For a freshman writer, a night spent dreaming has actually inspired her lifelong dream.

MyKaela Cross, a music education major and English minor, is in the process of publishing her first 376-page novel of a science-fiction trilogy.

“It started about a dream about a necklace, and it grew,” Cross said, reflecting on the early stages of her writing. “A lot of the short stories I get are driven from dreams or random daydreams.”

The book, titled “Bellator”, is about a fantastical creature that goes to high school to learn about human kind. In high school, he meets someone who influences him and his kind more than he knows.

“I like there to be a big adventure purpose, a lot of action, and I love messing with different kinds of creatures,” Cross said.

Along with a plot readers “haven’t ever seen before,” Cross also uses Latin as the language the characters speak. The Latin translations are given below the quotes.

“The main characters in my book speak Latin primarily,” Cross said. “And bellator means ‘warrior’ in Latin, so that’s actually what the creatures are called – bellators.”

Cross chose Latin because of its history as a worldwide language, both in literature and music.

“I love Latin, simply because it’s a language that a lot of languages are based off of,” Cross said. “As a singer, I do a lot of singing in Latin. That’s kind of what started it. Plus, it’s supposed to be one of the oldest universal languages, and since my creatures live extremely long, its kind of from their origin.”

Cross is currently editing the first book of the trilogy and hopes to have it published soon.

“I’ve talked to (author) Richie Tankersley Cusick,” Cross said. “She does a lot of young adult fantasy. She did the “Unseen” books. I talked to her and she read an excerpt of it and she loved it, so I’m supposed to get into contact with her when I’m ready to start (publishing).”

Because Cross spends a lot of her time at local libraries, they have also offered to help launch her writing career.

“The Johnson County public library told me that if I were to ever get it published, they would hold a book signing for me,” Cross said.

After graduating from Baker, Cross hopes to teach music, while writing part-time.

“It’d be great to make a living (writing books),” Cross said. “But at the same time, I’ve always thought about at least putting a portion (of the revenue) towards libraries, because I know that now that technology has gone e-book, they don’t get as much credit as they should. And I used to live at the library. So if I were to do anything with (the revenue), it would definitely be donate to libraries.”