Vaughan teen author working to inspire love of reading, writing in peers

Yorkregion.com
Aug. 27, 2016
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Alessia Dickson may well have been destined to become a writer - she shares a birthday with William Shakespeare, after all.

But it’s her love of the written word that is driving the 17-year-old Emily Carr Secondary School student to become a literacy advocate.

A voracious reader and avid writer since she was about six, Dickson recently self-published her first novel, The Crystal Chronicles, a 336-page fantasy book geared toward young adults.

It's about 16-year-old Alyssa Brooks who discovers she possesses magical powers and belongs to a supernatural race called Elementals, Dickson explained.

“As Alyssa is thrust into this new world, she decides to set off around the world to collect four magical crystals,” she said. “These four crystals are needed to create a weapon to destroy the antagonist of the story. They are The Society and they're basically this evil organization that wants to destroy humanity.”

Since her book came out, in February, Dickson has been working to ignite a passion for reading and writing amongst local youth.

“I started going to schools because I really wanted to promote literacy and inspire other kids to read and write,” she said. “I feel like I have a lot to teach people about writing and reading, especially younger kids.”

To date, Dickson has delivered presentations at St. Joan of Arc Catholic High School and Our Lady of Fatima Catholic Elementary School in Vaughan as well as a Holy Spirit Catholic Elementary School in Brampton.

She plans on returning to those schools again this year and hopes to visit others throughout the area as well.

“I don’t have any formal training, so I learned to create structures from reading other authors,” Dickson said. “They taught me how to write, that’s why I think everyone should read as much as they can.”

During her presentation, Dickson shares her own backstory then moves into talking about the writing process, publishing and her website.

She usually wraps up by reading an excerpt from The Crystal Chronicles.

“The kids really like me because I’m closer to their age...so I get a really good response,” Dickson said. “I’ve had a few kids send me pieces of their own books that they decided to write afterwards,...which is so cool.”  

Dickson said the most challenging part of writing her book was that she started it when she was 10.

"As I got older and older my ideas and my writing matured so I constantly had to go back and re-write to make sure it sounded fluid,” she said.

The Crystal Chronicles is the first installment in a five-book series.

Dickson plans to put out a new novel every one and a half years until the series is complete.

Her father, John Dickson, isn’t at all surprised by what she’s doing.

“She’s been writing short stories since she was in Grade 1, she’s got piles of them that she’s kept,” he said. “She started this one (Crystal Chronicles) at 10 years old. After I read it, I said, ‘I’ll publish this myself, because I gotta get it out there.’”

He’s been watch her present and called it “an amazing experience.”

“It’s so great to see the excitement on the kids faces,” he said.

Alessia, who tries to write for at least an hour and a half every day and read two books a week, offers this advice to budding authors:

“I would start as young as you can and just don’t stop. Even if you don’t feel like writing, just keep writing - just do it and don’t stop.”

Crystal Chronicles can be purchased through most major online booksellers.