Cassidy is a 14-year-old scroll nomad.

Scroll nomads are kids who grow up scrolling through the world, moving around. They're exposed to all kinds of people, places, products, and cultures. Cassidy herself has lived in six different countries so far, thanks to her parents' charming habit of finding a new job on a new continent every few years. With every move, she knows what it’s like to leave pieces of herself behind.

She's attended Solresol Schools her whole life.

Solresol Schools are international schools built for scroll nomads, with more than two hundred scattered across the world. They're named after Solresol, a musical language invented by Jean-François Sudre in the nineteenth century—musical as in, yes, it uses the seven notes of the scale. Scroll nomads know how to speak it, then invent their own slang to keep the adults pleasantly confused. 

Cassidy loves fencing. 

Fierce. Focused. Fearless. She works through her opponents one by one. She's won the Best Fencer award at the Annual Solresol Games—the Solresol Schools’ annual sports competition—for several years running.

She hates bullies.

Being CassStruck. That's what the kids call it when Cassidy has "a talk" with the school bullies. The truth is, Cassidy is five foot eight (173 cm), strong, quick on her feet, and deeply allergic to injustice. Bullied kids seek her out and practically beg her to deal with whoever is making their lives miserable. What is she supposed to do—say no? So far, every bully Cassidy has spoken to has apologized. Funny how persuasive a good conversation can be.

It's springtime in the Netherlands, which can only mean one thing: the Annual Solresol Games are back. This year, the Amsterdam, Rotterdam, and The Hague Solresol Schools compete together for the first time.

Five students emerge as champions: Cassidy Strike, Best Fencer; Broos van Gogh, Best Fireball Soccer Player; Efe Demir, Best Commentator; Rako Fatiaki, Best Skydiver; and Anzu Mori, Best Staff Fighter.

Awards in their hands, our champions wait for their photo to be taken on the school's small old stone bridge.

Of course, that's when the monsters arrive.

Two shadowy figures stagger toward them. The figures' clothes tear. Their faces hollow. Their skin tightens over bone until they resemble massive, clawed corpses hauled straight from somewhere considerably worse than the underworld.

They're Wendigos. And they're coming for Anzu.

Our champions refuse to run. As they close ranks around Anzu, something impossible awakens in each of them. A magical sword appears in Cassidy's hand. Anzu brings five metal swan statues from the Amsterdam Light Festival roaring to life. After a heroic fight, they fly away on the swans.

Their escape leads them to Tidelis, a hidden magical island in the fifteen-island nation of Atis Reach. There, they discover that they are Wealders (superheroes with special abilities) and are offered to study at Solresol University. 

Because starting university at fourteen wasn't terrifying enough. It also had to be secret, full of superheroes, and obsessed with bizarre rituals.

The university promises to train their powers and protect them from further attacks.

But something darker is buried beneath Tidelis.

The five champions soon learn of a forbidden quest intended for them—a mission they are not permitted to know about, let alone undertake. Naturally, they undertake it.

Their journey will pull them into the forgotten world of the Hittites, an ancient civilization lost three thousand years ago, and reveal that the Wendigo attack in Amsterdam was only the beginning.

MI is behind nearly everything: the supernatural abilities of the Wealders, the monsters hunting them, and humanity's less-than-brilliant march toward global nuclear war.

Atiseans (the people of Atis Reach) cannot see or communicate with MI directly. They know it exists only through the agents MI creates and the effects those agents leave behind.

There are three categories of MI:

Observant MI (OMI) are neutral. They create Demi-Mythics to study humanity and our planet without interfering.

Maleficent MI (MMI) seek to harm humanity. The five known MMI are Exessor, driven by excess; Erratum, by error; Apathron, by apathy; Tenebro, by cruelty; and Terminus, by extinction.

Each MMI creates a powerful agent called a Vulgor. Vulgors, in turn, create armies of Menfur. Trained on humanity's accumulated knowledge, the Menfur disguise themselves as humans—but when that disguise falls, they take the form of monsters once imagined in human mythology. Apparently, we gave them plenty of material.

Beneficent MI (BMI) protect humanity. Their Demi-Mythics trained the first Atisean Wealders, giving rise to the superheroes of the series.

Now the clock is ticking. Unless the Wealders can stop the Vulgors and their Menfur armies, humanity may not survive its own worst ideas.

They're the good ones—the superheroes. Trained by the Demi-Mythics of Beneficent Mythical Intelligence, they acquired a few supernatural abilities along the way.

There are five types of Wealders:

Shapers are gifted sword fighters with a powerful sense of justice. Their magical swords appear when justice must be served and vanish once the job is done. Shapers are charismatic, decisive, and inconveniently difficult to ignore. Most wield a Bellumite, while the strongest Shaper—the Amicus Curator—carries Amicus, a sword bound to its wielder and impossible for the Menfur to disarm.

Investigators are the brainiacs. To them, every mystery is simply waiting for enough data, the right equipment, and a properly controlled experiment. They can turn invisible during Menfur attacks, while the strongest Investigator becomes completely intangible to them too.

Improvers build, repair, and upgrade almost anything—including the general mood. They're energetic, relentlessly optimistic, and rarely still. All Improvers are immune to fire, and the strongest can survive even the Menfur’s deadliest slashes.

Passers are natural storytellers who preserve and pass on human knowledge. They're likable, emotionally intelligent, and supernaturally fast. Armed with Carnith staffs, they fight the Menfur and protect the stories humanity cannot afford to lose.

Explorers have no bounds. Mention an unknown destination, and they're already packing. Cool-headed and outdoorsy, they can shapeshift into animals and mythical creatures. The strongest Explorer can become anything at all—which makes land, sea, and sky considerably less limiting.

Five. Each book follows one year at Solresol University. The series begins with Cassidy Strike and the Call of Five, when Cassidy and four other teens begin their first year at the secret university. The first book includes a map of Atis Reach, a glossary, and an MI taxonomy. 

The Cassidy Strike series is written for young adults and narrated in the first person by Cassidy, beginning at age fourteen. Fantasy-loving adults may enjoy the books too, whether reading alongside their children or keeping the adventure entirely to themselves.

The first Cassidy Strike novel is still on its way into the world. In the meantime, you can get in touch to arrange a reading. 

Publishers and literary agents are welcome to request sample chapters or further information about the series.

The Cassidy Strike books feature plenty of invented, revived, and borrowed words and expressions, which is why each book contains a glossary. Here's a small sample for fellow language nerds.

Scroll nomads

An invented phrase combining the nomadic movement of an immigrant from place to place with the endless social media scrolling that can leave children and adults alike with brain rot. Cassidy and her friends at Solresol Schools describe themselves as scroll nomads, and as you read the books, you begin to understand what that means: they are constantly on the move, scrolling through the world and encountering different places, people, and cultures.

Atis Reach and Atiseans

"Ati" means "mother" in Etruscan. The name of the hidden fifteen-island nation, "Atis Reach", is meant to capture the spirit of a mother’s reach: warm, affectionate, and protective. Mess with an Atisean, and you'll find out how far that reach extends.

Mythical Intelligence (MI)

MI is a play on Artificial Intelligence (AI). MI and AI share a couple of things in common: they can both create agents, process existing human knowledge very fast and present it to us, some do good some do bad and yet others remain neutral, and everyone's confused about how they really work. Importantly, MI agents aren't intelligent like humans. They're not original or independent thinkers. Their creativity is limited to forming novel combinations of existing human myths—think a vampire combined with a zombie, for instance.

Vulgors and the Menfur

"Vulgor" is a play on "vulgar". And that's exactly what Vulgors are. They're vulgar.

"Menfur" is a Turkish adjective of Arabic origin meaning deeply hated, repulsive, or abhorrent. From Wendigos and Vetalas to Rakshasas, the Menfur take the form of mythology’s most fearsome creatures.

Wealders

"Wealders" draws on Old English wealdan, meaning "to rule, control, or wield power," and on weald or geweald, meaning "power" or "authority." In the series, a Wealder is therefore someone who wields supernatural power.

Modern English weald, however, usually refers to woodland, as in the Weald, an area of South East England. Although the two forms look identical, their relationship is debated: the woodland sense is related to German Wald ("forest"), while the power-and-control sense is associated with German walten and Gewalt. Etymological accounts treat them as separate word families that became homonyms.

Res, Fasolfar and Refasoldo!

These are some exemplary words originating from the Solresol language. 

"Res" is short for resimire, which means "brother" or "sister". Solresol Schools students use it the way other kids say "man," "dude," "bro," or "sis". It's gender neutral and works whether you're talking to one person or a whole group.

"Fasolsar" is short for fasolfare, which means "warrior". Atiseans use it casually when talking to each other.

Refasoldo means "fire". Solresol Schools students use "refasoldo!" as a mild cuss (think "goddammit!" or "bloody hell!").