Raindrop Story by Brighton Teen Fits Rainy Day at Hartland Montessori

It was the perfect rainy day when Dewey landed among the students of in Hartland on Wednesday.

Sharing her book, Dewey’s First Adventure, 17-year-old Brighton author Alecia Martino tells the tale of a brave and excited raindrop and his trip through the water cycle or as one observant student said, “when the water comes down from the clouds.” 

It's also been quite the adventure for Alecia, who originally wrote the book when she was 12, submitted her manuscript last year and watched Dewey's story get published in August. She now tells all young aspiring writers to save their work — it's valuable.

“They (kids) have the most imagination when they’re young," says Alecia. "So it’s good for all of them to keep their writing and to keep their thoughts from when they’re younger, so they can develop them when they’re older.”

Her mom, Jenny, suggested she pick the tale and she made few changes to it.

“I picked it mostly because my mom was just like, 'Oh, it’s such a cute story and everyone will love it,'” said Alecia, who will graduate this spring from the  in Brighton. “I just changed around a couple sentences to make it flow better, but that was really it. I didn’t expect to get a contact back, but I did a couple months later.”

That return message was from Tate Publishing, which bills itself as "a Christian-based, family-owned, mainline publishing organization with a mission to discover and market unknown authors." Then began the work of promoting the book.

“It’s a lot of work,” she said. “Most people don’t expect it to be work, they think, like, when you’re writing it, that would be the most work.”

Learning the art of self-promotion, however, taught Alecia a valuable lesson in confidence as she was forced into making appearances at bookstores, schools and other local venues, she said.

“I used to be pretty scared of public speaking, getting up in front of people and talking,” Alecia said. “Now, I’m more confident.”

While her plans for next year are still undecided, Alecia does know she wants to travel and continue to write, expanding on her children's series with her next book already in progress. 

"I was thinking it was going to have something to do with erosion," she said. "It's my raindrop series."

But for now, Alecia is enjoying her time meeting new people, reading her book and sharing her publishing experiences with a wide-range of audiences — a journey officials at Garden Gate were happy to be a part of.

"I think it's really cool, 'cause it shows them (kids) they can do anything they put their minds to," said Garden Gate Director Ellen Cramer. "And they can see somebody who did that and somebody who had a story and a dream about something and decided to go for it."

Alecia Martino will be signing and selling copies of Dewey's First Adventure from 12:30-3 p.m. Friday at in Hartland. More information is also available on Facebook or by emailing Alecia at aleciamartino@yahoo.com.