By Gabby Sahm

Staff Writer

@gabbysahm

A lot has changed since Aimee Hyndman graduated from Coppell High School in 2013. Now a junior at Coe College in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, she is about have her biggest dream come true.

She is having her first novel published.

Hyndman released Hour of Mischief on Monday and the date could not come soon enough. The process has been going on since the fall of her senior year at CHS.

“I have been writing basically since elementary school and I decided that I was going to be a writer in third grade,” Hyndman said. “It happened when I wrote my first book, that was 30 pages, creatively titled the third grade.”

It was one tweet that sealed Hyndman’s fate, and brought her book to life: a simple “pitch tweet,” where writers tweet a summary of their story idea to an agent in hopes of them becoming interested for more.

Once she caught the eye of one, the waiting game began.

“It is one of those things that brings that avalanche of emotions,” Hyndman said. “One day you will think I am really excited and the next you will feel terrible and everyone is going to hate it, so I am always going goes back and forth.”

CHS creative writing teacher Matthew Bowden taught Hyndman when she was a sophomore. He always had a feeling that Hyndman would do more with her writing, and always wanted to give her a place where he could nurture and encourage her writing.

“Often times when she was supposed to be working on an assignment,” Bowden said. “She would be working on one of her novels, but you don’t discourage that because I had a vision in my head of where she was going.”

Bowden could not be more proud of Hyndman and the future she has ahead of her. Having a student achieve their dream is one of his favorite parts about his job.

“I like to believe that I played a tiny part,” Bowden said. “I always knew she was going to be a writer regardless of if we met or not, but to think that I was apart of the journey is a really good feeling.”

Bowden had Hyndman talk to his creative writing classes on Aug. 26 to tell her journey and the steps you must go through to publish your own book.

Junior Sam Norris is a part of Bowden’s second period creative writing class. She has always enjoyed writing, and it is one of the things she has a true passion for. Hearing about Hyndman’s journey showed her that she could turn that passion into something more.

“It was really interesting to hear her talk about her journey because I never thought someone so close to my age could do this,” Norris said. “I always thought you had to be older so it did inspire me.”

Hyndman’s book is available now on Amazon.