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.
Here, Lauren shares many interesting behind-the-scenes facts about writing her novel, including the problems she ran into when basing fictional characters too much like their real-life counterparts.
FF: What inspired the story in your book?
It’s almost cliché for authors to be inspired by dreams, but I had lucid dreams when I was younger, and that’s where I got the idea for Warsafe. One night, I found myself trapped in the basement of an eight-story building. Guards patrolled the rooms outside, and somehow I just knew I was supposed to sneak past them and escape through the top floor. So I crawled through air ducts, hid in shadowy corners, and darted behind turned backs. I escaped, woke up, and knew I had to write the book.
FF: What can you tell us about the main characters in your book?
Warsafe is told in alternating POVs, so three of the five main characters get to tell their own stories. The first-person narrator, Halley, is highly opinionated with a wry sense of humor that her friends don’t appreciate. She lives a sheltered life but is highly individualistic and motivated, which terrifies her parents and isn’t great for their lemonade-selling business.
Roscoe is who I thought I’d grow up to be. She’s slightly scatterbrained and disorganized but creative, forward-thinking, and ambitious. Unfortunately, she’s better at video games than me, and she’s strong enough to kick midnight intruders out of her house (and subsequently into the garbage dump). I’m also not brave enough to dye my hair pastel pink, so I’m living vicariously through Roscoe.
Andy is the friend we all wish we had. He’s crazy smart in many ways and completely oblivious in others. This leaves no shortage of chaos and entertainment—including a gas explosion, a voyage across the Pacific Ocean, and an invention that (briefly) makes him a millionaire.
Another major character—not mentioned above—was originally named after my old gamertag.
FF: Which character surprised you the most?
The character who was supposed to be the villain (no spoilers!) turned out to be the good guy. Not just a good guy, or even a decent guy. The guy who ends up saving everyone and, along the way, became a secret favorite of mine. I’ve got a sticker of him on my Post-It holder.
Why was this such a problem? Well, I had modeled this character after a real-life villain. The switch-up was perplexing and required a lot of re-writes.
FF: Why do you think storytelling is such a powerful way to share truth?
People pay attention to stories. They usually don’t pay attention to academic treatises or arid explorations of moral philosophy, as useful as those can be. And so, for most people, a story can convey information in an experiential way that is enjoyed and remembered.
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 the Warsafe Games motto: Safety requires the many to sacrifice the one.
Disagree?
Prove it. Cheer for the characters who fight that philosophy.
FF: What kind of research did you do for this book?
I’m an economics student at Hillsdale College, so most of the research was done in the classroom and had no obvious relationship to my writing.
Contrary to what most people think, economics isn’t just about money or finance or which stocks won’t bankrupt you during the next presidential election. It’s about decision-making and behavior patterns, all constrained by resource availability and ethics. Most people never consciously ask themselves the questions that economics raises, and Warsafe tries to make these trade-offs and dilemmas explicit.
In a more practical sense, I also designed video games. I single-handedly created a first and last project that included more than 100,000 lines of code. I won’t be doing that again—I value my eyesight and my spine too much. But it did give me an appreciation for game mechanics and functionality, which play a major role in Warsafe.
FF: What do you want readers to take away after reading your book?
I hope readers come away from Warsafe convicted that every human life has infinite value. It’s so easy to say we believe that until we’re in situations where we feel forced to prioritize the “good of the many” over the “good of the few.” And maybe that seems like a dilemma you’ll never face. After all, most of us aren’t generals, world leaders, or in a position to directly alter the lives of others. But we are all citizens. We all have choice, and we all have influence. How long has it been since we’ve really thought about the consequences of our beliefs?
FF: What are the biggest challenges for you as an author writing in science fiction?
I’m not an engineer or a scientist, so I have no idea what technology would be realistic in a near-future world. Trying to describe the computers and machines of tomorrow feels a bit like trying to put together IKEA furniture without instructions. Fortunately, most of Warsafe is set in a parallel present where things look similar to the modern world.
FF: What authors or books have inspired you as an author?
I grew up fascinated by Jules Verne’s Extraordinary Voyages series. A lot of people don’t realize that he was primarily a science fiction author, and some of his predictions about how the world would look in the future are surprisingly accurate. (One he got right: Almost exactly how long it would take to travel to the moon. Unfortunately, he thought the trip would be accomplished by firing a giant bullet out of a cannon. Close, but no cigar.) As was typical for contemporary authors, Verne included a lot of social, economic, and political commentary in his books. I always loved how I’d come away from his books both with a good story and with new information.
FF: How has your faith or world view impacted the way you tell stories?
In my experience, life’s toughest moments are where you’re most likely to find God. This is also true if you’re one of my book characters. You’ve spent pages being chased, shot at, and enduring the usual high-action crises … and now you’re forced to ask why. The story wouldn’t be realistic if characters never asked that question, and no why that cuts to the core of human nature and experience can be answered without faith.
When I tell stories, I want readers to ask themselves that same question. Why? Even if they’ve never been in a situation as dire as the Warsafe characters, I hope readers still find encouragement to pursue God’s truth and meaning through whatever challenges they do face.
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Book Summary
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?
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