Former Taylor High pupil Carla Lees starting writing Luna Venatores: Rise when she was 14 years old
A teenage author from North Lanarkshire has published what she intends to be the first of a series of five fantasy books.
Carla Lees, a former pupil of Taylor High in Motherwell, had been writing her debut novel for a number of years and decided to self-publish after completing the book, including cover design, by herself.
The 18-year-old kept her book, Luna Venatores: Rise, under wraps, keeping it a secret from her friends and family members.
Carla, who lives in Holytown, said: “I didn’t actually tell anyone except my twin sister that the book existed until it came out – I was too nervous to. I think I gave everyone a heart attack.
“I did the cover design, back cover design, formatting, etc, all completely by myself.
“My dad self-published a book during lockdown so because of that I had a bit more idea of what I was doing.
“My book came out in November and it’s the first in a fantasy series about a species. It follows the story of teenage girl who is dealing with the loss of her father after evil enters the town. She’s trying to discover what happened to him and why, which takes her on a winding path.”
Despite her love of writing and literature, Carla, wasn’t always so keen on sharing her writing with others.
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She said: “Since I could read I’ve been an absolute bookworm, and it’s something I’ve always wanted to do. I’ve written loads of stuff but this is the first thing I’ve written that I thought was good enough to have other people read it.
“I reached out to people online and got a lot of good feedback on it – so I thought, ‘why not!’.
“I’ve always been into reading fantasy stuff, I read Harry Potter and Chris Jackson and those sorts of things, and watched TV shows. And a lot of those things helped to bring it all together. It did take a long time to get to that point – I’ve been writing it since I was 14.
“I started off writing it in a screenplay format but then put it away for a while. I came back to it a year later with an idea to turn it into something different.”
Ironically, Carla returned to working on the book as she wasn’t enjoying the best of times at school.
“I had so many ideas that I wrote my thoughts down in a notebook,” she said. “When I organised my thoughts and put a timeline on, there was too much for one book. I reckon it will take about five books to say everything I want to say.”
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Cara is currently studying aero-mechanical engineering at the University of Strathclyde.
She added: “I’ve already started the second one and it’s almost finished. I’ve had positive feedback from the first book.
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“I started uni in September and you’d probably expect me to be doing something like English. I love writing but I know it’s very difficult to make a living out of it.
“At school I was really good at maths and liked physics, and I love astronomy which the book sort of highlights.”
Luna Venatores: Rise is priced £7.40 (paperback) and is also available in Kindle version: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0DJGCSTV5?
You can also follow Carla on Instagram: @carlamarie.10
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