My name is Alex Pennington, and in August of 2012 I published my first book, The War Across the Stars. I'm 19 years old and a Freshman at Wichita State University, in Wichita, Kans...view moreMy name is Alex Pennington, and in August of 2012 I published my first book, The War Across the Stars. I'm 19 years old and a Freshman at Wichita State University, in Wichita, Kansas. I've been interested in writing and story-telling since I was very young, and as a result attempted to write a book in 6th grade. Eventually I realized it wasn't very good and set it aside. On 27 August of my 8th grade year I was inspired to give it another try. Having been inspired in great part by a sci-fi novel by Eric Nylund, I opted for a Science Fiction tale as opposed to the original fantasy story. This product, hand-written in my little orange folder eventually grew into a serious project. I started having aspirations of actual publication, and kept up steady work on the project. Being as I didn't know how to type, my grandfather kindly offered to type what I would write, and thus I sent him photo-copied pages of the story as I went along. He would often say he'd get caught up in the story and forget he was trying to get everything typed. By my Freshman year I had learned to type and was provided a school laptop that I used to continue the story digitally. Years ticked by and I never stopped working on it. I never gave up on the growing story. I knew I wanted to be published someday, preferably before starting college. Toward the middle of my senior year I created an outline, the first one for the otherwise organically created story, and suddenly burst forth with a solid 90 pages of additional content by the end of the year. Excitedly I proclaimed to teachers and students alike who had kept up with my book, and some who had even purchased PDF copies for 5 dollars. The quest for a publisher ensued, and my grandfather knew an author who recommended Amazon's Create-Space. After having seen a few other publishers who I had opted to avoid, I felt I'd found the write one with Create-Space. It wasn't long after that that the big day came and I had finally accomplished my dream. The book sold big to family and friends, though as its newness settles out, so too do sales, as so much as a single sale excites me anymore. In honesty though, it always has. The ability to share my story with even just one more person.view less