West Virginia native Storm Young is casually becoming famous.
Young, the author of the book “The Pen Pal: A West Virginia Mystery” is a 22-year-old, full-time student at American Military University working on her bachelor’s degree. She already has her paralegal associate degree from Central Texas College.
She currently resides in Valdosta, Ga., with her husband, Jacob, and daughter, Ariel. Her husband is in the military so the location can change at any time, but while she is settled for now, Young tries to write as much as she can.
“The Pen Pal” is about a young girl named Shiloh Ray who is a military wife, a new mother and a college student living in rural Alaska. Suffering from post-partum depression and loneliness, Shiloh signs up for a pen pal and eventually gets matched with Penelope Young. The two become close, but after a while Penelope’s letters stop coming. Not wanting to lose her newfound friend, Shiloh heads across the country to see why Penelope has vanished, only to find out from her husband that she has literally done just that.
Shiloh then follows clues to find Penelope and has many adventures along the way.
Young has long had a passion for writing.
“Since middle school, I have been writing,” Young said. “I loved making up stories, and I always knew I wanted to write a book. I was just waiting for the right idea. Looking back at it now, I would say the moment I had my final draft of my story, ‘The Pen Pal: A West Virginia Mystery,’ that’s when I knew I finally had a story good enough to be published.”
Writing a book is no small task and can take up a lot of time, but for Young, she enjoys doing it so much she does not really worry about that aspect of it. In fact, it did not necessarily take that long anyway.
“It took me approximately four months. I wrote the story pretty quickly. It came to me one night in a dream and I wrote key points of the dream, so it made it pretty easy to write. The hardest part for me was finding an editor, book cover designer, and all those little things I had no clue what I was doing, so that took about a month or two as well, but overall, the process was quick,” Young said.
One way to judge the success of an official published story is to look at the sales. And for Young, that way of judgement has been very positive.
“I have sold a good bit of copies of ‘The Pen Pal,’ and I am so thankful for that. I have sold copies in The United States, Canada, Australia, United Kingdom,” Young said with a smile.
“It hit no. 10 in new releases in its category and was also on the bestselling list in its category on Amazon and Audible as well. I have received a lot of amazing reviews and some very helpful ones as well. There were a few errors that were pointed out, but I have taken that feedback and plan to use it to make my next book even better,” Young said.
A lot of people think there are minor differences between a writer and an actual author, but to Young both of them are the exact same thing.
“To me, if you write, you are an author. There truly isn’t a difference. Rather, you write for yourself or for the world either way. You are the author of that work, and you should be proud of the work that you created,” Young said.
Those that have read or will read “The Pen Pal” won’t have to stop there. Young is working diligently to make sure she gets some additional stories out as soon as she can, with a goal set for the fall of 2022.
“I have several books that I plan to write. I am currently writing a stand-alone novel that I hope to release in the fall. Then the next book that I will work on is the sequel to ‘The Pen Pal.’ I hope to be writing books for the rest of my life because I love it,” she said.
Young encourages aspiring young writers to chase their dreams and always put their pen to the paper.
“For anyone who wants to write, please do it, write the story. I know it can be very intimidating at times, but it is worth it. Also, if you don’t have a lot of money to put into a book, that’s okay. The first one will seldom be perfect. I have talked to dozens of authors who all say the same thing. The first story you write will seldom be perfect, but it’s a starting point and everyone has to start somewhere,” Young stated.
This page is available to subscribers. Click here to sign in or get access.