USC student pens debut young adult superhero novel


Writing a book is hard enough as it is. There are plenty anecdotes of famous writers agonizing over the creative process and taking years to craft their work. But the daunting task is one that USC graduate student J.R. Ramsey understood and decided to take on while balancing a job and schoolwork. He put the finishing touches on Fennec, his first book, at the end of last year, and he is now planning to continue writing after he graduates in May. That success did not happen easily. Fennec was the culmination of years of persistence paying off while changing jobs and eventually, going back to school.

Ramsey grew up in Ruston, a small town in northern Louisiana, reading Chris Claremont’s classic run at the head of Uncanny X-Men. As Ramsey put it, “This was before liking comic books was cool.”

Ramsey’s passion for the super-powered mutants is apparent when one reads Fennec. The story follows a teenage boy, Sam Marino, as he adjusts to life as a freshman in high school in a new town. As if that adjustment weren’t enough, he, along with a handful of other classmates develop strange new superpowers that they must learn to control. The source of the powers and mysterious creatures that appear and threaten the kids are a mystery that the main characters must solve over the course of the book. The story is fun, interesting and would not be out of place in one of Marvel’s many X-Men side projects such as Alpha Flight, X-Men: Legacy and Generation X. The writing is not exactly at Claremont’s level, but then again, very little writing is.

When he was in school, Ramsey’s didn’t initially set out to do his best Claremont impression. After graduation from Centenary College of Louisiana — currently holding a student body of just over 600 — Ramsey’s first step was to become a middle school teacher. He was not a fan of the experience.

“Its so hard! That age group is so difficult,” Ramsey said.

He left after only a year of teaching. Despite quickly realizing that teaching middle schoolers was not his cup of tea, the experience did provide one major influence on the path his career would take. In preparation for his role as a teacher, Ramsey read a large volume of young adult novels. Reading these books eventually inspired him to start writing the book that would become Fennec, blending elements from his experiences growing up in Ruston and his beloved Uncanny X-Men.

Six months after he finished his first year as a teacher, work on the book began. Ramsey made a promise to himself to write two to three hours every week no matter what. Ramsey even left one of his jobs, which proved instrumental to allowing him to complete the book amidst many other commitments. “I think that’s what made me finish,” Ramsey said. “Because if I didn’t have that mindset that ‘no matter what I’m gonna work on it at this time on Saturday morning for this many hours,’ then it probably would have never gotten done.”

Soon after finishing his brief teaching stint, he began working full time as a social media specialist for his alma mater. While this added time crunch made writing more difficult, it did not compare to the adjustment he was forced to make when he became a student at USC a year ago. When he began his masters in strategic public relations at the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism, the time commitment tested his resolve in completing his weekly allotment of pages. His realistic weekly goal, however, allowed him to fight on through three or four pages per week at a time.

Though returning to school made writing much more difficult due to the increased time commitment, the addition of USC writing classes provided a major boost to his writing ability.

The new writing skills were a welcome addition, but they also made him realize he should go back to the beginning of his writing to rework everything to make sure the level of writing remained consistent. The addition of more descriptive language helped fully realize the world he was trying to build.

“Coming to USC, I felt like I’ve improved in my writing abilities since my first semester writing classes, and that definitely changed my style. I was like ‘Crap! Now I’ve go to go change the writing from the beginning.’ But in the end it was worth it because [my writing] was a little bit better,” Ramsey said. “Since coming to USC, I’ve learned to write more precisely, allowing me to get my ideas down more clearly.”

If there is one strength to underline in this story, it is that world building. The story is clearly the work of a first-timer. The prose might have improved at USC, but it is not yet the polished writing of a veteran writer. It takes a little long to get to the meat and potatoes of the plot, and the story sometimes gets bogged down in over description. These things, however, are symptomatic of a first-time writer.

What shines through is the creativity that led to an interesting world and super powers — gravity manipulation, for example, which is a very underused power in comics. The world in Fennec shows a lot of promise, and once Ramsey graduates in May and begins to work on the book’s sequel, it will be interesting to see where the story goes.