WARDSVILLE, Mo. -- Fifteen-year-old Hannah Hughes said she wanted to publish a book by age 26. She's beaten that deadline by quite a few years.
The Blair Oaks freshman independently published "Games," a fantasy novel that takes place in an alternate dimension of Earth where people have developed special powers.
The main character, Lou, who is gender-neutral and referred to as "they," is the child of Lucifer, the queen of hell. Lou and their friends battle an evil game master who zaps people out of their homes to compete in a torturous game of challenges.
She said the storyline came to her in a vivid dream that included almost every scene in the book. It took her about a month to write and nearly a year to edit.
Hughes has been writing fan fiction for several years, mostly based off the video game Mindcraft and Mindcraft YouTube characters.
Hughes wrote "Games" atop an old wooden piano with exposed keys in the downstairs of her Wardsville home. She said she has abandoned her room and spends most of her time there writing stories and recording original songs.
Her goal is to be a a full-time author or a psychologist.
What about fantasy appeals to you?
"I really like the whole concept of magic and being able to bend the things around you without physically interacting with them. It's different from the real world. It's more interesting. I also read a lot of fantasy. I like the "Maximum Ride' series quite a bit. They're teenagers, so that's really easy to relate to. I mostly read fan fiction now, though. I can't think of any particular one that I read a lot."
Are there elements in the book that are personal to you, such as characters or situations that occur?
"Not really. I put some of my character traits into the characters accidentally, which I know you're not supposed to do, but it kind of happens anyways and it helps me connect to them. I am extremely emotionally attached to these characters, but really they aren't that similar to me. I mostly added my humor and speech patterns. They talk like teenagers, which is only acceptable because they are teenagers."
Any ideas for your next book? It sounds like this could be a series.
"It's a vague series. While the next book doesn't contain the same characters or the same plot at all, there are small, barely noticeable connections. The connections explain why everyone in the game has their superpowers, and the game shows up slightly. The premise behind the new book is the emotives that can feel emotions normally, the blanks that don't feel any emotion at all but wish they could, and the adapters that can adapt to the people around them. In other words, if they're around an emotive, they'll start feeling and if they're around a blank, they'll lose the ability to feel. The main character, Tyler, is emotive. He lives in a town of blanks. These two emotives say, "Hi, we're just like you, and we want you to meet other people that are like you,' and he's really overwhelmed by that. It takes place in the same world (as the first book) but many years in the future."
What was the most difficult part about writing the book?
"I suppose it would be the pronouns mostly. I couldn't use them at all in reference to Lou or else the entire effect was ruined. I had several people proofread the book just looking for pronouns. But the rest was pretty easy. If I'm into the characters, it's easy to get going. The first few chapters are always a little forced, and I usually have to tweak them a bit, but after that it just flows."
What was the decision behind making Lou gender-neutral?
"Well, (Lou's) main love interest is a boy, and some people have serious problems with that. So I made it so they could take it either way and not be entirely offended. Lou was originally a boy."
After you published your book, was there anything you wished you could change?
"Oh yes, I read through and cringe. One thing was, that was an editing mistake, was in the middle of a big boss battle; there's a random character thrown in. And my writing style changes every two months, so I look back and notice all the sentences seem short and choppy. It seemed fine when I first read through it in the editing process, but now I look back and don't like it."
Do you have any advice for young writers who would like to publish a book?
"I know this is an overused piece of advice, but you can't publish it if you don't write it. Even if it seems bad while you're typing it, it's still worth writing. If you can get into the characters and get past the starting point, you can finish it."