Local author David M. Kelly is about to release his first novel, a self-published work entitled “Mathematics of Eternity.”
Kelly is a writer of speculative fiction. His short story collection, “Dead Reckoning And Other Stories” was published in 2015.
When Kelly decided to give his novel’s lead character a disability, he never imagined that he would gain an all all-too intimate insight into some of his protagonist’s struggles and emotions.
In Mathematics of Eternity, Joe Ballen has lost both his legs and an arm in a space accident. He’s been forced to give up a career he loved and now flies cabs in flooded-out Baltimore. This being 2143, Joe is fitted out with state-of-the-art replacement limbs, allowing him full mobility.
But mentally he struggles to accept them and sometimes wishes he'd been left to die.
Kelly admits to experiencing similar feelings as, halfway through writing the book, he suffered a partial foot amputation. He completed the final part of the novel whilst recovering from surgery.
“It was a very dark, depressing time for me,” Kelly said, in a press release. “When I was creating the character of Joe, it never occurred to me I might one day end up in a similar situation.”
Everything Kelly loved — hiking, camping and swimming — was lost.
But two years later, his foot has almost healed, he’s walking again and back rebuilding his strength, confounding the expectations of medical staff who wanted him to have a below-knee amputation.
Kelly credits his writing with helping him get through the tough times. “Writing kept me going. I was stuck on a couch with my legs up for over eight months. I'd have gone crazy if I couldn't write.”
Readers will have to the chance to spend plenty of time with Joe as Kelly has at least another three installments planned in the Mathematics of Eternity series.
“They say write what you know, but I think for future books I’ll be quite happy for the research to be theoretical only!” he said.
Book one will be available in paperback and ebook Feb. 28 at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo.
The book is priced at $7.84 for the ebook and approximately $20 for paperback. More information is available at www.davidmkelly.net.
