16-year-old author Morgan Campbell ‘just had to write it'

For many of today's teenagers, writing is something that is confined mainly to essay questions or book reports assigned to them in school. In addition, writing a letter has been replaced with sending an email, and sending a note entails typing a text message that includes abbreviated words that only teens seem to fully grasp.

To be fair, some adults also engage in the same practices, so it's not just teenagers who have turned writing into somewhat of a lost art. One teenager, however, Morgan Campbell of Kelso, Mo., has embraced writing to the extent that she recently has had her own novel published. The book centers on the life and relationships of a teenage girl named Sarita.

"I just had to write it," said Campbell, 16. "I had an idea and had to put it out there."

Campbell's novel, "Shots, Lies And That Party," is a 174-page labor of love she began in June 2012 and completed in September. The novel is set in the future, where the world has shrunk and everyone looks nearly exactly alike. Everyone except for Sarita, the novel's protagonist, who possesses different looks and also a wild nature.

"Sarita's wild nature makes her parents jittery," Campbell said. "They want to marry her off, thinking it will keep her out of trouble."

But, according to Campbell, trouble is what Sarita keeps encountering. She attends a big party where she knows her boyfriend, Dan, is going to propose to her. A boy from a dream Sarita repeatedly has had for a month also shows up. The dream has produced tragic results -- a very possessive Dan stabs the mysterious boy, and a confused and worried Sarita spends her time at the party looking for answers. What Sarita discovers is "more than she went looking for."

Morgan Campbell uses her iPod to write when it is more convenient to use than her laptop. (Fred Lynch)

As expected, Campbell wouldn't reveal how Sarita's issues finally were resolved, but she did disclose a little information about the book's ending.

"I can't exactly say that the ending is a happy one," she said. "It sort of is and it sort of isn't, but not everybody gets what they want."

It's common for writers to create characters based on people they know. Campbell, a junior at Notre Dame Regional High School, said some of the characters found in "Shots, Lies And That Party" are based on friends and acquaintances at the school.

"I borrowed Sarita's looks from one of my friends, but her nature is something that I put in myself. Dan was taken from bits and pieces of some of the guys at Notre Dame," she said.

Campbell said her friends like "Shots, Lies And That Party," and she plans to write a sequel.

She is dismayed that many her age don't enjoy reading.

"That's why I kept my book short," she said. "If it's a shorter book they might read it."

Yvonne Campbell, Morgan's mother and a kindergarten teacher at Jefferson Elementary School, said she has known about her daughter's writing ability since she was a little girl.

"She once told me a story about ‘Tubby The Turtle,'" Yvonne Campbell said. "She dictated it to me, and I wrote it all down, and we still have it."

Morgan Campbell's entire family is happy about the success she has had with her first novel, according to Yvonne Campbell.

"I'm very proud of her," she said. "It's a feeling that, unless you're a parent, you just don't know."

"Shots, Lies, And That Party" is published by the Maryland-based PublishAmerica and may be purchased at amazon.com, barnesandnoble.com and ebay.com. According to Yvonne Campbell, a copy of the book also may be found at the Riverside Regional Library in Scott City and at the library at Notre Dame Regional High School.

klewis@semissourian.com

388-3635

Pertinent address: Kelso, MO