14-Year-Old Waltham Student Publishes First Science Fiction Novel

WALTHAM, MA — Fourteen-year-old Luke Schumacher, an eighth grade student at McDevitt Middle School in Waltham, has published his first full length novel.

It's Only a Headache, which came out on May 28, tells the story of Adam Johnny Cox, a teenager who gets hit with extremely painful headaches, terrifying visions, and nightmares. Inspired by Madeline L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, it is not only a science fiction novel, but also a story about the things that make middle school, well, middle school.

“I started writing this story in fifth grade with a couple of the same characters and then decided to adapt it into a play,” Schumacher said. “Nothing ever happened to the play, but I decided I wanted to do more with it. It took four months to write and then 11 months to edit and publish."

“There was something about science fiction that influenced me, like the tesseract [the phenomenon of folding the fabric of space and time] in A Wrinkle in Time,” he continued. "I was thinking about [what would happen] if they did something like this to someone who didn’t want it.”

Schumacher said he is grateful for his past and current English teachers, Rachael Hershon and Emily Whipple, for their help during the writing process.

“Ms. Hershon let me stay after school and work on it in the early stages,” Schumacher said. “She even read my entire book and gave me feedback. Ms. Whipple has been crazy about promoting it and put a countdown on her board. Now they want me to speak to some sixth grade English classes. That was crazy to me, I never once expected that when I wrote this book.”

According to Schumacher’s parents, David Schumacher and Tricia O’Connell, Schumacher did this project all on his own. He figured out how to get a cover designer, distributor, and publisher, get it formatted, and hire a copywriter, and largely used his own money to pay for it.

"Obviously we couldn’t be more proud and hope he continues to write,” O’Connell said. “People often think, ‘How did he have the time to do this?’ But that’s the silver lining of Covid. Luke would sit down and say I'm going to write 500 words a day and it gave him something to focus on during a lonely period."

“We are really happy he found something productive to do during that period of time,” David Schumacher said. “This is a project he really sought through, and it’s not only about the storyline, but also about kids and their relationships with each other and how they think, dream, and interact, and for me that’s as much of a valuable part of it as anything."

Luke Schumacher said he plans to continue to write as he grows up. He isn’t planning to write a sequel to It’s Only a Headache, but is working on a play right now and is thinking about pursuing writing as a career.

“It’s been crazy being able to have all these opportunities ever since the book came out,” he said. “So many people are buying it and asking about it, it’s getting outside of my school, both adults and kids are reading it, and just being able to go on a news site like this is insane.”

It's Only a Headache is available for purchase here.