When she was an eighth-grader at Wellwood Middle School in Fayetteville, Emily Meidenbauer wrote her first novel.
The initial chapters of “Right Where My Heart Should Be” were scribbled by hand into the middle-schooler’s spiral notebook. It took her three weeks to finish the 272-page story.
That was four years ago. Since then Meidenbauer has penned two sequels to her touching story about a teenager named Eliza and her Aunt Brooke, a talented touring musician. Together, the older woman and her niece overcome tragedy by learning to how to heal and how to keep hope alive.
Now a senior at Fayetteville-Manlius High School, Meidenbauer will be among three published authors appearing from 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 26, at Liverpool Public Library, 310 Tulip St.; lpl.org.457-0310.
Meidenbauer’s second book is “A Little Different,” and her third is titled “Identity.”
“‘Identity’ might just be my favorite book yet,” Meidenbauer said. “It follows the same story line as ‘Right Where My Heart Should Be,’ but with a twist. It gives a lot of background for some of the characters my readers might want to know more about.” Like her first two novels, “Identity” is self-published.
After she graduates high school this year, the young fictionist hopes to attend college in Ithaca to major in psychology. “But I’ll either double-major or minor in writing,” she said. While Meidenbauer plays violin, piano and guitar, her music takes a backseat to creative writing.
“My obsessive, insane love for writing blossomed in third grade when we were given writer’s notebooks in which we were given at least half an hour every day to write creatively,” she remembered.
Meidenbauer now has a fourth book in the works. “I’m only about 2,000 words in so far, and I’m not exactly sure where it’s going,” she said, “but it’s definitely started!”
Also appearing at the library Saturday will be science-fiction author Dan Moore and young adult novelist Lynda Meyers. Moore has written three novels — “Meridian’s Shadow,” “Meridian’s Shadow II” and “The Rings of Alathea.” Meyers’s book, “Letters from the Ledge,” won the 2012 Next Generation Indie Book Award in the young adult category. It was named runner-up at the Hollywood Book Festival and received an honorable mention at the New York Book Festival.
