Nick McDonell: what one high school student did with his summer vacation

"I was just sitting at my desk, and suddenly the idea for the plot came all at once," says 18-year-old Nick McDonell, author of Twelve (just out from Grove Press). The novel centers on a 17-year-old prep school dropout named White Mike who deals drugs to his peers on Manhattan's Upper East Side, where kids are alienated and parties rock with sex, dope, even violence. What really goes on in the world of private schools, multimillion-dollar town houses and parents who jet off to Bali is something McDonell observed firsthand, but he says the book is total fiction: "I've always had a problem with romans clef; writing about people who actually exist doesn't seem quite right to me."

He didn't set out to make a statement. "If people find themes in the book, like violence is bad and drugs aren't so hot either, great. But I just told a story."

McDonell already has another book in mind (maybe it's in the genes-both his parents are writers) but he's not sure when he'll get to it-- he's headed for Harvard in the fall. Considering that he wrote Twelve over last year's summer vacation, McDonell shouldn't be too worried. "I wrote at least a thousand words a day, every day," he says. 'The idea that writing is work is fair and true, but I had a blast doing it."

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