She was 6 years old when she read, “Hank the Cowdog” a children’s book series about a cowboy from West Texas.
When Jolene Reed finished reading the book, she thought that was the end and there would be no more books about Hank.
Her imagination ran wild, wondering what would have happened if the story continued. So she took matters into her own hands and wrote her own continued story with drawings.
This continued for years every time she finished a book. Reed began to write as her imagination led her. Small stories and her own illustrations steadily got longer and eventually, the illustrations disappeared, and Reed began making her own characters and storylines.
The 15-year-old Sulphur Springs native started reading books at just 3 years old. In third grade, Reed was reading “Harry Potter” books, and her parents questioned if the books were too mature for her age. Regardless, she showed her love for books and literacy.
Her mother, Tracey, credits her daughter’s love for books to the Sulphur Springs Public Library, where Jolene Reed’s father would take her every week.
“In Sulphur Springs there’s not a whole lot to do. We’re not going to go to Dallas to go to Chuck E. Cheese or stuff like that. Really when it came down to stuff for the kids to do, taking them to the library was free and right there, local, so she constantly checked out books,” Tracey Reed said.
Jolene Reed became a familiar face to the librarian because she would visit religiously, walking out with a stack of books every time.
Jolene Reed’s storytelling journey began in the third grade when her teacher Mrs. Rowe would let her read her short stories to her class. She said jokingly those were the days she was confident enough to read out loud what she wrote. One of Reed’s books has an acknowledgment to Mrs. Rowe, of Sulphur Springs Elementary School.
Her first book
Jolene Reed’s short stories were just that — short stories. She said she never committed to anything more than two to three chapters. As she got older, Jolene Reed said she found the patience to stick with something.
“I had never written anything that’s as long as my first novel, I just kind of went for it and kept going. I think I loved the idea of it enough that I was excited to keep writing it,” she said.
Reed had no word count goals set per day, she just wrote what her imagination gave her. At 13 years old, during seventh grade, it all came together.
She’s not sure of where her idea for her first book, “Crazy,” came from, but Reed tells the story of a schizophrenic patient in a mental hospital who was a prodigy and a very intelligent valedictorian who tried to kill a baby.
No one knew why, but Reed said the character goes off the rails. During his time at the hospital, a nurse begins talking to him, realizing he doesn’t actually seem like the person everyone thinks he is and that he is normal.
“I don’t know, my parents watch murder documentaries and I liked listening to ‘50’s music,” Reed said, adding that’s where the time travel part of the book came in.
“It was just kind of a lot of things floating around in my head that just kind of came together whenever a friend called me crazy at lunch one time,” she said.
Reed reveals halfway through the book, the reason the character tried to kill a baby was that the baby was going to end the world in the future, so he time traveled to prevent that from happening. The nurse and the patient time travel and eventually fall in love.
After writing her first book at 13 years old, she had her mother edit it.
“It was a very well thought-through story. It’s a very long book actually. There’s just a lot to it. It’s not a simple story, it’s pretty complex by the time it’s all over,” Tracey Reed said.
“Crazy” became her bestseller. She said it took her two months to complete the 4,700-page long book.
Getting publishedJolene Reed’s grandmother is a retired Tyler resident who also writes short stories. A couple of years ago, she discovered Amazon’s Kindle Direct Publishing, a program where writers can upload their own manuscripts and cover art for publishing.
The teen author’s ultimate goal is to get noticed or contracted by a publishing company and become a professional writer.
The family uses social media to promote her writing. Her mother has also scheduled book signing events to promote her new books.
Her first book signing event happened this May when she attended the Festival of Books in Winnsboro.
Reed currently has her first two books at Sulphur Springs Middle School, and her full set of books at the Rusk Public Library, which bought the collection before launching its summer reading program.
“It’s really just kind of a grassroots effort, you got to probably almost go to every library and convince them to buy your set of books to put in the library, so like the Tyler library today would be great,” Tracey Reed said.
Because the Reeds don’t pay anything to produce the book, the profit Jolene Reed makes on her books is very low.
At book signing events, Reed decides to sell her books for less than what they’re sold for online.
“I kind of feel bad about making people pay that much to support me. I just feel bad about taking more of their money. It’s also nice for both of us to give them a little discount whenever they can buy a physical book from me,” she said.
Juggling teen life with her passionDuring the school year, Reed is a part of the theater program at Sulphur Springs High School, where she is a sophomore. She said her productivity usually decreases in writing during the school year, but she balances it out during the weekends and in the summer.
“While a lot of kids are running around doing other things, she likes to write,” Tracey Reed said. “We have to make her stop and go on a date with her boyfriend,” she said comedically.
Jolene Reed said her imagination is what drives her to be able to manage her personal life with her passion. She said she’ll get random story ideas while doing regular tasks, such as washing dishes or walking around.
Writing, continuedHer next book, “The Stone of Existence” began a book series, “Fragments of Imagination.” While “Crazy” was a standalone novel, Reed’s next three books would contribute to her series.
She began the series the same year at 13 years old in the summer of the seventh grade and also took her two months to write.
In her book series, Reed tells the story of three realms and the real world. The realms include one for inventions and ideas and the second for stories. The third world, the imagine realm, is where the imaginary friends are.
The idea first came to Reed when it was time to say goodbye to her imaginary friend. She began to wonder where her friend would go and what would happen to them.
“Basically, they live there and whenever their kid calls on them. They go to Earth and they come back. Whenever their kid grows out of them, they’re discarded and they live there for the rest of eternity, kind of like a retirement city,” Reed said.
In the book, a rock called the “Stone of Existence” allows the three realms to exist peacefully and not fall apart. Although mankind doesn’t know about the realms, the imaginary do know and keep it a secret.
“One day, this imaginary friend that was discarded, he thinks the system is messed up like, ‘It’s not fair that humans just throw us away and that they don’t care and we just have to sit here for eternity and never move on or anything,’” Reed said.
The character goes on to steal the stone and breaks into the create realm, where he begins to gather villains from books, movies and stories, and creates his own army to overthrow mankind.
The book follows an imaginary friend who must return to the real world to get his creator to bring her back to the imagine realm, where a group of imaginary friends try to stop the evil imaginary friend.
Reed said she’s excited to wrap up her series, and that she’s very proud to see the fruits of her labor over the past two years.
What’s next for
the young author
Reed said when she publishes a book, her friends are excited for her and encourage her work, but said they really don’t read. She said she would like for her work to be turned into a movie or television show, so she can talk about her work with friends of her own age.
“That would be like the major dream, but I also know that doesn’t happen very often. I’m mostly just shooting for being able to do writing as a full-time job. More people watch TV than read books, so it would also get my stories out to a larger audience,” Reed said.
For now, Reed said after finishing her series, she plans to take a small break to focus on school and theater, then she’ll start on another novel.
“I have an idea for a duology, like a two-book series, but I haven’t developed it very well so I don’t know if that’s going to be the next thing I’ll write,” she said. “I also have other ideas for about two or three other standalone novels, so I have ideas for other books, I just haven’t written them yet.”
Reed said at times she’ll sell about 10 books in a month, then go about three months without one sale.
She said realistically, she will have to get a job when she graduates, but she doesn’t know what she would want to do. She is considering college but she’s undecided on what to pursue.
Reed is also a part of the North East Texas Writers Organization, but there are only 15 people who average the age of 60. She said she would like to be a part of a community of young writers who enjoy reading so they can talk about books.
Reed’s books can be found on Amazon, Barnes & Noble online, Apple Books, and Nook Books.