Fantasy adventure is first novel for Crossgar’s Alana

Fantasy adventure is first novel for Crossgar’s Alana

5 March 2014

A CROSSGAR teenager is celebrating the publication of her first book Transfer.

Alana Curran is just 16 but she already has her eye on a series of books set in her fantasy post-apocalyptic civilisation.

Transfer tells the story of Kit who has been living under the strict rules of the Elders all her life. At age 16, she is thrust into the Marital Pairings, where a First Class boy chooses her to become his fiancé. Her engagement to this boy causes her to change her attire to become the First Class drones the Elders approve of.

Any mistake can lead to dire consequences. Will she take every blow from the Elders? Or will she rebel against it? And will she ever be able to get over the fact she is desperately in love with her fiancé’s brother, who is inevitably betrothed to her sworn enemy?

Alana said it was hard to

say where her inspiration for this harsh post-apocalyptic world came from but staring at the gumball machine in her bedroom one day did spark an idea.

“I was imagining people’s names inside the gumball machine and thinking about people being penned in to get married by society,” she said.

“Writing has always been part of me and I especially excelled during my years in high school. My English teacher, Mrs. Sloan, was always very supportive and encouraging on the matter.

“I started work on Transfer the summer I left St. Colmcille’s and vowed to give the school a copy if it ever got published. When you do what you enjoy and practice what you enjoy, you can excel at it. As clichéd as it sounds, practice really does make perfect and nothing is impossible when you set your mind to it.”

Alana has chosen to go down the ‘partnership publishing’ route, a step between self publishing and the traditional publishing and has had her work published by Mirador Publishing.

“My dad sent me the name as a suggestion to look it,” she said. “At first I thought about getting a literary agent but they said they would handle all that so I thought I would give it a go.”

Alana is currently studying Art and Design at South Eastern Regional College, which she admits “sounds a bit outside what I am used to”.

“I am trying to do something a bit different,” she said.

‘In terms of the future I would like to finish the series as this is just the first book. I will see where that will lead to.”

Transfer is currently available to purchase at Amazon.