by Jacquelyn Eubanks
B
y the time I was twelve,
I was convinced that
my destiny was to
be an author. Already having
written dozens of stories
and novels, the thought of
publication was constantly on
my mind.
Limitless
A Teen Success Story
In January of 2010, when I was
twelve and in seventh grade, my
teacher put on the movie The
Sandlot for my class to watch. I, a
tomboy and baseball fanatic, fell
in love, and thus an idea sparked:
what if I was in the movie? What
if a girl had been the main
character in The Sandlot? Would
the boys shun her or would she
be one of them? Would she be
one of the best players, or one of
the worst?
As soon as I got home that
afternoon I grabbed a notebook
and began writing. Eight months
later, in August of 2010, at age
thirteen, I completed the first
draft of The Last Summer—a
young adult novel about a girl
named Charley who lives in the
1950s and plays on an all-boys
baseball team. The summer
she turns fifteen, she finds out
she has to move away from her
hometown, so she and her male
friends attempt to make her last
summer the best summer ever.
After endless rounds of editing,
phone calls, cover design, and
interior formatting, my book was
published in May 2012—I was
only fourteen. It quickly became
an Amazon best seller and was
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