Young writer, 21, publishes novel

The Wright State grad lives in Troy.

At the tender age of 21, Troy resident Joshua Lisec is already a published author. “I began my writing career freelancing and ghost writing,” Lisec said. “I worked for years on building up my talent and eye for writing before I wrote my first novel.”

This, of course, means he started writing at a very young age. Lisec published “The Phoenix Reich,” the first in a series of adventure novels, in March of this year after researching and writing for three years. The book is described as an “historical novel with a modern-day twist,” and focuses on main character and underachieving college student, Max Meyers. Published at the same time was a short story prequel titled “The Compass.”

“Max comes home one day to find his house burning and his U.S. Senator father dead, and is soon caught up in an FBI investigation,” Lisec said. “In his pursuit of the truth about what happened to his father, Max discovers modern-day Nazi conspiracies with ties back to World War II.”

As a boy, Lisec remembers listening to his grandfather’s stories and watching television movies about World War II. “I’ve been interested in the period since I was very little,” he said. “I love the action adventure stories like Indiana Jones fighting the Nazis and evil in general.”

Lisec, like most successful authors, decided to write about what he knows, and made his main character a college student so he would be relatable to the average young person. “The college student population is perhaps one of the most marginalized groups out there,” Lisec said. “They are often seen as egotistical and self-centered, but I set out to show that every college student has a hero within. It turns out in the case of the book, the fate of the world is in Max’s hands.”

Lisec’s first memories of action adventure movies like “Raiders of the Lost Ark” inspired him to write and tell action stories. “By the time I was 10 years old, I was already writing short adventure stories and by the age of 17, I found the right idea for the novel,” he said.

Lisec grew up in Englewood and was home schooled, graduating from high school at the age of 16 and from Wright State University at the age of 20. He immersed himself in the works of his favorite authors, JRR Tolkien and C.S. Lewis, and honed his craft by writing and researching. “The Phoenix Reich” is the first installment of the Max Meyers Adventure Saga. The second novel, “The Blood of Abraham,” is scheduled to publish in the late 2014.

“A lot of young people have asked me how to start writing and how to come up with a story and stick to it,” Lisec said. “I answer that whatever it is from the beginning to the details of the plot to the ending, you have to be interested in it yourself in order to be inspired and finish it. If you aren’t interested in the book and wouldn’t want to read it yourself, then you won’t finish. The goal is to write something that engages you as a writer from beginning to end.”

Read more about Lisec’s book at www.joshualisec.wordpress.com

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