The following article appeared in the Hastings (Nebraska) Tribune, December 13, 2004
Hastings-born author has big dreams
TIMOTHY N. STELLY, SR HAS CONJURED UP 30 NOVELS AND 32 SCREENPLAYS
WITH PURE IMAGINATION
by John Huthmacher
Hastings-born author Timothy N. Stelly has had enough life experiences
to cram several novels. But you won't find any of them in his 30 novels and 32 plays.
Instead, the middle son of 11 of Matthew and Clariece Stelly, said he prefers
creating his characters out of thin air, drawing inspiration from his expansive imagination.
Stelly and his family moved to California when he was 6.
His first publication, "Tempest in the Stone" (Publish America), which
is slated for release on January 1, 2005, is based solely on images he conjured up from nothingness.
"It's completely fabricated," the Pittsburg, Calif., resident said. "Sometimes
I'm just sitting up thinking. I write about things nobody ever thought about writing about before."
His sources of inspiration are unlimited, he said.
"I can always get on a bus, go to San Francisco, look in a phone book or
dictionary, and get an idea," he said.
In this debut publication, Stelly's main characters - a young man and woman
- are trapped in a fictional California town where living by wrought has become a way of life from generation to generation.
Inspired both by life-threatening events and the sheer monotony of their existence, the pair hooks up with two more friends
and decides to make a break for it...but to where?
A brochure about Omaha piques their curiosity, and, after overcoming a
series of obstacles, the foursome heads out to make a new life for themselves in the promised land of the Midwest.
That vision of Omaha, along with his knowledge of its streets and people,
is perhaps the only bit of the story rooted in reality, Stelly said.
"I know all about Omaha," he said, "how it's laid out and how beautiful
it is. Adams Park was one of the first things I saw when I got to Omaha and it's totally etched in my memory."
Indeed, Stelly has seen and experienced many things most novelists
would be hard-pressed not to rehash in print: divorce, homelessness, a
back injury that forced him to retire from his factory mill job in 1998, and the deaths of people close to him.
The subsequent anger caused by these and other life experiences may well
have consumed him had it not been for his outlet of writing.
"Writing has always been therapeutic," he said. "I start writing this particular
novel in 1991 because I was going through some personal things and had a lot of bitterness.
"In 2000, I wound up in a homeless shelter with two of my kids and took
the novel out and starting putting the finishing touches on it."
When a friend, Mary Conyers (who was killed in a car accident last year
along with her daughter), read the completed work, her comments instilled a confidence in the young writer that prompted him
to take his craft to the next level.
"She told me, 'It made me laugh, it made me cry,'" he said, "and that I
should try to hone my talent."
So after moving into transitional housing in Pittsburg in 2001, he
retrieved his computer from storage and began writing at a feverish clip.
"I spent 14 to 16 hours a day in front of my computer," he said. "I hardly
even slept."
With one novel set for publication and two others ("The Malice of Cain"
and "The Degradation of Annabelle") in negotiations, Stelly is hoping the fruits of his considerable work will be enough to
carve out a decent living for himself and his three young children, ages 12, 9, and 6. His heart is counting on it.
"I think that writing is probably the smartest thing I've ever done," he
said. "It's something I really love. I've worked harder at this than I ever did at the mill, but it's not really work because
I absolutely enjoy it."
