Lots of imagination for fantasy: 16-year-old author Theresa Schex

Created: 05/21/2022, 16:00

The stories flow out of her: young author Theresa Schex with her award-winning novel "Isen in Flammen".

No play because of Corona Mom wanted to write a love story "more of a hobby" © Anne Huber

Theresa Schex is 16 and has already written three novels.

She won a prize with her first historical work "Isen in Flammen".

Isen

– Theresa Schex is just 16 years old and has already published a novel.

But that's not all: for her book "Isen in Flammen", which is set in Isen in 1638, she also received her hometown's young talent literary prize.

The student, who is in the tenth grade at Gars High School, actually prefers fantasy novels.

Not for fun reading, as fantasy stories are for many young people her age, Theresa writes her own novels. She wrote her first attempt, a story heavily based on JRR Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings", when she was twelve.

In the meantime, two finished novels, which play in a fantasy world she invented herself, are in the drawer.

The idea for a historical novel with references to Isen originally came from her father.

Bernhard Schex, works in the Isen municipal council as a speaker for local history.

However, he initially proposed his daughter as the author of a play to be performed as part of the 1275th anniversary celebrations.

Because of the uncertainties caused by Corona and the impossibility of setting up such a project with repeated lockdowns, it became a novel.

For Theresa, who "always thinks scenically" when writing, develops ideas freely and develops the plot according to the situation, a fact-based story was initially new territory.

For "Isen in Flammen" she researched the local archive and read historical works on the Thirty Years' War in Bavaria.

In order to remain true to her own style, she deliberately did not read any historical novels.

"I tend to adopt a writing style relatively quickly," she admits self-critically.

She invented her protagonist Georg freely, but his father's name actually appears in the few available historical documents about the Isen market fire.

And the idea of ​​weaving a love story into the handling came from mother Gabriele Schex.

"I'm not really the type for it, but my mother said it would be nice if the rather dark plot could be lightened up a bit."

Her parents were the first to read the novel that Theresa had finished writing after nine months.

She has since garnered a lot of praise for the book.

However, she could not have imagined that she would win the young talent prize of the art and literature competition Fabulous Isen.

“With the submitted excerpt, Theresa Schex managed to captivate the entire jury with her story,” the jurors justified the decision to award the story of the young brewer Georg with a specially created prize.

"I didn't really expect it, the other writers were very good," she says.

But Theresa, who lives with her parents, three sisters, grandparents, two cats and nine chickens on a former farm in Westach, has other artistic talents.

She also designed the logo for the 1275th anniversary, which uses the gables of the church tower of the parish church of St. Zeno and the old town hall as design elements.

"I sat down and tried it out a bit - and then it came out," she says modestly.

Her favorite hobby after writing is to be out and about on horseback.

Theresa has been horseback riding since she was six years old and has been involved in horseback riding for several years now.

She writes mainly on the weekends and during the holidays, but during school she prefers to do sports to balance her work.

Can you imagine making writing a career?

“Not really, it will probably remain more of a hobby,” she says.

She could imagine medicine as a subject: history, which is already a favorite subject at school, has been included in the selection because of the historical topic.

She will write as long as "I have fun doing it," she says.

After "Isen in Flammen" she immediately started with another fantasy story.

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