SHREWSBURY – Dragons breathing fire from the heavens. Hostile battles waging between the elves and dwarfs. Tales of powerful sorceresses, the queens of fire and ice, reign supreme. It’s astonishing where they came from.

“I have a lot of stories in my head,” said Laura T. Lee, 17, of Shrewsbury. “Stories are constantly in my head.” 

These strange mythical creatures and their stories make up Lee’s fantasy trilogy Two Worlds. She began writing it at the age of 10. Gifted with an active imagination as a child, she used writing as an outlet for her creativity. 

“Rather than have it stew in my brain,” she said. “Sometimes I just want to see them on the page so I can say, ‘wow, this is a nice story!’ And then I can write about it more and see if I can develop it into something new. But sometimes it’s just fun to have a writing exercise where I can just empty my thoughts onto the page and then have a blank slate to do other things.”

This young author has been active with other things. She is currently writing her first science fiction novel; she has released an interactive children’s book; she started her own T-shirt line with her father featuring her digital drawings; and she plays the violin.

However, it’s her drive to connect with other people that makes Lee’s story interesting. Lee said writing has satisfied her intrinsic need to relate with people. “It would be great if readers feel the emotions that I felt when I wrote the story,” she said. “I also want them to have feelings they will remember … My goal is to paint a picture that can convey as much of the emotion and energy that I feel as possible.”

However, Lee and her brother David, 18, a novelist in his own right, want to take that connection a step further. The siblings want to help other local writers find similar creative outlets to express themselves through a new initiative called Kids Read Local aimed at helping local authors reach larger audiences.

Kids Read Local is a platform for local authors across Central Massachusetts to collectively promote themselves. The initiative is designed to be an outlet for them to promote their work, improve their sales, and get exposed to a larger audience. One approach they hope to accomplish is to get schools to add local authors on their reading lists.

“It’s summer now and a lot of kids are going into summer reading, especially for the younger children,” Lee said. “We want to introduce the books from local authors to them and see if they can get any enrichment out of using our books for summer reading and see what they can learn from reading the books of local authors.”

Kids Read Local also looks to inspire young readers through local reading experiences while encouraging them to pursue STEM curriculum, which is based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, as well as embolden them to express themselves through creative writing and other artforms. 

Lee said the development of Kids Read Local is in the early stages of development, but the idea of working together with fellow local authors is exciting and in the end, collaboration will make the writing community stronger. “Teamwork makes the dreamwork,” she said.

While participating in several local book signing and seller events, Lee said they have received positive responses from people. “We’ve gotten so much support from the community and we are eternally grateful for that,” she said. “One year at a bookseller event I met this little elementary school girl. A year later, she came back with her friends and I didn’t immediately recognize her because I see so many faces, but she was like, ‘oh, I remember you.’ She then told her friends about who I was and I found it really nice that she remembered me. It feels good I made some sort of impact on her that she remembered.”

She hopes her books inspire creativity in children of all ages. “I want to encourage them to write their own stories,” she said.

Although her books are available on Amazon, Lee said her biggest thrill was seeing her books on the shelves of Barnes & Noble in Millbury. 

“Barnes & Noble has been one of my favorite book stores since I was a kid, and I’ve always dreamed of having my books on their shelves for everyone to see,” she said. “Being included with all of these other accomplished authors like Marissa Meyer and Rick Riordan feels absolutely amazing, and it really motivates me to spin more stories from the depths of my imagination.”

Lee’s main writing influences are fantasy books, like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Harry Potter series, and the Percy Jackson series. “I did experiment in a lot of genres, but fantasy was just the one I found most interesting because of the different imaginative settings and creatures … Right now, I’m really trying to read more science fiction as experimentation, but I think fantasy will always have a special place in my heart, because it’s a very creative genre. It allows for a lot of imaginative output.”

Lee said it is important for her to keep evolving as a writer. Even as a young author, her writing is changing. “I actually started writing when I was seven. I would say my writing matures with me as I get older,” said Lee, who will be entering her junior year of high school in the fall. “I wrote my entire trilogy when I was in middle school. Now that I’m more at a young adult age range, I want to write something close to what my peers would like to read.”

Her first book, Two Worlds, is told through the perspective of a teenage girl named Lily who finds herself in the middle of a war between elves and dwarfs. The book sets up the conflict between the different groups throughout the series, while interweaving mythical creatures like dragons and sorceresses. As she writes, she tries to put her own personality in her characters. “My characters can be energetic, spunky, and sarcastic at times and that can be my personality,” she said.

Lee seems to always be focused on the next project. “My trilogy is finished, so that’s one set done. I’m working on a science fiction book. I’m gearing it towards young adults. It will focus on a futuristic environment where you can code worlds into existence. I’m working on that and hopefully that will be out soon. I might make it into a series, but for now it’s just one book and I’m hoping it will go well.”

Visit Lee’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/AuthorLauraLee/ or check out her custom apparel at https://www.facebook.com/IDesignGlobal/.