By JOSEPH B. NADEAU

WOONSOCKET — Adam Brunetti is only in the ninth grade at Woonsocket High School, but he already knows a lot more about being an author than many college students do.

Brunetti, 14, has published his first novel, “Dream Wars,” and you can buy a copy of it from Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble.
He’s worked with a close friend from Woonsocket, Nick Gaulin, on the book’s illustrations, and he had help from his teachers, both at the Leo A. Savoie Elementary School and Good Shepherd Catholic Regional, as editors on the book.
Brunetti has also learned the steps you have to follow to get a publisher and knows how to market the completed work both through book signings and interviews with the media.
He’s done all that and had fun with the project to boot.
“It’s very exciting. I’ve just been so happy that its been published,” Brunetti said while talking about his book at Woonsocket High last week.
Word is getting around that Brunetti is more than just the average kid at the school and a few students have even pointed him out walking in the school halls while saying “that kid is a published author.”
The book of course is just the kind of story kids his age would like to read.
It tells the story of Thomas Jamison and how he finds himself drawn into another world where humans and mythical creatures are at war. 
Jamison soon discovers he has a few magical powers of his own and can help either the human side or that of the mythical creatures depending on his mood.
  Dream Wars runs 104 pages long and is published by Author House in paperback with a colorful cover illustration between the title and Brunetti’s name.
Gaulin’s illustrations appear inside as does a drawing Brunetti completed for the project.
Brunetti said he tapped some of his own experiences with growing up to create his
See AUTHOR, Page A-2
Jamison character and added to that some popular themes and ideas from imagination to round out Jamison’s story.
 The story began as a classroom project he was assigned by Richard Belisle, one of his 7th grade teachers at Good Shepherd. Belisle’s original assignment was for his students to write a five-page children’s story and Brunetti said he ended up writing 13 pages as his project.
 Brunetti kept working on the project, however, and then decided to turn it into a book.
 “The word’s just flowed into the computer and a book was born,” he said of the work.
Belisle’s involvement in Dream Wars’ creation earned him the book’s dedication from Brunetti.
 After getting his ideas on paper, Brunetti then approached one of his teachers at Savoie, Denise Doherty, for help in finding a publisher.
 Doherty showed him how to submit the work to AuthorHouse and Dream Wars made it into print. She also wrote a review of finished work that appears with the title online.
 “The story is enjoyable. It is also one that stays with the reader for a long time. The message is clear. Our thoughts play a powerful part of what happens in our lives. Adam’s story is for adults as well as children. It is a book that not only entertains but conveys a strong underlying theme,” she wrote.
  Of course, as Brunetti first book, Dream Wars will have to sell a lot of copies to help get him through college.
 His share of the $10.99 cover price is about 70 cents. But Brunetti is also learning about marketing and has a thumbnail description about himself in the book that mentions his family, his dog Chester, his past work as an extra in the movies Underdog and Fever Pitch, and also his favorite pastime of building things with Legos.
  Mr. Gaulin is also profiled along with his dog, Bailey.
 Brunetti’s ninth grade English teacher Kristen Dilorenzo believes her new student is coming to class with a lot of experience for his age.
“I think it’s fantastic and he’s very excited about it,” she said.  “I haven’t seen many kids his age that actually have a book that has come out.”
  Diane Lafrenaye and Maureen Lavallee, librarians in the high school’s library, also thought Brunetti has accomplished quite a bit for someone his age.
 “It’s always good when a student writes more than they are assigned to write,” Lafrenaye said.
 Getting his book published has also been good for Brunetti’s confidence as a new arrival at the high school, she noted.
 “I think in my 20 years we’ve had one other student come to me with something that has been published, it doesn’t happen that often,” she said. The other student, Dennis Kafalas, is now a school principal working at Ponaganset High School, she said.
 Lavallee remembers Brunetti from her days working at Savoie and said he was always a reader. “It’s great to see him take that to the next level,” she said.
 Dream Wars is a good start on his future ambition to be writer and Lavallee said he would not be the first student to take his writing all the way to the bank.
 “S.E. Hinton’s book the Outsiders was written as a high school project,” she noted. And the book Eragon was written by Christopher Paolini, a home-schooled student who ended up writing a trilogy out of his ideas, she said.
Adam doesn’t plan to let his teachers down. He’s already thinking of his next book and even a third for a trilogy of his own. And then there is the screenplay he has already started.
  You can meet the author at Harris Public Library on April 18 where he will be signing copies of Dream Wars from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.