Every summer for more than a decade, expatriated 13-year-old author Grant Simens has called Incline Village home.

While the Simens have lived all over the world because of his father's work with Chevron the past 20 years, the family chooses to come back to Incline every year because they have found such a strong support network here in the community.

Said Grant's mother, Julia Simens, "We could choose any place in the world to spend our summers; everyone up here is so nice, and the kids love the beach. It's a huge draw for us."

Yet, the Simens want their children to have the experience of living overseas and to learn to appreciate traveling as much as their parents. It is this international experience that is became muse for Grant.

After finishing the fifth grade two years ago, Grant was restless one day during his summer vacation and began to write.

"I typed up my idea and everyone liked it," he said.

After a week of writing and a week of passing it around or reading it to friends and family, Grant was encouraged to try to get his book published.

A children's book about love in an international elementary school, "it's a twist off of A Midsummer Night's Dream, put into a more real context," according to Grant.

With as many twists and turns as the Shakespearean original, it is just as applicable and has a plot that is just as interesting to the modern reader.

Grant has lived on four continents, and notes that while each continent looks completely different, there are a few intangible similarities that exist between all of them.

"You can feel these similarities; they are love, madness, enthusiasm, sorrow and sympathy," he says in a note to readers. "When I sat by my computer, I chose one that really had a story behind it - love."

"Love manifests itself in many forms. If you are 99 or only 10, whether you live north or south of the equator, you will understand about love," he said. "A picture says a thousand words but a feeling tells a thousand stories."

The plot uses the conventional tale of Cupid and his arrows to stir up love and inadvertantly cause trouble among a set of friends at the school from Valentine's Day to the end of the year. Through a series of mix-ups the characters find and lose love many times but eventually come to realize that "love stays every hour" and that "love is formed by the thought of giving."

Throughout this two-part epic poem are interspersed observational and insightful letters to the reader, original poetry, and practical advice on moving for both parents and kids.

At this point in time Grant is excited about his next project, a novel that he hopes will be finished by the end of the year. "I'm going from that," pointing to his published work, a 32-page paperback, "to this," he says, as he indicates a volume that will be at least an inch thick.

"When I grow up I hope to have writing as a side job and something that takes me overseas as my main job. Something with drawing and numbers, like architecture."

While Australian-born Grant enjoys his life as an "expat," or third culture kid, traveling the world, meeting people and enjoying his experiences, he also values his annual return to Incline Village and even hopes to retire here someday far in the future.

"They call this home," said his mother Julia. "They like coming back to the friends and the familiar year after year."

The young author has a book signing scheduled in Singapore soon, and has already attended several signings in Lagos, Nigeria, where he has been attending school until this year. Soon he will be moving to Bangkok to start eighth grade.

Grant explained that it is difficult to balance his schoolwork and his writing.

"What I think is most annoying is when teachers prefer you to read than write," he said, noting that he is required to read two particular books, one of which is rather thick, by next month when school starts.

Before Grant leaves town to start his next journey, a book signing is scheduled for Friday, July 27, from 4 - 6 p.m. at the The Village Square.