English High senior designs book artwork

LYNN – Lynn English High School senior Kelly Amancio hasn’t graduated yet, but already has her artwork featured on the cover of Swampscott author W.C. Peever’s recently published book, “The Jumper Chronicles: The Quest for Merlin’s Map.”Amancio and nearly 800 artists from around the country entered a Facebook contest created by Peever, in an effort to find a young artist to illustrate the cover of his book.Peever decided to create the contest after the publishing company that he signed with sent him some potential illustrations, all of which Peever didn’t feel like fit the mold of his book.”My publisher was a little weary about the contest at first,” said Peever. “He wasn’t sure if a high school student could meet the deadlines or would take it seriously enough, but Kelly did it all perfectly.”Lynn English Art teacher Martha Brown heard about the contest through a friend and later shared the opportunity with her classes.”I knew the contest would be perfect for Kelly,” said Brown. “She is a very skilled artist, has great technique and is very driven.”Amancio will also be illustrating the cover of Peever’s second book, which is not yet published.Modest about her achievement, Amancio says she never expected upon entering the contest that it would be this big of a deal.”I’m nervous,” said Amancio. “This really didn’t hit me until I had a hard copy of the book in my hand. Then I just thought, ‘I really did this?'”Peever visited the library at Lynn English Wednesday as part of Teen Reading Week.He spoke to students about his experience writing and having his first book published while offering students and young writers advice on how to get started as an author.”The first step of getting a book from your head to the book store is writing it,” said Peever. “Unfortunately, that’s the easiest part.”He then spoke about the challenges that authors face today because of new technologies such as e-books and iPads driving publishing companies out of business.”This is a hard industry to get into but it should in no way discourage young writers,” he said.Peever, a stay-at-home dad and a first-time author, started writing to give his life at home some more pizzazz.”Don’t get me wrong,” says Peever, “Being a stay-at-home dad is very rewarding and a tough job, but the boredom was getting to me.”Peever sat down at the computer one day and began to write.”All of a sudden these ideas were just flying out of me,” he said. “It was like I was the one reading the book instead of writing it, every chapter was a surprise to me.”Peever awarded Amancio with a plaque of the illustration that will be hung in the library.