Rylah Orr: A Teen Novelist

By Vivian Gunn

Rylah Orr wrote her first novel at the age of 13.

The novel, Watertopian Heroes, was about an emperor who put a curse on a man. Ever since the emperor cursed the man, he has attacked the emperor and the emperor’s daughter to try to break the curse.

“Me and my friends decided to act out characters and when we were finished, I decided to write it in a novel,” Orr said.

Orr never finished.

“I just got bored with it” she said.

Since then, she has written three unfinished novels: Stormdust, Dragon Scale and her current one, With the Bears.

“I’m trying to finish my current novel,” she said. Orr hopes that when she finishes her novels, they can get published.

Other than her novels, Orr sketches Japanese anime. She gets her inspiration from Death Note, Wolf’s Rain, Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. Usually, Orr doesn’t sketch the amines from her favorite shows or movies. She sketches them from her imagination and creativity.

Orr’s passion for writing novels and Japanese anime made her determined to major in English and computer animation at Syracuse University.

Orr says she will never give up her passion on writing novels and Japanese animation.

“Well, I think I want to write about Japanese animation novels to show people what I think about them and see how I create them,” she said.

Orr also enjoys watching bloody movies.

Rylah has seven siblings: four sisters, Sarah, Dannah, Deborah, Bethany and three brothers, Michael, Josh and Joel.

Her favorite holiday is Christmas. Since all her siblings don’t live together, she loves having the family come together and getting sick from eating too much candy.

Orr’s favorite food is panda paws ice cream because of the loaded peanut butter.

Orr does regret one of her personality traits. She regrets being shy because she feels she could’ve done many things in her life and wasn’t brave enough.

When Rylah got invited to attend the church’s pumpkin picking, she was too scared to attend and her brother Joel went instead. When Joel came back from pumpkin picking, he told Rylah how much fun he had and she was mad at herself for not going.

Rylah plans to attend college, but has yet to decide if SU is best for her. No matter, she hopes going to a university will help her overcome one trait.

“Hopefully my shyness would go away,” she said.

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