As college acceptances are coming out, many students begin to look forward to the next chapter of their life, planning for what comes in life after high school. While not all students  have a clear picture of what their goals are, senior Tre’lon Grant has already accomplished a major dream of his own: he published a book.

The action adventure fantasy novel “Catching Clouds” takes place during a war of seven realms.  Seven characters become “chosen ones,” one from each realm, and must come together to put aside their differences and save their world from being destroyed by the war.

From the first draft to the final book being bound and sold, Grant worked two years on getting his story perfected and ready for production.

“I had to get my name out there first,” Grant said. “I had to send my manuscript and have it approved first. I designed my own project and re-read my book over four times just to make sure I didn’t miss any grammatical errors. Finally, when I was satisfied, I had the ending copies sent to printing.”

Grant worked through a program within Amazon called Createspace. The online program helps authors begin to get their work out by allowing them to self-publish their books and sell them on Amazon’s website.

Additionally, Grant worked with a co-author, former Reagan student Adithi Jeevan. The two worked on the novel together, bouncing ideas off each other and each contributing content.

“Originally, she was supposed to be my editor,” Grant said. “But she brought so many good ideas to the table that we began to write together. Collaborating was easy; we respect one another’s ideas and talked before making any changes.”

The ultimate goal for Grant as a writer in the future is to have his work featured as a New York Times bestselling novel.

“I want to be able to convey real world ideals in a story that people can relate to,” Grant said. “Ultimately, I want to be able to influence people’s minds through my novels.”

In addition to writing novels outside of the academic world, Grant’s writing has been a large factor in his college selection process.  He is a recipient of the Thomas Wolfe Scholarship at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

The Thomas Wolfe Scholarship is a full financial scholarship for all four years of undergraduate education at UNC Chapel Hill and is a prestigious scholarship given to students of exemplary literary talent.

“It’s a full ride,” Grant said. “I had to provide 50 pages of original prose, 60 pages of original poetry, and 40 pages of an original screenplay. I’ve been writing for nearly my entire life, so I had that ready.”

As Grant heads out of high school and into college, he has experience under his belt that many hopeful writers will not have when attempting to publish a novel for the first time. This experience will help his transition into the writing world to be as smooth as possible.

“It’s not easy to make it into the book market,” Grant said. “Especially in the fantasy genre.”

Grant looks forward to the new opportunities coming his way with the doors that the Thomas Wolfe Scholarship will open and is prepared to continue writing in the years to come.

“The best feeling is the fulfillment of accomplishing such a lofty goal,” Grant said.

“Catching Clouds” is available for purchase on Amazon.com in paperback.