The First Book I've Ever Written

Stolen Friendship

Summary: Best friends Jorge and Pedro are both a little nervous about their first day at a new high school as incoming freshmen. Luckily, they have each other to lean on for support and encouragement, just as they have throughout their entire childhood. But when Pedro falls ill and misses the second day of school, everything changes.

With Pedro home sick, Jorge has an opportunity to make a new friend. Although he is reluctant at first, he and Juan eventually have so much fun hanging out together that he soon forgets about Pedro. When Pedro returns to class a few days later, he makes a crushing discovery. His friendship with Jorge has been stolen right out from under him. As he attempts to grapple with life without Jorge, Pedro must decide whether to fight for the friendship or walk away forever. But it is not long before the three boys all realize that life is full of unexpected surprises.

In this juvenile novel, two best friends begin high school together where they soon become immersed in a friendship triangle that leaves them both wondering what will happen next.

My inspiration for writing this book:

I was inspired to write during my early days at school while reading other books. As a middle school kid, I loved to read books and create scenarios in my head that would later become stories. I blend my real-life experiences and incidents into my fictional works. I started writing short stories initially, and by age fourteen, I wrote this chapter book, which I kept a secret. Hence, it remained unpublished for several years before I decided to reveal its existence.

Detailed Story of my Experience:

As a child, I loved to read, imagine, and create scenarios in my mind. My favorite genres were fiction, fantasy, mystery, and adventure. By the age of ten, I started writing short stories which eventually inspired me to write a children’s novel. My story ideas were obtained from the notes I took from my own personal experiences at school and from other sources. One of my stories manifested as six distinct chapters yet connected together by the same characters and an underlying theme. The challenging part with my book was coming up with titles for each chapter hence, I read my own story several times before coming up with an appropriate title. The biggest challenge I faced was to come up with a title. The title for my book had to be catchy yet had to describe what my novel was about. After going through several titles in my head like "The Best Friend", "Friendship", "Friends", I finally settled on the title "Stolen Friendship”. My book was now complete. I turned fourteen and decided to keep it a secret, so I placed it in a bookshelf among other books where no one could find it. I would take out my story notebook and read my stories over and over during summer and other breaks; it gave me joy and a sense of accomplishment. While reading stories written by other authors, I would wish that the story ended differently. But with my story, I felt in control of my script, and this was a very fulfilling and positive experience.

Years passed and my story book gathered dust, until one day, my younger sister found this storybook and started reading it. I was a bit surprised that she found it but let her read my stories as she was already ten years old and I was also eager to get some feedback on my work. She thought I was a great author; while that made me happy, I did not believe it. My sister informed my parents about the book, and they were amazed and thrilled to hear that. They wanted to read my book, but I was not ready to share this with them yet because I was not sure if the book was good and worth their read. A few days later, one of my friends came over to my home, happened to see my story book lying on my sister's desk, and read my story. She too was excited to read it. This gave me some confidence that my novel was not bad after all. A few days later I decided to share my writings with my parents who encouraged me to come out and publish the novel as they too found it very entertaining.

Finally, I mustered up enough courage and visited the publisher with my parents. The publisher explained the whole process including typing my hand written manuscript. Typing up the entire book was a herculean task and was not possible without the help from my family. The editor from the publishing company made several edits taking several months for my manuscript to be ready. The next step was the selection of a theme for my book cover which again took a few days before my book was ready to be published. The publishing company handled the rest, and I was super excited to receive my copies and see it selling on Amazon’s website. A few book signing events followed as a part of launching my book. I am very thankful to all my family members for making my book see the light and hope to write more and inspire others with my stories.

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