Unplugging from work: most of us probably think we do it—maybe we believe we’re pretty good at it. During our personal time we tuck our phones away and turn off our notifications. Maybe we’re even disciplined enough to not send an email during off-hours. A whole economy has sprung up, from digital detox camps for adults to gatekeeping apps to control our screen time, to help us detach.

And yet—sorry, hang on, did you hear that ding?—we’re still distractedly glancing at our phones, habitually monitoring inboxes and that ever-growing volume of work email, anticipating notifications even when they’re muzzled, and inadvertently missing the winning point at our kid’s ball game (shoot, sorry sweetie).

We agree that unplugging is important, but many of us aren’t succeeding at it—and it’s hurting us, our colleagues, and our companies.

A study by LinkedIn found that 70 percent of professionals don’t fully unplug from work. A recent study of 1,400 information workers commissioned by Microsoft  found that 40 percent of people work outside of regular hours in a way that interferes with family time. And research from Utah State University found that a person’s use of their mobile device for work during family time not only negatively impacted the employee and their spouse, but led to higher instances of burnout, a decreased commitment to their employer, and an increased likelihood of quitting.

Even official vacation time isn’t sacred: 67 percent of the people surveyed by LinkedIn said they would go ahead and contact a colleague about work-related matters while the colleague is on vacation.

Despite these statistics, leaders are increasingly aware that to be successful, companies must help employees feel balanced. And frazzled, distracted employees are increasingly desperate to disconnect from the very work tools they’ve come to rely on so they can truly recharge.

“Ironically, we have found that in modern life the source of a lot of our stress and tension is software, the way it is structured to be very notification-centric versus human-centric,” says Kamal Janardhan, partner director of product for Microsoft Workplace Analytics and MyAnalytics, tools that harness data to help drive change in the workplace. “Unplugging is almost a defense mechanism against that system.”

Ultimately, the actions we take individually—putting our phones in a box, locking apps, setting nebulous rules for ourselves that we then try to cheat—are reactions, and they aren’t enough to solve a larger problem. We need to change the system.

New research and our growing understanding about human behavior tell us two things for certain: that unplugging is more necessary than ever, and that true unplugging is not a single action but a social agreement—a culture shift that employees and companies must create together.

Finding hidden culprits

To understand where we are headed when it comes to the intersection of work and personal time, it’s important to remember how we got here. Much of what we believe about how we should work harkens back to the industrial revolution and the switch from a much longer workday to a 40-hour workweek and a collective expectation to clock in and clock out at set hours. In the 21st century this belief system became ripe for reinvention again, but not necessarily in the ways we’ve seen.

You need to regenerate your energy. Unplugging is an emotional recharge that we all need.

With modern technology, handheld and wearable devices, AI, and the cloud, work and personal time have blurred together for knowledge workers, the boundary now often invisible. There is no clear punch-out time anymore.

“Companies and experiments have shown that if you shorten the work week, employees become more productive, creative, and loyal. Henry Ford understood this impact on productivity when he shortened the week from 60 to 40 hours,” says Kate Nowak, solution design lead for Workplace Analytics, which enables companies to understand how employees work and collaborate every day and to build empowered workplace cultures.

“We need more companies to step up and experiment with new ways of working to inspire broader change.”

At the same time, humans are still humans, and while technology and work styles have shifted rapidly, our circadian rhythms still control our patterns of focus and rest, says Mary Czerwinski, principal research for Microsoft, who studies worker interaction techniques and multitasking. We aren’t built to be in a constant state of “on.” Workers have natural fluctuations of energy and attention in their day, from focused work to rote work to boredom, and we experience two peak focus times—midmorning and midafternoon.

“As your circadian rhythm goes down, the negative effects of trying to focus start to go up. You need that natural homeostasis boost again. That’s why we go home and take a break,” Czerwinski says. “You need to regenerate your energy. Unplugging is an emotional recharge that we all need.”

Often, though, the ways we’ve tried to address overload and enable unplugging have backfired. Have you ever pledged to unplug more, maybe spurred by something like National Day of Unplugging, or your partner or kids giving you the stink eye? Have you created rules for yourself only to find within a few days or a week you are reverting to old habits, sneaking glances at your inbox, reaching for your phone without even consciously choosing to?

One key reason it’s so hard to unplug is something called anticipatory stress: the anxiety we feel worrying about something that is coming or could come.

It works like this: It’s Saturday night and you’re getting ready to head out to a nice dinner with friends, when you get a ping from your boss with a head’s up about an important early Monday morning meeting, more details to come. Suddenly, even though you don’t log on to do any work, you’re anxious, thinking about prepping for the unexpected meeting and checking your phone for more emails. Your mind isn’t on the meal and the good company and your weekend wellbeing, it’s hung up on what work thing might come next.

According to the recent study of 1,400 workers , nearly half of respondents said that thinking about work outside of work hours regularly has a negative impact on their work-life balance. And thinking about work during personal time was the biggest work-life balance disruptor, beating out other factors such as phone notifications, manager and client expectations, and pressure from coworkers who work outside of work hours.

Another recent study supports this, finding employees and their families experience the strain of expectation even if the employee doesn’t actually engage in work in their off hours.

Another reason it’s hard to change the way we work on our own is because behavioral change spreads in part by social confirmation—the more others adopt a behavior, the easier it becomes for each of us to do so, too. If no one feels like the company culture allows for true unplugging, few people will do it. Employees can’t go it alone.

At the same time, our strategies to address overwhelm often just lead to more work. Even Merlin Mann, the creator of Inbox Zero, backed away from his methodology eventually.

“Since greater efficiency has led to more work not less, what we really need are ways to protect ourselves from work expanding into the time we create for ourselves,” Nowak says.

And while many company leaders have embraced the goal of nurturing employee engagement and wellbeing through culture, the truth is that often, the pressure on workers to stay plugged in afterhours stems from hidden factors leaders might not even be aware of.

Using Workplace Analytics to analyze anonymized and aggregated digital signals from meetings, email, HR surveys, and other data sources, many Microsoft customers have looked at the behaviors of their workforce. Some consistent patterns connected directly to unplugging and work-life balance have emerged.

In one Fortune 100 technology company, for example, data revealed that every hour people managers spent working after-hours translated to 20 minutes of after-hour work time for direct reports. The numbers vary, but similar patterns have surfaced at several other companies.

In another instance here at Microsoft, leaders applied Workplace Analytics and were able to uncover the cause of a poor work-life balance rating by a group of engineers on an annual survey. It turned out that bloated, redundant meetings were keeping engineers from focus time during their day, so they felt compelled to finish work at home and couldn’t unplug. Compounding the problem, managers spurred afterhours email by leading by example. Once leaders gained these organizational insights, they kicked off a change program that worked.

Often, leaders can’t see the overall pattern of these types of behaviors or measure their true impact across a company. Through organizational analysis, company-specific insights emerge and leaders can work to evolve their culture, empowering employees to change collectively so they don’t have to go it alone.

Achieving personal balance

Designing another Microsoft tool that helps address work-life balance and the ability to unplug, this one driven from the employee side, product managers have recently shifted how they think about unplugging from work and employee wellbeing. Instead of telling employees how much time they spend working after hours every day, MyAnalytics—which shows personalized work metrics and insights only to individual employees—has changed to now track “quiet days” instead. An employee can look at their email digest and dashboard to see how many consecutive days out of their past month were quiet days—days without any emails, meetings, and chats outside working hours.

For instance, I can see that during a recent month my longest streak was 5 consecutive quiet days (including weekends). And I can see that 13 days of the month were quiet while 15 were not. By understanding work habits through this lens, I can mentally contextualize how impacted my personal life is overall by my work.

This new way of thinking reflects the research around anticipatory stress, says Wendy Guo, Microsoft senior program manager. When the MyAnalytics tool previously calculated after-hours work by the daily minute, many employees saw that, technically, they weren’t logging much time—maybe 15 or 45 minutes for instance. That might seem like maybe nothing to worry about—what’s 30 minutes a night sending emails, right?

But that measurement, and, more broadly, that way of thinking—day by day, hour by hour—doesn’t capture the cumulative stress of having your unplugged time constantly nibbled away at.

“It’s the pain of grazing,” Guo says. “Even if it’s 10 minutes checking email, scanning notifications, reading but not responding—it impedes your ability to mentally recharge. There is concrete evidence that people are engaging despite not wanting to.”

By reframing for employees how this accumulates, in a private, personalized report, Guo says her team hopes to empower workers with a sense of urgency “to think about work-life harmony, happiness, the things you can do instead of work when you allow yourself the time. To think about how you want to live. It’s ephemeral and not easy to quantify a sense of wellbeing, so we’re trying to help.”

With insight comes the power to evolve how we work so we’re productive and balanced in ways that work best for us. Just ask Vincent Fily, a global blackbelt seller in Microsoft’s Modern Workplace Sales division. Fily helps companies transform with tools like Workplace Analytics and the sister solution for employees, My Analytics. But when he moved back to France from the U.S. four years ago, he found himself having to navigate his own work-life balance.

It’s the pain of grazing.

He wanted to continue working flexibly as he had in the U.S.—taking his child to school before starting work, then focusing on emails and customers, taking time out for lunch, more customer time, then breaking to spend late afternoon and dinnertime with his family before finishing off work in the evening.

“This,” stresses Fily, who was born in France, “is not the French way.”

But instead of feeling guilty or worrying that he wasn’t adhering regional norms around work style, Fily knew he was productive and balanced, because he was using his own employee dashboard to gain these insights.

“I can see how I am doing. I can measure and see that I am going in the direction that I want. To me, that’s the goal—to see how you are doing and be able to shift how you work if you want.”

Getting there together

Employees and companies are poised to shift the culture of work because we’ve moved from acceptance—we understand technology is all-encompassing and work has fundamentally changed—to being ready for action. We can now do something about our state of near-constant connection, harnessing technology to help us unplug from work in intentional ways that are supported by collective norms.

“We have talked to a bunch of people, customers, employees, leaders, and analyzed data to find out the most common roots of this problem: people have too many meetings, they don’t block time, they feel the need to make up their lost focus time at home. During their personal time they are stressed out and unhappy. They get interrupted, by system notifications and people notifications. And there’s human psychology: some people cannot help responding to everything as it comes,” says Kalyan Nanduru, principal product manager for MyAnalytics.

But even those of us “beyond help” who think we might just be addicted to the ding of a notification can change. Organizations can look deeply at data to figure out what works and then replicate it; employees can team up to nurture a culture and each other in ways that honor the whole person and a healthy work-life continuum.

“People coming to work are just trying to get things done. I know, for example, that I cannot fix things like meeting culture on my own. If I want to stay offline in my personal time but my manager or teammates keep distracting me, I can’t,” Nanduru says.

“We have to build a system where we know if that’s happening across an organization. Then we can all work on it together.”

Unplugging is not tricking yourself. It’s not promising to stay in the moment but then constantly glancing at your inbox just to check in, so you don’t fall behind, because everyone else is doing it. Unplugging is a partnership on a journey toward the new way of working, and a key component of both personal happiness and workplace culture.

The ultimate vision could one day soon look like this: all of us spread out across parks and gyms and movie theaters and dinner tables and grocery stores and beaches focused wholly on our personal time, none of us contending with anticipatory stress because we’ve been empowered to solve for it. Then, when we’re all back at our jobs, we’re focused on the work that matters most, collaborating smartly, functioning effectively.

The two halves of a healthy whole.

Creating a scalable quantum computer will require the collective effort of many skilled and diverse teams. To reach that goal, over the past few years we have built a coalition of partners, universities, customers, and developers, all with the goal of sharing knowledge and collaborating with the best quantum innovators.  

Today – at our inaugural Startup Summit – we’re formalizing that coalition as the Microsoft Quantum Network. This global community of individuals and organizations will work directly with Microsoft to advance quantum computing, develop practical applications, and build the quantum workforce of the future.    

“The Microsoft Quantum Network is our commitment to establishing the partnerships required to build the quantum workforce and the quantum economy,” Todd Holmdahl, Corporate Vice President of Azure Hardware Systems Group at Microsoft, said during the summit. “We believe both are vital to solving some of the world’s toughest problems.

We’ve previously announced partnerships with some of the world’s leading startup talent in quantum software and algorithm development. Today we welcome two new partners: 

• HQS Quantum Simulations develops quantum algorithms for predicting molecular properties for the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. 
• Rahko is a quantum machine–learning company developing scalable quantum chemistry solutions for near-term quantum computers and beyond.  

HQS Quantum Simulations and Rahko will join other quantum startups who are working closely with Microsoft to build practical applications and accelerate the adoption of quantum computing.  Quantum Network startups also benefit from a partnership with Microsoft for Startups to help them grow their businesses, build innovative solutions, and connect to valuable resources. 

Other segments of the Microsoft Quantum Network are: 

• Affiliate organizations have engaged directly with Microsoft to advance their expertise in quantum computing and jointly develop solutions that benefit their organization and industry. Case Western Reserve University (CWRU), the Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA), and Pacific Northwest National Labs (PNNL) are examples of organizations collaborating with us on many solutions in the areas of optimization and chemistry.    
• Centers dedicated to research, development, and educational excellence have partnered with Microsoft to pursue the advancement of quantum computing. Today we’re performing quantum research alongside some of the best and brightest minds at Purdue University, UC Santa Barbara, the University of Copenhagen, TU Delft, and the University of Sydney. At these locations, we’ve established Microsoft Quantum Labs where our research teams are advancing Microsoft Quantum research goals while also serving as scientific collaborators and partners with the quantum community. 
• Developers and organizations have created their own quantum algorithms and applications with our free resources, including the Microsoft Quantum Development Kit, tutorials, Q# libraries, samples, and workshops. Developers have now downloaded the Quantum Development Kit more than 100,000 times. 

If you or your organization are interested in becoming a member of the Microsoft Quantum Network as a startup or affiliate, click here to tell us about yourself. 

It will take a diverse set of skills across academia and industry to help develop the world’s first scalable quantum computer and quantum applications.  We are excited to bring together the best minds in quantum computing.  Together, we will bring this vision to life and shape the future of the quantum workforce and economy.

Space Engineers is Leaving Early Access, is available as a Free Weekend and is 20% off!*

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*Offer ends March 7 at 10AM Pacific Time

Devs will be required to go through a stricter approval process if they want to land a game on Oculus’ standalone Quest headset. 

The company now requires developers to submit a concept document before they can start the store submission process or access non-public development resources, a step Oculus says aims to assess the quality and potential market success of a potential Quest project. 

It’s a step detailed in a recent post on the Oculus Developer blog, and one that VR developers will want to take a look at before concept submissions open up in March. While Oculus says that a quality-first approach will ultimately benefit developers that launch Quest games, news of a stricter approval process could be worrying to those developers that were already banking on a Quest game launch or port down the line.

Oculus says it’s taking a quality-first approach with games and apps on the Quest with the goal of ensuring that the platform becomes a successful content ecosystem for both developers and players. To do that, the company says it’s important to curate its storefront and lead with high-quality, innovative titles from indie and triple-A developers alike.

“The goal of this change is developer success on our platform,” explains the post. “If we feel that your app is not a fit for Quest, we’d like to let you know that early in the development process, before you’ve made significant production investments, rather than at the end. That means it’s important to submit a concept document for review as early in your development cycle as possible.”

The concept document is expected to be a 3-slide presentation that runs through the concept for a Quest application, team experience, investment, and other information.

The publishing guidelines for the Quest, meanwhile, are more or less the same as the Oculus Developer Content Guidelines, with a focus on “high-quality, polished experiences, especially those that demonstrate the deep, surprising, delightful, and moving experiences possible in VR and are custom-made for the untethered immersion Quest offers.” 

We know you’re busy and might miss out on all the exciting things we’re talking about on Xbox Wire every week. If you’ve got a few minutes, we can help remedy that. We’ve pared down the past week’s news into one easy-to-digest article for all things Xbox! Or, if you’d rather watch than read, you can feast your eyes on our weekly video show above. Be sure to come back every Friday to find out what’s happening This Week on Xbox!

One Piece World Seeker Arrives on Xbox One March 15, Pre-order Today
Hello everyone, my name is Florian, I’m the Europe Product Manager for the One Piece brand and I’m truly excited to give you more information on One Piece World Seeker today! Please join me as we follow Luffy and his crew for this 20th anniversary extravaganza and discover the latest of their video game adventure… Read more

Xbox & 2K Foundations Celebrate Community in North Carolina During All-Star Weekend
This past Saturday as part of All-Star Weekend, the Xbox team partnered with 2K, the publisher of NBA 2K19, and Project Backboard to celebrate all-things basketball and the recent renovations to the McCrorey YMCA in Charlotte, North Carolina. McCrorey YMCA has been an icon in the Charlotte community for over 83 years… Read more

Xbox Game Pass Announces New Games – Alien: Isolation, The Walking Dead: Season 2, and More
It’s true, constantly bringing more games to you is kind of our schtick at Xbox Game Pass, so let’s talk about the journey these latest additions took to get from us to you! We started with the customary good luck ceremony, during which we wrote heartfelt haikus in tribute to each game, and the social media team sang their rehearsal solos… Read more

Riot: Civil Unrest is Available Now on Xbox One
Riot’s story began with Leonard Menchiari who experienced the rioting first-hand in Italy during the NoTav protests, (the NoTav protests opposed the building of a high-speed railway from Turin in Italy, to Lyon in France). Protestors were opposed to the destruction of the landscape, the potential pollution… Read more

Paradox Interactive and Xbox Join Forces to Launch Paradox Mods
We are absolutely thrilled that Paradox Interactive has teamed up with Microsoft to release Paradox Mods on Xbox One! Now, for the first time, PC mod creators have a direct line to showcase and publish their work for Xbox One gamers to enjoy — making this a momentous day for gamers and modders everywhere… Read more

Treasure Stack Coming Soon to Xbox One and Cross-Playable on March 1
Hey everyone! Some games are developed with the intent of being online multiplayer experiences from day one. Others reveal themselves as the perfect candidates more gradually. When we began working on Treasure Stack (our first commercial release) 3+ years ago, we intended for it to be a local multiplayer experience… Read more

Free Play Days: Halo Wars: Definitive Edition and Halo Wars 2
Take command of this weekend’s Free Play Days and put on your real-time strategy hat! Xbox Live Gold members can experience the Halo universe from a unique angle with Halo Wars: Definitive Edition and Halo Wars 2. The Free Play Days event begins Thursday, February 21 at 12:01 a.m. PT and runs through to Sunday, February 24… Read more

Old Man’s Journey: Making a Game about Life, Loss, and Hope
Our latest game Old Man’s Journey was born out of two main ideas. We wanted to make a game about wanderlust and we wanted to include the whole spectrum of human emotions into this game. Not only the positive ones like happiness and love -which are very common in games- but also the ones that are seen more negatively… Read more

Welcome (Back) Aboard – 5 Ways Sea of Thieves has Evolved Since Launch
When’s the last time you’ve teamed up with a few privateering pals and set sail in Sea of Thieves? If you’ve taken a break from the breakers, you may be surprised at how much more you’ll find floating around the game these days. Rare has continually updated Sea of Thieves (over 30 times in less than a year!), including 4 major, game-altering expansions… Read more

Next Week on Xbox: New Games for February 26 to March 1
Welcome to Next Week on Xbox, where we cover all the new games coming soon to Xbox One! Every week the team at Xbox aims to deliver quality gaming content for you to enjoy on your favorite gaming console. To find out what’s coming soon to Xbox One, read on below and click on each of the game profiles for pre-order details (dates are subject to… Read more

Inside Xbox One X Enhanced: Anthem
Many of gaming’s most compelling stories come from those who’ve helped to create our favorite Xbox One games. In our Inside Xbox One X Enhanced series, these creators will share the behind-the-scenes accounts of the work involved in enhancing these epic games for Xbox One X, how they’ve helped chart the course of the world’s most powerful console… Read more

Anthem is Available Today on Xbox One – Here’s What You Need to Know
Get ready to suit up and start an incredible adventure! Anthem has just launched on Xbox One, and we’ve got the details you need to get a successful head start in this dangerous and beautiful new world. Javelins Javelins are at the center of both combat and mobility in Anthem. They’re built to protect you from almost anything the world… Read more

How Unexplored: Unlocked Edition Generates a Startling Amount of Surprising Dungeons
When I came across an area in Unexplored that consisted entirely of nicely decorated floating rooms all connected by teleporters, I knew we had achieved our goal – we had created a game that could surprise even us, the developer, with the imaginative and interesting levels that our dungeon generation tech could produce… Read more

Publisher PQube Games has revealed that it will be bringing Kill la Kill: IF to Nintendo Switch, PC, and PS4 in Europe.

Being developed by Arc System Works, this game is being designed to recreate the feel of the original series, with animation studio Trigger keeping a careful eye on proceedings. A press release for the announcement states that the anime from which the game is based on will “be faithfully reproduced, bringing fans their favourite scenes revived with stunning visuals and cinematics – as well as a whole new story in a brand new ‘IF’ scenario”.

Players will find themselves performing devastating combos with their favourite characters from the anime in 3D arenas. Once again, the press release notes that the game “combines the perfect balance of simplicity in control with complexity in depth to provide players with a uniquely satisfying fighting experience”.

No specific release date has been revealed just yet, but the game has been scheduled for a release sometime this year. The tweet above mentions that it will be arriving both digitally and physically.

Are you hyped for this one? Will you be picking it up when it launches later this year? Let us know in the comments.

For most fans of the company, working at Nintendo probably sounds like a dream come true. Being surrounded by your heroes on a daily basis, working on incredibly exciting projects and – of course – the potential for free games all sounds pretty lovely, but what is it actually like working in the house of Mario?

Well, while we can’t really know without going ahead and working there for ourselves, these new statistics released by Nintendo paint a pretty good picture of life at the Big N. The company is currently hosting a recruitment drive for new graduates to start in 2020, with roles in game development, system development, network service, and many more all up for grabs. The figures below have been shared as additional info for potential candidates.

These stats may have changed slightly over the last few months (some are only correct as of March 2018), but it’s still pretty interesting to see. The length of employment figure stands out in particular, with an average of 13.5 years suggesting that workers are happy and secure in their jobs. The average annual salary figure, which has been rounded to a near estimate, equates to approximately £61,000 (using today’s standard currency conversion rate and ignoring any tax and living cost differences).

Perhaps working at Nintendo really is living the dream, after all? Would you happily drop everything and move to Japan for a job there? Let us know in the usual place.

Dawn of Man is Now Available on Steam and is 15% off!*

Command a settlement of ancient humans, guide them through the ages in their struggle for survival. Hunt, gather, craft tools, fight, research new techs and face the challenges the environment will throw at you.

*Offer ends March 8 at 10AM Pacific Time

Drifter scowled at a notch on his glaive as he buffed the blade with a heavy cloth. A large attaché case rested heavily at his feet.

He and Joxer were back aboard the Derelict. The Titan held his head in his hands. His glowing armor suffused the room with a blood-red warmth.

“Cheer up, brother,” Drifter said. “That didn’t go too bad.”

“Three Guardians are dead,” Joxer replied, looking up to stare straight at the rogue Lightbearer.

“That’s right,” Drifter quipped, continuing to clean his weapon. “In the dirt. Never comin’ back. Their Ghosts got sloppy. You give Taken the chance and they’ll snuff out your Light. The fact that you’re alive means your Ghost knows what he’s doin’.”

“You said this was a test run.”

“Where do you think you are? The Crucible? Gambit Prime is for keeps, test or no.”

“You son of a—”

“Leave the name-calling to me, hotshot. Let’s wrap up this debrief and get you paid.”

“You could’ve helped them.”

Drifter stood, slamming the butt of his freshly polished glaive on the attaché case at his feet. 

“You got yourself out,” he said, leaning on the weapon. “You didn’t need help.”

“You could’ve stopped those Taken. You could’ve saved them all.”

“I paid you to try on that armor. How’s it treating you?”

Joxer was silent. “It worked exactly like you said it would,” he finally responded. “I invaded the other side. The armor locked the Bank down, and I took their Motes right out of it, like they were mine.” He looked down at the deck. “We wiped them out.”

“Yes. Yes, you did,” Drifter said, nodding along fiercely with each detail.

“You’re giving everyone a set of these?”

“If they can build it themselves. I’ll gladly provide the engram prints.” He half-smiled. “Your fireteam—may they rest in peace—they help you out?”

Joxer took his helmet off, rubbed his eyes. “We didn’t use names, just like you told us. The… the Warlock watched our Bank.”

“Like a one-man private security company,” Drifter nodded.

“He always seemed to know where the other Invader was.”

“A Sentry worth their salt always does.”

“And the Hunter. She was a beast. Tore those Cabal up like they were made of paper.”

“Your team’s Reaper,” Drifter clarified. “She’s like you, a born killer. But specializing in the enemies of humanity. Your Collector’s best friend.”

“Yeah, the Collector, one squirrely Titan. Hid a lot, grabbed a bunch of Motes.”

Drifter snickered. “You thought he was useless, didn’t ya?”

Joxer sighed. “‘Til he dropped the meanest Taken I’ve ever seen on the enemy side.”

“Brother, if you manage to summon a giant blocker?” Drifter shook his head, grinning. “That thing’s gotta eat.”

“We had them. We gutted the opposing team. It’s just…” The Titan stopped speaking. He didn’t lift his head, still staring at the deck.

“The Primeval,” Drifter said, with a touch of… pride?

“That Primeval took us apart.”

Drifter shrugged. “You found one that matched your strength. Lesson learned. Make sure your Ghost stays on his toes.”

“They’re all dead,” Joxer said again.

“Yeah, in a town full of immortals,” Drifter said. “Who’da thought? Their cut goes to you. And a little extra to keep, you know, the details outta sight from the Vanguard.”

The rogue Lightbearer kicked the attaché case across the deck. Joxer picked it up without opening it.

“More where that came from, if you want the work,” Drifter said, leaning on his glaive again.

“You’re on your own.” Joxer stood and walked past the Drifter. He left the chamber, massive case in tow.

“You can keep the armor,” Drifter called after him, not bothering to turn around.

As the Titan’s footsteps echoed down the hall towards the Derelict’s hangar, a Ghost emerged from a dark alcove.

“How much data did you pick up?” Drifter asked.

The Ghost’s eye glowed a dark red as it projected patterns across the metal deck: scrolling streams of statistics and figures for each candidate in their roles. Three Ghost-feeds hung in the air, playing on loop. Each one restarted as the same massive Taken came into focus.

Drifter took it all in, his eyes reflecting the blood-red of his Ghost’s Light. His smile was all teeth.

Hello Dragon Trainers & Wizards of Young Minds!

My name is Cressida Cowell and I’m the author and illustrator of the How to Train Your Dragon and Wizards of Once book series.

I have spent 20 years writing middle grade fiction, and over those 20 years I have lost count of the times people have asked me, “Have you ever thought of writing for adults?” as if writing for children was some sort of second-best activity, something you do before moving on to the higher level of writing for adults.

For me, writing for children is the greatest privilege on earth.

What a gift it is, to be lucky enough to write for children, and therefore to be constantly reminded to look at the world through the cool clear eyes of a child. For children are interested in the truly important things in life. Heroism, wilderness, our relationship with the natural world, death, love, spirituality, adventure.

I ask a lot of serious questions in these fantasy books – what are your responsibilities to your friends, your family, your Tribe? To nature, to the environment? All subjects that the kid emerging from childhood into adulthood is beginning to think about.

But I deliberately try and provide emotional support and wisdom for the kid reader, without being preach-y. I’m not a believer in taking children to a scary place and leaving them there. So although I tackle serious issues, and never dumb them down, my books have a strong moral framework and they seek to help children with the challenges they will face in the growing up process.

I am always very happy if someone says to me that they have been through a difficult time, of being bullied, or having a death in the family, and my books have helped them through that.

Idea for educators: Free Writing Friday to inspire student creativity

Having a safe space to explore ideas is so important for children to develop their writing – which is why I’ve started a campaign to encourage children to have a notebook they can write in which there are NO rules, NO grading or marking, just FUN! It’s called Free Writing Friday and I’m asking teachers to set aside time every Friday for their class to take part. It gives children the freedom to write, draw and doodle without worrying about their work being corrected. I hope that you will join me in this weekly experience with your own students! You can also find some of my Flipgrid writing challenges for your students here to help spark their imagination and get started with their own writing notebooks.

On the importance and impact of reading aloud to children

I write books to be read aloud, by adults, to their kids.

Reading aloud to children is a wonderful way of getting them to enjoy books, and associate books with pleasure.

So with reading-aloud in mind, I think about my books as a performance, and the mouth-feel of the words, the loudness or softness, or bellow-yness of the characters. It’s why I gave Toothless a stammer, and Squeezjoos and the sprites in Wizards of Once a bit of a his-s-sy lis-s-sp, and Sychorax a voice as mild as the point of an icicle … so that they make a joyous acting performance, particularly if you are lucky enough to have David Tennant narrate them, as he does with both the How to Train Your Dragon and Wizards of Once series.

I always say to parents, read with your kids, just ten minutes a day, way beyond the age the kid can read for themselves. Books read to you in your parents’ voice live with you all your life.

Reading a book aloud is a shared joy, and sends an important message to the children being read to: books are important, books are powerful, magical things, that can make your dad cry, or your mum laugh, and have the sort of wisdom in them that can change your life.

Connecting with students through Skype in the Classroom

I am so delighted for the opportunity to work with Skype in the Classroom to bring an exciting broadcast and live chat experience to your students on March 6. An author speaking directly to you in your classroom brings reading and writing alive for a student, just as a parent or teacher reading aloud to children can open up a lifetime’s enjoyment of books.

Classrooms around the world will be able to tune in to this Skype in the Classroom broadcast event as we explore together how to open imaginations and create new worlds. I’ll be answering as many questions as I can live after each event. It’s going to be a lot of fun and I hope you’ll join us with your students on March 6!

I can’t wait!

Ok, I’m in! How can I join the event and prepare my classroom?

Check out the How to Train Your Dragon Flipgrid Challenges