About the Book

Book: Warsafe

Author: Lauren Smyth

Genre: YA Science Fiction

Release date: May 6, 2025

Play. Win. Survive.

There’s one building on her island that Halley has never visited: the Mercenary House. Perched atop a mountain, surrounded by unnaturally evergreen foliage, the House is rumored to be a breeding ground for criminals. Mercenaries are liars, cheats, spies . . . and maybe, depending on who you ask, killers.

At the Warsafe headquarters in Seattle, Roscoe is beta testing the company’s new video game. It’s her job to track down glitches—but something is different about this one. Lurking behind the lines of malfunctioning code is a secret that threatens to drag her deeper into the game, forcing her to put her life on the line if she ever wants to come home.

Worlds collide as Roscoe teams up with Halley to uncover the island’s secret and expose Warsafe’s designs. But some mysteries are better left unsolved. As traitor after so-called traitor is revealed to be on their side, they begin to wonder: Could Warsafe’s mission be critical enough to justify its cruelty?

Click here to get your copy!

About the Author

Lauren Smyth is an economics and journalism student at Hillsdale College. Since signing her first publishing contract at age 13, she has written three young adult action/adventure novels, coded two story-based video games, and started a blog enjoyed by readers and writers around the world. When she’s not writing, you’ll find her flying right seat in a Piper PA-30 aircraft, recording episodes of her Grammar Minute writing podcast, or heading upriver on her paddleboard.

More from Lauren

The Mercenary House, where much of Warsafe takes place, quite literally appeared to me in a dream.

By age 12, I’d already watched way too many action-adventure movies. (Did anyone else grow up on Tom Clancy—The Hunt for Red October, Patriot Games?) Most nights, I was hyped on fictional adrenaline, and I was able to lucid dream. So I got to star in highly imaginative and unrealistic versions of my favorite spy stories when I fell asleep.

That night, I found myself trapped in the basement of an eight-story house. Guards patrolled the rooms outside, and somehow I knew I had to sneak past them to reach the top floor. I also knew I was dreaming and in no real danger, which made me brave. So I crawled through air ducts, hid in shadowy corners, and darted behind turned backs. And I escaped.

The dream was so logical compared to others I’d had that it stuck in my mind. Why was I trying to get to the roof? Why did I agree to play this “game?” What was the secret behind that dilapidated, shadowy building where I’d been imprisoned?

A few years later, I started coding video games. My first full-length game featured more than 100,000 lines of code and is probably part of the reason why I’m so near-sighted. I loved the results, but not the process. More than coding, I realized I loved storytelling—weaving together sentences and images and movements that became a world on the reader’s screen.

I hadn’t forgotten my dream, but I didn’t have the Python know-how to turn it into a game. And I’d gotten sick of naming variables. (Somewhere in the source code for that first game, there’s an if-then statement oh-so-creatively named “againagainagainagainagainagainagain.” See also the classic: “help.”) What if, instead of crawling back to my code editing software, I wrote a book?

And what if that book wasn’t just about a fictional video game, but was also an exploration of morality, economics, and politics in a parallel world?

I believe that good books don’t answer questions; they make you ask new ones. They draw you into a situation you’ve never experienced and force you to take sides, rooting for or against characters, judging or supporting their choices. If you could stop a catastrophe by sacrificing a few people, would you do it? If you were offered control over someone’s life, would you take it?

That’s the central dilemma of Warsafe. What you choose, who you agree with is up to you. Like a real video game, Warsafe lets you confront the same choices as the characters and work your way out of the puzzle—if you can do it without compromising your morality.

Remember Warsafe’s motto: Safety requires the many to sacrifice the one.

Disagree?

Enter the Warsafe universe and prove it.

Author Interview

Are you a one project at a time author or do you have multiple projects going at once?

I write books in threes. One is on the publisher’s desk, one is in its second draft, and one is unfinished. I usually have a few other ideas brewing at the same time, but I try to keep myself from working on those until the current projects are finished. I don’t want to end up with a bunch of half-finished documents because I got distracted. I know myself!

I’m also a freelance journalist. I sometimes have half a dozen ongoing nonfiction projects lurking in Word, but I try to work on just one per writing session with breaks in between. This helps me keep my mental information organized and allows me to write in different styles for different publications. There’s more room for variety here because the projects aren’t as long. Also, deadlines are stricter. When the pressure is on, there’s no time for distraction—you just get it done however you can.

How has your life experience helped in your writing journey?

I’m a military brat, and college will be the longest I’ve ever lived in one place. Most of my books are set in past hometowns—both With Love from the Past and Warsafe take place in Seattle, and my next book is set in Death Valley, California. It’s tough for me to describe locations I’ve never seen before, so I stick with what I know. In the case of Warsafe, that’s coffee-scented streets, drizzly skies, and stylish modern architecture.

Traveling and moving also left me with plenty of time to people-watch. My book characters are all amalgams of real-life friends and acquaintances, with some characteristics magnified so they stand out on the page. I don’t base my characters on individuals because I don’t want people to recognize themselves, but I do take note of personality traits (a brilliant smile, for example, or a habitual movement) and use these to humanize my characters.

Halley, Warsafe’s leading lady, has a delightfully witty sense of humor and wry outlook that keeps her cheerful even when things aren’t going her way. I’ve got a friend like this in real life, and while I can’t produce the same quality comebacks that she can, I’ve at least tried to capture a small part of her beautiful personality.

How do you relax after a long day of writing?

By writing something different. If I’ve spent the day on nonfiction, I’ll work on my book before bed. If I’ve had my nose in a novel all day, I might open a research paper for an economics class.

… That’s what I tell myself, anyway. It sounds nice and disciplined, but it’s an ideal that only comes true occasionally. Most of the time, if I’ve really spent the whole day writing—rare because I can’t sit still—I relax by enjoying stories told by someone else. That might be books, video games, or movies. Or I go for a run, since my deadlines can’t catch me if I’m fast. Or I find some friends and challenge them to a board game competition I’m sure to lose.

I try to be intentional about taking breaks. Just like you can’t stay awake if you don’t sleep, you also can’t work if you don’t play. A big part of this, for me, is turning off my phone. I use social media for work, but I try not to spend extra time in a digital world when the real one is right outside my door.

Do you have extensive outlines when writing or do you write a book as you go?

Whenever I try to outline a book, the outline just updates each chapter as I come up with new ideas. Since I can’t stick to it, I usually don’t bother preplanning much besides a few scenes and the initial “problem” to set up the rest of the plot. I pay the price for this in the editing process when I have to catch and correct the inevitable continuity errors. I’ve ended up at a sort of middle ground: I’ll keep track of a few important plot points (for example, when a character references something early on that becomes important later) and let the main story take me where it will.

Sometimes I’ll find old “outlines” in my phone notes, and they always make me wonder if I wrote them in my sleep. Example from the planning stages of Warsafe: “If the signals were getting a real [sic], they’re living in some kind of utopia! No they’re not, don’t you see how many of them have prosthetics?” See also: “Nickname the scientist dude beans.”

What do you need in your writing space to help you stay focused?

I always write with music. It has to be the right kind of music, and it has to be played through noise-canceling headphones. If I don’t follow this routine, I get distracted. My writing playlist is mostly Einaudi compositions and piano covers, always instrumental. As I’m writing this, I’m listening to a piano version of the Swan Lake theme.

I’m also picky about keyboards. I’ll write on my laptop keyboard or iPad if I have to, but at home, I’ve designed my mechanical keyboard to get the best possible sound from typing. I hand-picked and installed the switches after listening to dozens of typing videos—a lot of effort, but worth it! Whenever I hear that sound, I feel inspired to write.