Saugus teen turns tragedy into creativity

SAUGUS – An 18-year-old Saugus resident is hoping sales of her novel “From the Start” take off after the book was recently made available for sale on Amazon and the Barnes and Noble website.Molly Doyle wrote the book when she was just 16. The novel is about a girl who moves to a new town and falls in love with a boy, only to find out he has leukemia.Doyle, who moved to Saugus when she was 11 after her father died, said much of the book is based on her own life.?It?s kind of my story a little bit because I moved all the way up from Florida to Massachusetts,” said Doyle. “After my dad died when I was 11, I went through a pretty hard stage in my life so I decided I was going to write a book. It was after I saw a “My Sister?s Keeper” commercial. There?s romance between a girl and a boy and they have cancer and are in love. So I decided I wanted to do something like that too because cancer is a really important topic.”After the death of her father, Doyle began writing poems and short stories, which she said helped her cope.?For a year-and-a-half I was completely glued to writing it,” said Doyle, who just graduated from North Shore Academy in Beverly. “I fell in love with it and I just snapped back into reality.”Doyle said it took her a year-and-a-half to write the book, which she researched and published all on her own.?A lot of the scenes in ?From the Start? are dreams that I had,” said Doyle. “Sometimes I?d wake up in the middle of the night and I?d have dreamed about it, and I?d go downstairs and get on my laptop and type it out. I had to do so much research on cancer. Someday I?d like to get my book known and raise money for cancer with it for Dana Farber or something like that.”Doyle said she knew nothing about cancer or chemotherapy until she began writing the book, and then got a first-hand glimpse when her grandmother was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease.?It?s really bad,” said Doyle. “She?s pretty sick. My Noni, I really love her and I hope she ends up being OK.”Doyle was so inspired by what she learned she put herself on the bone marrow donors list when she turned 18.Doyle dedicated the book to her alma mater, North Shore Academy, where she wrote most of the novel. Doyle also thanked Saugus Schools Pupil Personnel Director Cynthia Joyce in an interview last week for helping her when she first arrived in Saugus.?I had a really hard time fitting in with Saugus because I was getting bullied,” said Doyle. “I went to the Belmonte (Middle School) and my mom pulled me out of there because of bullying. Cynthia knew me all along. She knew me ever since I first moved up here. She?s awesome and helped me get into North Shore Academy and helps my mother with everything. She?s such a doll. She?s a sweetheart.”With her first novel completed, Doyle is looking forward to a big future, noting she has “very, very big dreams. In a few weeks she has an interview at Emerson College, where she?s hoping to pursue a career in just about everything creative.?I want to go there so bad,” said Doyle. “I like it because it?s so into theater and writing and all that stuff. I want to be a movie director and a screenplay writer. I definitely also want to write novels and be an author on the side. I want to try and make it to Los Angeles one day. I have very high goals for myself. But I know if I got a book published when I was around 16 years old I could probably do anything if I put my mind to. I?m determined.”Doyle?s book is available at amazon.com and barnesandnoble.com.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].