News

Brenton Stacey
Public relations officer

A 21-year-old Avondale arts graduate who is now on staff at the college has become a published author at her first attempt.

Trudy Adams of the Enquiry and Enrolment Centre received a letter from Christian book publisher Ark House on April 3 confirming acceptance of her manuscript, "Desolate beauty." "I was sure it would be another rejection letter, and then when it wasn't, I couldn't even read past the first line I was so dumbfounded," says Trudy.

"Desolate beauty" is an Australian-based fictional story about a young girl who finds the place of God in her life. The mediocre nature of young adult Christian literature served as Trudy's muse. "The books frustrated me because they were mostly American and they always seemed to dance around hard issues," says Trudy. "As a student at a Christian school, I saw and knew being a Christian teenager didn't make things perfect. So, this story began to brew in my mind--it was as if I had to set it free, like Michelangelo carving away the stone to let the person inside out."

Trudy began writing the story at age 17, completing the first 105,000-word draft a year later. "I didn't see any point in waiting to be a writer," says Trudy. "I have been a storyteller ever since I can remember, and my kindergarten report says so, too, but not in the sense that I was a liar, of course!"

Trudy will receive royalties from the sale of the book but will not yet contemplate a career change. She may, in future, have to balance three jobs: author--she is halfway through writing her second book; customer service officer; and freelance writer and editor--Trudy has established her own business, called Concise Text.

"I've always loved the way stories inspire, comfort and educate," says Trudy. "Relationships, experiences and faith are the most complicated things, and sometimes the only way to appreciate, understand or heal them is to see them on paper, on something tangible. It's the process of trying to capture imagery and feeling in words, and then letting others adapt it to something that they can relate."

Ark House will publish "Desolate beauty" in early 2009.