Submitted
Mattias Labriel is a typical young teenager. He loves Minecraft, all things Pokemon and watching all sorts of YouTubes like DudePerfect, Mr. Beast, PrestonPlays, Bionic, among many others. During the pandemic shutdown, he spent plenty of time on his computer playing online games, but a majority of his time was spent writing his first book.
His love for writing was born out of 2020’s quarantine from the COVID-19 pandemic when school moved online and at home he found himself bored with lots of extra time on his hands. His mom allowed him to switch between homeschool work and writing on his book, to escape to his imaginary world he had created … the world of the Elements — Oxa. All of this was done in his home in Ecuador, where his parents are missionaries.
Mattias spent several months writing his ideas down, creating characters and situations in his fantasy book about a group of young teenage friends and their adventures in a magical land of the Elements called Oxa. In January, his mom, Sarah Labriel, contacted Andy Stanton of Hays to help with some writing coaching, editing and final page layout so they could publish his book on Amazon.com. XYLION – The Dark Lord was listed as a paperback and e-book in late May.
Labriel was born in Kansas and has lived in the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, and currently lives in Ecuador as a missionary kid. He’s also proud of his Latino birth culture. His biological father died when Mattias was 2 years old and was from El Salvador, and his dad that is raising him is from Guatemala. Mattias embraces both countries’ cultures.
The Labriel family will be visiting friends and family in Hays in mid-June where he will host a “Meet the Author” and book signing at the Hays Public Library from 6 to 7 p.m. on Monday, June 14, at the Hays Public Library, 1205 Main.
Mattias isn’t stopping writing just yet. He already has a second book written in the series and is currently working on the third. The second book will be available on Amazon later this summer. He’s fluent in English, Spanish and has studies Portuguese. He’s currently in a specialized class that teaches speed reading, and he’s getting his watercraft certificate to be able to solo jet ski at his Grandparents this summer.
A Facebook page for the book is located at https://www.facebook.com/Xylion-The-Dark-Lord-109793834638229
XYLION - The Dark Lord is available for purchase at Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/XYLION-Dark-Lord-Mattias-Labriel/dp/B095GNPN7R