To step out of your comfort zone is one thing, but to publish a book is something different.

Ever since she was young, Jada Collins, senior, has always been interested in writing books, which brought her a great gift senior year: she would write a novel for her senior project.

“I never thought I could do it, like the process would be way too hard. But I was so interested so I challenged myself,” Collins said.

Collins has teamed up with published author S.H. McCord, who wrote “The Bones of Boulder Creek”, and also happens to be a math teacher at Dickerson Middle School and a family friend. Originally, she wanted to do a children’s type novel, but now she is thinking about a more post-apocalyptic, or an educational novel about the entire process of actually creating a novel. As of now she has not started writing, but is very excited to get started.

“I have a whole bunch of ideas floating around, nothing for sure though. Right now I’m learning the process of actually coming up with the ideas, finding out how long it takes to write the actual piece, what it takes to publish it, bind it, and get it out there,” Collins said.

McCord has been a family friend for years, as he works alongside Collin’s mother at Dickerson. He too is very excited and happy to help Collins. Collins had never actually met him in person until she asked him to be her facilitator.

“He was actually having a fan meet-and-greet where all his fans would come together and discuss the novel and I went to that and that is where I met him for the first time. In fact, he even called me his prodigy and all his fans were freaking out,” Collins said.

Collins is majoring in mass communication at Georgia College & State University and wants to write novels or articles so her senior project is the perfect jump start.

While Collins is unsure if she will sell her novel, she says if she does end up doing that, she would like to donate the profits to a charity of choice.

“In the actual book I will be writing, if I could link it to some type of person who use dealing with something, or some type of natural disaster relief fund, such as the Red Cross, maybe I could do that,” Collins said.

Collins is delighted to put a piece of writing out there and share something that she wrote with someone else.