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Overview
David is originally from England, but now lives in Canada with his wife. His writing career took off when he had a long commute to get to his computer job and spent that time writing. Then he had a major medical issue, and while recovering, it gave him time to finish up some writing.
He has several series and his latest, Kwelengsen Storm, has an interesting title that he took from Native Americans. We discuss his different series and what he likes about writing.
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Transcript
[00:00:32] Stephen: Welcome to episode 1 0 9 of discovered wordsmiths. Today. I have David Kelly. He’s written. Interesting book with an interesting title that I have tried very hard to pronounce, and I don’t think I’ve gotten it right. So listen to the podcast and hear him pronounce it correctly. I don’t want to mangle it. I like it because of the premise of what it’s based on.
So again, like usual, we’ve got [00:01:00] another interesting book, another great author to listen to. So if you’re looking for things to read. Check out all the episodes. Look for your favorite genres and listened. Go back and listen to those authors. Their books are still available just because they were on here a year or two years ago.
You can still get their books. It’s not disappearing. The books aren’t timing out. They’re still available. So please check them out, go get them. If you’re looking for good books. Also, I know a lot of people have asked about what, who I use for hosting and who I use for my podcast. So I’ve put some links.
If you go to the show notes for any episode over on the right, you’ll see some links to the hosting. I have DreamHost and I use blueberry broadcasting and a few other services. If you would like to use any of these services, please click on the link because it is. Cost you anything more? Sometimes you even get a bit of a deal, but it helps me out.[00:02:00]
And there’s costs with hosting there’s costs with the software and all sorts of other podcasting costs. And it would help a lot to keep this podcast going to help support all the authors. Here is David. This morning I’ve got David Kelly David, how are you doing today? Good. Nice.
And I combed my hair. I told ya. You said you got yours trim just for the podcast. I love that. David let’s find out a little bit about you tell everybody where you live, what you like to do besides writing just some of your background.
[00:02:33] David: So I’m originally from England. I moved to Canada many years ago now.
And I’m now a Canadian citizen. I. Spend a lot of time working in it initially as a developer and then later on as a project manager and manager that’s a very stressful area of work. So I’m glad to say that I don’t do that anymore. I started writing seriously [00:03:00] when I was when I got a job which involves a long commute.
On the train and I wanted to do something on the train and I’d always wanted to write. So I thought I’d used that opportunity to try and buy a book which I did. It was terrible. It was never published. It never will be published, but it was enough to hook me on the idea of actually doing this more seriously.
So I tried my hand at a couple of others. After that again, I wasn’t really too happy about the quality that I got. And I spent a lot of time just trying to learn about how to write and so on develop my skills and what have you got quite a few shots stories in an attempt to learn faster.
And then eventually I started writing what turned out to be my first novel And that was actually finished while I was laid off after some rather serious [00:04:00] medical issues.
[00:04:02] Stephen: I’ve heard other authors. I I had an operation and I was off work and I wrote, or I I had an accident and I had to take off work and I wrote, and I think that’s impetus.
[00:04:14] David: Yeah. I I was I had a partial. Amputation. And they were actually talking at one time of we’re moving my lower leg.
Yeah. Luckily the left part of my foot, but took my hair. But while I was recovering from that, I was literally like let up in bed for a year. And that’s when I finished the first of my novels that I released and. So the first one took me around G 20 years, 15 years, 20 years,
[00:04:46] Stephen: something like that.
[00:04:47] David: Yeah. Something like that with all the stress of a full-time job and everything. And then after doing that one I was still pretty much laid up. And so I finished the next book in six months. And I’ve [00:05:00] been rolling ever since
[00:05:00] Stephen: Let me jump back real quick. Why did you move from England to Canada?
[00:05:06] David: But I have a, oh, I had that too. Unfortunately, some of them are dead now, but I had a few uncles who moved over to Canada in the sixties. And when I was a young child one of them came back to visit in England and I basically sat. The two weeks listening to all of these tales of life in the wilderness of Canada as a fishermen and Hudson’s bay and that kind of thing.
And it just planted this idea in my head of wow, that sounds incredible. And I didn’t do it too much about it for a while. But then after I met my girlfriend, who’s now my wife, but. I decided I really wanted to try and make that move. And so we came over here on vacation and I’d been before and [00:06:00] fallen in love with it, but not done anything about it.
She came over with me the second time and equally fell in love with it. And we went back home and put in our application for immigration kind of the day we got back.
We moved here and we’ve loved it ever since.
[00:06:17] Stephen: So you mentioned that you wrote while traveling to your job, what do you do?
[00:06:21] David: At the time I was a project manager, it project manager. I had a two hour commute every day on the train. And I wasn’t going to just sit there, wasting that time.
And I certainly wasn’t going to work because if I worked though, I wasn’t going to get paid for it. So I’ll do something for myself.
[00:06:41] Stephen: Nice. Okay. So let’s talk about your book. So your first book took several years. Your second book you got done in a few months are they in a series
[00:06:52] David: the first year series with the Joe balance series?
There’s four books in that now the [00:07:00] second series that is the one I’m currently working on is a spinoff of that using one of the characters from that original series, but focusing on him who, other than the character Joe Bowen, which was the center of the first.
[00:07:16] Stephen: Okay. So tell us about the newest, a couple books, the newest series, w what are they called?
Tell us a little bit about them without giving away any spoilers.
[00:07:26] David: So the latest book the Logan’s world series, that’s the series name. And the first book is the collection storm. And the second book, which is coming out in a few months is Burlington Dawn. The books focus around an engineer who’s on the first first.
Kind of habitable exoplanet. So basically the found this that’s the life and they’ve sent people out [00:08:00] there to settle it. And he’s part of that settlement. He’s like the chief engineer for the new settlement. And then the bad guys invade because they want it. And everything comes crashing down.
[00:08:16] Stephen: So we were talking a little bit tell everyone the title where you came up with the title of the book.
[00:08:23] David: So the title comes from Salish, which is a native American language. And the reason that came from that is because the actual main character is his native America. And his heritage is from the Salish.
And the, in the story world, the the idea is that when he first sees this world, he sees this continent, that looks a little bit like an Eagle. And so he named it after the Eagle that he sees this landmass and in [00:09:00] Salish, the word for Eagle is Melenchon. And so that’s where the pilot gets it.
[00:09:07] Stephen: Okay. Did the Salish extend up into Canada, or why did you choose that tribe to, for your main character?
[00:09:15] David: The reason I chose that was because I I really liked chief them, George, who is a fabulous native, excuse me, native American actor. He was in several. Western movies with and I just loved his character.
And as a kind of tribute to him, I met my character solid because that was his background as
[00:09:42] Stephen: well. Nice. I love where people get inspiration and influences from all over. So I liked that. That was pretty cool. What books would you say that are out there that are similar to yours?
[00:09:55] David: That’s a difficult one. I think everybody has their own style, but [00:10:00] probably the expanse series maybe the motion I like to have it keep things as real, as possible or realistic as possible. But I liked them to be fast paced and full of that. I think those are probably the kind of like closest that moment.
[00:10:19] Stephen: Okay, good. Yeah. That gives people an idea. If you like these books, check this one out. So when you started writing your other series, this one, what, besides a two hour commute where you wanted to write on the train, what made you want to start writing?
[00:10:38] David: I I was a very big reader when I was young. I’ve I literally devoured several libraries full of books. I went through a phase where I would literally read anything. I didn’t really pick and choose. It’s if I spell something and I hadn’t read it, I’d just read it. Which meant that I ended up reading a lot [00:11:00] of very diverse thing So I always had that fascination with books and as I was growing up when I was in school and every kind of like opportunity I had, when we were doing things like English lessons, I would always try and twist the assignments that I ended up writing something fictional.
I always wanted to do that, but I was not really encouraged to do that. Like my teachers and everything. Oh there’s no point like doing that kind of stuff you better off doing something more technical sorry about that. No problem. So yeah, you better off doing something more technical and more useful to society.
So I abandoned the idea, but always like with me hanging around in the back of my mind that I wanted to try and do this at some point. And [00:12:00] so eventually, yeah, it was just, I said, I had this commute and I needed something to do. And I just turned back to that sort of childhood dream and thought, yeah, I’m going to give it a go.
[00:12:11] Stephen: To not everybody, but a large percentage of computer. It people I’m computer. It, you are, I’ve talked to multiple authors that are computer ID, and maybe I’m just noticing it because that’s my field, but it seems like dealing with computers in the analytical process, coding and hardware and all that, that I think sometimes we need that creative outlet and we don’t get a that’s my theory.
But I see a lot of. That are in computers, wanting to
[00:12:39] David: Dre. I agree. Actually, I’ve seen that quite a lot as well, and a surprising how many times I come in and get talking to another author or like a graphic office or something. And it’s like they say, yeah, I used to work in it, but I didn’t like it.
So now I do something else.
[00:12:58] Stephen: Okay. And [00:13:00] is your book indie published or traditionally.
[00:13:04] David: I’m an indie author. I publish everything myself.
[00:13:08] Stephen: Okay. And the books are already out there available on Amazon, I assume. Anywhere else that they’re available.
[00:13:17] David: Yeah. They’re available. Pretty much every kind of like online retailer.
You should be able to find them like Barnes and noble and all
[00:13:27] Stephen: those. Okay. And of the people that have been reading your book, what type of feedback are you getting?
[00:13:33] David: Most people really seem to enjoy it. The I’ve had some very good responses from readers then I’ve had people who said that they’ve abandoned reading science fiction, biggest they don’t like how it’s move.
And they’ve said, but my books they’ve just really enjoy them. I’ve had people who [00:14:00] said they don’t like to eat so far, who said, but I love y’all. And and I got a lot of I get a lot of weed through I’m the series as well. It’s like a lot of people they’ll try the first one and then they keep coming back.
So it’s getting more. Repeat buys and everything. So overall it’s it seems to be we see pretty well, which is obviously a great relief.
[00:14:26] Stephen: And it’s a pretty good Testament when someone reads one of your books and then goes through to read the whole series moves on to the next series and keeps going.
That’s that right? That says enough, right there actually.
You said you like to regrow it up, I assume you still do. What are some of your favorite books and authors?
[00:14:44] David: I excuse me, I like a lot of classic office. I grew up reading a lot of Heinlein and asthma and those kinds of things. I also like to read a lot of new [00:15:00] wild detective stories.
Those are some of my favorites, Sherlock Holmes, all those kinds of things. More recently, I’m trying to catch up on on the expanse book. It’s I’m way behind on those. But I’m kinda like to start. Pick up on those and read them on because I do enjoy them.
That they’re very good. And it’s kinda like interesting as well, seeing that they’ve now been turned into the TV show as well it’s interesting to see how they compare as well and then the other one that I’m hoping to stop reasonably soon as the murder.
[00:15:43] Stephen: Okay. I don’t know. That’s that’s one that catches my attention and but it’s one of these sort of strange things when you write, it’s like actually getting time to read becomes a lot more difficult because you’re spending all your time [00:16:00] lighting it’s this is literally my full-time job now.
[00:16:03] David: This is all I do. And so it becomes more difficult to find the time I’d never give up reading it. So I think it’s essential if you want to be an author, you need to read right. Yeah. So where you live, are there any favorite bookstores around you?
Yes. We have an independent book seller called bay used books just here in town, which is a treasure trove of.
Kind of everything. I even now, after all these years, I can’t really walk past a bookstore without kind of being pulled towards it, like a black, oh, been
[00:16:43] Stephen: a, yeah. My kids do I get them? I always visited bookstores when we went on vacation. It just had to be four new ones in the towns.
[00:16:54] David: Yeah. Yeah.
It’s it’s one of these things. I when I was growing up, I didn’t have [00:17:00] a lot of money. So like used books were like my way of being able to read more it’s I used to go into these places and buy books crazy prices at the time minutes.
Like they were 2010, so maybe 50 cents or something like that, a book. And I’d go in there and come back. Yeah. Something like a bag full of 50 cent books and then I’d just need them. Yeah.
[00:17:25] Stephen: Yeah. Your books, your series, if you had a choice, would you rather see them turned into a movie or a TV show?
[00:17:34] David: I would probably say a TV show. They, the I think the stories on my books, they’re so character based that I think you wouldn’t really have the chance to do that and explore that thoroughly in a movie because of the time we climate. And now because of the fact that they [00:18:00] can do TV shows that actually look almost as good as movies I don’t think there’s a disadvantage to kinda running TV series based on book.
It used to be like, obviously, if you had something that needed a lot of special effects, it had to be a movie because that was the only way you had the budget to do those things. But now it’s like the things the landscapes and. Yeah. I would say if you look at things like the the expense series, for example of men, it’s like, they do a tremendous job on that.
Yeah.
[00:18:36] Stephen: And you starting to see, not starting, but you’ve been seeing some big name, actors doing things on Netflix or Amazon prime doing and movies too. Like we just watched the Adam project, which if you haven’t seen on Netflix it’s worth a watch. It’s really fun. And it had some good, special effects.
Yeah, it was better than some movies. I’ve paid 15 bucks to see in the theater and I got to sit at [00:19:00] home and watch it right on Netflix and then go right into watching season two of Witcher so there’s a lot of benefits and I think a lot of people are actually happier to get some show on Netflix or some other streaming service nowadays.
[00:19:15] David: Yeah. W me and my wife had, she just watched the Adam project last weekend and. Yeah, I agree. It’s it’s great to have so much more choice available nowadays there’s good and bad. Some of it you watch and you think maybe not that this, there’s also some good stuff on
[00:19:33] Stephen: that.
So yeah. Yes, I do like it from the story aspect, because I’ve watched several movies where I didn’t feel. They were as good. And I could evaluate it from a story aspect and say here’s why I think it didn’t come out as good. So it allows me to practice my story chops with some things, because always seeing the best stuff [00:20:00] sometimes doesn’t help you as much as seeing stuff that’s not as good and figuring out why it’s not as good.
My thoughts.
[00:20:04] David: I was just going to say, I think I’m the only kind of like problem of being an author now is that I’ve become incredibly critical. It’s and I see every plot hole going you’re watching something and I have to just zip my lip because otherwise, like my wife stopped complaining because I have.
Oh, this is going to happen or that’s going to happen though. That’s crazy. That would never have
[00:20:30] Stephen: I do the same thing. Oh, I’ll be watching something. And if I’m not super pulled into it I might pull out my phone or my tablet and I’m working on a website or whatever. And she’s don’t you want to watch this?
I’m like this is going to happen. He’s going to do this. It’s going like this. And she’s shut up. Yeah, absolutely. All right. David tell us again if you have a website and the name of your book and where to get it.
[00:20:57] David: Yeah, I have a website. It’s very nice and easy. [00:21:00] It’s my name?
So it’s David M kelly.com and my book collection storm is available at the moment. Amazon and pretty much every other online bookstore they sequel to that is coming out in a few months, which is called the function.
[00:21:19] Stephen: Dawn. Okay, great. And before we move on to some author talk if people are like, eh, I don’t know if you were in an elevator, what would you tell them about why they should get and read your book?
[00:21:33] David: I like to think my books kinda like really I try to make them all like one of three things or three things in total. I like them to be accessible so that people can pick them up and read them. They don’t need to have like a degree in astrophysics. There’s science in there, but it’s it’s always somewhat in the background.
You don’t need to understand it to read it. I like to make them [00:22:00] realistic. But I also like to keep them fun so that the very, always very fast paced, lots of action. And then to them and the heroes are typically like quite smart, my ballon character, for instance, he’s you got a very big mouth that gets them into a lot of trouble.
Logan, two feathers in the current books, he’s like more subdued he’s got a very dry sense of humor. Yeah. Th the very easy to read people tell me.
[00:22:30] Stephen: Okay, nice. Great. David, I appreciate you sharing your book with us and being on today. Thanks.
Thank you