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Some writers wait a lifetime for their big break. Not American Fork High School senior M'Lin Rowley.
The 17-year-old has already signed a 10-book deal with Shadow Mountain Publishing, a national arm of Deseret Book. The first installment of her Knights of Right series hit bookshelves in Barnes and Noble outlets nationwide two weeks ago.
The ambitious project began as a homemade Christmas gift when M'Lin was just 15.
M'Lin's cousin, then-8-year-old Tate, was a big fan of knights, so M'Lin decided to write a novel especially for him about two brothers who discover King Arthur's castle in the woods behind their house.
He loved it.
And so did editor Chris Schoebinger of Shadow Mountain Publishing.
"It has adventure. It has humor. It has suspense," Schoebinger said.
When M'Lin finished her second book, her mother, author Deborah Rowley, who wrote Family Home Evening for Newlyweds and other books , submitted the two roughly 70-page chapter-books aimed at children ages 6-10 to her publisher.
Assuming the books were penned by the elder Rowley, Schoebinger skipped the cover letter. He read both books and wanted to publish them before he realized the writer was a high school student.
"At first I thought [Deborah Rowley] was kidding me," said Schoebinger of his reaction to learning the author's true identity.
The books were polished and the dialogue was
"I don't think I would have taken it as serious, which is sad to say," Schoebinger said. "That would've been a big mistake on our part had we passed on that."
The proud mother says she's "just grateful he didn't realize until he'd fallen in love with the story."
The series follows brothers Ben, 10, and Joseph, 12 -- the latter is named after and based on M'Lin's younger brother.
After discovering King Arthur's castle, the boys begin a quest to become knights.
To achieve knighthood, the boys must earn armor by making good choices and facing peer pressure. In each book, the brothers earn a separate piece of armor by saying no to drugs, and avoiding cheating, tobacco, stealing and other vices.
M'Lin decided to weave moral messages into her fantasy tales for Tate.
"You can't be happy living like that, doing drugs and cheating and stuff," M'Lin said. "I wanted to make sure he knew what would really make him happy in life."
The lessons might be heavy-handed if they were written by an adult, says Deborah Rowley.
"But because she's still a kid, it's not preachy," Rowley explained. "It's not a mom telling you what to do."
A lifelong writer, M'Lin wrote her first book at 10. Says the author, it was about "princesses and stuff."
Already possessing the stamina of a novelist at an early age, M'Lin remembered, "My mom thought it was crazy that I stuck with [my first novel] for so long."
M'Lin is well on her way to finishing her Knights of Right series, having completed four of 10 books.
A shy person, the Utah County teen didn't tell her friends about landing the publishing deal.
"They were pretty freaked out when they finally found out," M'Lin said. "They went crazy."
To promote the books, M'Lin -- who plans to attend Southern Virginia University, a small LDS school -- will spend every other day away from American Fork High, traveling to elementary schools to share her moral message and raise interest in the series.
"I was pretty shocked that it got so big so soon," M'Lin said. "I was surprised they were so excited about it. I liked how it turned out, and my cousin loved it, but I didn't think it would be big, so it's kind of a cool feeling."
