Latest / Kendall County News - Shaw Local / Oswego eighth-grader inspiring other students with the release of her first book
Transcript
- 0:05Oswego, eighth grader, inspiring other students with the release of her first
- 0:09book. Written by Eric Shelkov. This article is being read by
- 0:15an automated voice brought to you by Everlett. Not many eighth grade
- 0:20students can say they are a published author. Avery Schmidt can. Schmidt,
- 0:25who attends Thompson Junior High School in Oswego, recently released her first
- 0:29book, The new house. The self-published book is available through Amazon and
- 0:34BookBaby.com, which offers professional self-publishing services for independent authors. BookBaby.com
- 0:42works with Amazon. The new house tells the tale of Sammy and
- 0:46her sister Sophie, who had just moved into a new house. The
- 0:49house, as it turns out, is haunted. Schmidt is a horror genre
- 0:52fan. I like a lot of horror movies and horror books, Schmidt
- 0:57said. But she wanted to put her own twist on the horror
- 1:00genre. I wanted to make a book that you don't see all
- 1:04that often, and include details that also you don't see very often
- 1:08into a book, and I just kind of like pieced all the
- 1:11elements I wanted together to make the book, Schmidt said. Her mother
- 1:16couldn't be more proud.
- 1:17Of her. When she came to me she just said, Oh, I
- 1:20want to write a book some day, Julie Deeking said. She researched
- 1:24publishing companies and did all The legwork. I was just absolutely amazed
- 1:28that everything came together that fast. I am very proud. Dee King's
- 1:33uncle also is a published author. He was real excited to hear
- 1:36that Avery was writing, she said, so we gave another author in
- 1:40the family. In writing The New House, Schmidt was inspired by S.C.
- 1:44Hinton, who began writing her classic novel, The Outsiders, when she was
- 1:4815 years old. I
- 1:50look up to her a lot, Schmidt said. I watched one of
- 1:53her interviews, and she gave a lot of good advice to young
- 1:56authors like me, and I took inspiration from that. Schmidt hopes that
- 2:00her book will help instill a love for reading in her fellow
- 2:04students. I would like them to find what books they like, she
- 2:08said. I hope that if somebody my age reads this book, they
- 2:11might find what the like and find their love for reading that
- 2:14the never knew they had before. And for those who have read
- 2:18The New House and are waiting for a sequel, you might not
- 2:21have to wait long. Schmidt already has started on a sequel. I've
- 2:26gotten six full chapters, and I'm working on the seventh right now,
- 2:29she said. Schmidt hopes to finish the new book later this year.
- 2:34Besides writing, she has other creative endeavors as well, including drawing and
- 2:38playing the electric guitar. Thomson Junior High School Principal Lakita McKinney interviewed
- 2:45Schmidt about her book. The interview is on the school's YouTube channel.
- 2:50This is McKinney first year at the school. When Schmidt told her
- 2:53she had just published a book, McKinney immediately went to Amazon to
- 2:57buy a copy. I told her that when it comes, you have
- 3:02to promise that you're going to come and sign it for for
- 3:04me, McKinney said, and she said that she would. She did so
- 3:09following her YouTube interview with McKinney. McKinney believes that Schmidt can be
- 3:14an inspiration to other students. If you can do it, surely that's
- 3:19going to inspire them to know that it's something that's possible for
- 3:22them, McKinney said.