Eric Dunn, a senior and offensive lineman for the St. Thomas football team, has self-published his first book, “The War of Humanity.”

“I’ve told my roommates, some of the guys on the football team and some of my professors,” Dunn said. “After that I haven’t really told anyone. There’s still a lot of people in my family that don’t even know about it.”

Dunn began writing in fourth grade after getting tired of reading the books available to him.

“I was determined that I was going to make a book that I wanted to read,” Dunn said. “Doesn’t matter if anyone else wanted to read it; I was going to be happy with it.”

Dunn found that the suggested books for his age took too long to get into, so he wanted to write a book that was filled with action.

“If I was going to be invested in a story, I want to know why I should be invested in the first chapter,” Dunn said.

Dunn described “The War of Humanity” as a blend of science fiction, fantasy and action/adventure. He first came up with the idea for the book in fourth grade and has been developing it ever since.

“Superman, with more politics,” he said.

St. Thomas English professor Martin Warren has had Dunn in multiple classes, and he has encouraged him in the process of publishing his book.

“Over the years, I’ve heard a number of students talk about writing a book,” Warren said. “They may well be, but this is the first student I’ve had who’s been writing a book and published it.”

Dunn began playing football in fourth grade as well. For him, playing football and writing are not competing interests, and he has no trouble balancing them.

“I have a story about a character who’s going to be on a football team, so I get inspiration there, and I’m in a bunch of these writing classes so really my writing is everywhere in everything I do,” Dunn said. “I don’t really feel like I balance it, I just find ways to incorporate it into everything.”

Dunn credits the football team with being supportive of his career as an author.

“When I came in freshman year, I was working on editing this book,” Dunn said. “I would (edit) in the locker room … and eventually people started asking me what I was doing. I just said ‘I’m working on a book’ and everyone was amazed by the idea … they wanted to help me in any way they could, so I had a huge support system right off the bat right there.”

Warren thinks that Dunn’s dedication to finishing his book may have something to do with football.

“As a sportsperson it may be that you need that same drive to get you through, to persevere, as he’s persevered with his book,” Warren said.

“The War of Humanity” is over 500 pages long. Dunn has written seven additional books that he plans to publish in the future.

Solveig Rennan can be reached at renn6664@stthomas.edu.