The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

The Student News Site of Harvard-Westlake School

The Harvard-Westlake Chronicle

    Sophomore spices up virtual world

    When Ian Cinnamon ’10 isn’t busy studying for one AP and two honors classes, he pursues an unconventional hobby: rocketry. He even started a rocketry club at school. Also, in his spare time, he wrote a book which will be published next spring.

    The technology-focused “Evil Genius” book series has titles such as “Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius,” “51 High-Tech Practical Jokes for the Evil Genius” and “25 Home Automation Projects for the Evil Genius.” A new title in the series, “50 Model Rocket Projects for the Evil Genius,” was slated to be released in August of last year, and with an evident interest and passion for rocketry, Cinnamon ordered a copy. A month later, Cinnamon still hadn’t received his copy, prompting him to e-mail the publisher. However, not only did the publisher send him a copy of “50 Model Rocket Projects for the Evil Genius,” but she also asked Cinnamon if he had any ideas for other books in the series.

    “I told her I thought the series would benefit from a book on computer programming. The series has a lot of technology-filled books, but the one aspect that is missing is programming,” Cinnamon said. “Programming is fundamental to many other subjects dealing with technology.  It seemed natural for the series to have a programming book.”

    Intrigued by the idea, the publisher asked Cinnamon to write a proposal, which he quickly wrote and sent to the publisher, who, after approving it, forwarded it to her boss.

    A month later, Cinnamon’s editor delivered the bad news that his boss wasn’t taken with the idea.
    “I was really upset,” remarked Cinnamon. “Instead of giving up, however, I decided to rework the book and call it ‘Programming Video Games for the Evil Genius.’” This time, the revamped idea gained Cinnamon’s editor’s boss’ approval. Cinnamon signed the contract on his birthday, and spent the summer writing ‘Programming Video Games for the Evil Genius,’ which will be available in March 2008.

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    Sophomore spices up virtual world