Chapters (45)
- Cover
- Dedication
- Pulse
- ONE
- TWO
- THREE
- FOUR
- FIVE
- SIX
- SEVEN
- EIGHT
- NINE
- TEN
- ELEVEN
- TWELVE
- THIRTEEN
- FOURTEEN
- FIFTEEN
- SIXTEEN
- SEVENTEEN
- EIGHTEEN
- NINETEEN
- TWENTY
- TWENTY–ONE
- TWENTY–TWO
- TWENTY–THREE
- TWENTY–FOUR
- TWENTY–FIVE
- TWENTY–SIX
- TWENTY–SEVEN
- TWENTY–EIGHT
- TWENTY–NINE
- THIRTY
- THIRTY–ONE
- THIRTY–TWO
- THIRTY–THREE
- THIRTY–FOUR
- THIRTY–FIVE
- THIRTY–SIX
- THIRTY–SEVEN
- THIRTY–EIGHT
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- RESOURCES
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- What’s next onyour reading list?
“How bad could it be to spend the rest of your summer on a beach?” Maddie said.
Delia looked horrified. “We don’t know what’s wrong, which is awful for Emma.”
“Of course, I didn’t . . .” Maddie was frustrated at how poorly her East Coast sarcasm translated. “Awful, sure.”
“And now Eric’s team’s down to two,” Delia said. “That’s not fair. There should be a provision in the rules—”
“It’s okay, really,” Eric said. “She was always more into her guitar than the program anyway. I mean, I wish she didn’t have to go, but we’ll make it work.” His words were full of more confidence than his voice, but still he smiled, for Delia’s benefit, Maddie couldn’t help thinking.
Then Maddie remembered what Sadie said about Emma’s Pulse rating falling quickly. Because she left ValleyStart? Because she had a family emergency and took a social media break?
Pulse was exactly what Maddie thought it was. A complete and utter load of crap.
FIFTEEN
MVP • Minimum viable product: the most basic version of a product that functions just enough to prove that the concept works; often used in beta testing
THE GOOD NEWS WAS Delia had figured out what was breaking her code. The bad news was she was baffled by a half dozen more “snags,” as Lucy called them. Snags were for her fancy sweaters and tights, not code, but Lucy continued to brush them off as if Delia could wave a magic wand and make Lit ready for the upcoming beta test, which was now mentioned in every daily ValleyStart message. Like that morning’s:
ValleyStart: In the alphabet of Greek, it is the second letter. But for what you seek, it is the trendsetter. In less than a week, the beta will test your mettle!
Delia sighed. It wasn’t like she didn’t wish for that wand—she did, every day and every night as she lay awake, playing games on Delia’s Den, hoping for a eureka moment. She’d created nearly a dozen games over the years. The first, not-so-loosely based on The Shining, where the caretaker of an English manor battled ghosts and zombies, was the most straightforward but great for problem solving. From the Smudge Fudge Factory to the Sassy Cassie Studio, all the games she’d created were inspired by something in her life. The later, more complex ones featured people—women, specifically, female coders.