CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — While some kids dream of becoming authors when they grow up, one Corpus Christi 10 year old has already published his first book.
On the eve of his 11th birthday, Alex Garcia is reading one of his favorite books.
"It felt weird cause usually at ten years old you wouldn't be publishing a book. You'd be playing Fort Night. I don't know," Garcia said.
The Time Machine was written and illustrated by none other than Garcia.
"You know I have a story idea. I wanted to do that. I was reading a book, and I wanted to do that," Garcia said.
According to Garcia's mom, he was creating before he could even walk.
"He would start drawing since before he was one," Erica Maymi said.
The idea for Garcia's first book came to him at just nine years old.
"And I thought what's a good way to write a story while also incorporating pictures. It's kind of like a comic book," Garcia said. "There's this scientist named doctor dolphin, and he makes time machine alright, so then he needs to test subjects."
Then come friends, Ricky and Eric named after Alex's best friend and brother.
"They go on adventures, the go-to timelines, and dimensions," Garcia said.
Garcia approached his mom about his idea.
"It was on paper, and I was looking for a grade and asked him what he got on his grade," Maymi said.
"I said no, I did it. I wanted to," Garcia said.
"When I read the storyline in this book that's when I knew we had something special," Maymi said.
Around a year later, Garcia's book was published on Nov. 16.
The drawings in Garcia's book were created on his iPad.
"Someone asked me. What do you want to be when you grow up? And I said author slash illustrator. And they said oh wow that would never happen -- motions to his published book," Garcia said.
You can find the Time Machine at Barnes and Noble, Amazon, and Alexscreativeuniverse.com.
"It's an amazing feeling to know that my 10-year-old son is a published author and the skies the limit from here," Maymi said.
On Feb. 8, Garcia will be a guest author at Barnes and Noble.
Garcia has other publications in the works, including a coloring book version of the Time Machine.
"Do what you would like to do, and hopefully, that will take you somewhere," Garcia said.
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