Obsession with words leads to teenager’s novel
Fifteen-year-old author Juliet Thompson-Blyth has published her first book. Photo: Anne Hardie.
Juliet Thompson-Blyth is obsessed with words to the point the 15-year-old Waimea College student has written a 110,000-word novel and published it herself.
Rebels of Allernia: Everburning, took Juliet a year to write, though the characters and plot took a little longer and the end result is something out of the ordinary.
Her story revolves around characters living in a fantasy world divided by prejudice and fear who head to Earth on a quest where they face the challenges of technology instead of their familiar magic, which is an overwhelming experience for them.
“I’ve tried to mirror a few world problems like prejudice,” she says. “The plot took a while to get right and has been a journey.”
Writing it from the perspective of outsiders visiting Earth, she had to learn how to describe everything as though it was being seen for the first time, which she admits was a “weird experience”. The book also has a touch of romance, suitable for its target audience of tweens and young teenagers.
“I’m a hopeless romantic, so it has romance in it as well.”
Juliet has been an avid book reader for as long as she can remember and school librarian Delyth Jones says she is one of the top borrowers of books from the library. Writing was a natural progression for Juliet and she began putting stories together about Allernia when she was in Year 5.
“Writing is so much fun - I love it. It’s so freeing to write and I’m obsessed with words. I read Georgette Heyer and Jane Austen and I’ll start using the words. I love the combinations and the way words sound together.
“It has been a dream to be a writer and have my own book published, and to be sitting here talking about my book is a dream.”
She finished writing the book in September and then edited it pretty much herself with advice from those around her who had read the book. The end result reduced it from 110,000 words to 98,000 words before self-publishing the book because “it is free and easy”.
Her father helped her work through the process online to publish it through Amazon, which is the free part, and then she buys copies to sell. Anyone can buy the book direct from Amazon as well, which is written under the name Juliet C. Blythe which she thought was a simpler name and had a certain ring to it.
“I hope it’s got charm and is amusing and I hope people enjoy the characters. I accidentally based one of the characters on my brother.”
Originally, she intended to write the book as part of a trilogy, but when she attempted to write the sequel, “it just didn’t gel”.
Now she has a completely new book in the making and she says it will reflect her increasing maturity because, as she says, teenagers keep changing as they grow up.
She has not decided if she will publish the next book or simply write it for herself. It is based on a ‘found family’, which are the people you find through life who become family.
As a career, being an author is top of the list, but she is realistic it may have to run alongside another career and so she has her sights on being part of the film industry or engineering, which shows a love for maths as well as writing.
“I like school, which is not a very popular opinion.”