Tiffany Leahy is a 16-year-old author living near Brier who was only twelve-years-old when she started writing her first book, Annadyomene in 2005. She completed it around her 13th birthday in 2006.
She was inspired to write the book by a dream. According to Leahy, “One night I had a dream about a girl with black hair in the middle of a forest and she had fire in both of her hands. … That was the first idea that came into my head for Annadyomene.”
The premise of Leahy’s book is about a girl named Annadyomene who has a secret that she has to decide if she is going to tell. The genre of Annadyomene is teen fantasy.
“It took my mom and me about two years looking for a publisher that would take on a teenage author. And then when we found one, there was so much work we had to put into making the book the way it is now” said Leahy. Publishers Network, a publishing company helped her self-publish it. This ensured that Tiffany had the rights to her book. “…The bigger publishing companies make you give up some of those rights. I wanted a say in everything I did” she stated.
“…Being really shy, I was always too nervous to go up and start talking to people and…when I write, I just forget about all of that. Writing random ideas down in my notebooks is a really great way for me to just express myself…”
Leahy said when her book was published, “[I felt] nervous, but also really excited. I mean to see something you’ve worked so hard for actually come to life; it’s the best feeling ever.”
Her mother, Shalawn commented, “I have always been proud of…my children. The day we actually had the book in our hands I cried. I knew… this was a turning point in my daughter’s life. Tiffany is the kind of person (even at her young age) that I can tell will be successful in anything she takes on.”
Leahy was at MTHS speaking, answering questions, selling, and signing her book on December 1st and 2nd.
Visit http://www.annadyomene.com/index.html for a list of the places you can buy her book.
