EDMONDS — It was an idea that had rumbled around in her head since high school – an idea for a story that would eventually take eight years and a total of 331 pages to tell.

This past December, Edmonds employee Linda Carl, 45, published her first book, titled “Headstrong.” The story is told through the eyes of an unpopular 15-year-old boy named Matt, and his perceptions – or misperceptions, Carl said, of those who make up his life in high school. The story is set in the 1970s in the fictional town of Parkwood, but is loosely based on Carl’s own high school experience at Lakes High School in Lakewood near Tacoma.

Carl’s son Jared, 20, describes the book as being somewhere between “That 70s Show” and the TV show “The O.C.” as it is set in the 70s and includes plenty of drama.

Carl, who works as an assistant to Edmonds Mayor Gary Haakenson, said the inspiration for the book came from her own high school experience and perhaps a little from those of Jared and her daughter Alyssa, 17, who both read and gave input on the book as it developed over the years. It also delves into Carl’s background in psychology, in which she earned a B.A. degree in college.

“It was definitely helpful,” Carl said of her psychology knowledge. She added that as a member of her high school drill team, she saw her fair share of cliques and experienced plenty of high school angst, topics both addressed throughout the book.

“Headstrong” currently is available for $19.95 at the Edmonds Bookshop, through barnesandnoble.com and borders.com. After receiving the usual handful of rejection letters from publishers, and at the suggestion of Haakenson, Carl published the book through the electronic publishing company iUniverse.com, which not only sells the book through those online bookshops when its finished but also assists the writer along the way with critiques and cover design.

“I thought this would be a great way to get the book out there and to get people reading it,” Carl said. “And some writers get picked up this way by traditional publishers.”

The experience, Carl said, has been challenging, but also a lot of fun and slightly therapeutic.

“I’ve pretty much always wanted to be a writer, but for whatever reason I didn’t get around to it,” Carl said. “My kids were five and two when I got divorced, I worked 40 hours a week and writing just wasn’t on the top of my list.”

Carl said her six years living and working in Edmonds combined with her children getting older helped provide her with the time she needed to indulge in her passion for writing.

“There comes a point when you have this creation … I really wanted to get it to a wider audience – I wanted to focus on the dream,” Carl said.

And now that the book is published, Carl isn’t wasting any time; she is almost finished with the first sequel to the book, scheduled to be released this summer, and has already begun on the third and fourth.

“(The first sequel) is the story of Matt and his friend 10 years later, but they are still characters that the reader will recognize,” Carl said.

“I decided I needed to challenge myself to see if I had another story in me – I needed to know if there were more words in me than that.”