Hands are still up in the back rows when the first telegram arrives. A young clerk in a coat rolled at the cuffs delivers it two-handed to Chairman Wallace, who reads it, sets it face-down on the desk, and brings the gavel down three times — calm, complete. "The chair calls for order." 

The second envelope comes through seven minutes later. Then the third. Wallace stacks them at the corner of his desk without looking up. Gunnar tracks the couriers' entry angles and puts the towns together in his head before Wallace speaks: Millhaven first — northwest staging depot, serves the Sable River settlements. 

Then Crestford — higher, colder, one freight line, nothing else in winter. The third he holds without naming. When Wallace finally summarizes from the chair — freight service to six communities along the Syndicate's western and northern routes suspended, citing operational review, duration unspecified — the chamber doesn't go quiet. It goes louder, with sharper edges. 

Then Governor Blackwood rises from the gallery. Silver at his temples, coat cut precisely, the strain in his voice reading as either distress or careful calibration of distress. He does not deny the documents. "The territory cannot afford a legislative disruption of infrastructure that serves six functioning communities." He lets that land. "The documents raise questions that deserve review. I have said as much. 

But questions do not fill a grain store or deliver medicine before first frost." Practical necessity, he says, must be weighed. That is not a concession to impropriety. That is governance. And Gunnar watches delegates who had been leaning forward with the evidence go still. Two pens set down. Faces drifting. Not against him. Just away. He does the arithmetic: Millhaven has ten days of warehouse. Crestford five, four if temperatures keep dropping. He rounds down. Seventy-two hours before the Legislature's nerve breaks on its own.

Iron Rails & Ruin is a science fiction 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 — The hands are still up when the first telegram arrives
00:02:30 — Wallace reads it and sets it face-down — the gavel three times
00:05:00 — The second envelope, seven minutes later
00:07:00 — The third — stacked at the corner of the Chairman's desk
00:09:30 — Millhaven, Crestford, the Sable River settlements
00:12:00 — Wallace summarizes from the chair — six towns, freight suspended
00:15:00 — The chamber goes louder, sharper — not consensus
00:17:30 — Governor Blackwood rises from the gallery
00:20:00 — "The territory cannot afford a legislative disruption"
00:22:30 — "Questions do not fill a grain store or deliver medicine"
00:25:00 — "Practical necessity must be weighed. That is governance."
00:27:00 — Pens setting down — delegates drifting away from the evidence
00:29:30 — Gunnar runs the numbers — seventy-two hours until nerve breaks
00:31:00 — CH 15 — 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.

Inside the papilio tent, the oil lamp throws long shadows and the world narrows to a wax tablet Marcus has owed his mother for weeks. Outside: the forge, laughter from the next contubernium, the scrape of pugio against armor. 

His stylus hovers. He starts with what he can send home: Caesar's impossible order to bridge the Rhine in ten days — accomplished in eight — the double-notched beams that lock like the fingers of two hands, the diagonal supports lashed with rope that tightens as the wood swells. His hand moves easily now. Then his eyes drift to the right edge of the tablet, where two heavy lines have already scored out his last attempt at this letter: *burned to the ground…nothing but ashes now*. 

Two days after they finished the bridge, Caesar ordered a small Gallic village destroyed as a message to the tribes across the Rhine. Twenty huts. A meeting house. A smithy. Fields of not-yet-ripe wheat surrounding it like a golden sea. Marcus lifts the stylus and starts to write the truth: *the smoke rose so thick it blocked the sun for hours… one boy, no more than five, stood watching the flames with such stillness it frightened me more than his screams would have…* 

His breathing quickens. His free hand curls into a fist. He jabs the stylus into the wax and scores every line out with sharp diagonals — the truth he can't bear to send home. His hand is trembling. He sets the stylus down and picks up his father's military medallion, worn smooth by twenty-five years of handling. Did his father carry memories like these too? Where did he put them? Then Marcus lifts the stylus and writes the sanitized version: cooler weather, frost by morning, Lucius on water duty after losing a bet, bread hard as legion discipline. He smiles despite himself.

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 oil lamp in the papilio tent — the letter, weeks overdue
00:02:30 — Where to begin? The camp? The weather? The bridge.
00:05:00 — Caesar's ten days — accomplished in eight
00:07:30 — The double-notched beams, the diagonal supports, the rope
00:10:00 — His hand drifts to the right edge — words already scored through
00:12:30 — *burned to the ground… nothing but ashes now*
00:15:00 — Two days after the bridge, they took the village
00:17:30 — Twenty huts, a smithy, wheat like a golden sea
00:20:00 — Marcus lifts the stylus — the smoke that blocked the sun
00:22:30 — The boy of five, watching the flames without a sound
00:25:00 — The stylus scores the wax through in sharp diagonals
00:27:30 — His father's medallion, worn smooth by twenty-five years
00:30:00 — The sanitized version: cool weather, Lucius, bread hard as discipline
00:31:00 — CH 15 — 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.

Jim pulls himself upright against the Hispaniola's mainmast as the sun begins its westward slide. His shoulder throbs with every heartbeat, his makeshift bandage soaked through, but he has done what he set out to do — the pirates' ship is grounded on a sandy beach beyond Silver's reach. 

Now he only has to reach the stockade. Only. The word mocks him. He climbs the rail, drops to the sand, and forces his boots forward across the exposed beach. The jungle edge takes him at sunset — a wall of massive trees, vines hung like twisted rope, a canopy that shuts out the dying light. He plunges in. 

The ground betrays him — fallen leaves hiding roots, rocks, sudden drops. Sweat runs into his eyes. The fever climbs. He mutters "one foot, then another" like a prayer. He stumbles over a root and drops to his knees, and the cool earth almost wins — it would be so easy to lie down. He presses his good hand hard against the wound instead, the pain clearing his head for a few more steps. Rising takes three tries. 

Then human voices, distant but clear, carrying through the night air. Pirates. He changes course, moving away from the voices, pushing through undergrowth that scratches his face and hands. Every heartbeat throbs in his shoulder. Three miles under normal circumstances is an hour's walk. Tonight it may as well be thirty.

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 — Jim pulls himself up against the mainmast — the sun is dropping
00:02:30 — The bandage soaked through — the ship grounded, beyond Silver
00:05:00 — The open beach — no cover, and any watcher could pick him off
00:07:30 — Over the rail, down to the sand, forward
00:10:00 — The jungle edge at sunset — vines, canopy, vanishing light
00:12:30 — The ground betrays him — hidden roots, sudden drops
00:15:00 — The fever climbs — sweat, dizziness, the world wavering
00:17:30 — "One foot. Then another."
00:20:00 — He falls to his knees — the cool earth almost wins
00:22:30 — He presses the wound, the pain clears his head — he rises
00:25:00 — Voices in the trees — Silver's men
00:27:30 — He changes course, pushes through the undergrowth
00:29:30 — CH 15 — 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 storage chamber wasn't built for hope. Cinder's team is huddled in the far corner — Thistle on a ledge, Blaze checking walls for fracture lines he doesn't dare touch, Sprig and Tern trying not to cry. Outside, a dozen pill bug warriors rotate positions every thirty seconds, leaving no pinhole of opportunity. 

Then a hatch opens in the ceiling. A pill bug envoy with a voice like a machine: "Envoy requests parley. Bring your leader." Cinder wipes mud from his chest and says, "I am Marlowe." He climbs a slime-coated rope ladder into a plain annex, and there, waiting, is Thane Reed. Reed doesn't stand — sitting is his form of dominance. "You're the ant with the plan." 

What follows is the cold, flawless logic of a commander who has thought this through. Destruction isn't the goal — control is. "If you are to be destroyed, it will be as a lesson, not as an expedient." Reed offers a deal: Cinder and his team walk out with food. 

The message will be clear — resistance is punished, submission is rewarded. Cinder asks why Reed didn't negotiate before all this. Reed shrugs. "Negotiation only works when the parties are equals. You are not. If we had asked, the answer would have been no. Therefore, we did not ask." 

Then, quieter: "We learned. In the old country, before the birds. Cooperation is a lie. Only control works." Cinder tries to picture it. He hates it. But the efficiency he cannot argue. Ten minutes to decide. He slides back down the rope and tells the team everything. Then, slowly: "We're not letting them win. Not like this."

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 storage chamber — no room for hope
00:02:30 — Twelve pill bug guards, rotating every thirty seconds
00:05:00 — The hatch opens — an envoy with a voice like a machine
00:07:00 — "I am Marlowe" — Cinder climbs the rope ladder alone
00:09:30 — Thane Reed, sitting — dominance without standing up
00:12:00 — "Destruction is not the goal. Control is."
00:15:00 — The offer: walk out with food — a message for the whole colony
00:18:00 — "Why didn't you negotiate before?" "You were not our equals"
00:21:00 — The old country, before the birds — 90 percent wiped out
00:23:30 — "Cooperation is a lie. Only control works."
00:26:00 — Cinder hates the logic but can't argue the efficiency
00:28:30 — Ten minutes — he slides down the rope
00:30:30 — "We're not letting them win. Not like this."
00:31:30 — CH 23 — 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.

"So. The Builder returns." Krag has been using silence for years, and he uses it now, letting the square settle. Then he turns — unhurried, practiced — and addresses the crowd, not Max. A convenient claim, he says. A child from elsewhere with an unfalsifiable story, arriving at the exact moment of greatest disruption. Who benefits from this story? Lensa's astronomer charts are already in people's hands — the delivery times, the eighteen months of cross-referenced observations. Krag nods toward them without flinching. "Yes. We make deliveries to the eastern hills. We have done so for years. Because the creature that lives in those hills is alive. Because the alternative to feeding it is watching it come over our walls." 

His voice shifts — not performance, something closer to a genuine position. "I did not choose the easy path. I chose the path that kept this town standing. Every child in Brickhaven who woke up this morning — they woke up because someone made a hard choice and kept making it." He is not wrong about everything. That is what makes it work. He has simply omitted the part where the management was entirely voluntary — the racket dressed as sacrifice. Max opens his mouth. 

The argument is right there: the data, the arrangement, the truth that a protector who manufactures the danger is not a protector. The first two words come out clearly. And then his throat closes. He restarts. He restarts again. The silence stretches four seconds, six. The crowd shifts — not against him, but that specific communal discomfort of watching someone try to say a true thing and fail. Max looks at his feet. The cobblestones he built himself. Silence.

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 — "So. The Builder returns." Krag has always known how to use silence
00:02:00 — Krag turns to the crowd, not Max — "Who benefits from this story?"
00:04:30 — A convenient claim from a child arriving at the moment of disruption
00:06:30 — Lensa's charts in the crowd's hands — the times, the arrangements
00:08:30 — "Yes. We make deliveries. Because the alternative is worse."
00:11:00 — "I did not choose the easy path" — the racket, framed as sacrifice
00:14:00 — The crowd is not with him — but not not with him
00:16:30 — Max sees what Krag omitted: the management was voluntary
00:18:30 — Max opens his mouth. "The data —"
00:19:30 — The words tangle. He restarts. He restarts again.
00:21:00 — Four seconds. Six. Max looks at his own cobblestones.
00:22:30 — CH 15 — 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.

Gunnar pushes through the Legislature's double doors with Dutch at his shoulder and Vesper one step behind, and the warmth of two hundred people in a heated hall hits him like a pressure change. The vaulted assembly, the horseshoe of delegate desks, the freight oversight amendment sitting in a paper stack on the clerk's table — four months of legislative drafting waiting to be voted on. 

Two Syndicate-aligned delegates are on their feet before Gunnar clears the first row, shouting about unauthorized presence and stolen property. Territorial Chairman Wallace — lean, silver-haired, amber-eyed, running the room like a good gauge holding its reading — lets the gavel come down once, hard, and rules: "Five minutes." Gunnar walks to the clerk's table and lays out the evidence in the order he rehearsed on the ride in. 

First: Governor Blackwood's personal-account payment stubs, dated to match every Syndicate freight-authority expansion within seven days. "The amounts vary. The timing doesn't." 

Next: photographs of engines with their Veilstone cradles stripped clean by a tool designed for exactly that purpose — engines that still run, engines that remember no one. 

Last: the control-grid schematics, unrolled across the full width of the desk, every independent operator's route absorbed into a single centralized web. Then Gunnar names the thing plainly: "The Syndicate hasn't broken the law. They wrote it. Every ordinance. Every efficiency measure. Every freight authority expansion — all of it legal, all of it voted on, all of it signed. That's the point." He watches the room look for permission to disbelieve, and does not give it.

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 — Through the Legislature doors — two hundred people, one heated hall
00:02:30 — The horseshoe of delegate desks and the freight amendment
00:05:00 — The Syndicate delegates on their feet before Gunnar clears the aisle
00:07:30 — Chairman Wallace's gavel comes down once — "Five minutes"
00:10:00 — Gunnar walks to the clerk's table and opens the satchel
00:12:00 — Blackwood's payment stubs — dated to every Syndicate expansion
00:15:00 — "The amounts vary. The timing doesn't."
00:17:00 — The photographs — engines stripped clean of their Veilstones
00:19:30 — The control-grid schematics unrolled across the desk
00:22:00 — "The Syndicate hasn't broken the law. They wrote it."
00:24:30 — The room looks for permission to disbelieve
00:26:30 — Wallace's gavel again — the room is barely managed
00:28:00 — CH 14 — 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.

Dawn on the Rhine. Ribbons of pale gold catch on ripples that betray the treacherous current beneath. Caesar's order came down yesterday: the legion will not ferry across on boats like common travelers — Rome will stride across the Rhine on Roman feet, over a Roman bridge, built by Roman hands, in ten days. 

Lucius mutters that Caesar has lost his mind. Marcus says nothing. 

He reads the water the way his father taught him: where the current undermines banks, where eddies reveal rocks, where the surface tension changes with depth. Appius, one of the senior engineers — leathered face, missing fingertips, scarred knuckles — assigns Marcus to the pile-drivers. Within minutes Marcus is wading into shocking-cold water to the thigh, wet wool doubling his weight, shoulders straining against a stripped tree trunk while eight men force it into the silty bottom on Appius's count: three — two — one — drive. 

Hands raw, back breaking, Marcus never stops watching — how the water moves around the driven piles, the small whirlpools downstream, the disturbed sediment. When the first crib rises from the water and gets filled with stone, Marcus notices what nobody else does: the northeast corner is leaning. Barely. 

The current is scouring the riverbed beneath it. He calls it out over the crew's protests — "The northeast corner's sinking! We need bracing there, now!" A grizzled veteran squints, studies the timbers, and nods sharply. "Boy's right. It's settling." Movement explodes. Three fresh piles are floated in — and Marcus finds himself directing their placement with quick, precise instructions that come from a wellspring of understanding he didn't know he had.

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 — Dawn over the Rhine — pale gold on treacherous current
00:02:30 — Caesar's order: bridge the Rhine in ten days
00:05:30 — Marcus reads the water the way his father taught him
00:08:00 — Appius: leathered face, missing fingertips, scarred knuckles
00:10:30 — "Ever driven piles before?" "You'll learn fast or drown"
00:12:30 — Into the shocking-cold Rhine to the thigh
00:15:00 — The pile-drive count — three, two, one, drive
00:17:30 — The rhythm — arms burning, back breaking
00:20:00 — The first crib rises — filled with stone against the current
00:22:30 — Marcus sees the northeast corner — barely leaning
00:25:00 — "The current's scouring the riverbed. Three more piles."
00:27:30 — The veteran squints — "Boy's right. It's settling."
00:30:00 — Marcus directs the placement — a wellspring he didn't know he had
00:31:30 — CH 14 — 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.

Dawn on the water. Jim stands at the wheel of the Hispaniola with salt dried on his skin and pride in his hands, guiding her toward the perfect crescent of pale sand between two rocky headlands. 

Israel Hands, the wounded coxswain, calls the approach from against the bulwark — mind the current, keep her nose right of the tall rock, let her find her way — and Jim adjusts the wheel a quarter-turn, feeling the ship answer under his hands. Then he hears the scraping. Hands has moved. The bandage on his thigh is soaked through with blood, but he drags himself with an arm too strong for a man who claimed he couldn't take three steps. The rum in his bottle has diminished considerably. 

Every time Jim focuses on the tricky channel between the submerged rocks, Hands inches closer, using the ship's roll as cover. When Hands announces they're coming in too fast and Jim needs to take in the jib himself, the trap is clear: leave the wheel and turn his back on the man ten feet away with a shark's flat cold eyes. But if he doesn't reduce sail, they'll smash the Hispaniola so hard against the beach they'll never float her off. Jim asks Hands to hold the wheel. Hands rises with a convincing grimace of pain and grips the spokes with hands stronger than his stance. Their eyes meet. All pretense drops.

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 — Dawn over the water — Jim at the wheel of the Hispaniola
00:02:30 — Salt on his skin, pride in his hands
00:05:00 — The crescent beach between two rocky headlands
00:07:30 — Hands calls the approach from the bulwark
00:10:00 — A quarter-turn on the wheel — the ship answers
00:12:30 — The scraping sound — Hands has moved
00:15:00 — The bandage is soaked, but his arms are strong
00:17:30 — The rum in the bottle has diminished considerably
00:20:00 — The submerged rocks — the channel is narrow and deep
00:22:30 — "We're coming in too fast — you'll need to take in the jib"
00:25:00 — The trap is clear — leave the wheel or wreck the ship
00:27:30 — Their eyes meet — all pretense drops
00:29:00 — CH 14 — 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.

Before sunrise, Miri Solace's caterpillars set the eastern perimeter on fire — tripwires, dandelion-seed blindings, and choking smoke down the main intake tunnel, chaos in a language only Miri speaks. On the west, Cinder ghosts through needlegrass with Blaze, Thistle, and six of Bram's scouts. 

At the tunnel mouth Blaze feels a mass of pill bug bodies through the floor — too many, waiting. Cinder and Blaze slip in alone. Two sentries block the next passage, wide awake. Then Moss Wren's spider drops from the ceiling: two fangs, a whip of silk, and both sentries are bound and silent before the second one hits the ground. Blaze whispers, "That'll never stop being creepy." 

Deeper in, the tunnel opens into a chamber the size of a berry — and Cinder freezes. Rows and rows of seeds, moss, wildflower heads in perfect pyramids; berries as big as fists, glistening, each with a neat wedge chewed from its heart. Enough food for the Fire Ant Kingdom for a month. 

Then Thistle pulls him aside and shows him what's at the back: two smaller rooms marked with crosshatch cuts, and inside them — nightshade, milkweed, spike-thorns. 

Poisons. 

Sorted separately. 

Ready. 

Thistle says it plain: "They're sorting by poison. Whoever runs this knows the difference, and plans to use it." Cinder gets it: this isn't hoarding, it's a purge. Blaze is already grabbing the biggest seed pods. Cinder gives the order: take the high-energy food, load the tubes, hit the north tunnel and go.

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 east goes to chaos — Miri Solace's caterpillars strike
00:03:00 — Silk lines, dandelion seeds, smoke down the main tunnel
00:05:30 — The west — Cinder, Blaze, Thistle, and six of Bram's scouts
00:08:30 — Blaze feels the mass of pill bug bodies through the floor
00:11:00 — Two sentries block the next passage — wide awake
00:13:30 — Moss Wren's spider drops — fangs, silk, silence
00:15:30 — The chamber the size of a berry — the food stores
00:18:30 — "It's beautiful. Horrible, but beautiful."
00:21:00 — Thistle pulls Cinder aside — the two back rooms
00:23:30 — Nightshade, milkweed, spike-thorns — sorted by poison
00:26:00 — "Not hoarding. Planning a purge."
00:28:30 — Load the tubes — north tunnel — go
00:30:00 — CH 22 — 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.

Up close, the gate doesn't look different — the same dark-brown 2×6 plates Max pressed into position with both thumbs on a winter evening, mortar lines catching the flat morning light. He stands in front of his own construction and does not knock, because knocking would imply a question, and Max is not asking. 

The two wall-top guards see him from the moment he crosses the field. They look down, look back into the town, look down again. Bracket arrives without a sound and stands beside him, staff upright — no announcement, just a man who has chosen his side. The baker's apprentice comes next, carefully, the word exactly right. Then the teacher, the merchant with both hands free, two former guards with their insignia turned inward, the carpenter, the trader. 

Nobody organizes it. They find their places the way stones find them in moving water — by weight, by space. Lensa reads the wall from the far end of the line. Then the sound comes through the gate itself — fragments of voices from the town: "...had the times cross-referenced—" "...knew about the monster, always knew—" "...the Builder has returned—" "...he was feeding it the whole time." 

One guard leans over the parapet, looks at Max directly, works something out. He says a short word to the second guard. They move together to the gear-train Max designed on a Sunday afternoon. The gate opens from both sides. Max walks through.

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 gate up close — the same plates Max pressed in himself
00:01:30 — Max does not knock — because knocking would be a question
00:03:00 — The wall-top guards see him — and start looking back into town
00:04:30 — Bracket arrives without a sound — staff upright, a side chosen
00:06:00 — The baker's apprentice, the teacher, the merchant, the exiles
00:07:30 — They find their places the way stones do in moving water
00:09:00 — Lensa reads the wall from the far end of the line
00:10:30 — The sound comes through the gate — fragments of voices
00:12:30 — "He was feeding it the whole time."
00:14:00 — The guard leans over the parapet — works something out
00:15:30 — They move to the gear-train Max designed on a Sunday
00:17:00 — The gate opens from both sides
00:18:00 — Max walks through
00:19:00 — CH 14 — 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.