Jordan Gretzner, a junior at Eastern Michigan University majoring in Communications, began writing her first novel at 13.
As long as she could remember, she had loved to write. First, she’d written songs and stage plays, and eventually, Jordan began writing short stories in her free time.
One day, she saw a prompt that intrigued her.
“It had been something like, ‘What if you were playing hide and seek on an island, but you couldn’t leave,'" Gretzner said. "I had loved dystopian fiction at the time, so I just started writing."
After two years of writing and editing, she self-published the book at 15 during her sophomore year of high school.
Gretzner’s first novel, titled "The Island of Danger," takes place in a not-so-distant dystopian future in which every person who turns 18 must take a test to see how capable of violence and crime they are. If the test decides they may be a danger, they’re sent off to a faraway island full of other criminals. However, the government begins sending those whom the test reveals to be highly intelligent in fear of a potential uprising.
“I remember my school being so supportive," Gretzner said. "They let me do a book signing, and they had even brought in a couple local news stations to interview me."
In Gretzner’s freshman year of college, three years after publishing her first novel, she looked back at the writing she’d done exclusively as a hobby until then.
“I’ve always loved poems and writing poetry," Gretzner said. "I remember going through all I had written, and so much of it had been poems related to my own mental health journey. The first thing I did was categorize them. My earlier poems were noticeably more sad, while the second batch felt more healed and more experienced. There was a story there, and that's when I decided to make my first poetry collection.”
Gretzner originally titled the project "The Hurricane and the Sun" to illustrate the way her perspective around mental health and her own conversation with it had changed. However, that just didn’t seem to fit.
“The sun didn’t match the theme," Gretzner said. "The first part of the collection is sad and showcased how much I was going through, but that didn’t mean the second half was necessarily happy. I still had those struggles. I had just learned how to balance them better. That’s how I came up with the title ‘The Hurricane and its Aftermath.' The hurt was still there, but I had grown. It’s unrealistic to look at mental health as something that can change on a dime, to go from sad to happy so quickly.”
Publishing her second novel, while having gone through the process already, came with new challenges. “In high school, there weren’t many others doing what I was doing. That’s not the case in college. I had to work harder to get my book out there."
Alyssa Eubanks, a local artist attending Michigan State University and Gretzner's longtime best friend, helped create all of the illustrations found in her second book, as well as the cover art.
“There’s a lot that goes into book publishing that you don’t realize until you’re faced with doing it," Gretzner said. "Formatting your book, working as your own editor. It’s definitely all a challenge, even with prior experience."
While publishing her second novel had come with more of the tools campus can offer, there were also a sea of other students working towards the same goal. Now, in her junior year and two books deep, Gretzner is proud of the work she’s accomplished.
“In hindsight, my first book wasn’t the best, but I was 15," Gretzner said. "I had no clue how to do any of it, and while sometimes I still cringe a little while reading my own work, there’s still so much for me to be proud of there.”
Now, Gretzner has a third book in the works, and while readers can’t expect its release for a handful of years, they can expect another shift in genre.
“I wanted to go back to fiction writing," Gretzner said. "As of now, I only have an outline done, as well as a handful of scenes throughout. All I can say on it now is that I plan for it to be a psychological thriller. I haven’t done the genre before, but I’m getting older [and] so is my writing."
After self-publishing her first two works, Gretzner hopes to be represented by an agent and publish her third traditionally.
After a year of having her poetry collection out to the world, Gretzner noted how much things have changed, and that publishing during such a transitional time in her life means looking back at her own work with new eyes.
“Even after just a year, I’m looking at the things I wrote in a different way," Gretzner said. "I’m a new person, even if not that much time has passed. Still, again, I’m so proud of what I wrote and accomplished."
Those interested in reading Gretzner’s latest release "The Hurricane and its Aftermath" can purchase it on Amazon. For business inquiries and questions, contact Gretzner at jgretzner10@gmail.com.
