What made us start The Cyber Chronicle?

Okay, so here's how this whole thing started.

And we sat there thinking: "Wait. If this can happen to PowerSchool, what can't get hacked?"

That's when it hit us. Kids our age—and younger—are online all the time. But nobody's teaching us how to actually protect ourselves in a way that makes sense. Like, we get the "don't talk to strangers" lecture, but what about spotting a phishing email? Or knowing if that Instagram DM is legit? Or understanding why "password123" is basically handing hackers your life on a silver platter?

So we decided to do something about it.

But here's the thing—we didn't just wing it. We spent the past 10 months learning everything we possibly could:

• We wrote a practice book (a toddler bedtime story, actually) and published it on Amazon to figure out how this whole publishing thing works. Spoiler: It's harder than it looks.
• We talked to everyone. College students. High schoolers. Middle schoolers. Adults in tech. Cybersecurity professionals. Teachers. Librarians. Random people at coffee shops. We asked them all the same question: "How do you protect yourself online? And did anyone ever teach you this?"
• We heard stories. Real, scary stories. Friends who got cyberbullied. Classmates who fell for phishing scams. People who had their accounts hacked because they reused passwords.
• We reached out to our parents' friends in the tech world—engineers, IT professionals, people who actually understand how this stuff works—and we said, "Can you break down these complex cybersecurity topics so a middle schooler can understand them?" And they did. Because turns out, adults actually want kids to be safe online too.
• We practiced. We tested. We read drafts to kids and watched where they got bored or confused. We rewrote. A lot. Like, a lot a lot.

And now, here we are. Ten months later. Standing in front of you with The Secret Door, Book 1 of the Cyber Clues series.

Is it perfect? Probably not. Are we still learning? Absolutely. Do we have a long way to go to get where we want to be? 100%.

But here's what we know for sure: This project matters.

Kids deserve to understand the digital world they're growing up in. They deserve stories that treat them with respect—not like they're clueless. They deserve to feel confident online, not scared or confused.

The Cyber Chronicle isn't a money-making scheme. It's a volunteer-led community project. Every dollar we make goes right back into creating more books, more resources, more ways to help kids stay safe online.

We started this because nobody else was doing it the way we thought it should be done. And if that sounds a little ambitious for a couple of students who are still figuring things out... well, yeah. It is.

But somebody had to start somewhere.

So here we are. And we'd really love it if you'd join us.