What would you do if you lived next door to someone featured on “America’s Most Wanted,” a burglar, or someone who committed suicide?
These are questions that Paige K. Mitchell, 21 from Penn Hills, asks in her 60-page mystery novella, “Secret Shadows.”
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PAIGE K. MITCHELL (Photo by J.L. Martello)
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The story takes place in the fictional town of Clear View Heights, Pa., a small-close knit town where everyone knows each other. The small town is turned upside down when Gracen Grambling and her daughter Sarah Grambling moved into Clear View, next door to the main character, Candice Mitchell and her family.
Sarah is a quiet girl who stays to herself. Because of this, Candice decides to reach out to Sarah and the two become friends. When Sarah is found dead in the bathtub, Candice makes it her mission to put the puzzle pieces of her friend’s death together.
“A lot of Black authors write about sex, love and money and I wanted to do something different,” said Mitchell when asked why she chose to write a mystery.
Mitchell said it took her about a year to write “Secret Shadows.”
“I started writing it last summer then when I went back to school, I would take about an hour or so each day to write and I finished it over Christmas break,” said Paige, a Penn Hills High School graduate who is currently attending Lincoln University in Philadelphia. She will be graduating with a dual print and broadcast journalism degree in May 2013.
After completing the manuscript, Mitchell tried to secure sponsors to help self-publish “Dark Shadows,” but came up empty.
“It got frustrating for a while trying to find people to help and trying to find sponsors to help pitch my idea, but I realized you have to spend money to make money,” Mitchell said.
Not to be deterred, Mitchell decided to go another route.
“I did research on publishing companies and I liked Author House. I paid to have it published myself. The book was published in three to four months and came out Feb. 24 of this year. I started to promote it in March,” she said.
Her father, Kenneth Mitchell, is proud of his daughter tenacity and determination to make her dream of becoming an author a reality.
“I’m very proud of her. She’s always going for her dreams. Parents can’t be anything but proud when kids do something positive,” said Kenneth, owner of car lots in Duquesne and North Versailles. Paige works for her father when she is not at Lincoln.
“She was always up in her bedroom and writing things since she was 10-years-old,” her father continued. “I saw the spark in her when she was 6-years-old and she would run around and entertain everybody. I knew she was special.
Mitchell got bitten by the writing bug when her mother began buying her diaries.
“Instead of putting in things that happened in my daily life, I filled them up with stories that I made up and poetry,” she said.
Despite her father’s praise, Mitchell takes her talent in stride.
“I always had a very creative imagination. I just decided to show it on paper,” she said.
Paige estimates that she has sold about 150 copies of “Secret Shadows” to date via the Internet.
“I want people to learn to be kind to one another because you never know what’s going on in someone’s life. I want to inspire young people by letting them see that you can go to school and do what you want in life,” she said.
“There’s a lot going on out here. You are hearing more negativity than positivity. People need to take the time to motivate young people to get them to hustle and do what they want.”
She held an official book release party for “Secret Shadows” on Friday, June 8 at the Savoy Restaurant from 10 p.m.-2 a.m.
The free event consisted of her promoting, signing and selling the novella and thanking those in attendance for their unwavering support.
“This isn’t the end of me. I’m going to keep writing. This is the beginning of me starting my career,” Mitchell said.
“Secret Shadows” is available at numerous locations including Author House, Barnes & Noble shelves and web sites and Amazon. It retails for $10.
(For more information on Mitchell or “Dark Shadows,” visit: www.wix.com/mitchellpaigek/paige.)
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