Forum columnist sees first book published

CHRIS ROUSH/DAILY FORUM
Maryville resident Larry Anderson, a 30-year teaching veteran recently published his first book, I, Eugenius. I, Eugenius is a story about a 13 year-old genius that was born into a wealthy family living in a small town.

Maryville resident Larry Anderson has dedicated his life to teaching young people in the classroom. Anderson, who writes a weekly column for the Maryville Daily Forum, has taught Language Arts for 30 years including 20 of those at Savannah Middle School. While being an educator for three decades, Anderson discovered young adults weren’t getting the proper literacy skills they needed.

“I was reading a lot of books for middle grade, young adult range and a lot of what I read was good, but there was a lot that I thought was not very good,” Anderson said. “I thought like I could write something just as good as what I was reading. So I had this idea pop into my mind about a genius, a kid who is smarter than everyone else, but just wants to live a normal life.”

After coming up with the idea for his main character, Anderson started to jot down ideas and slowly began putting the book together. However, writing the book did not happen overnight. It took Anderson nearly a year to finish his book, but throughout the process, he had doubts about his abilities to finish it.

“I had been wanting to write for a long time anyway and just had trouble with having enough time and enough opportunity to think it through as far as the scope of the plot was concerned,” Anderson said. “I didn’t know if I could write a book of 300 pages, which this is pretty close, and whether I had the skill. So I just sat down to see if I had the skill or not.”

I, Eugenius is a story about a 13 year-old genius that was born into a wealthy family living in a small town. The main character, Eugene Pomeroy has to deal with jealousy and envy from his classmates.

While Anderson was writing the book, he wanted to make the main character a different type of genius. Anderson didn’t want him to be singled out for being a “nerd,” but instead show a different perspective of being a genius.

“Other people have written books about really bright kids and their lives and typically what you get is a ‘nerdy-kid,’ who is into science and computers and all that stuff,” Anderson said.

“Part of what I wanted to do with it was put a new twist on the character and he’s really smart, but he does not have a lot of the interest that you would expect a brilliant person to have. He just wants to be a normal kid and live a normal life and he has a lot of friends, popular, athletic and he is not a nerd.”

Anderson began writing the book 13 years ago and for a while wasn’t sure if his dream would come true. Anderson tried to multiple different publishers and for a while felt as if there was no hope.

“What got frustrating was that I would send off a treatment and it might be gone for months before you get everything back and usually it was a rejection,” Anderson said. “But I did have some luck initially with Wilson Printing in New York City. I sent them the cover letter, the synopsis and a couple of chapters and I heard back from them. They wanted more material and I sent more chapters and then they said they wanted to see the whole manuscript, so I sent them the whole thing, but they rejected it ultimately.”

After Wilson Printing rejected the book, Anderson felt discouraged because he thought for sure the book would be published. However, he did not give up on the book. He continued to make edits and changes to the book. But it would not be a quick process. Anderson would make changes and then put it on the back burner.

With nearly a decade of work into the book, Anderson finally saw a glimmer of hope. About two and a half years ago, Anderson thought that he was approaching this the wrong way.

“Big publishers want a recognized name or they want to work through an agent,” Anderson said. “They don’t want someone just sending them material. They do not have time for it. So I thought maybe I should go with a regional publisher.”

Anderson initially contacted a publisher out of the St. Louis area, Walrus Publishing. The publisher wanted to publish the book, but Anderson didn’t hear anything for nearly two years. In the end, the publisher decided against publishing it.

“So the book came back to me and I contacted another regional publisher called Amazing Things Press and I sent it into them,” Anderson said. “They took it and they published it.”

After 13 years of writing and waiting, Anderson can now say that his first book is published.

Famous Missouri author Mark Twain once said, “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.”

Anderson echoes those thoughts and believes that both young and old need to read more. Anderson believes that technological advances are taking a toll on an individual’s want to read.

“I hope that young people are reading as much as time allows, but I am afraid they aren’t,” Anderson said. “I hope teachers are still teaching good literature that’s timely, contemporary and important and not leaving it to computers to take care of.”

While this is Anderson’s first book to be published, he has written others and is hoping that each of his books will be eventually published. Anderson hopes to send a high-school-level book, John Henry’s War, which is about the Civil War, to the publisher this fall.

Along with John Henry’s War, Anderson has completed two other books aimed toward adult readers, Bad Victims and Honorable Victims. Anderson has one more book that he is currently writing, 102, which takes a look at the local area after the Civil War.