Ypsilanti High's Katie Mattie balances literary work with school life

Over numerous rejections, Katie Mattie displays agent Robert Thixton's acceptance card. Her fantasy novel for young adults will make the rounds of New York publishers next month.

Ronald Ahrens | For AnnArbor.com

Mattie completed the first draft of “MAJIC and the Oracle at Delphi” in 2008. She’s now working closely with Robert Thixton of Pinder Lane & Garon-Brooke Associates on the final edit of her fantasy novel aimed at the young-adult market.

The manuscript will make the rounds of publishers in January. Editors at three houses have already indicated interest, she says.

Meanwhile, Mattie - who turns 18 on Feb. 28 - also waits on pins and needles to learn about acceptance of her lone college application to the University of Notre Dame. The candidate for Ypsilanti High valedictorian plays French horn in the wind symphony and has competed in track and cross-country throughout her high school years.

“MAJIC and the Oracle at Delphi” is the first in a projected four-volume series. It follows the adventures of five modern-day girls - Melanie, Alice, Jenn, Izzy and Colleen - who receive powers from ancient Greek gods to defeat the Titans.

She got the idea in 2007, not long after finishing “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” the final work in J.K. Rowling’s series.

“If my friend and I had a superpower, what would it be?” she found herself wondering.

By that December, she began writing with a solid beginning and ending in mind. She leaned heavily on “Mythology for Dummies” for help in working out the connections that brought the plot elements together. An early introduction to Classical stories from Carli Pacheco, a teacher at West Middle School, also served well.

“I really latched onto that,” she says. “It was a lot of fun.”

Working mostly on weekends, she managed to compile about 2,500 words per week while also meeting school obligations during her sophomore year. Composition of the first draft was completed after three intensive weeks of writing when the term ended in June 2008.

Toward the end of that process, all of which “was just fun,” she says she started to think about publication.

“I knew that it would be published because if I couldn’t get an agent, I would self-publish,” she says.

Her father, Richard, followed that route in putting out his own weight-loss book.

Last summer, after learning “a really good life-lesson about patience” by failing to win some contests, she sent out letters to 60 literary agencies.

When she returned home from vacation in July, she found a note from Thixton, who requested an exclusive look at the entire manuscript.

In September, he asked for a synopsis of the novel and a timeline of the action in it. An author’s biography was also requested.

She signed a contract Dec. 7 with the agency.

“As an agent, I wouldn’t have signed her on as a client if I didn’t think I could sell her work,” Thixton says. “It’s very rare for a person who’s 17 to produce such a literate manuscript.”

For now, such things as symphonic band concerts demand Mattie’s attention - not to mention calculus problems to be solved.

“I guess math is really my thing in school,” she says. 

In her free time, she enjoys playing video games with her older brother, David.

But she’s already 60,000 words into her new novel, which she reckons is beyond the halfway point. Hoping to finish the first draft before graduation next spring, she knows enough not to rush.

“It takes a lot of energy and focus to get into that (imaginary) world," she says. "I kind of owe it to the story and the characters to do it right, to do a thorough job.”

Ronald Ahrens is a freelance writer for AnnArbor.com. Reach the news desk at news@annarbor.com or 734-623-2530.