Kelcey Dolphin has always loved writing stories, so it was only a matter of time before she became a self-published author.
Key points:
- Kelcey Dolphin has already written the entire Pack series
- She says she intends to keep writing, but would also like to own a dog hotel
- The self-published author said holding her first book in her hands was “exciting but really overwhelming all at once”
Hailing from Naracoorte in regional South Australia, Kelcey, 12, is presenting her first author talk for her debut novel Pack: The Adventure Begins.
“I was 10 when I wrote it and 11 when we started publishing it,” she said.
“It’s about a pack of dogs and the adventures they go on together, and all the challenges they face and how they overcome them together.”
Kelcey said the series was inspired by her own dogs, Kenny and Jade.
“Kenny is a lot like the main character, Storm, and he’s actually on the front cover of the book,” she said.
More books on the way
Kelcey presented her first author talk at the Naracoorte Library during the winter school holidays and there may be more to come.
“We’ve just started publishing the second book, but all six books have actually already been written,” she said.
“One only took me two weeks when we were on holiday,” she said.
“[But] some have taken me three or four months, because I just kept stopping and writing other stuff.
“I’ve always done a lot of writing and bookmaking at school.
“One of the first books I wrote was in reception and I’m still writing books at school.
The first novel is aimed at children and young teens and is 56 pages long.
Kelcey said it was a journey figuring out how to turn her stories into published novels.
“We weren’t really sure, because obviously we have no publishing experience,” she said.
“So we just did an [online] search and we learned about the differences between publishing and self-publishing.”
After that Kelcey did not have to wait long before she was holding the end result in her hands.
“It was really exciting but really overwhelming all at once,” she said.
“I kind of just stared at it for a while.
“When I’m older, I want to continue being an author and still write books.
