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New local author to hold book signing here Saturday
Melissa LeGette will be signing her book The Unicorn Girl Saturday from 1-3 p.m. Books are available now for purchase at the library. LeGette, 20, has been working on the novel for years, she said. "I started on it the summer before high school and worked on it during holidays for years," she said. "I'd have to try to catch up and remember where I was. But when I started college, it became apparent that I was heading toward a writing career, and if I concentrated on college and let it take the predominant role, I'd never write, and all I really wanted to do was be an author. So I left college to write." As she pursued her career, LeGette met with some acclaim from other writers, earning the Best Student Writer award at the 2006 Sand Hills Writers Conference. Armed with that accolade and the determination to be an author, LeGette says she submitted The Unicorn Girl to publisher after publisher. She got rejection after rejection. "But one day I met three authors at the Washington Farmers Market who'd all been self-published by an independent publisher called Booksurge. com, which is part of Amazon. com. We looked at their books, and was very impressed. I sent them the book in January, and we had printed books by April. It was a very nice experience, very professional." Now The Unicorn Girl is available in Washington at The Fitzpatrick Hotel, Washington Farmers Market, and the Mary Willis Library. It is also available online through Amazon.com. The story of the fantasy novel revolves around Leah, "a very plain, simple-looking girl who gets very sick at the age of 16, and the cure for the illness totally changes her appearance, so that she is this radiant beauty with blue eyes and freaky white hair. She runs away from home because everyone is treating her differently, and she eventually learns that she has to save her country from an evil witch who is collecting unicorns to gain power." LeGette says that while the novel was written with an audience of young teen girls in mind, she has been surprised that boys and adults have told her they enjoy it too. "They've really liked it, and one 15-year-old guy said he sat down and read it in a day and a half." Now she is working to spread the word about her novel, largely by word of mouth. "I may be the only person my age who's not all over MySpace and Facebook, but my sister Casie, who's working on her doctorate in English at Michigan, is going to help me get an online presence for the book, and that should really help get the word out."
The young writer's next work is For the Kingdom. "I'm getting to the end of the first draft," she said. "There's no magic in this one, but the kingdom is in turmoil as bad knights try to take over, and the people try to findthe heir to the throne to save them. It's getting exciting, now that the end's in sight, at least the end of the first draft."
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