An adventure tale has taken a young local author from Fergus on a journey into the world of creative writing and publishing.
Rea Garrison, an eighth grader at St. Joseph's Catholic School, recently published her debut, 5,000-word novel titled, The Long Way Home. The story follows Jasper, a curious dragon who flies away from his home island to investigate a bright light out on the dark sea surrounding the island.
Written as part of a nationwide creative writing contest called Kids Write 4 Kids, Rea's self-published book is available for purchase through Amazon or the Garrison family.
"There was a challenge and it pushed me to finish one (The Long Way Home), because I would write things, but I wouldn't necessarily finish them, completely with editing and cropping and all that," Rea said about participating in Kids Write 4 Kids, which was open for students in grades 4 to 8. "It took me about a year to write it and half a year to publish it."
While she didn't win the creative writing contest, Rea said going through self-publishing gave her more control over what happened with her book.
"I got to (decide) what the cover art would look like and I got to work with my family on it," said Rea.
Dragons captured Rea's imagination in Grade 3 when she noticed the material on the cover of her journal looked like dragon scales. She said this connection inspired her to write her first story about a dragon that same year.
"I wrote about dragons then, and I generally like dragons, so when I started on the story (The Long Way Home), I did it based on dragons because I really like dragons," said Rea.
For her first novel, Rea said she had a lot of help from family and attending writing workshops with the Ripple Foundation, a non-profit offering free writing workshops. The foundation also hosts the Kids Write 4 Kids.
"I went through editing, revising and how to draft, but I felt the plot line was very helpful because I would start writing and then I would stop writing and get stuck because I didn't know where to go because I didn't have a plot line," said Rea.
Lauren Garrison, Rea's mom, came across the Ripple Foundation writers workshops during the pandemic after her daughter expressed an interest in wanting to hone her skills. After attending those workshops, Rea also took part in free workshops from the Toronto creative writing festival, Word On The Street.
"I think that was a great experience for Rea to participate in, because you don't always find kids with the same passions who live close to you, so it was good for Rea to connect with other people her age who had the same passion for writing and wanted to connect as well," said Lauren.
Lauren adds her daughter was encouraged to start writing stories after transferring out of a French immersion program in elementary school.
"She always liked writing better than reading, and when we started doing that, that's when she wrote her first dragon story," said Lauren.
When Rea decided to begin writing The Long Way Home, Lauren, her mother and an aunt all helped her. Lauren adds they also organized a book launch for Rea so she could experience that aspect of publishing. Between 50 to 60 people attended the launch.
"Anyone who knows her knows she's been pretty much talking about this, pretty well non-stop to anyone who would listen so just having so many friends support her has been fantastic, because it has taken up so much of her mind space for the past two years," said Lauren.
"We're just so proud of her, that she was able to see it from the start of the process all the way to the end."
Rea said she had a lot of help with her novel and learned to surround herself with people who have been encouraging her writing, like her family and friends.
"I do enjoy it and it is something I would do it again because I know what the experience is like," said Rea, who is already working on her second novel.
