Andrew Wilson isn’t the first student to zone out in math class. He won’t be the last. But he is surely one of the few to turn his math-class daydream into a published novel.

Wilson self-published “An Unnamed Adaption” in September. The Flathead High School alumnus has plans for at least two sequels following characters from the anti-hero tale.

“It’s basically a dark superhero story,” Wilson, 21, said during a recent phone interview from Bozeman, where he is a senior at Montana State University. Wilson, the son of Bryce and Wende Wilson, has been at MSU since graduating from Flathead in 2010.

After the fateful math class ended, Wilson continued to mull over the story he had dreamed up. That weekend, he tried to put some of it on paper.

“I basically just woke up, jumped out of bed and wrote the introduction,” he said. “Part of the character just flew out. It was in there the entire time; I knew what to write.”

He showed the paragraph — which didn’t make it into the final version — to his friends and colleagues, who urged him to keep exploring the story. So, in November 2011, Wilson started writing in earnest.

Nearly two years later, he had a novel.

Those who read it seemed to like it, he added. 

“I had several friends read sections of it, and they were getting excited about the thing,” Wilson said.

Their enthusiasm inspired Wilson to submit the story for a large audience to read. He edited the novel, and then called self-publishing company AuthorHouse. The same day he made the phone call, he said, Wilson had a book. 

“That’s the funny part: It doesn’t get edited myself or by a third party,” he said. “The publishing company took my book and they ... gave me a paperback: ‘This is it.’”

As far as Wilson is concerned, it was a great deal.

Taking a different avenue to getting published “would have cost over 4,000 bucks,” he said. “I was appreciative to get [the book] out there at that point for roughly around 1,000 bucks.”

He said he retains the copyright to “An Unnamed Adaption” and, when he publishes them, also will own the copyright to the book’s two or three sequels.

Those stories are, as yet, largely unwritten. Wilson has started the second novel but as a busy college senior, his schedule doesn’t leave much time for writing. In addition to classes, Wilson is looking for a job in his chosen field of computer science.

Wilson’s plans involve applying computer science to the business world. He hopes to one day have a company that uses artificial intelligence and robotics to improve organizations’ efficiency.

But he also plans to eventually finish writing the series. 

The first novel’s plot line sounds like the start of a series of spy novels: “Some of the most powerful people on Earth are trying to take down the status quo,” Wilson said. “His [the main character’s] goal is to stop them from making the world in their image and keeping the world subjected under their control.”

The overarching message Wilson hopes people take from “An Unnamed Adaption” is admittedly pragmatic.

“Not all plans succeed. That’s one of the biggest messages you can possibly take from the book,” he said.

Wilson said he also wants people to think about expanding their approaches to problem-solving.

“You can’t just follow one strategy and hope it succeeds,” he said. “You have to take a varied approach to anything.”

“An Unnamed Adaption” is available at BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com and AuthorHouse.com.

Reporter Kristi Albertson may be reached at 758-4438 or at kalbertson@dailyinterlake.com.