“They spend over two hours just chalking all over it,” he said.
“Mark From Earth” is a sci-fi adventure about a troublemaking kid with a big imagination. Mark gets an invitation to an off-world school, where he makes friends, confronts evil and finds out where he belongs.
“It’s like a sci-fi Harry Potter,” said Gruszecki, 30.
The book, aimed at sixth- to ninth-graders, is available through Amazon. More information on “Mark From Earth” can be found at www.markfromearth.com.
The idea for writing a novel began in his senior year at Washington State University Vancouver. Gruszecki was finishing his entrepreneurial degree, when Debra McCarver, his professor, asked what he wanted to do after graduation. She encouraged him to think about writing novels, something that “had never entered my mind,” said Gruszecki, adding that he hopes to develop it into a five-book series.
The book’s inspiration has very earthly origins, from his brother, David.
“My little brother, who’s 15 and quite a bit younger than me, is a big sci-fi fan,” Gruszecki said.