Living a dream at 18

After a chance encounter with a foster child on a bus in Colorado, Kait Reza’s novel was born.

Reza, 18, wrote her first novel about a foster child’s journey, “Where Hope Is Found,” one summer two years ago. Reza now lives in Culpeper with her parents and three siblings on account of her dad’s government job that often relocated them around the world.

After living in Virginia, then Colorado, then Australia, then Colorado and now back in Virginia, Reza felt a bond with the girl she met on the bus.

“She was telling me all about her life and I thought it was kind of interesting how she’d grown up in all these different houses and how she had to move around a lot,” Reza said. “We kind of related on that and when I got home that day, I started writing.”

“Where Hope Is Found” follows the story of Justice Clark, a teenage girl who is hardened from jumping from one foster home to the next and is ready to give up. But her social worker pairs Justice with a pastor’s family that truly cares for her.

Reza wrote Justice’s story in two months, but had to wait until she was 18 before she could publish. Reza used online self-publisher PublishAmerica to submit her novel, which officially came in August and is available at online book retailers.

She hopes to soon provide copies to local libraries and schools.

“My dad tends to tell everybody,” she said. “But it’s just like anything — you hear of people who play instruments or sports, I just like to write.”

Growing up, Reza loved journaling about her experiences traveling. She wrote her first short story when she was 13, and after much encouragement from her parents, kept writing. Like most writers, she always wanted to write a book.

And like most first-time writers, Reza encountered the common catch-22 of the literary world: you can’t get published without an agent, but you can’t get an agent without a published book.

So she turned to PublishAmerica.

“We were really impressed,” Pam Reza, Kait’s mom, said. “We just kept encouraging her. The thought and concern and emotion she put in this book — we just encouraged her that if she had something to say, she needed to say it. And that was her way of doing it.”

Because the Rezas homeschooled their four children, they were able to choose curriculums to encourage their interests, such as writing or music. Reza finished high school in May and now attends classes at Germanna Community College. She hopes to study social work and one day become a foster parent.

Reza has also begun work on a second novel, a tribute to Kelsey Orndorff, Reza’s close friend who was recently killed in a car crash.

The plot incorporates the death of a friend, which she said she planned even before Orndorff’s tragic death.

“It’s tough, but at the same time it’s helpful in a way to get those emotions out,” she said. “Musicians, they play songs. Writers have their own way of dealing with things.”

And her advice for fellow authors?

“I would say just dream up whatever you want,” Reza said. “It’s your own world; you can put whatever you want in there. Don’t hesitate to think big.

“I also think it’s really good to have an outline. If not, you lose your train of thought. Always use an outline.”

Catherine Amos can be reached at 825-0771 ext. 138 or .

Check it out:
What: “Where Hope Is Found,” by Kait Reza, published Aug. 2008 by PublishAmerica; 196 pages
Where: Available at BarnesandNobel.com. Tower.com and Amazon.com.