Most students, after getting out of school for the summer, prefer to take some time to relax and decompress from the stress of school.

Sophomore Michael Telles had other plans.

Just days after his freshman year ended, he started writing what would turn out to be a 400 page book about a fantasy world of his own creation. With the working title The Fallen Prince, the book is the first of a planned trilogy.

Starting with a detailed background of the fictional world of Henadoria, which is named after the land’s god, the book tells the story of the son of an advisor to the king. The boy, John Travarti, is best friends with the prince of the kingdom. When the prince resorts to dark magic and ends up becoming possessed, the kingdom starts to fall apart and wage war on other countries under the rule of the prince’s possessed mind. John must develop his rare skills with the “Blue Magic,” or good magic, to right the wrongs that have occurred.

The novel, which focuses on such themes as depression and friendship, takes place in a complex fantasy universe of Telles’s own invention. He constructed the world with inspiration from other novels of various genres. “I had just read a C.S Lewis book called Till We Have Faces; that book kind of set me into motion on what kind of story I wanted to write…but then I started reading these fantasy novels while I was writing the book and they inspired me too, so it turned into a fantasy slash middle ages type book,” Telles explained.

To finish the book within the constraints of the summer, Telles wrote 1250 words per day. Through perseverance and dedication to his craft, he finished the book five weeks into the term. “I actually wanted to sit down and follow through with the entire book so I set a schedule and I followed it. It took a lot of determination,” Telles said. He has started five to six books—however, this was the first one he has finished. “I was so tired of [only writing a few chapters of books]. I didn’t want to do that anymore.”  

This linguistic passion has followed him since sixth grade. “I probably started wanting to be a writer [then] because we had an English teacher who I really liked and she inspired me to write.” This lead to Telles wanting to pursue being an author as a career. “I do want to be a writer when I grow up; I want to study English in college and then I want to become a writer.”

With this determination, Telles hopes to compose more stories for readers in the future. “I want to write stories. I love stories.”