A senior at Armijo and now published writer, Leila Harper shares her thoughts on the writing and publication process of her new book Properties of a Beating Heart:

I’m currently a high school senior and I published a book. It was only a matter of time, really, before my love of reading, writing, and references that only I understand overruled my doubts. Once I graduate, I’m going to attend college and become a therapist / technically-an-author. I hope I have enough time to continue doing what I love: reading, writing, and obsessing over pieces of media that I can effortlessly reference.

When I pitch my book to people who ask, I say this: It’s about a boy who falls in love with a cannibal. It’s not a spoiler. It is a romance, semi-thriller. The target audience would be teenagers, anyone into young adult-type literary styles.

My main character —our protagonist and first-person narrator—is named Sam. He’s a nerd, quite simply. He is shy, quick-witted, and lonely, so very lonely. He’s taken on this less-than-desirable adventure by our love interest. His name is Samuel (the name thing has its meaning). He is cunning, snarky, somewhat aloof, and so very strange. He shows up on the bus one day and intercepts Sam’s life in the most…ill-advised way possible.

Later in the book, I introduce Sam’s old, childhood best friend, Cassie, who moved away a year or so ago. The boys visit her in order to get a sense of direction as to their next course of action. Cassie is outgoing, protective, and abrasive. She’s there to be a supportive outside figure for her friend, who really needs one.

Oh, my inspiration is a funny story that I never get tired of telling. Once upon a time, in sophomore year, my English teacher (Ms. Kimple) assigned a children’s tale, genre-bending activity. I was having a hard time deciding what tale to twist, but eventually I remembered an author I’d loved as a kid: Dr. Seuss. The first three chapters are almost the exact same as the original thriller twist to Green Eggs and Ham. I didn’t start to continue the story until a friend of mine suggested I keep going after I pressured them to read my 20 pages of pride and joy. An origin story for the ages, in my opinion.

Funnily enough, I think I tend to switch back-and-forth. For Properties of a Beating Heart, I started with the plot, fell in love with the characters, then continued building the plot from there. A lot of the time, I’ve found, a plot gets stuck when you don’t know your characters well enough. I’d say they go hand-in-hand that way.

I think I’ve already achieved what I’ve wanted to, to be honest. I wanted to get my work published because I thought it would be cool to say that I got a work published. I’m technically-an-author, which I’ve always wanted to say. The fact that it’s for a story that I put my entire heart into—something that I’d worked on and felt so proud of and happy about for about two years—is pretty amazing. Hearing my friends and family be so supportive and enthusiastic about it is so much more incredible than I ever had in mind.

Man, oh, man I have waited so long for this question. First, suspend your disbelief. I simply hope that readers can take away from the book with having a few hours of enjoyment. That’s really all I wanted to do, write a self-indulgent monstrosity that others might enjoy reading, too.

I think my readers hear me beg “Read my book” more than anything. It’s something of an inside joke with myself at this point (you’ll see I do that a lot). But, my favorite thing is the pure shock people get when they read certain parts. I like to have pulled the rug out from under people. I like to hear when they gush over the romantic parts and laugh at the funny parts and recognize my plethora of references.

I would like more feedback, though. And not just in a self-serving biased way…

I tend to remind myself, “I don’t know anything about anything,” which might be telling of how the researching process goes. I suppose I’ll close by saying that, in my acknowledgments, I thank my search history for not judging me for looking up “how do people trains work”. Learning new things is fun, though. I do believe I know more about cannibalism than the average person, though. So that’s pretty cool.

Ideas come at the strangest times. It could be from a one-off tidbit in a dream, to a random piece of dialogue that pops into my mind, to a detail of another’s narrative that I like fine-tuned until it’s an original.

In my opinion, good writing comes from flow. I’m a sucker for a piece of hard-hitting dialogue, clichéd tropes, and a majestic phrase of description. I find when I notice that a story has good writing, it has been cohesive and fun. If it’s fun to read, if I’m blazing through the book only to pause on lines that make me feel emotional, then I’d say that the writing is good.

To quote Chandler Bing, “I’m not so good at the advice, can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?” My best advice is to write down anything and everything you can. Whenever you have an idea or have the urge to just write, start typing. Because something will come to you. And you can always keep revising. In creative writing, there’s no deadline until you decide there is.

I think my publication process might have been smoother than most because I chose a self-publishing company. Shout-out to Writer’s Republic, which I found on Google while looking up free self-publishing companies. The free part was really in the “We’ll publish your book for you” I input my book’s information and my email and then I went back to Life In 2020. They emailed me back asking for confirmation that I wanted to be in the self-publishing process, I told my mom, then I said Yes.

The first thing they needed, obviously, was my manuscript. I did some last-minute edits, formatted my Lato-font Google Doc into a double-spaced Word and sent it in. Then, it was a jumble of cover-designing, title-choosing, description-making, and contract-signing. My team was very kind and patient with my indecisiveness and subpar communication skills. Publishing is a very daunting experience, but they were very accommodating people. When I wanted to go back and change something, they helped me in doing so. They helped remind me that I was in charge. You have the final decision on everything.

So, in my experience, publishing consisted of contracts and putting on the final touches. There was a lot of time between each step (especially near the financing fin), but it was all so worth it. When I got my first print copy of my book in the mail, I cried. When my mom’s copy (the first ordered) came in (with new and improved dimensions), I cried then as well.

Self-publishing, for me, took either two or three months. They got back to me so timely, it was a shock every time I got emailed back with more progress made.

Being me, I was incredibly anxious for those three months. Self-doubt is my downfall. It can be very hard to get out of a slump of regret, nitpicking at everything too late, but getting reassurances from my friends and family is helpful in grounding those anxious thoughts. I worked hard, I created something, and I’m proud that I did.

I’ve always loved stories. I’ve always been drawn to telling stories of my own, whether that be through playing pretend with my friends or my dolls as a kid. I wanted to find that perfect medium for expressing my ideas, and that, for me, turned out to be writing.

I have been writing since I was very young. Ever since I learned how to type, I think. I remember typing out the games of pretend my friends and I had played at recess on my dad’s old laptop. I would crave writing assignments given by my teachers and spend all the time I had in class to finish the little tale I had in mind. Whenever I could put my thoughts to paper (or in a Word Document), I would.

I think I first started considering myself a “writer” once I committed myself to writing certain anthologies of the fan-kind. It was constant practice to write about something I love, as well as honing in on my passion for writing itself.

When I was a child, I went through a few different phases of Dream Job, but I know for sure that for a long time I wanted to be a veterinarian.

I have definitely always wanted to write things. Being an author has always been in the back of my mind as something I know I would love to do, but I do have a career that I am going to pursue. I want to go to college and become a therapist, but I will definitely still be writing.

Oh gosh. I am perpetually—these days, at least—working on something. I’ll have an idea and then I’ll keep it in my notes app, or it’ll go straight into a new Document if I have a solid plan in mind. That being said, I’m working on another main Work In Progress currently, but I do have about three more minor stories that I have open from time to time.

While writing, I always have music in the background. I always work with music, or some familiar tv show noise in the background that won’t distract me. A good thing, I think, about always having a phone on me is that whenever inspiration strikes, I can take out my phone and put it down in my notes, no matter where I am.

Writer’s block is the worst. The worst thing is just staring at your Document and your mind is absolutely blank as to What Happens Next.

Did you know that it would take about three months to eat one adult human male?

I’m an introvert with, to be honest, not very many life experiences under my belt. I don’t know anything about anything, which makes my writing much more…phantasmagorical.  I will admit that being a part of The Armijo Signal has given me more opportunities to balance out strictly essay and unprofessionally creative writing. The practice is good, especially when you’re in IB.

After high school, I want to go to a university, get my Psychology diploma, and become an occupational therapist. A job and a driver’s license would do me, well, too. I think all my goals revolve around the romanticization of regular adult life.

I’m a reader. I love books, and movies, puzzles and logic puzzle games, video games, and watching people play video games. I like to scroll through fanart and inside jokes, draw and talk to my friends. I like my own company, especially when I have my dog there.

For now, I’m trying to graduate and get ready for life post-graduation. Otherwise, I’m working on a new, fantasy story about a girl who can see ghosts that has to save the world with a witch. Obviously, they fall in love.

I am but a humble “writer” who hopes to entertain.