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Colby Killian is a young man of few words, at least when it comes to speaking about himself.
The written word is another matter as Killian, who will be a senior this fall at Loyalsock Township High School, has taken an idea from a dream and turned it into a work of science fiction titled Radius of a Soul.
"The idea came from a weird dream I had a few years ago. It kinda stuck with me so I figured I may as well do something with it," Killian said.
"The book is about this weird tower thing coming out of the back of this apartment complex and three young adults are intrigued by it. So, they decide to go and explore it," he said describing the plot.
He revealed the main character's name, Zircus, but Colby Killian would not give any more information about what happens in the book because, he said, "I don't want to ruin it."
Working on his own in his free time, apart from any project at school, it took Killian about three years to finish the book.
"It seemed like it would never come out at times, but I'm glad it did," Killian said.
According to his mom, Sandra Killian, her son would work on it for awhile and then come back to it.
"It took awhile but he finally got it done," Sandra Killian said.
Sandra Killian said that she and her husband, Shawn Killian, were surprised and then not surprised that he took it to that level.
"Colby has been interested in writing since he was a child," his mother said.
"He was a big fan of Dr. Seuss and Mercer Mayer and people like that and he's been reading since he was old enough, I swear, to open his eyes. He and his dad would read the comics together and it went on from there. He would sit down and do short stories of two or three pages of these little characters he would make up," she said.
"When he came to us with this book and said he had been writing it. We were surprised, because we did not know that he had been writing it. He had been quiet in his room and then he comes out with this work of art" she added. "Imagine what that dream must have been."
Although Killian said that he enjoys writing for leisure, he admitted that writing for school is not as exciting.
A fan of horror/science fiction, Killian said that he aslo enjoys drawing and did do some illustrations for the book.
His future plans include going to college and pursuing graphic arts, although he indicated that he might consider pursuing a career in writing in the future.
Killian is in the multi-media curriculum at school where according to his mom he gets to do filming projects and graphic arts. When asked if he might consider making his book into a film, he said, "That would be cool."
Even if his book never makes it to the screen, Killian has had a stuffed animal made from the main character, which is now copyrighted.
Now that he has his first book done, Killian has moved on to his second novel, which he said is on the same level of his first work in the science fiction category.
Copies of the book are available at The Otto Book Store. Killian has also sold a number of books at his school.