Teen author visits Diamond Bar library
January 30, 2014
You’re never too young to make any dream come true. For seventeen-year-old teen author Christine Woo, that is exactly what happened.
The young author visited the Diamond Bar High School library on January 23. Students were invited to come to the library to hear the young author talk and ask her questions.
Woo is a former student at DBHS, having attended the school during her freshman year. Woo left the school in her sophomore year due to health issues and began independent learning. For the past three years, she has taken college courses online instead of attending classes at DBHS. Despite not attending high school formally, Woo will still graduate with DBHS’s class of 2014 this May.
Woo returned to campus during lunch to explain her new novel and give a signing of her book.
In the beginning, Woo explained the plot of “Luna’s Heart,” which is a paranormal young adult fiction book about a teenage nymph who tries to blend in as a normal human. However this all changes when the main character, Luna, falls in love with a narc, a paranormal hunter. Unfortunately for Luna, narcs happen to be the kind of race that killed her parents many years ago. And when the necklace that keeps Luna human is stolen, Luna must find a way to keep her humanity in check.
While she answered questions, Woo talked about the publication process of her novel. Woo explained that she decided to self-publish her book with Amazon because she felt that traditional publishing was not for her. While her attempts at traditional publishing were unsuccessful, she explained that she is grateful for the experience now. Woo enjoyed being able to control her market as a self-published author.
In addition to talk about her publication process, she also gave backstory as to how her book cover was made and the reasons as to why she wanted to publish at a young age. As an avid reader, Woo always wanted to write. She put the idea of “Luna’s Heart” onto paper and then gradually typed the book out on her computer. When she finished her novel, Woo felt that she wanted to get it published.
Many students who were aspiring writers and wanted to publish their own novels came to talk to Woo about the publication process and her writing process.
“Never ignore an idea,” Woo advised to the audience. “The book that I published came from an idea I didn’t ignore and look where that got me. It got published.”
Woo was inspired to write because she was an avid reader and loved writing. With her first novel already out for almost a year, she knows that she will write more novels in the future.
While her novel is only available as an e-book on Amazon, the teen author brought physical copies to the school library to sell and sign at the end of her talk. As she signed books, she also took pictures with her readers.
“I know it’s a bit cliché, but the advice I would give to anybody who wants to be a writer or get published is to always follow your dreams,” she said. “Because that’s what it really just is.”
