Plant City Author Kenneth Kelly Finds His Place on the Page.
For Plant City author Kenneth Kelly, storytelling started long before he ever considered himself a writer.
As a child, Kelly loved listening to his grandparents tell stories. He was fascinated by the characters, the twists and turns, and the simple magic of sitting down and being transported somewhere else. Before he could read or write himself, he would ask his parents to write stories down for him.
Even then, he wanted to preserve the stories in his head and put them somewhere he could return to.
By the time he reached 12th grade, Kelly began taking writing more seriously. What started as a childhood fascination eventually became a lifelong pursuit, leading him into the worlds of fantasy and horror and, ultimately, to becoming a published author.
Today, Kelly has five books to his name, with two more currently on the way. His work ranges from fantasy to horror thrillers, often exploring characters and situations that are anything but ordinary. His first published book came through an unexpected connection with an established name in the fantasy world. Kelly co-wrote a book with fantasy author Piers Anthony, who is now 92 and has had a long career writing science fiction and fantasy.
Kelly’s own publishing journey has included both traditional and self-publishing. His first self-published book was Trespassing Through Time, with cover art by Jesse Starr. Four of his five published books have gone through traditional publishing.
The road to getting there was not always easy.
Kelly remembers shopping Journey of a Forsaken Rose to independent publishers and initially facing rejection and, in some cases, no response at all. For an aspiring author, that kind of silence can be discouraging. Kelly kept writing.
That persistence eventually paid off. Two of his books, Virtue Inverted and Journey of a Forsaken Rose, have gone on to win awards.
His published works include Trespassing Through Time, the three books of the PAKK Trilogy, Virtue Inverted, Amazon Expedient and Magenta Salvation, as well as Journey of a Forsaken Rose: A Novel.
For Kelly, however, writing is not simply about putting a book on a shelf. It is about creating stories that people want to step into. When asked where he finds inspiration, his answer is simple: everywhere. The people he encounters in everyday life can become the starting point for characters, personalities, and situations. Real life provides an endless supply of material, even when the finished story takes the reader somewhere far removed from reality.
One of the more difficult parts of writing, Kelly said, is creating villains who remain villains.
It can be tempting to explain a character’s behavior, give them a sympathetic backstory or find some reason for their actions, but sometimes, a villain needs to simply be the villain. Finding the balance between creating a compelling character and allowing that character to remain truly sinister is part of the challenge.
That darker side of storytelling fits naturally with Kelly’s preferred genres. Horror thrillers and fantasy make up the heart of his work, giving him plenty of room to explore strange worlds, unsettling characters, and situations that would be difficult to find anywhere else.
While much of the writing life happens alone, Kelly has also begun bringing his work to readers in person. He has participated in readings and book signings at stores including Books-A-Million and Barnes & Noble, allowing readers to meet the person behind the stories.
He has also seen a steady upward trend in digital downloads of his books, a sign that his audience continues to grow beyond the people who discover his work at local events.
And writing is only one part of Kelly’s life.
He is also a black belt in Taekwondo and works as a teacher with third- and fourth-grade ESE students in Polk City. Between teaching, writing, and his other pursuits, his life may seem a long way removed from the fantasy worlds found in his books.
In some ways, though, the two worlds have something in common: both involve people, personalities and stories.
Kelly is also continuing to look toward the future. Two additional books are currently on their way to publication, and he is working on another future project with Piers Anthony.
For someone who started out asking his parents to write down the stories he imagined as a child, it is quite a journey. There is also something particularly fitting about an author finding his way to publication through persistence. Writing can be a solitary endeavor, and rejection is a familiar part of the process for many authors. Kelly’s experience is a reminder that a rejection or an unanswered query does not necessarily mean the story is not worth telling.
Sometimes it simply means the writer has to keep going.
Kelly wants to recognize and thank everyone who has taken the time to read his work, whether they discovered one of his books online, picked one up at a bookstore, or met him at an event.
For a Plant City author who has been fascinated by stories since childhood, that connection with readers may be the most rewarding part of all. After all, the stories that began in Kelly’s imagination as a child eventually made their way onto paper. Now they are making their way into the hands of readers.
And there are still plenty more stories to come.
