NEWPORT, Tennessee — Common advice for authors is to write what you know so it may not be surprising that a writer in Tennessee would set a story in our state.
What is surprising is the age of the author and the other elements she includes in the book.
Lorryn Holt is a talented teen author who wrote a story she feels compelled to share.
"I started writing my short stories when I was about seven as soon as I could," she said.
Her bedroom at her house in Newport doubles as a writing sanctuary.
"My friends at church, while they were playing dress up and doing all kinds of stuff all I wanted to do was pull myself away with dolls and make them act out my stories. So my entire room was my own little world to write in," she said.
Her writing has evolved from short stories to adventure novels to trilogies.
A recent publication of hers is the first of three she calls the Alaina Jackson Trilogy.
"The Forest of Fayleen is about a 13-year-old girl who loses her parents in 9/11. She has to move to rural Tennessee to live with her grandparents who she has never met, strangely, and she finds a portal to another world behind her house," she said.
Lorryn turned 15 last month so she wasn't alive when terrorists attacked the World Trade Center.
At first, her story idea didn't include 9/11. But that changed when she was studying history.
"I was 12-years-old and had never heard of 9/11. And there are a lot of kids that are like that even today even though it is very widely known. So I knew I had to do something about it. People have to know," she said.
She brought her book to market through the self-publishing arm of Simon and Schuster called Archway Publishing.
It is available online at her own website, Amazon, and Barnes and Noble.
Her mother, Sherry Holt, said, "She has so much to say that it is exciting to see her put it down and to get it out there."
Her mom, who is also her home school teacher, encouraged Lorryn when she faced writer's block. It took courage for Lorryn to overcome anxiety about the characters in her book, a book that focuses on courage.
"The courage that you get is from the experiences you have and no matter what challenges you go through you can keep that courage and you can inspire other people. That's what keeps me going," Lorryn said.
The prolific teen author isn't sure what her future holds.
"I feel like I'm never going to stop writing but I don't know if it will be a full-time career," Lorryn Holt said. "I actually want to be a pediatric nurse."
Sherry said, "I see her loving people. And doing, whether it is nursing or writing full time, she loves to minister to people. She loves to see them."
And she loves to write.