Hayfield Student Author, Inspired by C.S. Lewis, Writes Fantasy Trilogy

At the age of 11, Bezi Yohannes irritated her parents because all she ever did was write. It's not that her parents didn't want her to write, but she dedicated hours of her time to writing and seemed to have little interest in anything else.

At a young age, Bezi said she fell in love with reading — mostly fantasy and medieval-inspired novels. Because she was enthralled with the tales of adventure in the books — specifically C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia — Bezi set out to create her own fantasy world.

"I feel complete when I'm reading. And when I'm writing I can communicate these different experiences and go into my imagination and create a detailed fantasy world," she said.

Bezi credits C.S. Lewis' ability to create a "realistic world inside a fantasy" with encouraging her to write her own story. It took her more than three years to write her first book, Secrets of Meynch (Tate Publishing). Secrets tells the story of Abi Candial and her brother Chris who accidentally find an entrance to a world unlike their own.

The young author, a junior at Hayfield Secondary School, said she really had to step back and put in the hard work on the details of the fantasy world of Meynch instead of rushing to write the whole story. By doing so, she created a world of adventure for the two characters and has many ideas for future stories. Bezi said she knows exactly where Abi and Chris' adventures will lead them up until the end of her anticipated trilogy.

Bezi admits that, like many writers, she has written short stories and poetry for fun or for school assignments that may never be published. But once she started working on Secrets, she quickly set out to become a published teenaged author and her parents gave her some strong encouraging words to get her going.

"I was never silent about my dreams of being published as a teenager," Bezi said. "My parents told me if I'm going to do this, it won't be self-published. I have to make it good enough for a publisher."

With those words, Bezi got down to business and eventually submitted the manuscript to two publishing companies. She has yet to hear back from one of them, but two months after her submission, Tate Publishing called her with the news.

"They called to tell me they were accepting the book," she said, "and of course I just screamed with excitement."

Bezi wants to finish the tale of Abi and Chris, but it may take some time considering she's balancing school work and other extracurricular activities including being the vice president of Hayfield's National English Society. But she's determined to complete the works.

Now that becoming a young published author is out of her way, Bezi is focused on getting into her first-choice college — The College of William & Mary. She's interested in studying English, and she's also considering teaching in the future.

Bezi said she will continue writing and may try venturing into different genres as she expands her reading and writing repertoire. And for other writers out there, she said just continue to work at it.

"Just continue to read different stories and write. Work through the writer's block. You never know what could happen," she said. "You could write something and it could be the next big American story."

Bezi's book is now available for purchase on Amazon and is also available as an ebook.