Seckman High School senior Kara Davis has self-published her first novel after nearly four years of crafting a dystopian science fiction book.
The book, “The Point of Pursuit,” is about a teenage boy named Maverick Colt discovering the truth about a powerful company called TECLA (pronounced Tek-la) and the intentions of the institution’s founder, Simeon McCline.
The book is set 300 years after the last time people spoke directly with each other, and their lives and world are controlled by TECLA, which uses microchips, visors and a complex digital network to create a world indistinguishable from reality.
Davis, 18, of Imperial said she started writing the novel when she was in eighth grade, and as of Jan. 23, she said 60 copies had been sold.
Davis published the book through Amazon, and copies may be purchased at amazon.com.
“I got a great response,” she said. “It is thrilling for me. I am just happy that it is out and my friends and family can read it.”
Davis said she became a fan of science fiction in eighth grade when she watched movies like “Blade Runner” and “Maze Runner” franchises.
She also said she read the science fiction novels “Ready Player One” and “The Giver.”
“Those were fascinating for me,” she said. “I thought why don’t I play around with the dystopian genre.”
Davis said she fell in love with writing in middle school, and she always enjoyed reading.
“My English teachers played a huge part in it,” she said. “They taught me that writing can be fun, but I never thought I would write a book or anything.”
Davis said she started writing “The Point of Pursuit” on a whim.
She said she didn’t have an outline of how the story would develop and end.
“I write the ideas as they came to me,” she said. “I didn’t know what the ending was going to be until the middle of last year. I struggled with that a lot. I just wrote what I thought was cool and fit.
“I didn’t have an objective for the story. Whatever came to me, I was like, ‘Let’s do this and see where this goes.’”
Davis said she could not pinpoint when the idea to write about a company controlling everything through technology became her focus.
She said she was likely inspired by something she was reading in her language arts class.
“It is about the dangers of extensive technology,” she said. “It is not as extreme as ‘1984,’ but it highlights how it can be negative. (Technology) does a lot of good, but too much of anything can be too negative. I would say that is the main theme, too much is bad.”
Davis said she was influenced by video games in her selection of a male protagonist.
She said because most video game characters are males, she did not struggle writing in a teenage boy’s voice.
“I would probably be fine writing it either way,” she said. “Since I have been exposed to so many male characters, I felt like it would be easier to do a young teenage boy.
“A main female character never crossed my mind. I was really just writing what I saw before.”
Davis said it took her nearly four years to finish the book because she is a procrastinator.
She said she would write in spurts. She said she would work on it for a week, get stuck writing and take two or more weeks off from working on the novel.
“In the last year or two, I locked in,” she said. “I kept wasting too much time not working on it.”
Davis said her first drafts were often messy and filled with typos.
She also said she often had to go back and rewrite sections to fix plot holes.
“I had a few friends look over it to make sure the continuity was fine and point out spelling errors,” she said. “It was a process.”
Davis said it was surreal when she received the first copy of her book and she held the finished product.
“It was so crazy,” she said. “All I knew for months was printed out pages. I don’t think I shut up about it for two weeks.”
Davis said she plans to attend either Maryville University or Webster University after graduating from Seckman High.
She said she wants to major in English and become a teacher.
“I have had wonderful English teachers,” she said. “They also happen to be some of the coolest people I have ever met.
“I would love to be that for kids, and I also think I was born to be an English teacher. I wouldn’t know what else to do.”
Davis said she also is writing down thoughts for a second novel, and if she writes another book, she plans to go about it differently.
“The idea for another one is on my mind,” she said. “I don’t know when I will start it.
“For the next one, I would make an outline.”