About the Author

About Me!

Hi! My name is Marisa. I am 17 years old and I love to read, write and draw. I published my first book at the age of 16 and I am working on a few more works in progress. Together, with my teachers and family as support, I aspire to be a famous author, like J. K. Rowling. and Tui. T Sutherland, not to mention James Patterson (sorry Shakespeare, nobody can ever hope to out-fame you! 😂)

I hope that my story/journey will inspire other creative, young adults to reach for the stars and see what you can achieve (almost anything, except immortality. Yes, I'm talkin' about you Nicholas Flamel.)

You can learn more about my journey as a young adult author/writer below! I wish you the best and may your dreams come true!

Step 1: Inspiration

Shown below are three images depicting the things that started it all, from English Essay Assignment, to published book (Hey, kids! Guess what? School work actually is useful! 😄).

The Assignment

This is the assignment that started it all. For our assignment, we were given a choice of 10 or so images which we had to choose from, and then describe a scene that might happen using that image. I chose "Friendship", which was my favorite. I used this graphic organizer and created my story/essay (second image).

The Trial (And error)

This is my (very) rough draft of the assignment that lead to the creation of "The Fate of the Future".

The Idea

This is the picture that started it all. I used this to create my fictional character Athena and her humorous, yet adorably sweet, tiger best friend Zeus. Together, they would travel the continent, seeing amazing sights and places that were hidden away for centuries. They would (unknowingly) be the ones that the whole future of the world rode upon and it would be their duty to solve a mystery and uncover secrets (both about other things and also about themselves) in order to save all Fuamahoyians from utter destruction. They would save the world together.

Step 2. The Struggle (Is Real)

Okay, so I had the assignment, turned it in, and I thought "Oh, wow, this is pretty good" --Pats self on back -- "I think this would be an epic idea for a book.

So, I wondered and thought. I told my mom, and she asked my big brother about how he published his books (see the Helpers! part of the Shoutouts! section for more info on that and a direct link to his books).

He directed me to KDP (Kindle Direct Publishing), which is a self-publisher made by Amazon, and is available for anyone with a bank account (for paying you the money you should get from selling a book) and an Amazon account (for publishing purposes).

So we tried it. And it looked pretty easy. So began the publishing process. Choose paperback or hardcover. Add the title, description, and the author's name. Pretty easy...but...

Then came the struggle. To make the book, you have to use Microsoft Word to type up your manuscript. Now began the fighting with the word program to get my text just right, the fun nonsense about having to have the pages correct so the layout looks good. All that fun stuff. :)

Then, I made my cover, via Canva (not sponsored, lol). I think it looked awesome. Anyway, so then all I had to do was upload the manuscript as a PDF and then add my book cover (front and back) and then add the details (price, description, tags, etc... that stuff), and then they would review it and email me when it was published.

Step 3: Getting Published

So began the three days of waiting...

Then came the rejections from the reviewers, saying my font was too small, or big, or didn't work, or my image went over the trim line, or my cover needed to be fixed, or blah blah blah....Frustration.

But, I fixed the errors and sent it back, about 3 times and then...voilà...

My book was published over night, and it was available to buy.

I was a published author.

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