Detective Sarah Aitkens is the only detective in Hope City PD and a series of sudden deaths is going to tax her skills to the limit, but not for the reasons you might think.... Allegations have been made about a series of awful things that happened twenty years ago. Justice Martin has apparently committed suicide. The Mayor drowned in his own swimming pool. Who could be next? Trigger warnings for abusive relationships, suicide, violence and sex. This is my #NaNoWriMo 2019 entry. Most of it will be written during November, but I'm laying in some groundwork early.

Kayla is about to fake her own death. The teenager has met a couple of strangers that claim to be experts on pseudocide, and they've told her what to do. And poor Sean Reilly, the exchange student living in her house, has stumbled on the plan. When Kayla begs, Sean gets roped in. I mean, only with little things, nothing too serious: lie about when he last saw her, and hide a few facts from the police. Except, things fall apart in a hurry. When Kayla vanishes, the police suspect Sean of being more than a concerned friend. As evidence mounts, detectives zero in - there's no way out for Sean. They're arresting him for Kayla's murder. His one chance at freedom is to follow in Kayla's footsteps and reach out to the enigmatic strangers who make a life out of pretending to be dead. They call it enlightenment, but Sean calls it crazy. At least they have a plan, even if the first step is to kill himself. Will Sean have the strength to take the plunge? And if he does, who will come out the other side?

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER -- Marcus, a.k.a “w1n5t0n,” is only seventeen years old, but he figures he already knows how the system works–and how to work the system. Smart, fast, and wise to the ways of the networked world, he has no trouble outwitting his high school’s intrusive but clumsy surveillance systems. But his whole world changes when he and his friends find themselves caught in the aftermath of a major terrorist attack on San Francisco. In the wrong place at the wrong time, Marcus and his crew are apprehended by the Department of Homeland Security and whisked away to a secret prison where they’re mercilessly interrogated for days. When the DHS finally releases them, Marcus discovers that his city has become a police state where every citizen is treated like a potential terrorist. He knows that no one will believe his story, which leaves him only one option: to take down the DHS himself.

The greatest tragedy the world has ever known turned out to be the ultimate catalyst for change. In the wake of World War III, which decimated most of the world's population, the remaining survivors vowed to not continue to repeat the same mistakes of the past. Fortunately, they had something previous generations did not have - advanced technology. The year is 2117 and this once shattered civilization has become prosperous again. Innovative forms of technology have enabled them to abandon the old model and re-engineer a better way of living for all. Brain implants and genetic modifications have made an entire population educated, healthy, and kind. Despite the benefits of this technology, it has created some unforeseen side effects that threaten humankind's existence. When technology proves to be inept at solving the world's problem, a new hope emerges in the unlikeliest form - a young orphan girl. *** Cyberpunk, dystopian, technology, future, futurism, scifi, heroine, prodigy...

Hey, Wattpad! I"M GIVING AWAY 10 DAYS OF TRUE BORN! Since you are the reason True Born has gone from a tiny novella to a full-length novel in a trilogy, it seems only fitting that I give back to you with a special sneak peak! True Born is hitting stores May 3rd, but I wanted to give you all a chance to see how the material has evolved during the publication process. (The first chapter in particular is a bit different - and there is at least one important scene in the novel that has changed - you'll just have to keep reading to see what!) And so: without further ado! Every day (April 21 - April 30, 2016) for the next 10 days I will be posting a new chapter of True Born. That's right - you heard me - 10 chapters over 10 days! And if you'd like to read a little more about the reasons I'm doing this, feel free to check out my #LovelettertoWattpad on my website: www.le-sterling.com. With special thanks to my publishers, Entangled Teen, who are letting me do this crazy thing! L. E. Sterling ---- After the great Plague descended, the world population was decimated...and their genetics damaged beyond repair. The Lasters wait hopelessly for their genes to self-destruct. The Splicers pay for expensive treatments that might prolong their life. The plague-resistant True Borns are as mysterious as they are feared... And then there's Lucy Fox and her identical twin sister, Margot. After endless tests, no one wants to reveal what they are. When Margot disappears, a desperate Lucy has no choice but to put her faith in the True Borns, led by the charismatic Nolan Storm and the beautiful but deadly Jared Price. As Lucy and the True Borns set out to rescue her sister, they stumble upon a vast conspiracy stretching from Dominion's street preachers to shady Russian tycoons. But why target the Fox sisters? As they say in Dominion, it's in the blood.

Codi James is a chronic underachiever. A straight C student, her life is going nowhere. Causing havoc at yet another school it looks like she's heading for another expulsion, until one teacher decides to call in a favour from an old friend. Codi is sent to the one place where her aggression might do her some good. Joining the underdeveloped Brax-Delta training academy, Codi is set on the long, bruising path to compete as a champion in the Gauntlet Tournament. Thrown together with a team of other misfits and under the tutorage of a frustrated veteran, she has one chance left to prove that she's more than just a struggling orphan. Never underestimate a desperate person. WINNER OF 2014 WATTPAD PRIZE FOR BEST EPIC

It's 2049 and a group of genetically modified people are trying to life ordinary lives so that the society that reviles them will leave them alone. One by one the police are picking them off. Here are a couple of introductory scenes to give you a flavour of the story.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER -- In Cory Doctorow’s wildly successful Little Brother, young Marcus Yallow was arbitrarily detained and brutalized by the government in the wake of a terrorist attack on San Francisco—an experience that led him to become a leader of the whole movement of technologically clued-in teenagers, fighting back against the tyrannical security state. A few years later, California's economy collapses, but Marcus’s hacktivist past lands him a job as webmaster for a crusading politician who promises reform. Soon his former nemesis Masha emerges from the political underground to gift him with a thumbdrive containing a Wikileaks-style cable-dump of hard evidence of corporate and governmental perfidy. It’s incendiary stuff—and if Masha goes missing, Marcus is supposed to release it to the world. Then Marcus sees Masha being kidnapped by the same government agents who detained and tortured Marcus years earlier. Marcus can leak the archive Masha gave him—but he can’t admit to being the leaker, because that will cost his employer the election. He’s surrounded by friends who remember what he did a few years ago and regard him as a hacker hero. He can’t even attend a demonstration without being dragged onstage and handed a mike. He’s not at all sure that just dumping the archive onto the Internet, before he’s gone through its millions of words, is the right thing to do. Meanwhile, people are beginning to shadow him, people who look like they’re used to inflicting pain until they get the answers they want. Fast-moving, passionate, and as current as next week, Homeland is every bit the equal of Little Brother—a paean to activism, to courage, to the drive to make the world a better place.