An assignment to inspire a career of a lifetime

| 29 Sep 2011 | 07:56

What started out as a simple homework, has help By Stacey Mason Sparta - Look out world: Ellen Tremiti is making her mark. Hers may soon be a name to remember for years to come. This Sparta teenager has done twice what some people talk about all their lives and never get around to completing — written a book. By age 17, Tremiti had already written and published two books. The first, a mystery novel titled The Essence of Pandemonium, was completed when she was 14. Her second book, a fantasy novel called The Mountains of Darkmeth, was published when the 17-year-old author was a senior at Sparta High School. Now a freshman at Emerson College in Boston, Tremiti is double-majoring in film and writing/literature, and publishing. She just completed her first fictional screenplay, about two families and two friends, and hopes to secure a script agent soon. “It’s hard to get a script agent without a referral or knowing someone,” said Tremiti. She said her future interests lie in film production. Tremiti’s ambitious writing career began when her fourth-grade teacher gave an assignment to write a short story. “It was the first thing I tried to do that wasn’t hard and felt good,” said Tremiti. Sixty-six pages of her first book were written that year. It took her another three years to complete the book. The next step was to find a publisher. Instead of hiring a literary agent or hiring a print-on-demand publisher, she researched the issue and was able to secure a contract with Publish America to publish her book at their expense. Tremiti has received positive responses from her readers and several requests to do a sequel of The Mountains of Darkmeth, something she plans to do in the future. On Jan. 11, Tremiti will bring her experiences to Sparta’s young adults when she’s scheduled to visit the Mohawk Avenue School. She also plans to do book signings at local book shops during the spring. Both The Essence of Pandemonium and The Mountains of Darkmeth can be ordered at local bookstores or purchased online at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com.turn a Sparta teen into an accomplished author