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Don’t be misled by 9-year-old Ryan Jakubsen’s quiet moments. He’s a writer who is thinking ahead. What adventures remain for the heroes of the two books that he has written?

Where will his imagination take brothers Axel, Exile, Alex and Jared, and friend Lucy, as he creates the next book in the trilogy?

Only Ryan knows, or will eventually decide. “If I really get big ideas in my brain, I write them down,” he said. The ideas are kept in a folder and may fit into future chapters of his books. Much of what he writes is spontaneous, and he dictates it to be written down.

Ryan doesn’t write on a computer. Typewriter is not in his vocabulary.

Already a veteran writer with two books to his credit, Ryan’s career began in late 2008. His first book, “Portals,” was published in February and described by a TV interviewer as fantasy fiction. It’s the story of four young brothers being swept away by a tornado, sending each in a different direction to strange new lands reached only through portals. There they encounter challenges and the adventures begin.

He wrote that book last fall at age 8.

Ryan’s imagination would not allow him to stop writing. He has invented some creatures — good and bad — that have never been known to literature. The sequel, “Portals II,” came off the press last month.

“Sometimes I feel like my brain is an incubator (of ideas),” Ryan said.
“Practically since he could walk, one of Ryan’s favorite things to do has been to make-believe,” said his mother, Diane Jakubsen. “Now he puts those make-believe worlds on paper.”

Ryan’s brother Ross Jakubsen, 15, a rising sophomore at High Point Central, designed the book covers and drew the inside pictures.

Soon to be a fourth-grader at Phoenix Academy, Ryan is unabashed in explaining his unique techniques as a writer. “I act out the story,” he said.

That’s where his close relationship with his grandmother, whom he calls Mimi, has become vital in his becoming a published writer. But forget that his grandmother, author Dixie Land Jakubsen, is part owner of Alabaster Book Publishing. His Mimi writes down the stories for him.

“We go off in a room and close the door — nobody else can come in — and Ryan acts out his stories,” Dixie Land Jakubsen said. “He makes sure that I write it down exactly like he tells the story.”

Where else can a reader find a big saber-toothed rabbit, manimals (half-man and half-animal), giant crabs that snap off a person’s head, big attack crows and a radioactive rain forest?

Then throw in cornea berries that give the partaker supervision, and other berries that give super strength for battle.

“I’ve been amazed that at such a young age Ryan has stayed focused on completing the 'Portals’ trilogy. I have no doubt that a big part of it is the fact that his Mimi has been so encouraging,” Diane Jakubsen said.

Diane Jakubsen, senior editor for Our State magazine, edited her son’s books. Ryan stood at her side and made sure the editor did her job according to his approval. “She did a good job,” he said.

“Even in writing down his stories and in editing them, we have made sure that we have kept the stories pure — the way Ryan told them,” Dixie Land Jakubsen said.

Ryan sees himself as his character Axel.

“He has really gotten into this character and that is why the second book flowed so well,” Dixie Land Jakubsen said. She sees his books as being closer to science fiction than merely fantasy fiction.

“He really likes things to do with science,” she said.

“Ryan likes to tell stories and he has been writing (short stories) for some time. Then he said he wanted to write chapters, meaning he wanted to do a book,” Dixie Land Jakubsen said.

“My first story was about a pet dinosaur,” Ryan said. That was at two-page story at age 5.

Since writing his first book, Ryan has had a couple of book signings, spoken to school classes and did a television interview with Hal Hubener, director of the Blue Ridge Regional Library System.

Ryan has sold books in several states via his page on Alabaster Book Publishing’s Web site. He’s already begun writing “Portals III.”
Ryan said he enjoys writing “because it takes up time, and you get to let your imagination run wild.”

Can “Portals III” be any wilder than Ryan’s present books? Only this super boy’s imagination knows.

Contact Bob Burchette at bburchette@triad.rr.com