This Fall River teen wrote a book in middle school. Now, it's being published.

Audrey Cooney, The Herald News
·2 min read

FALL RIVER — Not many 15-year-olds can call themselves published authors. But Anya Costello, a junior at Bishop Connolly High School, is looking forward to her debut novel releasing this month.

“It was a shock when I first heard it was going to be published,” she said. “Ultimately, it makes me happy that I’m finally gonna be able to share it with the people around me.”

Costello won a competition to have a novel published that was run by Stone Soup, a children’s literary magazine and publishing company MacKenzie Press while still in middle school.

Her novel, "The Shadow Hour," centers on a 13-year-old girl who lives in a dystopian world where, for an hour each day, shadows separate from their humans and can turn on them. The heroine is transported to a different dimension, where she must retrieve her shadow so she can return home.

Anya Costello, a student at Fall River's Bishop Connolly High School, has published a book, The Shadow Hour.
Anya Costello, a student at Fall River's Bishop Connolly High School, has published a book, The Shadow Hour.

Costello said the idea for her story came from a conversation with friends in middle school about what it would be like if shadows could move independently of humans. Initially, she meant to write just a short story.

“It has continued to develop since that. It was originally just a fun project to do with friends,” she said.

The cover of The Shadow Hour, a new book by Bishop Connolly student Anya Costello.
The cover of The Shadow Hour, a new book by Bishop Connolly student Anya Costello.

At the time, Costello was entranced by dystopian YA fiction like "The Hunger Games" and the "Divergent" series, which influenced her own writing. She still loves dystopian fiction and fantasy.

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“I wanted to write like the authors I liked,” she said.

She wrote her first draft of the book by hand, at the age of 11.

“I think it was three notebooks, by the end,” she said.

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Now, after more than two years of the editing process, "The Shadow Hour" is ready to be released. It can be pre-ordered now through Amazon and Itasca Books, with the actual release date set for Feb. 15.

Costello is interested in pursuing things like math and physics, but said she definitely wants to continue writing.

“I have a lot of ideas lying around,” she said.

Audrey Cooney can be reached at acooney@heraldnews.com. Support local journalism by purchasing a digital or print subscription to The Herald News today.

This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Fall River Bishop Connolly high school student releasing first novel