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Grandville High School senior publishes first book ahead of graduation

Posted at 11:23 AM, Feb 01, 2021
and last updated 2021-02-01 11:27:46-05

GRANDVILLE, Mich. — A senior at Grandville High School is wasting no time getting a head start on her career, a career she’s been developing from a very young age.

“When I finally got into books, I just could not stop reading them. And I read them so much, I started creating stories in my head writing my own little things, just my brain," said Senior Katherine Faulk.

Fast forward more than a decade and this is where you can find the 17-year old, most days; in her writing room. Those stories in her head now flowing like a river into a Google Doc on her laptop.

“Yeah, it was just a few scenes, the same characters over and over, I'd replay um, try different things. And finally I, they became characters, they formed more and more into people," said Faulk.

And those people developing into a story, but it certainly did not come easy.

“I'll say that the first chapter, it was just I told myself, just write it, go for it. If it's trash, you can get rid of it. You really just have to go for it and learn from your mistakes as you go. I remember after the first draft of the first book, I went back and deleted 60 pages, which is a lot and you Yeah, you just figure it out as you go.”

As Katherine was figuring it out, she did have some help. Her mom Susan, who is an English teacher at Kelloggsville High School, edited the book and was blown away.

“Oh, my goodness, this kid can really write. I can't write like that. So I bet the imagination, her page is full of details. You can see it, feel it, taste it, and everything she describes just comes alive. And then I get wrapped up in the story. And yet, I'm trying to edit and editing is a very slow process. But yet, I want to read this story”, said Susan Faulk.

It took Katherine about a year to finish, and it’s called “New Dawn”.

“It follows the idea of what if the seasons were connected to people, it follows Autumn Evington, the heir to the fall throne as she's forced into an arranged marriage by her father, and she's very, very stubborn, and decides if I'm going to get married to me, I don't know, well, I want to learn about where I'm going first. So I'm just going to go there on my own. So she goes to Winter.”

As Spring approaches and Katherine graduates from Grandville, her immediate plans will take her to Northern Michigan University, with her future plans in tow.

“You want to become an author someday, but I get that can be a hard process, especially with querying and it's hard to get into the system of the author world. So no matter what I do in the future, I want to work with books”, said Katherine. In the meantime, she continues to write for two hours every day, and her next book is close to being done.

“Yeah, I finished the second draft of the second book a few days ago. So my family will read it soon. And then more revision, revision. And yeah, then I'll hopefully put it online.”

But Katherine’s dream goes way beyond that.

“I'd have at least one book published. Not just self-published, like through an agency and through all that, and maybe it hits top 10 on some board or something, but just have one book. That's pretty good.” Katherine’s pen name, K.L. Faulk, was inspired by author S.E. Hinton, who wrote the book, “The Outsiders”, in her teens back in the 1960’s.

She also credits author, Stephen King, who wrote a book about writing, as a great resource for her during the process.

You can find “New Dawn” by K.L. Faulk on Amazon.