Kailey Dewar gets to celebrate an achievement not many 16-year-olds get to experience: being able to call herself a published author.
The Burlington teenager attends Corpus Christi High School in Burlington and has launched her first fiction novel, titled The Harder You Fall.
The book was published on January 20 of this year and follows a 13-year-old named April who suffers from abuse at the hands of her mother. The story deals with the subsequent trauma she experiences and how she navigates it.
Growing up, Dewar has been an avid reader and always dreamed of being a published writer.
“Well, I’ve grown up reading. So, you know, you kind of always as a kid imagine writing short stories. And always imagine having your book in your library or store,” she said. “And so I’ve always been writing short stories.”
One of Dewar’s favourite genres to read currently is YA (young adult) fantasy but she admits that she also loves murder mystery books.
Some of her favourite authors include bestselling fantasy authors Sarah J. Maas, Victoria Aveyard, and award-winning Canadian author Eric Walters.
It was during the pandemic and lockdowns that she realized she finally had the time to make this dream a reality. She already had five pages written and so she decided to settle in and try to get it done.
The subject matter is a sensitive one and Dewar said she was inspired by a book she was reading at the time, where the backstory of one of the main characters was that she was abused by her mother.
She thought that this particular storyline would allow for a lot of growth.
“When I was reading, I thought that would be a really good storyline and would allow for a lot of character development,” said Dewar. “And would give me just a lot of room to work with the characters, and develop the personalities and relationships.”
She has had about 100 sales of her book so far, which is more than she thought she would get.
“It’s a different read for a lot of people. And I think they enjoy that new perspective,” she said.
But even though she had seemingly endless amounts of time, Dewar said the hardest part on top of the usual writer’s block that affects any author was getting herself motivated. She said that was the biggest struggle for her, especially during lockdown when you couldn’t do anything else.
Dewar confirms that this book will just be a single book, but also that she has already started writing her next one.
When asked what kind of advice she would give her fellow young writers who are looking to do the same thing, it was simply that age is a number and shouldn’t be a reason not to pursue things you want.
“Don’t let people say you’re too young to do stuff. You can always do what you want, whether it’s writing a book, doing activism or doing whatever you are passionate about, you can do it,” Dewar said. “Don’t let your age stop you.”
Currently, The Harder You Fall is only available in school libraries but she is working on getting it into public libraries as well.
An excerpt of the book can be found on her Instagram page.
It is also available on Amazon in Kindle, paperback, and hardcover formats.
