Gracey James Campbell is used to being busy. As a beach volleyball student-athlete, her days are packed with practices, classes and tutoring. But this Valentine’s Day, she’s celebrating a different kind of win, as she just added “self-published author” to her résumé.

Campbell, who publishes as Gracey James, released her debut young adult romance novel “It’s Been Five Years” on Feb. 5.

Writing is not a new hobby for Campbell. She started during the COVID-19 pandemic when she couldn’t play beach volleyball and needed a creative outlet. She said she acts as a creative person in all aspects of her life, even in her athletics. With only two players on each side in beach volleyball, as opposed to six indoors, it leaves room to improvise, and she enjoys playing in her own unique way.

Outside the court, she writes every chance she gets. Campbell has written countless songs, with one published on Spotify called “Backseat Lovers,” and she recently optioned a screenplay she wrote when she was 16.

“You name it, I’ve probably tried it,” Campbell said.

Campbell decided in July to write the book, and she finished the draft in September after only three months of writing. Balancing her writing with athletics and academics is difficult, but she loves to do it.

“I don’t really find the time — I make it,” she said. “If I wanted to be like, ‘Okay, I’m gonna shower, eat and go to bed,’ I could, and I would be totally valid because I have such a huge schedule.”

The two outlets go hand-in-hand, she said. By fueling her creative side, Campbell feels she performs better athletically.

“It’s Been Five Years” follows Tate Knightley and Easton Mills, childhood best friends who reconnect after — you guessed it — five years apart. The story explores how they handle new emotions, how their past shapes their future and the biggest question of whether time can truly heal all wounds.

Campbell pulls elements from people in her life to create characters, but she enjoys building full, detailed personalities for her characters as well.

“I like figuring out what my characters look like, what kind of coffee they order, how they text and things like that,” she said. “I think if you know those things about your characters, it’s just so much easier to write like them.”

The book is written in dual point of view, which allowed Campbell to explore the contrast between the two leads. While writing in the male perspective was sometimes challenging, she focused on grounding Easton’s voice in the identity she built for him as a musician.

“I’ll catch myself sometimes writing a dialogue line, and I’m like, ‘ew, a guy would never say that,’” she said.

She described the book as having the same heartbeat as a Colleen Hoover, Emily Henry or Carley Fortune book — all authors she took inspiration from. Romance is Campbell’s favorite genre to read, but she found that writing romance novels is a very personal process. She hopes that this story shows readers that they too are worthy of love, like her characters are.

“Romance books remind people they’re worthy of being seen and loved for exactly who they are,” Campbell said.

The student views love as sacrificial, and said that everyone’s love is uniquely their own. She hopes others will read the book and realize they might already have this kind of love in their lives without even realizing it, and maybe that will give them the courage to pursue something unexpected.

Her favorite romantic gesture is when someone puts in effort to be close to her family. Campbell said she’s the most fortunate girl in the world, as her parents encourage all her creative pursuits and even help her when she needs it. Her mom helped edit the book with her, and she grew up watching her dad produce and co-direct movies, inspiring her own creative passions.

Her support system extends to her teammates, coaches and friends. Her two coaches were even some of the first people to buy the book, she said.

Campbell plans for “It’s Been Five Years” to be the first in a three-book trilogy. Her long-term goal, though, is to fill a bookshelf with stories she’s written.

When asked how her characters would spend Valentine’s Day, she said they would go to the beach, drink coffee from a “soup-sized” mug and watch the sunset.

Readers can purchase “It’s Been Five Years” on Amazon and cheer on Campbell at beach volleyball games this coming season.