale through our sites and other publishing platforms are already available in the PirateCat portal, with new content adding regularly, all for less than a fancy cup of coffee per month!)

The PirateCat portal currently includes:

Fiction Books Fully Posted and Ready to Binge:

• The Edge of Nothing: The Lex Chronicles, Book 1 (Legends of Arameth) by Crystal Crawford

• The Path to Paradox: The Lex Chronicles, Book 2 (Legends of Arameth) by Crystal Crawford

• The Ends of Exile: The Lex Chronicles, Book 3 (Legends of Arameth) by Crystal Crawford

• I'm Not a Stalker (The Stalker Mystery Set, Book 1) by Crystal Crawford

• Five Suspects (The Stalker Mystery Set, Book 2) by Crystal Crawford

• Dark and Devious (Wardens of the Raven Court, Book 1) by M.J. Padgett

• The Demolition Project (The Demolition Trilogy, Book 1) by M.J. Padgett

• The Demolition Daze (The Demolition Trilogy, Book 2) by M.J. Padgett

• The Demolition Realization (The Demolition Trilogy, Book 3) by M.J. Padgett

• The Yellow Note (The Secret Author series, Book 1) by M.J. Padgett

• The Postcard (The Secret Author series, Book 2) by M.J. Padgett

• The Letter (The Secret Author series, Book 3) by M.J. Padgett

• The Text Message (The Secret Author series, Book 4) by M.J. Padgett

• The Telegram (The Secret Author series, Book 5) by M.J. Padgett

• Falling for Elizabeth (a Secret Author spin-off novella) by M.J. Padgett

• The Forget Me Not Pact (a Secret Author spin-off novella) by M.J. Padgett

• War Changes Everything (a Secret Author spin-off novella) by M.J. Padgett

• Biology 101 (a Secret Author spin-off novella) by M.J. Padgett

• The Red Pen (A Secret Author Spin-Off) by M.J. Padgett

• Mattie Bender Is a Cereal Killer (a standalone romantic comedy/suspense) by M.J. Padgett

• Macchiatos, Faerie Princes, and Other Things That Happen at Midnight (The Leyward Stones, Book 1) by Crystal Crawford

• LeyGuards, Faespells, and Other Things That Breach the Veil (The Leyward Stones, Book 2) by Crystal Crawford

• Fae Curses, Dark Kings, and Other Things That Must Fall (The Leyward Stones, Book 3) by Crystal Crawford

• The Extraordinary, Extraterrestrial Love Lives of Doppelgangers (Love and Aliens, Book 1) by M.J. Padgett & Crystal Crawford

• The Fallen Chronicles by M.J. Padgett

• Ghost Trouble (a standalone paranormal romantic comedy) by Crystal Crawford

• Astryn and the Golden Goose by M.J. Padgett

Fiction Books and Series Posting in Weekly Installments (if part of a series, future books in the series will also post in PirateCat until series is completed):

• Fate Rising (a Leyward Stones serial) by Crystal Crawford - currently on hiatus but will be resuming soon!

• Torn Fate (a standalone contemporary fantasy serial) by Crystal Crawford - currently on hiatus but will be resuming soon!

Short Stories (Fiction) Available to Read in Full:

• Legends of Arameth shorts

  • "Disturbing Peace" by Crystal Crawford

  • "The Wolf and the Watchman" by Crystal Crawford

  • "The Harvester" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Incoming" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Marculian’s Choice" by Crystal Crawford

• The Leyward Stones shorts

  • "Hollowlight Keening" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Dove and the Bear" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Creeping Vines and Tangled Questions" by Crystal Crawford

  • "For Better or Worse" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Sky Child" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

  • "Rendezvous at the LeyGate" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

  • "All Creatures Bow" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

• The Secret Author Series Bonus Material

  • The Yellow Note Bonus Material

    • "Falling for Elizabeth (Elizabeth Grayson's POV)" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Christmas Masquerade Ball" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Samuel Carington" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Shay Tucker" by M.J. Padgett

    • "It Started in the Library" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Scott Thompson" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Bianca Thomas" by M.J. Padgett

    • "It Started on a Movie Night" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Jacob Masterson" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Delilah Stavros" by M.J. Padgett

    • "John Matthews" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Ellison Cartright" by M.J. Padgett

    • "The Second Generation" by M.J. Padgett

    • "The Tradition Reboot" by M.J. Padgett

  • The Postcard Bonus Material

    • "So Much To Be Thankful For" by M.J. Padgett

  • The Letter Bonus Content

    • "Joseph Scottsdale No More" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Katelyn the Spy" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Wedding of the Century" by M.J. Padgett

  • The Text Message Bonus Material

    • "Secrets and Truths" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Emily's Proposal Do Over" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Accidents Happen" by M.J. Padgett

    • "The Giant Pony Catastrophe" by M.J. Padgett

    • "The Misunderstanding" by M.J. Padgett

    • "The Tiny Tot" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Westmore Career Day" by M.J. Padgett

    • "Patrick Waters Knows All" by M.J. Padgett

    • "The Family Vacation" by M.J. Padgett

• Miscellaneous (standalone) shorts in various genres (some are not exclusively YA stories, but all are YA-appropriate)

  • "Andromeda's Justice" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Vital Flaw" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

  • "Converged" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

  • "When Strangers Feed You" by Crystal Crawford

  • "The Song of the Siren" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Fine Print" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

  • "The House with the Clock" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

  • "Brush Strokes" by Crystal Crawford

  • "The Sensible Librarian" by Crystal Crawford

  • "The Drop-Off" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

  • "Silent Aftermath" (flash) by Crystal Crawford

  • "Prism" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Amid the Storm" by Crystal Crawford

  • "Drowning Without Water" by Crystal Crawford

  • "The Tech" by Crystal Crawford

Writing Guides & Resources Fully Posted & Ready to Binge (or to reference as needed!):

• Slap Him with a Fish: A Crash-Course in Fiction Writing for Beginners by Crystal Crawford

NonFiction Fully Posted & Ready to Binge:

• The Unspoken Language (An Animal Trainer's Memoir) by Crystal Crawford

More Books Coming Soon (will be posting in weekly installments):

• TBD (stay tuned for updates)

Plus new books and stories will be adding as we go!

New members also get a free e-book download upon first login. Active members will also receive occasional surprise bonus downloads (free e-book, bookmarks, swag, etc.).

We'll do our best to keep this list up to date as new content adds... and as we said, we hope to bring more clean YA authors to this platform in the future, too! We can't wait to see you inside PirateCat and interact with you on our stories!

First--Thank you for already being a loyal reader!

Second--We would still love to have you in PirateCat! We want to engage more with our readers, and PirateCat is our way of doing that. We would be thrilled if you would join and interact us with in the chats, reread your favorites, leave comments on the stories you've read, and converse with other readers in our portal. You could think of this as an indie alternative to a Patreon-type platform, where your support helps keep us going... and we'd be so, so appreciative of that support!

We'll also be posting new books and stories on an ongoing basis (including some that aren't published elsewhere yet), and eventually we plan to expand to include other authors, so you're sure to find new content to enjoy as we go along!

And we'd love it if you'd spread the word about this portal to other readers, too.

If you mean sharing our homepage link and encouraging your friends to subscribe to our portal, YES, please do!

If you mean purchasing a subscription as a parent (or grandparent) for your kids/grandkids within your own household to use under your supervision, then YES, please do!

If you mean sharing login information with your friends outside your household so that multiple users access our work under the same member account---please, please don't. If you have friends you think might enjoy our work, the best thing to do is to point them to our Join page, where they can check out samples of our writing, and then encourage them to create their own subscription and member account. In an era of loads of book pirates and users demanding free content, it can be hard for indie authors to make a living. If you love what we're doing here at PirateCat, please help us keep it running by encouraging your friends and contacts to subscribe through and create official memberships of their own. Thank you for your support on this!

No! We believe readers of all ages can enjoy clean YA fiction, and we have readers of all demographics. We are adults who still enjoy reading YA, ourselves!

However, we do have behavior guidelines and other Codes of Conduct here on the site to ensure that all users are interacting in safe and appropriate manners. Any interactions deemed outside these terms will be addressed swiftly and with appropriate penalties, including and up to cancellation of subscription without refund, and banning from our platform.

We aim to create a safe, uplifting, enjoyable online community for all of our readers and members. To that end, we require that all members adhere to the following Code of Conduct:

• Respect and kindness at all times.

  • It's okay to disagree with others--book-clubbers can be passionate about their opinions! But please do so respectfully.

• NO SPOILERS.

  • Please respect your fellow readers while interacting on PirateCat stories and leave SPOILER-FREE comments only. If you think a comment may include a spoiler, some pages have a spoiler-hiding function you can use by highlighting the spoiler text and then clicking the spoiler symbol to blur/hide that content. If that feature is not available for some reason, please adjust your comments to avoid any direct spoilers.

• No piracy.

  • We love fictional pirates, but real-life story pirates are not nice. All content within PirateCat is copyrighted and is not permitted to be copied, shared, or distributed outside our platform. If you'd like to share our books with friends, please encourage them to sign up as Members on our site!

• Language in comments/chats should stay "Clean" also.

  • Please respect our Clean YA community by making sure all comments, messages, and posts made on our site portal stay below PG-13.

Members who fail to adhere to these guidelines will receive a warning. Repeated offenses may result in immediate termination of membership without refund (though terminated member would not be billed for any future payments) and/or permanent banning from the PirateCat site when deemed necessary to protect the other users and subscribers in our online community.

Thank you for helping us keep PirateCat a positive, enjoyable experience for everyone!