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Senior author dives into writing career
with newly published fantasy novel
Aggie works to break
from the 'student
writer' handicap
By Katie Canales
Senior Kerri Allred made
her debut in the publish
ing world with her Jan. 1 re
lease of her mythology and
fantasy packed fiction novel.
The Gritnsah Forest.
The Gritnsah Forest is part
of a relatively new genre
called new adult, Allred said.
“A reviewer said it was
kind of a mix between the
Hunger Games and Percy
Jackson,” Kerri said. “It’s
basically just there’s this war
going on with the gods, it’s
got a lot of Greek mythol
ogy in it, and there’s this
war going on above and you
don’t know what it’s about.
It’s told from the perspective
of this girl who’s really try
ing to find herself and basi
cally the whole book, it all
comes down to this girl and
the whole fate of the world is
on what she decides.”
Kerri, who uses the pseud
onym K.L. Beckman in her
writing, is a violinist and pia
nist with the A&M orchestra
and is pursuing music and
anthropology degrees. Kerri
said she became inspired by
anthropology classes at A&M
and incorporated much of
what she learned in these
classes into the book.
“I took a mythology
and folklore class and that
was just fascinating, just the
things that people come
up with to explain things,”
Kerri said. “And so I wanted
to take that and run with it.
It also has a lot of religious
themes; it doesn’t stick just to
Christianity. ”
Kerri mother Alexandra
Allred, Class of’91 and for
mer Olympic bobsledder,
said when her daughter was
10 years old and inducted
into the Fort Worth Youth
Orchestra as a violinist, she
was diagnosed with syn
esthesia, a condition that
caused Kerri to see colors
when she heard music.
“This was undiagnosed
for years and so we think
now she may have somehow
heard classical music and
saw colors which is why she
wanted the violin,” Alexan
dra said. “She was a competi
tive fiddler all before she was
a teenager. So I kind of feel
like she was meant for the
arts all the way around. This
is just her.”
Kerri originally wrote
the book when she was 16
and just recently returned to
it this past summer. Allred
said she began reaching out
to publishing houses shortly
after.
“What you usually do
is you write a query letter
which is basically, ‘Hey this
is what my book’s about and
I’m proposing this to you be
cause...,’” Kerri said. “You
usually try to aim at different
publishing houses that are
known for different genres.”
With the help of authors
within her family, Kerri
pitched her fantasy themed
book to the Next Chapter
Publishing House, which
agreed to publish it.
“I’m really lucky because
my grandfather is an author,
he does military history, and
my mom is an author and
she does sports and nutrition
and nonfiction,” Kerri said.
“And 1 do fiction, fantasy. So
I was really lucky that I had
relations with other authors
and so I got involved with
them.”
Kerri said it’s fairly unusual
for an author as young as she
is to have a work published.
Kerri said she’s looking for
ward to beginning her book
promotion without being
classified as a student writer.
“I think it will change
perspective of me because
you hear ‘student writer’ and
you think ‘Oh, not quite
there, not quite mature, not
quite polished,’ but I think
once I get out I’ll be taken
more seriously,” Kerri said.
Alexandra said she’s told
her daughter the writing in
dustry is a diffucult one and
must be pursued with passion
and vigor.
“Of course I give this ad
vice to my kid and she gets
Allison Bradshaw — THE BATTALION
The first novel of author Kerri Allred, published under
the pseudonym K.L. Beckman, is now for sale.
published right off the bat,
but I wanted her to under
stand that this isn’t American
Idol and you get on stage and
belt out a few songs and the
world loves you,” Alexandra
Allred said. “I wanted her to
understand that you’re do
ing this because you love it
and you may get rejected 17
times over but that’s okay.”
Kyle Beckman, Kerri’s
fiance, was the first person
to read Kerri’s original story
their freshman year of col
lege. Beckman, whose name
was the inspiration behind
Kerri’s author name, said
he gave the same advice to
Kerri.
“I know she had a bunch
of people continually tell her
‘no’ and they didn’t" want to
publish her work, but I just
told her to keep going and
keep trying and it’ll work
out eventually, which it did,”
Beckman said.
The Gritnsah Forest is be
ing sold online on Kobo,
com, iTunes, Amazon and
Bames and Noble. Kerri and
her PR team are working
on scheduling book signings
this spring on campus in the
MSC and in Academic Plaza.
“I’m definitely going to
rely on the Aggie community
for sure,” Kerri said. “Right
now it’s not in book stores,
it’s only online because I am
new and it’s a new book. So
I really want to rely on my
friends to write reviews be
cause the more reviews that
are written and the more
books that are sold, stores are
going to say, ‘Hey this book
is gaining momentum, I’m
going to put it on my book
shelf’ And then that’s when
books explode.”
SCIENCE
Texas A&M robotics symposium to
feature an all-female speaker lineup
By Gracie Mock
For the first time at any major ro
botics conference, all 18 speakers of
the Texas A&M Robotics Symposium
will be female leaders in the field.
The symposium kicks off Wednesday
with a keynote address by Ruzena Bajc-
sy, a professor from University of Cali
fornia, Berkeley. The 17 presenters after
the keynote speaker will give talks the
following day on their robotics research.
“Each speaker will give a brief, high-
level talk focusing on her current re
search,” said Nancy Amato, professor
in the computer science department.
“Topics will cover a broad spectrum of
cutting-edge work and current research
challenges by an amazing cadre of ro
botics and automation researchers from
around the world.”
Amato and Lynne Parker from the
University of Tennessee were ap
proached by the senior leadership of the
IEEE Robotics and Automation Society
and asked to take on leadership roles. As
a result, Amato is the program chair and
Parker is the general chair.
“We then put together the stellar
team you can see on the website that
includes top researchers from all over
the world,” Amato said.
Amato, who is program chair of the
International Conference on Robotics
and Automation’s senior program com
mittee, said the committee originally
planned to meet in College Station to
choose submitted research papers for a
May robotics conference. The fact that
so many high-level robotics researchers
were near Texas A&M was too good an
opportunity to pass up, she said.
“Since the SPC members will be
traveling here for the SPC meeting, I
decided to take advantage of that and
organize the Texas A&M Robotics
Symposium so that our students, faculty
and staff could have a chance to hear
from these world recognized researchers
whose expertise covers the spectrum of
robotics and automation,” Amato said.
The Texas A&M Robotics Sympo
sium will start at 4:10 p.m. Wednesday
in the Emerging Technologies Build
ing. The event is free and open to the
public.
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