Inspiring Imagination and Adventure in Young Adults
By erin conner, writer & communications associate
"God has been in this quite literally since the very beginning," said Cassandra James, Princeton '23, as she reflected on her professional writing career.
"As a child, I was an absolute bookworm, and I would max out my library card. I aged out of kids' literature and wanted to read more stories but couldn't find the kind of stories I desired to read, so my mother dared me, 'If you can't find it, write it.'"
So, she did.
James wrote a book a year from around the time she was ten years old until now. "I learned something different from each book. Writing is what brought me to Princeton. The teaching, the staff, the professors, the level of intentionality–it is an amazing program. I never thought I'd get in, but I did–a God thing."
Her soon-to-be-released book, CAPITANA, started as a project her sophomore year at Princeton. She won the Martin A. Dale ’53 Summer Award, which is an application-based award accompanied by a stipend to support rising juniors pursuing projects that promote “personal growth, foster independence, creativity and leadership skills, and broaden or deepen some area of special interest” to write her novel.
"I've always been a pirate history nerd, so I came up with a research project across Florida that included taking sailing lessons, visiting forts, and doing a deep dive in historical archives," she shared, all of which she used to craft this young adult adventure novel. James' story contains a rich imaginary world inspired by 18th-century Latin America that is explored by a female protagonist in a swashbuckling adventure.
In the summer between junior and senior year, James pitched this fantasy book to literary agents and experienced four months of brutal rejection before entering a pitch competition on social media on a whim. She was signed the next day. "God again," she claims.
Months later, she was in Israel on a Princeton-sponsored trip and had just prayed at the Western Wall before returning to her email to discover that Harper Collins offered her a two-book preempt deal. "I don't have an answer for how all of this occurred without God."
James lovingly recalled something that one of her mentors in college, the Christian Union women's ministry fellow, had often said when things looked dauntingly difficult or impossible to accomplish: "But God…"
After graduation, James entered Christian Union's alumni mentoring program. During this eight-month program that supports graduates in their transition from college to career, her mentor shared with her a book that changed her perspective on prayer, "We make God so small sometimes when He is truly beyond our imagination."
Christine Foster, the director of CU's alumni program, shared, "Cassy has been a valued member of our mentoring program–first as a mentee and this year as a mentor. Her passion for what God is calling her to do and the way she is using her gifts in a secular space to point others to Him is an inspiration."
Regarding CAPITANA, James shared, "My favorite theme is about redemption and explores the balance between justice and mercy. It is so obviously Christian and also not. I wanted the themes to be Biblically based. I wanted anyone who understands Jesus to see Him in the pages and anyone who doesn't, to feel Him in the story and to experience the power of redemption."
Launch party events for CAPITANA are being held in the UK this month, and a subsequent book tour is still to be determined in the US. Before an official launch, the book has already garnered the attention of over ten thousand readers.
It seems quite perfect that God chose a woman who loves imagination and adventure to be a vessel–a living testament–through which the next generation can see just how adventurous a life with God is and how much He desires to bless His children with more than we could ask or imagine through our relationship with Him.
God's goodness is truly beyond our comprehension, yet we can gain a glimpse of it through His people–the ones who trust Him in this life to fulfill the purposes He placed within them to uniquely express the character and love of His Son and to inspire others to do the same.
Jesus is in the pages of this book, much like in the Book of Esther, despite the fact that His name is not explicitly mentioned. But if we read with our hearts open, we will find Him there.
Learn more about James, her story, and her writing here.
