Rori Shay has been a storyteller since she was a young girl.

She always had something to say and a little thing like literacy was not going to stop her. The recent Redmond transplant said when she was really young, she would tell her stories to her mother, who would write them down for her. And by the time she was able to read and write, there was not much stopping her.

“I would write stories on long car rides and read them to my first-grade class,” Shay said.

The 36-year-old East Coast native’s love for the written word has not faded as she has recently come out with a new young adult series. The first book in the series, “Elected,” was released in April and is Shay’s first published work. The second book in the series, “Suspected,” will be released in February 2015.

The Elected Series is a trilogy that follows 18-year-old Aloy, a young woman living in the year 2185 who must masquerade herself as a young man to take her father’s place as president of her country. While the trilogy is the story about a dystopian society, Shay said there is also a romantic storyline — and a unique one at that as the love triangle involves a male and female character both interested in a female character. In addition, Shay describes the books as futuristic science fiction as the world’s leaders have created laws and policies to deal with the state of the planet as a result of climate change.

And although the series falls under the young adult genre, Shay considers it “crossover fiction” as readers from 13-40 years old can enjoy them.

The idea for the series came to Shay in 2011, when she was on maternity leave with her first child. She said she woke up one day with the idea and quickly wrote out an outline of the story.

Prior to The Elected Series, Shay was already interested in the environment. While she was in college at the University of Maryland for her undergraduate studies, she wrote a paper about her environmental concerns. In addition, her roommate at the time was an environmental science major.

“It was always a hobby,” she said.

Even though writing has always been a passion for Shay — who received a master of business administration from George Washington University — for now, it is more of a hobby or a second job. Her first job is as a management consultant.

Second job or not, it is keeping Shay busy as she already has an idea for another standalone young adult book after she completes The Elected Series (she is currently working on the final book in the trilogy). Shay is working on publishing two picture books for children.

Shay said she feels energized and alive when she writes and it is a way she can express herself. She said she prefers writing fiction because it is fun to get inside her characters’ heads to figure out why they do what they do and say what they say.

“It gives you a better explanation of human nature,” she said about fiction writing.