East High Student Publishes First Novel

Budding young author and sophomore at East High School, Kathleen Veltkamp, published her first novel last month.  12 Sided Dice is a story highlighting how our perspective is our reality.

It is set in the future with sci-fi elements, yet Kathleen classifies it as semi-realistic fiction, based in the realm of possibility.  She uses different cultures and languages to take us through two versions of the same event.  In her words, “two people, one story.”

Kathleen’s interest in writing began as a love of reading when she was very young.  She still reads between 20 and 30 novels a year.  It was around age eight that she realized she could use words to tell her own stories, and at nine she had decided she was going to write a book.  The years between then and now were filled with many hours of ideas and trial starts.  She landed on the two protagonist characters for 12 Sided Dice about a year ago and it bloomed from there.  The story opens with an explosion that decimates a large area and kills thousands of people.  The reader is then whisked back and forth between the perspective of the person suspected of responsibility and the perspective of a grieving and vengeful victim, as they try to discover what really happened.

What Kathleen loves most about writing is the window it opens into her imagination.  “I have a deep deep well in my head. I want to see how far I can dig,” she says.  She is currently working on another book exploring the idea of souls, but does have plans to write a sister book to 12 Sided Dice down the road.

         When asked what advice she would give to other young people with a story to tell, Kathleen says “If you don’t think you have time, just write one word of your story everyday. Then write an outline.  And most importantly, be flexible because it will probably change all the time as you are writing it.”

12 Sided Dice is available on Amazon in paperback and Kindle.  You can find her on Twitter at kathleenVeltka1 or on Instagram at whyamIwritingsuchalongname.

Article by: Jill Veltkamp