In this age of e-books and e-commerce, achieving your dreams comes one step closer to reality for amateur authors.Lauren Alexander, a junior majoring in English, published her first work, “Breathe: An Anthology” onto the Amazon store this past August as an e-book compatible with Kindle devices. The 43-story anthology features works up to four pages long, most keeping to a page in length. According to Alexander, her stories are presented in portraits and monologues on topics ranging from love and heartbreak to murder and thought.

She recalled her first taste of writing coming via the creation of short picture stories as a child, which led to her to writing short stories by the fourth grade.

“[The stories] were really random,” Alexander said. “When I was younger, they were just kind of something I did.”

She specifically remembered a Halloween story written for class in elementary school prompting her mother to playfully suggest she become an author one day.

“It was kind of one of those dreams you don’t think will really happen,” Alexander said.

Throughout middle school and high school, she wrote and wrote, sporadically picking away at book ideas and crafting quick, random stories. Though tied together by reflections on morality and her thoroughly detailed style of writing, both of which are still evident in her work, the writings and her creative motivations mirrored her own varied experiences growing up in Tuscaloosa.

“My goal with my writing is to try and connect with people and since my writing comes from so many different stages of my life, sometimes a story will show what I was going through at the time,” Alexander said. “With so many different styles and genres, it’s easier for someone to pick one up and connect with it.”

While attending Hillcrest High School, Alexander’s teachers began to take more interest in her writings and brought her to realize that if she could finish a project and send it out, she could actually be published.

However, it wasn’t until this August that her cache of 43 short stories, written during a time span from ninth grade to her sophomore year of college, was truly ready to go out into the world.

It was Alexander’s high school friend Christian Smitherman, now a junior at the University, who brought the idea of independent publication to her. Smitherman, who had read Alexander’s work in high school, suggested via Facebook that she consider self-publishing through the Amazon Store as an e-book to get her work out.

“She’s able to convey emotion and convey feelings,” said Smitherman. “I’m not much of a poetry or literature person… but anything I ever read of hers just leaves me breathless.”

After looking through the publishing process, Alexander collected and formatted her works until 2:00 a.m. on August 22, when she put the collection online. She said Smitherman was the first to read her newly collected works.

“She just conveys emotions at their rawest levels,” Smitherman said. “Now with these new stories, I’m able to see these other sides of Lauren I’ve never seen before.”

According to Alexander, the response from her supporting family and friends continues to be strong and motivational, but she was surprised to hear pieces of advice from publishers and writers through social media avenues.

Since her publication, Alexander said she hopes to submit her work to Kindle Singles, an Amazon venue showcasing selected works by new authors. Additionally, she expressed her hope of pursuing more traditional approaches to publication while honing her authorial voice through further short story and novel writing.

“It took a while for it to really settle in [that I’m published], and sometimes I think to myself, ‘Oh it’s not a big deal,’” Alexander said. “But in reality, getting published has always been my dream and now if one person reads the collection, and it affects them the way I want it to, it was worth it.”