NATCHEZ &045; Seven Cathedral seniors are now published authors.

Their book &uot;Prism&uot; was sent to press a few weeks ago but the glitz and glamour of fame may not settle in until Wednesday’s 1:30 p.m. book signing.

Students began work in September on the class project of short stories with Copiah-Lincoln’s Director of Public Information Mark LaFrancis and wrapped up last month.

&uot;This was a creative outlet for us,&uot; senior Maggie Brown said. &uot;We are so used to doing written English work.&uot;

Brown wrote a short story about the reality of love and love lost and also illustrated the front cover of the book.

&uot;I took it from the title and used the different colors reflected in a prism to represent all the very different stories,&uot; Brown said.

Brown and the other students are part of Jean Biglane’s senior AP English class.

&uot;I was the very fortunate teacher of the class with the talent,&uot; Biglane said. &uot;They learned to deal with short stories as actual experiences they had to create. They had read short stories since grammar school but they’ve never actually had to do this themselves.&uot;

Cory Brock said his short story for the book was his first.

&uot;I enjoyed doing it,&uot; Brock said. &uot;It’s not something I’m going to do a lot, but it was good that it was different from a regular class.&uot;

Brock wrote his story from the point of view of a football player in one play.

The students met with LaFrancis once a week for several months until the project was complete.

&uot;They did pretty much everything except the layout and the printing,&uot; Biglane said. &uot;This actually made them authors.&uot;

Brown said they started with brainstorming and an outline and worked until they had a product ready for editing.

Erin Hyatt said she’d written a children’s story several years ago but really enjoyed this experience.

Hyatt wrote her story about a childhood memory of a friend who died two years ago.

&uot;It was a good memory about him and it was making a sad situation happy,&uot; Hyatt said.

The public is invited to the book signing will be in the Cathedral multi-purpose room. The book is available for purchase for $9. Proceeds will benefit the Cathedral High English department and the school library.