Imagine becoming a published author before even coming close to graduating high school… Granite Bay High School’s Zoey Wheeler can call this dream a reality.

Now a sophomore at Granite Bay High School (GBHS), Wheeler isn’t just an athlete and a student: she is a published author with a book called Why They Run, now available for purchase at Barnes and Noble and Amazon.                                        

According to Amazon’s description, her book is “a story of love, rivalry and resilience,” about two track athletes driven to succeed for different reasons. They cannot afford to lose a competition that has been sparked by their determination. More information about Zoey’s work can be found on her website; https://zoeywheelerbooks.com/

Wheeler’s passion for writing came from reading hundreds of books throughout her childhood. Zoey Wheeler began her journey as a writer at age 14, when she found her passion for writing. 

“Every time I read any story, it made me want to create something of my own and kind of create my own world,” said Wheeler. 

The most surprising part of her journey was that no one knew she was writing a book, not even her parents. 

“Zoey was about 80% finished before we even knew she was writing a book,” said Angela Wheeler, Zoey’s mother.

Zoey explained that she didn’t think her novel was going to go anywhere, so she never thought it was important to share it. As she was writing, she began to realize her story was much better than she thought and could have potential, so she began to share it with people. 

As she began to share it with family and friends, she wanted to see if it was good enough to actually be published. She had written about 50 pages when she began her transition to high school, and her work was accidentally deleted. She found herself staring at a blank screen, feeling defeated when she realized her work was gone. 

Despite facing such a tragic roadblock when her work got deleted, Wheeler persevered and began to write again. Then, it took her six months to write her first draft and another year and a half to edit, find a publisher and get it published. 

Throughout her book-writing journey, there were many twists and turns. However, her main struggle was plot holes. 

“While writing, you might find something in one chapter that you said differently in another chapter,” Wheeler said. “You have to . . . make sure everything chronologically makes sense, and that was pretty difficult.”  

Between homework and practices, Wheeler had to fix chronological plot holes and manage tight publisher deadlines. She found inspiration when she met Tahereh Mafi, the bestselling author of the Shatter Me series, at a book signing.

“She gave me a lot of advice,” Wheeler said. “‘The only difference between a successful author and a non-successful author is time.’ You have to put so much time and effort into your story.”

Wheeler talked about how, before she started writing, she did not quite understand the piece of advice she was given about time. But as she began to write and got deeper into the book, she really resonated with it and began to understand it. 

Wheeler’s first novel has sparked an inspiration for what she hopes to be a trilogy adding onto this book.