Gunnar walks two blocks north to Marshal Morrow's office with folded pages in his coat, the cold air a correction after Silas Vane's cedar-oil dining car. Inside, Morrow sits with a half-empty whiskey bottle, his three-fingered hand around a tin cup, seventeen years of held silence bending his shoulders inward. 

Gunnar sits down without being invited, sets the pages at his own edge of the desk, and reads out the facts in the same flat voice he uses for gauge results: the Harwich Mining Company claim dispute, the falsified shift records, the burned evidence lockbox, the four-year Blackrock sentence, the Syndicate's monthly payments to Morrow's sister's family beginning eight weeks after the trial. Morrow raises his head, meets Gunnar's eyes, and finally speaks: his brother-in-law's name was Caleb Marsh. 

The company set Caleb up because he was organizing the night crew. The judge was on the Syndicate's payroll. Morrow found out too late — and later, holding new evidence at Caleb's appeal in Copper City, he sat in the back row and didn't stand up. Gunnar tucks the chair back under the desk and leaves Morrow one line before he goes: "What a man does now is the only thing that matters. Because it's the only thing you can still control."

Iron Rails & Ruin is a steampunk Wild West adventure for boys 8-18 — a fourteen-year-old engineer in 1882 Montana finds out his father is alive, and the Syndicate has fourteen days to seize every locomotive in the territory.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love trains, invention, and frontier adventure. For fans of Mortal Engines, steampunk machines and mysteries, and Wild West stories with a clever hero at the controls.

📚 Grab your copy of Iron Rails & Ruin: Smoke & Suspicion (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Friday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Two blocks north to the marshal's office — the cold, a correction
00:02:30 — Morrow at his desk — whiskey, the three-fingered hand, the badge
00:05:00 — Gunnar sits down uninvited and lays the pages at his edge
00:07:00 — "Seventeen years ago"
00:09:30 — The Harwich Mining Company claim dispute, and the fire
00:12:30 — The monthly payments that started eight weeks after sentencing
00:15:30 — Fourteen months of freight-account cross-references, and six routes
00:17:30 — Morrow raises his head — the silence lasts four seconds
00:19:00 — "His name was Caleb. Caleb Marsh."
00:22:00 — The judge was on the Syndicate's payroll before the trial
00:24:30 — The Copper City appeal — "I sat in that courtroom and I didn't stand up"
00:27:00 — "What a man does now is the only thing that matters"
00:28:30 — CH 12 — What Comes Next

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I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

At the forest's edge before dawn, Marcus measures the ground: two hundred paces of open farmland to a drainage ditch, then three hundred more to a tree line by a country track. 

The mist is his ally now, but an hour of sun will burn it off and leave his men visible as ants on white cloth. In the forest, Nervii hunting parties know every trail and are closing in. Petronius fades against an oak with the wound beginning to turn. Crassus paces in tight, jerky circles. Flavus stands apart, checking the trees behind them. Marcus makes his decision: they cross now, before full light, using the mist. 

When Flavus openly refuses — "It's suicide! They'll see us from every hilltop!" — Marcus signals for quiet, but Petronius steps in, voice steady despite the pain: no patrols will come this far into enemy territory for seven men presumed dead. Flavus deflates. Crassus starts muttering "no place to hide" until Broken Nose clamps a hand over his mouth. Marcus repeats the plan for every man in turn and prepares them to move.

Eagle's Edge is a Roman adventure story for boys 8-18 — a sixteen-year-old recruit takes the oath, marches into Gaul under Caesar, and learns what war actually is.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love history, battles, and adventure. For fans of Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, the action of Percy Jackson, and classic stories of ancient Rome.

📚 Grab your copy of Eagle's Edge: The Making of a Soldier (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Thursday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — The forest's edge before dawn — Marcus reads the ground
00:03:00 — Two hundred paces of open field, then a drainage ditch
00:06:00 — The mist will burn off with the sun — the clock starts now
00:09:00 — Petronius fading, Crassus pacing, Flavus watching the trees
00:12:00 — The decision: they cross before full light
00:14:00 — Flavus: "It's suicide! We're targets — walking targets!"
00:17:00 — Petronius shuts him down: no patrols are coming for us
00:20:00 — Crassus muttering "no place to hide" — Broken Nose silences him
00:23:30 — Marcus repeats the plan, man by man
00:26:00 — Ambrix, still with them — the unlikely companion
00:27:30 — CH 12 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Night in the stockade after the pirate attack, and the heat won't lift. Captain Smollett fights infection in his bullet wound, still giving orders in a voice grown hoarse. Jim counts what's left — two small barrels of water, powder for maybe fifty shots, hardtack for four days if strictly rationed — and understands that Silver doesn't need another attack. He just has to wait. 

Pacing the blockhouse, Jim remembers Ben Gunn's goatskin coracle hidden in a cove: not sturdy enough for open sea, but strong enough for a short journey. The Hispaniola sits anchored in the bay, nearly unguarded — what if her anchor no longer held? 

Captain Smollett sees the idea working in him and tells him to rest, but the plan won't die. When Gray finally sleeps and Hunter's back is turned to the tree line, Jim tucks a pistol into his belt, takes a piece of hardtack, and lifts the wooden gate-bar in silence — slow enough that the wood barely whispers against its brackets. Then he slips out into the dark.

Treasure Island is Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate adventure retold for boys 8-18 — a twelve-year-old cabin boy finds Captain Flint's treasure map, and the one-legged sailor a dying pirate warned him about is already aboard his ship.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love pirates, treasure, and high-seas adventure. For families who want the original Stevenson classic told in clear, modern language — a natural fit for homeschool reading alongside Peter Pan and other timeless adventure tales.

📚 Grab your copy of Treasure Island: The Map (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Wednesday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Night in the stockade — heat, sweat, and no sleep
00:02:30 — Captain Smollett, wounded, still giving orders
00:05:30 — Jim counts the supplies — four days at best
00:08:30 — Silver's real strategy — wait, and let thirst do the work
00:11:00 — Ben Gunn's coracle, hidden in a cove
00:13:00 — "What if that anchor no longer held?"
00:16:00 — The captain sees the idea working in him
00:19:00 — Gray sleeps — Jim's opportunity
00:21:30 — Pistol in the belt, hardtack in the pocket
00:23:30 — The gate-bar — slow, silent, one hand at a time
00:26:00 — Out into the dark alone
00:27:00 — CH 12 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

In the war chamber, Cinder lays out the plan. Three teams: Miri Solace's caterpillars set decoys on the eastern perimeter to draw guards out. Moss Wren's spiders cut the patrols and force the pill bugs to split their forces. 

And Cinder's scouts, with Rook Calder's beetles, move through the old tunnels to hit the storage chambers, break the food line, and run for daylight — timing the strike for the seven-minute gap when the pill bug guard changes shifts, three minutes after the moon hits peak. 

Captain Bram Selwick calls it a suicide run and refuses to hand the fate of the colony to children and criminals. Rook demands equity for his kin's shells. Miri demands a share for the caterpillars. Silas, half gray with old wounds, gives them the exact patrol timings from memory. Blaze pitches pill bug mud balls as ammunition. 

Note the historian mutters about the Siege of Season Forty-Two. Queen Aureline weighs it all, and delivers her verdict in one line: "We survive together or starve separately." Bram seethes, but holds his ground.

Colony in Danger is a nature adventure story for boys 8-18 — a young fire ant scout, Cinder Marlowe, has just days to figure out why the colony's food is disappearing before everyone starves.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love animals, survival, and adventure. For fans of Watership Down, the Warriors series, and the world of Empires of the Undergrowth — with real fire-ant science woven through every chapter.

📚 Grab your copy of Colony in Danger: The Fire Ant Kingdom (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Tuesday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — The war chamber — Cinder steps up to the stone table
00:02:30 — The three teams: caterpillars, spiders, and scouts
00:06:30 — Rook Calder: "You want us to trust children with the plan?"
00:09:00 — Timing: three minutes after the moon hits peak, seven minutes to strike
00:12:00 — Bram: "It's a suicide run"
00:14:30 — Blaze presents the pill bug mud ball — food AND ammunition
00:17:30 — Rook demands equity — his kin risk their shells, they eat
00:20:00 — Miri demands a share for the caterpillars
00:22:30 — Queen Aureline: "We survive together or starve separately"
00:25:30 — Silas gives the patrol timings from memory
00:28:00 — Rook to Cinder: "You fail, everyone dies"
00:30:00 — Cinder: "We don't fail"
00:31:30 — CH 20 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

The corridor has no alcoves. Max built it that way — straight dressed-stone plate-work, no side passages, no gaps — because at nine years old he was designing a dungeon, not an escape route. Now the Destroyer fills the passage, gear-train filling the air, and Max needs twenty seconds of silence to sing the four-note sequence his mother used to hum on Tuesday evenings in the kitchen — the shutdown code he built into every combat mechanism in the town. He has the notes. He has no way to sing them with the machine's sensor plates locked on him. Then Pip reads the corridor the way he reads everything, sees a passage Max built too tight by accident, and shouts "Hey — over here." The Destroyer recalibrates. Pip runs. Max presses flat against the wall, sets down the lamp, closes his eyes, and begins to count. First note. Second. Third, held. Fourth, falling. Again. Again. Again — while the gear-train sounds change east of him, and change, and change again, and finally stop.

Brickhaven is a serialized LEGO adventure story for boys 8-18 — a ten-year-old wakes up shrunk to minifig size inside the LEGO town he built, where the champion he designed now rules as a tyrant.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love building, puzzles, and adventure. For fans of The LEGO Movie, a kids' edition of Ready Player One, and classic portal-fantasy stories where an ordinary kid is the only one who can save the world.

📚 Grab your copy of Brickhaven: The Fall (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Monday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — The Destroyer, five feet away, in a corridor with no alcoves
00:01:24 — The four notes Max's mother hummed — the shutdown code
00:02:48 — "Hey — over here": Pip draws the Destroyer east
00:03:24 — The machine recalibrates and pivots toward Pip
00:03:48 — The Destroyer passes two inches from Max's face
00:04:22 — The lamp on the floor — Max closes his eyes
00:04:50 — First note. Second. Third, held. Fourth, falling.
00:06:41 — The gear-train under load — the ceiling section bites
00:07:17 — The silence, absolute and sudden
00:07:49 — Max opens his eyes
00:08:02 — Down the eastern passage
00:09:48 — Max finds Pip
00:10:43 — He kneels
00:11:53 — He starts talking
00:17:02 — "I did not stop talking"
00:17:20 — CH 12 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

A courier in a pressed Syndicate uniform delivers a single cream-colored card to Gunnar's workshop: Silas Vane requests his company for lunch, today, aboard the Syndicate's private dining car parked on the depot siding. 

Vesper calls it a trap or a performance; Calloway warns that men like Vane don't invite you to lunch unless they've already decided something about you. Both are right. But Gunnar has their intelligence and their analysis — what he doesn't have is Vane himself: the specific quality of a man who builds systems that eat other people's choices and calls it efficiency. 

You can't understand an engine from a schematic; at some point you have to put your hands on it. So Gunnar pockets the invitation, locks his workshop like a man who intends to come back, and walks to the depot to meet the architect of the Syndicate's control grid face to face.

Iron Rails & Ruin is a steampunk Wild West adventure for boys 8-18 — a fourteen-year-old engineer in 1882 Montana finds out his father is alive, and the Syndicate has fourteen days to seize every locomotive in the territory.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love trains, invention, and frontier adventure. For fans of Mortal Engines, steampunk machines and mysteries, and Wild West stories with a clever hero at the controls.

📚 Grab your copy of Iron Rails & Ruin: Smoke & Suspicion (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Friday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — A regulator in seven pieces — and a knock at the door
00:02:06 — A Syndicate courier, in a uniform pressed twice
00:04:15 — The card: Silas Vane, lunch, The Argent, the depot siding
00:04:39 — Vesper's voice in his head: "It's a trap"
00:05:07 — Calloway's read: "Men like Vane don't invite you to lunch"
00:06:21 — "You can't understand an engine from a schematic alone"
00:07:16 — "Already know what you think. Going anyway."
00:08:06 — The walk to the depot siding
00:08:15 — The Argent — lacquered black and brass, a statement
00:10:00 — Silas Vane rises — taller and stiller than expected
00:10:31 — The handshake
00:25:24 — The summary document — the deal on the table
00:25:43 — Seven days left on the Syndicate's deadline
00:27:01 — Gunnar crosses the yard, back toward town
00:27:41 — He does not look back at the Argent
00:27:43 — CH 11 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Three days lost in the Belgic forest, out of food and nearly out of water, Marcus leads his six exhausted survivors and their Gallic captive toward a thread of smoke rising through the trees. It's a farmstead — a family: a man splitting logs, a woman at the oven, two small children playing in the garden. 

Flavus wants to take what they need by force — who would stop seven armed legionaries, even starving ones? But Marcus looks at the family and sees the farmers outside his own hometown, and he makes the harder call: "That's not who we are." Now he has to find another way to get his men fed — and keep Petronius, whose wound is beginning to turn, alive.

Eagle's Edge is a Roman adventure story for boys 8-18 — a sixteen-year-old recruit takes the oath, marches into Gaul under Caesar, and learns what war actually is.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love history, battles, and adventure. For fans of Rosemary Sutcliff's The Eagle of the Ninth, the action of Percy Jackson, and classic stories of ancient Rome.

📚 Grab your copy of Eagle's Edge: The Making of a Soldier (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Thursday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Three days lost in the forest, out of food and water
00:01:46 — Petronius fading — the wound is beginning to turn
00:04:30 — A thread of smoke through the trees — a settlement
00:06:00 — Marcus crawls to the clearing's edge — a Gallic farmstead
00:06:41 — A man, a woman, two small children — a family
00:07:42 — Flavus follows: "We could take what we need"
00:08:33 — "That's not who we are" — Marcus makes the call
00:15:16 — Ambrix's boar token — a silent identity, no longer hidden
00:29:18 — Ambrix and the farmer — recognition across enemy lines
00:30:03 — CH 11 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Morning breaks over the stockade, and Captain Smollett readies his tiny garrison for the attack everyone knows is coming. 

Water is rationed by the cup, ammunition counted charge by charge, firing positions assigned around the ten-foot log walls — while Dr. Livesey tends the wounded Tom, whose fever is rising. Jim watches Smollett move tirelessly along the perimeter, the man who warned everyone about Silver now spending himself to protect even those who ignored him. 

As the Caribbean heat climbs to its blistering peak, the pirates make their move: branches part at the tree line, muskets crack, and Silver's attack breaks over the walls. Jim — pistol heavy in his hand — finds out whether he has the courage to fire when the fighting reaches him.

Treasure Island is Robert Louis Stevenson's classic pirate adventure retold for boys 8-18 — a twelve-year-old cabin boy finds Captain Flint's treasure map, and the one-legged sailor a dying pirate warned him about is already aboard his ship.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love pirates, treasure, and high-seas adventure. For families who want the original Stevenson classic told in clear, modern language — a natural fit for homeschool reading alongside Peter Pan and other timeless adventure tales.

📚 Grab your copy of Treasure Island: The Map (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Wednesday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Morning in the stockade — the attack everyone knows is coming
00:01:57 — Dr. Livesey's inventory — most supplies are still on the ship
00:02:01 — Captain Smollett studies the tree line through his telescope
00:04:06 — Water rationed, powder counted — the garrison prepares
00:08:30 — Every face scanning the tree line — the waiting
00:08:50 — Noon heat at its peak — even the birds fall silent
00:20:27 — The first shots ring out from the tree line
00:20:30 — The first musket ball strikes the log wall
00:23:30 — Pirates fall at the wall — "Second rank... reload"
00:24:33 — "Fire!" — Jim's pistol comes up on its own
00:30:42 — Nineteen pirates still surround them despite the losses
00:31:01 — "We held, Jim" — but for how long?
00:31:16 — CH 11 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

Cinder leads two beetle guards back through the pill bug siege lines and into the Fire Ant Kingdom the only way left — a childhood crawlspace so tight it strips the shell off his back. Inside, the colony is dying by inches: in a dim side chamber he finds Etta Lorne dividing the last crumbs of food among larvae too weak to cry. In the Grand Chamber, Captain Bram Selwick accuses Cinder of desertion — until Cinder lays out what he saw outside: Thane Reed's pill bug army, its stolen-food fortress, and the plan to seal every tunnel and starve the colony out. Thistle and Harper arrive with maps to back him, Blaze staggers in carrying Silas with word that the beetles will fight alongside them, and a spider messenger brings an offer from Moss Wren. Queen Aureline makes her choice: the colony will not surrender. They strike the pill bugs at dawn.

Colony in Danger is a nature adventure story for boys 8-18 — a young fire ant scout, Cinder Marlowe, has just days to figure out why the colony's food is disappearing before everyone starves.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love animals, survival, and adventure. For fans of Watership Down, the Warriors series, and the world of Empires of the Undergrowth — with real fire-ant science woven through every chapter.

📚 Grab your copy of Colony in Danger: The Fire Ant Kingdom (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Tuesday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Cinder leads the beetles back through the pill bug siege
00:04:45 — The only way in: a childhood crawlspace, tight as a coffin
00:05:55 — A dim chamber — Etta Lorne, and the last crumbs of food
00:08:25 — Larvae too weak to cry: "Just in time to see how it ends"
00:10:45 — The Grand Chamber — Bram accuses Cinder of desertion
00:13:10 — Cinder lays out the siege: Thane Reed's army and food fortress
00:14:45 — Thistle and Harper arrive with maps to prove it
00:18:00 — Blaze carries Silas in — and says the beetles will fight
00:20:35 — Silke Greer and Note: this siege has been broken before
00:22:35 — Queen Aureline: the colony will not surrender
00:23:05 — A spider messenger brings Moss Wren's offer
00:24:05 — "We hit at dawn" — Cinder leads the kingdom out
00:25:00 — CH 19 — What Comes Next

Send us Fan Mail

I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.

With the eastern quarter under curfew, Max and Pip slip into the garrison through a drainage tunnel Max built into the east wall — a maintenance channel sized for a minifig, wet and black and barely wider than his shoulders. It leads to the one place Max hoped he'd never have to enter: the dungeon he designed when he was nine years old. 

Its floor is a mosaic of identical gray bricks, and only Max knows the safe path hidden in the pattern — third brick, blue brick, skip two, over and over — with trap-grates waiting behind false plates for a single wrong step. 

Max crosses it the only way he can: from memory, one locked-knee step at a time, with Pip matching his footfalls exactly. Beyond the mosaic waits a barred door — and past it, something Max built that is not yet awake.

Brickhaven is a serialized LEGO adventure story for boys 8-18 — a ten-year-old wakes up shrunk to minifig size inside the LEGO town he built, where the champion he designed now rules as a tyrant.

Perfect for kids, tweens, and teens who love building, puzzles, and adventure. For fans of The LEGO Movie, a kids' edition of Ready Player One, and classic portal-fantasy stories where an ordinary kid is the only one who can save the world.

📚 Grab your copy of Brickhaven: The Fall (Book 1) — available now on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

New chapters every Monday. Follow us now!

00:00:00 — Max finds the hidden grate he built into the east wall
00:01:30 — Into the drainage tunnel — wet stone, black, barely wide enough
00:03:30 — Up the shaft, into the curfew-dark alley
00:05:00 — The hidden hatch — six rivets, press the second and third
00:06:30 — Down the ladder into the dungeon he designed
00:08:00 — The trap-floor: identical gray bricks, wall to wall
00:09:30 — Third brick, blue brick, skip two — the path only Max knows
00:11:30 — Locked knees, one step at a time, Pip matching every footfall
00:13:00 — The far door — and a mechanism not yet running
00:13:30 — CH 11 — What Comes Next

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I am the author of serialized fiction books for kids, teens, tweens and young adults, including:

- Brickhaven: A Bricks Fan Fiction Adventure

- Colony In Danger: A Fire Ant Adventure

- Eagle's Edge: A Story of Rome, Gaul and the Making of a Soldier

- Treasure Island: A Classic Adaptation

- Iron Rails & Ruin: A Novel of Steam, Sorcery and the Lawless Montana Territory

📚 All five books -- are now available on Amazon: https://us.amazon.com/stores/Reed-Sterling/author/B0H2ZM86WQ

📖 Wanna check out all five series for yourself?  Get all five Chapter 1s free: https://compass-codex.kit.com/middle-school-reader-group

Thank you for listening!  This is Reed Sterling.  Remember: Never stop exploring unknown worlds.