Surtaz Khan has had a passion for reading since childhood. He started writing in seventh grade at Odle Middle School as part of the Future Problem Solving program. Each year, the program held a competition where students would write a 1,500-word science fiction based story. Khan participated every year through 11th grade, completing one story each time.

Khan has published five short stories and one novella in his book, “The Hell Code.” The stories aim to encapsulate the potential dangers of unchecked advancements in science and technology.

Khan is currently a junior at Interlake High School’s International Baccalaureate program and is a part of several STEM-related clubs.

“I was always a fan of fantasy stories and science fiction stories. I’ve also had a passion for science and technology. I immediately gravitated toward science fiction because I have a lot of interest in it and a lot of experience learning about it,” he said.

The book chronicles Khan’s growth as a writer. The first story was written when he was in seventh grade, the second story when he was in eighth grade, and so on. Each story is the final version and has not been edited since. Khan said he didn’t want to make any additional edits when he was arranging the book because the stories show the progression of his writing skills and his own maturity.

“This book and these stories mark almost four years of growth and continuation of my writing,” Khan said. “I didn’t feel like it’d be right to edit something that I did in seventh grade because then I would’ve just ruined what I wrote in seventh grade.”

One of Khan’s biggest takeaways was realizing he only needed an extra push to get the book published.

“You have to take that final step to get something out there. It might seem like it’s harder, but once you do it, it’s actually a lot easier,” he said.

Khan hopes he can inspire other young writers to pursue writing their own stories.

“You just gotta write it out and flesh out those story lines and characters and keep trying to put something out there,” he said. “Writing is a way of sharing your personality and how you think in a way that’s much closer, more intimate.”

He hopes to keep writing as a strong hobby throughout his life and hopes to publish more books in the future.

“The Hell Code” is available at www.surtazkhan.com, amazon.com and the Google Play bookstore.