MANY authors will be pepper-haired doyens of their art by the time they put pen to paper for a seventh novel.

But a prolific Ponteland teenager is challenging this trend, with six books already to his name and a seventh on its way.

Dominic Rebucha (17) sat down to write his first novel when he was just 13 years old.

Dead Target was published online in July 2013 and inspired Dominic to begin a series of novels featuring an elite MI6 counter-terrorism unit called Sector 5.

Six books are currently available to download from Amazon, and their young author has no plans to stop anytime soon.

Dominic began his writing career after penning a short story during the summer holidays to keep himself occupied.

He said: “I took it in to school and my teacher gave some positive feedback.

“After that I had the confidence that I could do it and started to write little things.”

Whilst in year nine at Ponteland Community High School, Dominic began to put together his first novel.

The determined teen used his spare time and weekends to write, even scribbling a page or two into his exercise book during the 10-minute journey to and from school.

In total the 180-page debut novel took just two months to write and, keen for it to be available to read as soon as possible, Dominic took the decision to self-publish on Amazon.

Since then his writing has taken off, with the Sector 5 series following in hot pursuit.

The Cost of Deception was published online in July 2014, since then End Game, Turning Tables, Agent 10 and Unity have also been made available to download for Kindle and tablet.

Following the fortunes of the counter terrorism unit, the books transport the reader around the world.

From stand-offs with hostage takers in Dubai to Russian terrorists threatening to incite the next world war in Ukraine and confrontations with Somali pirates, each novel is packed with high-octane action and intrigue.

But how did this sixth form student come up with such complex and alien scenarios?

Dominic says he was influenced by the works of Tom Clancy and Chris Ryan, and even the computer game Call of Duty which he played when younger.

But it was the television series, Strike Back by former SAS soldier Chris Ryan that truly captured his imagination. He said: “I was watching it and I just thought I could put it on paper and let my mind go.

“It is hard because I’ve never experienced these things before or been to these places.

“But I do research and read up quite a bit, reading something over and over you get a sense of how it is. When I write it I just imagine I’m there.

“I just sit down for hours to write, I can always tell when I’ve been working too long because I start waffling. Then I just stop and go back to it the next day.

“I think what I’m writing about has changed, there is more in-depth knowledge from better research.

“I think I see a difference in my writing every time I finish a new book.”

Dominic is currently studying for A-Levels in biology, English language, media studies and sport studies.

But he hopes to follow his literary aspirations and become a full-time novelist.

He said: “When I was younger I didn’t really know what I wanted to do.

“But now I know writing is definitely something I want to do. I just love it, it’s my passion.”