CHS graduate Everett Cook is doing more than just studying marine biology—he is well on his way to becoming a published author. 

     The Seven Black Riders, Book One, is currently under its second round of revisions with Bluebook Publishing in Amarillo. After garnering attention from professors and students at Auburn University, Everett was asked to attend the Auburn Writing Seminar in Auburn which will take place either Feb. 13 or 17, depending on Auburn’s bowl game.

     The Writing Seminar takes place in the city of Auburn and doesn’t have any correlation with the university itself; however, Auburn University can appoint three students or graduate students to participate in the local event.

     “You have a simple four by eight table, a trifold, a packet of what your book is, a short summary, and a picture of one of the characters to present what your whole story is,” Everett said. “Then, all of these professional editors, authors, and illustrators walk through to pick, select, or write their names down on the ones they find interesting.”

    This event allows upcoming projects to either get a start, an illustration, an editor, etc., by professionals.

    Everett’s book has been in the works for many years and is a science fiction/fantasy, revolving around seven superheroes “fighting bad guys at different timelines,” Everett said. It focuses heavily on the number seven—there are seven main characters, major plot points that occur on pages that end in seven and chapters with seven in them.

     During this first semester in college, Everett continued working on the story he had started while in elementary and decided to get some input.

    “After finishing the 125,000-word final cut, I went to the Auburn University Writing Center and asked them to do a rough grammar and very light edit,” he said. 

    Three weeks passed, and when the editing was done, Everett published his book on the Auburn University Writing Board located inside the university’s library—a place where fellow students can read others' original works. 

    “It got like eight views at first, so it wasn’t super huge right then,” he said. “But one of my professors was one of the eight who picked it up. His name is Eric Hall.”

     Hall is head of the College of Science and Mathematics and “he’s like a super huge book nerd, superhero, Marvel guy,” Everett said.

     “He had previously heard about it when I talked to him about it before, so he picked it up and read it,” he said. “He told everyone in COSAM (College of Science and Mathematics) about it.”

    The office created three small pamphlet advertisements about the book and posted it on the community board. Hall then sent an email to Everett’s career readiness class about the book, gradually increasing exposure. 

     “He dove straight into everything and knew more about the first half of the book than I did,” Everett said. “He wanted to make sure more people got to see this.”

    After being on the community board and having an email sent out to the class, Everett was featured in the monthly Writing College Awards by the University’s Writing College, where ten students were chosen for their unique literature.

    “After Eric Hall finished the whole book, he comes up to me and said he wanted to nominate me for the Three C’s Awards,” he said. “Students are entered into this competition for the best well-rounded character, the best well-rounded concept, and the best well-rounded core story.”

     Everett ended up winning the competition and an award for his concept of time travel, attracting even more people and increasing the readership to the hundreds.

     “About three days after receiving The Concept Award,” Everett said, “Eric Hall comes up to me again and said, ‘We’re going to put you in the Auburn Writing Seminar.’”

Writing is more of a hobby than something I have to do. I just enjoy letting my brain go ballistic.

 The story takes a turn

     Everett’s book series has reached beyond just the university community. While still in high school, Everett was contacted by creators of Attack on Titan: No Requiem, a YouTube and manga fan-fiction series. Everett had worked as an artist, primarily contributing clouds and trees, for two and a half years. He got invited to contribute to AoT: No Requiem after his fan art for Dragon Ball Z was recognized. The following for AoT: No Requiem has reached 34 million. 

     The creators were looking for a new project, Everett said, and they were interested in his books. Attack on Titan: No Requiem is a collaboration of artists from all over the world. 

     Everett sent several excerpts from his first book in The Seven Black Riders series. They “thought it was awesome,” he said, and he got an invitation to make it into an animated series.

    All characters and concepts—particularly the time-traveling ideas—are copyrighted, and production will begin on the animated series as soon as the book has been published, Everett said. The projected completion date is 2026.

In the beginning

    Everett’s story began when he was just seven years old, writing with his grandmother, Marilyn Murfee. It originally began as a story about angels fighting demons. Everett ended up dropping it, did some writing in sixth grade, but then fully picked it back up his freshman year of high school, starting from scratch, where it evolved into its current form.

     “Freshman year, I mainly just wrote in advisory, in Jones’s third period, and anything that popped into my brain just flooded onto the paper,” he said. “What I liked, I kept, and what I didn’t, I stashed it.”

     Everett developed the story during his free time, either at school or at home and mostly “wanted to create a very strong plot with strong characters,” he said. “Then junior year, I had sorta finished the first book and I thought to myself, ‘I can make two or three books out of this,’ so I started writing the second book.”

    After writing over half of his second book, Everett said he decided to “just keep it going,” so he decided three books wasn’t enough and turned it into seven. He started writing and planning the beginnings to book three, four, five, and the ending to the sixth.

    “Even though I plan to give out the book, writing is more of a hobby than something I have to do,” he said. “I just enjoy letting my brain go ballistic.”

     When balancing his college classes and finding time to write, Everett said he does certain balancing patterns. “I’ll study for 30 straight minutes, then I’ll write for ten,” he said. “Or I’ll study for three straight hours and then I’ll write for two.”

    Writing for Everett can be anywhere or at any time, making it feel “more like a stress reliever,” he said.  “I kind of just go into my own state of mind and completely tone out everything. There’s no stress, there’s no anxiety, there’s no nothing, it’s just the book.”

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