Magic, secret missions, discrimination, military training, love triangles, elves — all are part of daily life in the world created by ASU freshman Jessica Wagenfuehr for her fictional alter ego, Danielle Kelson.

Wagenfuehr’s young adult, sci-fi fantasy book is “really autobiographical,” she said.

She invested more than four years in her first novel, titled “The Setting Moon,” which is set for publication in June.

“I am very attached to it,” Wagenfuehr said. “I’m just excited that it’s actually getting published.”

Wagenguehr set a “goal to get published by 18, and she’ll have made that goal by one month,” said her mother, Stacey.

Wagenfuehr based the protagonist, Dan — a scrappy 16-year-old half-elf, half-human living on a star — after herself.

Wagenfuehr is “definitely the main character, down to the ponytail and the hair color and how she gets angry and the emotions she writes into the character,” her mother said. “It’s definitely her.”

Wagenfuehr’s gumption matches Dan’s.

“If someone tells me I can’t do something, just provoke me, and I will go and do it,” she said.

Like Dan, Wagenfuehr is “a strong person,” said accountancy freshman Margaret Yee, her roommate and friend. “She wants you to see that she is a very tough person and can fight and can do everything that everyone else can do, even guys.”

In the novel, Dan faces male dominance and discrimination as the only female training for a militaristic police force.

In real life, Wagenfuehr “always tries to do things that guys are stereotypically doing,” such as going to medical school and becoming involved in the military through JROTC in high school, Yee said. “She doesn’t let gender play a role.”

Involvement with JROTC immensely influenced her life and her book, Wagenfuehr said. Her own experience of a “terrifying” uniform inspection even landed as a scene in the novel.

Her life mirrors the book “maybe not with the elves and space, but through some of the discrimination of being a female in JROTC, having to beat the boys at their own game and having to prove herself,” Stacey Wagenfuehr said.

Likewise, the book’s “female character is very, very strong and takes on some of the discriminatory systems, perhaps in the military, and still outsmarts them,” she added.

Her daughter’s experiences in the JROTC program and as a nationally ranked gymnast translate into the novel, she said.

“This discipline and training helped her push through a lot of hard times,” she said.

Like her character, Wagenfuehr “fights against the odds,” Yee said.

“[She has a] tough exterior, but inside she’s a cute little marshmallow like the Peeps she loves so very much.”

Although sometimes underestimated, “she can really fight,” Yee said.

And like Dan, Wagenfuehr wavers between moments of confidence and uncertainty, Wagenfuehr said.

Her younger sister, an ex-boyfriend and his older stepbrother as well as her JROTC peers inspired different characters. The characters “come a lot from the people I hang out with,” she said.

Of the snippets Yee has read so far, the book is original, unique and fast-paced, she said.

Wagenfuehr’s writing style is simple but not simplistic, Yee said.

Her voice is clear, as the phrases and word choice “sound the way she would speak.”

Her literary interests evolved from writing short stories in junior high school to writing her novel starting in the ninth grade, her mother said.

Growing up, Wagenfuehr was a voracious reader who could devour a 600-page book in one weekend, her mother said.

“I was reading all these books and then one day, I was like, ’Wow, this book is really boring. So I decided to write my own,’” Wagenfuehr said.

It is the first book in an unfolding trilogy called Guardian Angels, named after the police force for which Dan trains.

Wagenfuehr said her literary idols are JK Rowling of “Harry Potter” fame and Stephenie Meyer, the author of the “Twilight” series of vampire teen novels.

“My dream is to walk into Barnes and Noble and if there’s one copy, that’s fine,” she said. “I just want to see one copy.”

Reach the reporter at carleen.mcgillick@asu.edu