The Daily O’Collegian

When the stress of class and making the grade hit, students often look elsewhere for relief. Writer Nour Habib shows how one OSU student returns to writing her book in times of pressure.

Jessica Campos, 21, completed her first book while at OSU.

An aerospace engineering senior, Campos spent three years balancing writing and attending classes.

“It actually helped me,” Campos said. “Because when I was stressing, or tired of certain classes, I had an escape to go into my own little world.”

The book, first in a five-part fantasy series, was published in May by Xulon Press and is titled “The Risen, the Chosen, and the Dark, Book One: The Dawn of it All.”

Never having enjoyed the structured rigidity of English classes, Campos prefers making her own rules.

This was part of the appeal of the fantasy genre for her.

As for where the idea of the series stemmed from, Campos said, “I honestly don’t know where it came from, but sometimes I feel as if someone is dropping subtle ideas or hints into my head or something. I know to some this sounds really weird, but if I had to say where at least some of my ideas come from, if not the very design of my story, I’d say God.”

Campos began the series at 17, while she was still in high school.

Her mother, Donna, remembers some of her daughter’s friends that came by after school to work on their own books with Campos.

“Other kids would fall away, give up,” Donna said.

“But for [Jessica], once she starts something, she finishes it.”

Campos has enjoyed writing since she was a child, Donna said.

“She would write plays and act them in the backyard with her siblings.”

Campos went through much of the publishing process herself.

Her mother and one of her best friends, Anna Martin, helped with some of the early editing.

Martin, also an aerospace engineering senior, has known Campos for four years.

She began reading Campos’s work after a conversation at the library.

“[Jessica] mentioned her book in passing, and I asked if I could read it,” Martin said.

“She loves to write. I love to read. It works out pretty well.”

Martin mainly proofreads for spelling and grammar mistakes.

“I don’t really read for continuity because I don’t get to know what happens in the other books,” she said.

Campos says having Martin read the books is very helpful.

Campos’s mother also helped with the editing, especially last semester when she went over the first book with her chapter by chapter every night through instant messaging.

Campos said the second book of the series should be ready to be sent to her final proofreader around Christmas.

A lot of the work for it was done at home in Bartlesville this summer.

“If the computer were a magnet, [Jessica] would definitely be a piece of metal,” Donna said.

Much of Campos’s time at home was spent in the office, working on her story.

“Her siblings, especially 9-year-old brother, would be like ‘Ugh, she’s writing again,’” Donna said, recalling times when Campos would not be able to help her siblings with something because she was busy writing.

Campos said she has to write down ideas down when she gets them.

“I learned that when it comes, you have to let it go, or else it’s going to drive you crazy.”

She remembers waking up around 3 a.m. once, and scrambling to get an idea on paper.

Martin, who is in many of Campos’s classes, has seen her write things in the margins of her notebook during lectures.

Campos was happy to hear the positive feedback from friends who read her first book and are waiting for the next, but it also puts some pressure on her.

“It makes me feel guilty because I’m not working on it as much as I’d like,” she said.

“Right now I think, ‘Oh my gosh, what have I gotten myself into?’ But I’m going to finish it.”

Xulon Press is a self-publishing company, and Campos is in charge of everything.

She picked the font, formatted the book and even made her own illustrations.

This worked well, she said, “mainly because I didn’t trust anybody else to do it.”

Campos, a strong Christian, says that her faith shows up in her books.

“It’s not as obvious as Narnia, but it’s there.”

Although this is her first published work, it is not the first thing she has written.

She enjoys writing fan fiction online, which is writing based on the characters or settings of another published work written by fans of the work and not by the original author. She also plans to continue writing after the series is complete and already has a project in mind.

This series is geared toward younger readers, but Martin said, “It’s not so simplistic that someone our age wouldn’t enjoy it.”

The book is currently only available online, at Amazon.com and Target.com and the series’ Web site www.jessicalynncampos.com.