In April of 2024, Stephen Kozan hosted a competition for the upcoming authors. He is a well-known author who founded a publishing company named ReadyAimWrite Kids to help young authors have an opportunity to publish their work.
The competition consisted of writing, either on paper or on the computer, a pitch for a story, and instead of one winner, we got two! Natalia Norek, mostly known as Mike and Patterson Graeme Kelley.
Now that their books are about to be published, I interviewed them about their experience.
Congratulations on winning the competition! What was your initial reaction when you found out you won?
Patterson: Thank you, thank you! I guess the first thing would be dropping all of my things on the floor? I remember it happening in math class, I got an email and I nearly busted my chrome book while celebrating.
What happened after wasn’t as fun though, I heard there was a second winner and I panicked because I thought this was some sort of king of the hill, whoever gets there first wins the prize. I know it wasn’t now, but man, at that moment I was terrified to ever look in Mike’s direction again…
Can you give us a brief summary of your book? What is it about?
Patterson: Sure thing! My book takes place several years in the future. Very suddenly and unexpectedly the ocean started to rise. Smaller towns in the countryside were quickly wiped off the map, and the only strongholds of humanity left are the cities and the many skyscrapers in them. Bea, who is the main protagonist, is the child of Smith! Both of them are struggling to adapt to the changes in their lives; for Bea that’s the change to their entire world, and for Smith, that’s Bea’s change in themself.
When a third party gets involved that Smith doesn’t deem as safe, Bea is put in this tug-of-war scenario between their mysterious friend Looker and Smith. The main conflict comes between Bea having to make this choice on an impending deadline, but if I go too much more into detail I’ll spoil too much!
Can you tell us about the journey of writing your book? How did the idea come to you?
Patterson: At first it felt so good. I was in my class, ignoring my teacher while I discreetly typed. Every now and again I’d change screens to not be suspicious, and then change right back to the book. Somewhere around half way into writing it I started to pick up forum roleplaying, and I totally got side tracked. Finals really just stomped out the motive too, I had completely stopped writing in Tidal by the time school ended.
And then Summer started. My writing had become so much different from when I started that I realized “Man, at some point, I just have to re-write all of this, huh”. I already had such a vivid idea of what I wanted for the finale that all I wanted to do was get there.
So school starts back, I have a half-finished book I have to fix and I think I have plenty of time. I leisurely write for a little bit, talk to Mike and the other authors on the side, and we start talking about submitting it. And, it’s then that I realized I was SO VERY DUMB. I thought I had an extra month to write, but my deadline was in like 29 days, and I had to pump out HALF MY BOOK by then. So I started writing over time, the best thing that happened to me was that 29 day limit. Without it, I’d have never gotten done so fast.
As for how the idea came to me, I suppose it’s a lot of personal stuff. I see a lot of myself in Bea, and some of my dad in Smith. The book is primarily about communication, so I was thinking how can I make it more interesting? What better thing could I use to represent tension than a literal rising ocean? I liked the idea a lot, at least.
What was the most challenging part of writing the book while juggling school and other responsibilities?
Patterson: Finding motivation. Next?
Jokes aside, yeah, motivation. When you’re juggling so much, and have to do so much other junk, you tend to burn out. You start replacing the motivation candle only to realize you’ve swapped writing time for homework time, or sleeping time, and it’s a whole kerfuffle. If I write a second one I’m taking it slower, leaving more time for myself so I don’t burn my wick out so fast.
Everything else came pretty easily otherwise!
How has your writing style evolved since you first started writing?
Patterson: Man, so I loved the third person. I thought it was the best writing style, and that writing first person would be a slough. HUGE. MISTAKE. My style of really trying to nestle into a character’s headspace is so stunted by third person, I really couldn’t focus on what a character was thinking. It felt really restricting, and there’s times where I think I broke through but ended up coming short.
Nowadays I’d have written the book in the first person, which is a lot more fitting for me, at least.
Who are some of your biggest influences or favorite authors, and how have they shaped your writing?
Patterson: Really good question! I don’t read!
If I had to nail one influence, it would probably be really good movies like the original The Thing movie. The atmosphere of that movie really helped me shape the feeling I wanted for the opening scene with two characters out in the middle of the sea at midnight.
As for the setting? Those scenery shots of cities overgrown with plant life really helped me shape the world. Seeing nature take over something humans made is such an interesting sight. I took the concept a step forward, how would humans adapt to nature taking over their cities and infrastructure? Thus, the setting for Tidal was born.
What do you hope readers will take away from your book?
Patterson: Communication isn’t easy. You won’t be able to instantly solve all of your problems either; it’s always a process. The first step in fixing a broken relationship is both parties recognizing there’s a problem, and trying to take steps from there on how to repair it.
How did you feel when you first saw your book getting published? What has the experience been like so far?
Patterson: Terror. Oh my lord. I poured so much of my personal feelings into this book, and a lot of the moments and plot beats were based on things I wanted to communicate to my dad. The book is mainly dedicated to him, and I had completely forgotten that other people would be reading it.
Whenever I get a facebook message from a relative saying they bought it, I shrivel up a little.
What advice would you give to other young writers who are trying to get their work out there?
Patterson: Please take your time. If you end up diving so thoroughly into it like I did, you might end up burning yourself out and having a project you don’t like.
It’s also okay to go back and change what you’ve written! You’re able to go back at any point and change something you’re not satisfied with or if it doesn’t make sense. Don’t feel scared to do this, it isn’t regression, it’s absolutely a necessary step of some people’s writing.
And never base the quality of your writing off the word count. You could make a mona lisa in ten words or ten thousand.
Are there any themes or messages in your book that you’re particularly passionate about?
Patterson: Communication. As someone who has found it really hard to communicate my words and feelings, being able to write a book about how communication is messy and others not always picking up on non-verbal signals felt so important. It’s a big part of my connection with my father, which I really tried to infuse into this book.
What’s next for you? Do you have any other writing projects in the works, or future plans as an author?
Patterson: What ‘s next? Hoh hoh hoh. Well you see, I’ve started planning another book! If I’m fortunate enough to be able to publish again, I’d be publishing a book called Ship in a Bottle, a murder mystery set on a private yacht as a news reporter sees four individuals slowly get picked off until she’s the only one left out in the middle of the ocean.
This newer one would be much less about my personal feelings, and more about my passions. I love murder mysteries and detective fiction, and being able to write my own with its unique twists and twirls? I hope any fan of a good whodunnit would enjoy it!
After that? I think I’ll retire from my author journey! I don’t see it lasting a while through college, as sad as that is.
This year’s competition was on Monday, February 3rd during the 7th period, you need to contact Mrs. Canon to be able to participate. Steven Kozan talked about his books, publishing company, and the competition. Later this week he’ll choose his next winner!!
If you want to buy the book to support the authors please go to the library. Here are the prices:
Campus Exorcist by Mike Norek: $20
Tidal by Patterson Graeme Kelley: $15
