Novel success: C. Falls teen publishes futuristic fantasy novel

When the mail came on June 22, Skyler Smith began running around her house. She was screaming,  jumping up and down.

That went on for about 20 minutes. Finally she calmed down. Then her parents took her picture to document the day.

It was a momentous occasion for the Columbia Falls High School sophomore, who had just received the first copy of the book she wrote. After six months of intense work, Smith, 15, was finally holding the fantasy novel “Partal” in her hands.

“I always wanted to publish my own book, but I didn’t think it would happen so soon,” Smith said. “It’s still weird.”

Smith’s journey in publishing began seven months earlier when she entered the annual National Novel Writing Month competition. It’s an online contest that challenges participants to write a 50,000-word novel during November.

The month is about quantity. Writers can have character sketches and plot outlines prepared in advance, but all written prose must happen between Nov. 1 and midnight Nov. 30.

On Nov. 2 last year, Smith found out about the competition. By Nov. 10 she had written 10,000 words.

Smith wasn’t happy with her story. “I scrapped it all,” she said.

She took some time off from writing and then began exploring a short story she first started in seventh grade.

During November, her Facebook page contained only word count updates. Some of her friends thought she was crazy, but she kept working.

Finally it came down to Thanksgiving break. She was off from school and knew if she was going to finish, it was now or never.

Smith started writing ferociously. She typed faster than words could appear on the computer screen.

“I figured out that if I wrote about 5,000-plus words every day I could finish. I would write while everyone else watched TV,” she said. She spent two to three hours at a stretch writing. Her parents had to force her to go to bed at night.

But finally, success. Smith completed the novel by hitting the 50,000 word mark before the deadline.

That’s when Smith first learned she could publish the book. After the contest checked her word count, she received an ISBN number with the option to self publish the book through CreateSpace and Amazon.com.

“I was doing it for the satisfaction,” Smith said. “I didn’t know I could get an ISBN number or get it published. Being able to do it has been a great opportunity.”

Smith took the month of December off. Then in January she began editing. Her mom, Joanne, read the book. Teachers and family friends read the book.

“I felt like I read it five million times. I read it backwards,” Smith said. “I was falling asleep while reading it.”

Smith fixed the typos and removed the extra commas. She expanded the story to make it more clear, finally adding about 1,000 more words. She designed the book’s cover.

When it was all finished, Smith published her book on June 5 in time for her 15th birthday.

“Partal” is a futuristic fantasy which follows companions Venosa and Damal, who are fairies, along with Grajay, a snow leopard, and Keelan, a golden eagle. The foursome are pushed out of the only home they’ve known and begin a journey to a large city.

Smith first created the story for a seventh-grade assignment. She had to draw a character and do an outline of the character before writing a four-page story.

“I had to create one main character, but I’m not a one main character kind of person,” she said. Instead she created four characters.

When it came to the contest, Smith had the beginnings of the story and the background that never made it into those original four pages.

“The characters stayed the same, but I worked with the story and expanded it,” she said of writing for the contest.

Smith draws inspiration from well-known fantasy writers like Philip Pullman, and mentions Cassandra Clare and Amelia Atwater-Rhodes along with J.K. Rowling as her favorite authors.

“When I write I gravitate to fantasy, but I’ll read anything,” she said. “I like fantasy because I have to create it and there’s more to imagine.”

Her love of reading is apparent. With six shelves of books in her room, Smith can often be found reading multiple books at one time.

“She loves to write. She loves to read,” her mom said. “She would read to her brother Jonah when he was little nearly every night.”

Her dad, Bill, is proud of her accomplishment.

“It’s really been amazing with young people as busy as they are, to see someone as passionate about something as she is,” he said. “It’s been neat to see her excitement when she earned the chance to publish it and the non-stop work she has done until the first copy hit the mailbox.”

While writing, Smith maintained a 4.0 GPA her freshman year, participated in Girl Scouts and was a member of the tennis team. She is also a musician, artist and photographer.

This summer she’ll be promoting her book and doing a signing at the Summer’s Last Art Blast event on Saturday, Aug. 28, on the Flathead County Courthouse lawn in Kalispell. She will have a limited number of books available for $15.

“We hope maybe she can sell enough books to help pay for her first year of college,” Joanne said. “We love to see her do what she loves.”

 In addition, Smith is also plotting the sequel to “Partal.” She plans to write the sequel during this year’s competition, but this time she’ll start out a bit more prepared. She has been thinking about where her characters are headed next.

“I know what’s going into it this time,” she said.

“Partal” is available in paperback on Amazon.com for $15.49.