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Young author to sign books at Toadstool store

By GEORGE PELLETIER - Milford Bureau Chief | Jan 2, 2020

Bolling

NASHUA – Merrimack resident and first-time author Cameron Bolling will sign copies of his debut novel, “Skyborn,” at 2 p.m. Saturday at Toadstool Bookshop, 375 Amherst St., Somerset Plaza in Nashua.

The young author, who is a senior at Colby-Sawyer College in New London, New Hampshire, majoring in creative writing, also created his own publishing company to publish his book, something that often dawns on him.

“Some of my friends have short stories published in anthology collections,” he said. “But, nobody that I know in my creative circles has had a book published, so I do think about that sometimes. I’m definitely thankful that I’ve been able to get to this position, and I want to help some of my friends get there, too.”

He said he self-published the book in a way, as he founded a publishing company.

“Essentially, I’m my own publisher,” Bolling said. “It’s not directly my name. It’s through a publisher that I’m still working to establish. But, I can’t very well publish other people if I haven’t published any books at all.”

Bolling refers to the genre of “Skyborn,” as “interesting.”

“I’ve always been into fantasy, science fiction and speculative fiction genres,” he said. “But ‘Skyborn’ doesn’t fit cleanly into any of those genres. I usually call it fantasy just for simplicity sake. When I get down into more and explain it more in depth, I usually tell people it’s a mix of fantasy, science fiction and post-apocalyptic because the world that it is set in is our world but in the future after an apocalypse. Fantasy is usually in in a medieval period.”

His book tells the story of Oleja Raseari, who for generations with others, has been enslaved at the bottom of a desert canyon. They spend their days in the mines, toiling away to earn another meal from their mysterious captors. But, Raseari, a self-taught fighter, has bigger things on her mind. No one in history has ever escaped successfully — death caught them all–and for Raseari, death is not an option. But making it to the outside means confronting a world she knows nothing about–a world none of her people have seen in hundreds of years. And it just might prove to be more deadly than the world she aims to leave behind.

“Skyborn’ has the elements of swords and bows,” Bolling said. “It’s a low technology situation. There are hints of mutated creatures which hints at radioactivity. And it picked this genre because mainly, that’s what I like to read. And what I find fascinating myself, is to create my own new worlds. That’s one of my favorites parts of the process, because I get to come up with all my own stuff and it feels less limiting.”

Writing as a child came easy to Bolling, who remembered being in elementary school, who was assigned small writing assignments and always wrote more than was required.

“There’s always been an underlying interest in telling stories and that aptitude for it,” he shared. “It just comes more easily to me than other people I suppose. I can write multiple pages in the time that other people can write one. I think when you’re younger, you don’t think about what’s a hobby — you do something because it’s fun.”

Bolling said he had always wanted to write and publish books from a young age.

“I did take some other classes in other areas of writing because people told me it would flesh out what I was doing.”

He said he’s an avid reader, and has been, especially since fourth grade.

“I read a lot before then but it wasn’t as focused,” he said. “I also started reading a lot of fantasy in the fourth grade and then through the beginning of high school, I started having less time to read. I think that happens to a lot of people — it tapers off a little when they don’t have the same time they had when they were younger.”

Bolling thought long as to whether or not he as a favorite book.

“I have a couple that I like,” he said. “I like ‘Lord of the Ring,’ which is really a cornerstone for anyone working in the fantasy genre. ‘Nightblade’ by Garrett Robinson is another favorite of mine. And right now, I’m reading, ‘The Earthsea Cycle,’ by Ursula K. Le Guin.”

He said he doesn’t fear being swayed by something he reads, so he doesn’t avoid reading while he’s writing for work.

“I think you have to read if you’re going to write,” he said. “You need to know what other people are doing and have to know what you’re doing. I definitely don’t avoid it. And I wouldn’t say I’m fearful of taking things from other people. I come up with my own stuff and a lot of the comments I have gotten on ‘Skyborn’ have said that it’s unlike anything they’ve ever read. So, I don’t thinking that I’m walking too close to something that is existing.”

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