No thrones unturned for teenage author

Adrianna Tetnowski, who attends St John Fisher Catholic High School, has had the first of what may be 10 books published as she seeks to emulate the success of ‘Thrones’ novellist George RR Martin whose hit series has been turned into a TV phenomenon.

A-Level student Adrianna (18), who lives in March, took four years to see her concept for The Dark Maiden turn from a fanciful idea into a 350-page book, but the effort was all worth it when on Monday Amazon began selling the book on its website and made her a published author.

Adrianna said: “I got my proof copy a few weeks ago and to be able to flick through the pages - there are no words to describe it.

“There was a lot of screaming and jumping around. I’ve always liked writing and reading and I started off with short stories, but I wanted to expand to a bigger project.”

However, from what began life as a small book has now taken off with up to 10 volumes in the pipeline.

The series is based on two families - the Valentis and Redbanes - fighting over a throne with plenty of romance and action, but as Adrianna points out her books should not be compared to Game of Thrones.

The fantasy fan, who lists Lord of the Rings and the ‘Throne of Glass’ series (written by Sarah J. Maas) as her inspirations, is studying English Literature, English Language and classics for her A-Levels.

Yet, getting to grips with a full-scale book proved to be trickier than Adrianna expected. But once she finally added her final full stop on page 350 she turned down a literary agent before going through Amazon’s self-publishing site CreateSpace to promote her piece of work.

And now Adrianna, who is currently writing book three of her series, is considering whether to pursue her ambition of becoming a full-time author or going down a different career path.

She added: “Right now that’s the plan but I will perhaps work towards another career like speech therapy.

“I’m taking a little bit of a break from writing, but once I’ve got my A-Levels done I will spend the whole summer reading and writing before going to uni.

“I’m quite happy right now and I’m not thinking about what’s going to happen next, but I do have plans possibly with advertising myself through social media.”

St John Fisher headteacher Sean Hayes said: “We are just so proud of her. I’m really impressed with her diligence.”

The Dark Maiden: Volume 1 (The Tales of Iradas) is now available on www.amazon.co.uk.