A young Burns Lake resident—very young—has launched his own book writing career. Elias Lazenby Is only nine years old, but is already the author of numerous books, according to his mother, Tara. And he just made his first sale—to a friend in school, for five dollars.
He couldn’t be more excited, said Tara.
“I just wrote it cus’ I wanted to make something about what I like…” said Eli, when asked about his primary motivation in writing the piece.
The subject is “FNaF,” he said, which left the writer of this article somewhat confused.
“FNaF,” he said, “Five Nights at Freddie’s. The book is based on a game. It’s one of my favorite games,” he added.
The book is titled, FNaF History.
Five Nights at Freddie’s, a quick Google search will show, is both an Ipad game, and a Youtube series—with a somewhat creepy edge. Parents on the internet don’t appear to always be keen about their children watching it, but Tara says her desire to be supportive of her son’s “inspiration” outweighs her motherly concerns—though she admits she doesn’t completely “get” the story in her son’s latest book.
A hilarious example of his dark sense of humour at work shows up in his piece done in kindergarten, “I Ran Over Someone with a Train”—his mother’s favorite work of his.
“One day mike ran over someone with the train. He called 911,” read his mother, to the writer over the phone. “Mike called an ambulance for help. The doctors said that he will live… but his life won’t be as long. The end,” she said, laughing while finishing the last line.
Eli agrees his FNaF book is also a little edgy.
“it’s kind of just a dark story, I guess. Just at the end… there’s a lot of dark things,” he said.
The story line itself is set in the 80’s—the same as the show, according to Eli. It begins in 1987, then jumps to 1985, then jumps to 1983, and so on, he said. And it’s about animatronic robots, featured in the regular FNaF series.
Each of the years mentioned, a pizza place or restaurant opens, and then closes because of some kind of tragedy. The story repeats itself, then concludes with what Eli feels is a dramatic finish—his favorite part, because of the countless hours of time and energy he put into it. (But we won’t spoil that for readers by sharing the details here).
And it’s a graphic novel, too. Eli hand drew every picture in the story. And while he’s made multiple graphic novels in the past—it’s something he really loves to do—this is by far his most detailed, said Tara.
“Elias is a kid that draws and creates on his own all the time… He wants to sell his book so he can build more robots and add more puppets to his collection. He is such a sweet, smart, unique kid, and I hope this helps him feel more confident,” said his mother.