[season 1] In the near-future, mankind succeeds in curing A.I.D.S. However, something much worse fills the void, an aggressive sickness that only affects females. Though only 50% of Earth's population is at risk of contracting M.A.I.D.S., the illness impacts everyone. World War III begins as panic-stricken governments seize healthy females in order to ensure the survival of their people, but even warfare and forced breeding programs can't halt the inevitable: mankind is dying out. An international team of scientists combine existing technologies, theories, and desperation to create Synthia, a synthetic human female capable of M.A.I.D.S.-free existence and, most importantly, reproduction. Biomechanical humans, dubbed Synthias, are mass-produced, and mankind's population begins to slowly increase after being decimated by the illness and war. The cost of salvation is souls. Synthias are denied basic human rights because they are manufactured, not born. After staging an unsuccessful uprising, the facilities where Synthias are mass-produced undergo great changes. Synthia manufactories are re-opened as boutiques where a man's mate can be custom-ordered, right down to the various skills and knowledge the Synthia possesses. A truly male-oriented world emerges around this new technology. Adam, the first son of a Synthia, wants something more than a mere breeding machine. He wants a true partner and something like the "love" he only knows about from pre-war media. The Synthia he creates is something new that threatens to destroy the status quo... Adam's Synthia is not an it. Adam's Synthia is a she. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- M.A.I.D.S. is the winner of two Watty Awards (2011).

The Mayans were right.....almost. On the 23rd of December 2012, the Earth witnessed beautiful harmless meteor showers all round the planet. Beginning on the 25th of December, the world did end for the humans. The earth did not implode, the stars did not come crashing down, no giant tsunamis hit the coastlines nor did the seas and oceans have raging fires. But one prediction for the Apocalypse did come true. The dead had risen. Not for judgment by the Lord, that may not have been as scary. Very hungry and with uncommon pack intelligence they were a different breed of the undead from those seen in Hollywood. Initially only the recently dead awoke, then everyone who died on or after that day came back alive. The problem: majority of the world had died; the line for the recently resurrected was endless. But as always, humanity endures. Survival has always been something the human race has been good at. This time it will be the survival of the fittest. (Cover : Cataclysm)

In Thriller Suite -- appearing serially for the first time on Wattpad -- Margaret Atwood has gathered these new poems inspired by her long history as a reader of strange tales, from 19th century gothic classics to ghost stories to crime fiction and thrillers. Poems that cross thresholds...