I am happy to introduce Mr. Chuck Kelly.
DQ: Your biography reads like a Who’s Who of the entertainment world. Oh wait, you’re in Who’s Who in Entertainment. 😉 I’m happy to interview you today for my readers. I visited your Facebook page and found posts regarding space exploration and science. Is your interest in science and space part of research for your writing or have you always been interested in them?
CK: I have always been interested in science. I used to read Popular Science magazines. The only science course I took was in high school. My stories are pure imagination on how I interpret science and the universe.
DQ: Your entertainment career is fascinating. So many great legends of TV, Screen, and stage have passed on. You knew a lot of them, worked with them. I am sure you have some good stories to tell. At some future date, will you write a memoir of that time in your life?
CK: I was lucky to have known a lot of the entertainers. As a studio singer, I worked with them on each TV show, or recording. I do have a lot of stories to tell, and yes, I am putting together notes now for a book about my experiences in life.
DQ: Like C.S. Lewis, your career seems firmly embedded in the adult world, yet Lewis wrote one of the world’s most beloved series of children’s books. What inspired you to write a children’s series?
CK: When I was in the fourth grade, Mrs. McMillian asked for those in class who would like to tell a story, to stand in front of the class and tell their story. My friends egged me on to make up a story and tell it, so I did. I used the people in the classroom as characters and we all began a wonderful adventure. Each day the kids in the class wanted me to continue the story, so I did. The time allotted for the storyteller was fifteen minutes. This quickly became thirty minutes each day after lunch. This continued all year. The next year Mrs. McMillian (who said she loved my stories) told the fifth grade teacher of my story telling talent and I continued the adventure stories for another year, all through the fifth grade. This developed my imagination greatly and I never forgot the experiences. When I read the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew Mysteries, I told myself that I could maintain the same kind of suspense and excitement that these books had by writing my own series of books.
But first I had to follow my talent in music, so instead of majoring in writing in college, I took music. I did fulfill my dream of playing with the big bands when I went with the Glenn Miller Orchestra under direction of Ray McKinley, and then I joined the greatest, the Dizzy Gillespie big band.
My career in music wasn’t over yet. I still had to pursue my singing talents and became a group singer. I joined the Jones Boys and we did an album for Liberty called “Sittin’ on Top of the World”. The Jones Boys joined Betty Hutton in her nightclub act and we stayed with her for two years doing some TV and recording.
My biggest break as a singer came when I auditioned for the tenor part with the Modernaires. I got the job and stayed with them for five years. During that time we averaged one national TV appearance a month for the five years. One of those appearances was with the Bell Telephone Hour, which we did in New York. PBS has since taken that 6+ minute spot and they use it in their quarterly/yearly promotion for PBS. The spot features the Glenn Miller singers, Ray Eberle, Tex Beneke, and the Modernaires with Paula Kelly.
After five years with the Mods, I came home to work the studios. I was on the Red Skelton Show for five and a half years, Danny Kaye for two seasons, and did several recordings. I did commercials, movies (Hello Dolly, Star, Sweet Charity, The Great Race, etc.) I had a great run in the studios and knew it was time to get on with what I really wanted to do: write. After several years of magazine writing, technical writing and working as a freelance, I began the series “Legend of Otherland”. The stories sprang forth, just like they did back in the fourth grade.
Through the greatest publisher in the business, Carly McCracken, the books came alive as paperback books. I have written four books in the series, “Evil Does Exist”, “Adventure Underground”, “Adventure in Space”, and “Adventure in the Secret City”, all available through Crimson Cloak Publishing.
DQ: I find, as a reader, that authors with a lot of life experience tend to write deeper, richer stories. Tell me how all your varied life experiences have helped with your current writing career.
For me, my imagination is my greatest asset. True, I’ve had many experiences that will be written down someday, if that is what is meant to be, and these life experiences only add to fuel the imagination. Life is wonderful. I take the good and the bad, realizing that nothing lasts forever. Everything that happens, does so for a reason. I savor every ‘now’ moment and look forward to many more.
DQ: Which of your books is your favorite one and why?
CK: The first book Evil Does Exist brings back memories of my enthusiasm for the story. But my passion for writing the series continued throughout all four books. So, I don’t have a favorite. Writing each one was a series of ‘now’ moments that I cherish.
DQ: What would you like your readers to take with them from your books?
Enjoy the stories and adventures. I hope that I can inspire each reader to use his/her own thoughts and create something different and spectacular! Imagination is in everyone. All we have to do is to tap into that wonderful gift and it’s ours!
Thank you Ducky.
DQ: Thank you Chuck. For my readers, the links to Chuck’s books are here in this interview or you can follow the links in the Spotlight post. Chuck’s story is fascinating and I’m happy he chose to share a little of it with us.
