By Sharon Geltner
Lightning struck for Delray Beach resident Kelley McNeil when popular fantasy author Barbara Davis posted a positive review of McNeil’s debut novel, A Day Like This.
The fledgling author’s book hit number one on its first day and was a best seller in the United Kingdom and in three days was No. 1 in the United States. It stayed in the Top 5 of an Amazon chart for seven weeks, today has over 31,000 reviews, and United Talent Artists is shopping a screenplay.
That’s a hard act to follow.
The good news is that Amazon recommended McNeil’s Mayluna for Women’s Fiction in early 2024.
The not-so-good news is that this book, though sincerely written by an author with an exciting background in the music industry, launched before it was ready. There is a lot of repetition. It should be 100 pages less.
Mayluna, similar to A Day Like This, aims for that sweet spot between TikTok feels with Twilight Zone plot twists and Hallmark movie vibes. This would be very ambitious for experienced writers and even for them, nothing is assured.
The plot: Carter is the lead singer of a Nineties British alternative rock band, Mayluna, writing “tortured heart” lyrics. He also has a secret connection to a mysterious woman. Meanwhile, Spin assigns 25-year-old Evie a longshot backstage interview of him and the band.
“Both books have elements of magical realism, intuition and manifestations, as well as mysticism, soulmates, interconnectedness and a divine plan for everyone,” McNeil says. She also writes about “fate, regret, moving on and the ongoing journey toward personal growth and happiness.”
However, it takes extremely precise writing to make the unbelievable real. Some people scoff at supernatural genres.
They shouldn’t. Fiction about time travel and star-crossed lovers takes enormous talent, imagination, organizing and endurance to pull off. The late author Richard Matheson was the master of this technique in his romance, Bid Time Return (made into the movie Somewhere in Time.)
McNeil’s characters seem realistic because they equivocate, are tentative and uncertain. But this makes for frustrating reading.
Example: “I think she was planning to stay at a local hotel, or maybe we were going to drive back. I can’t remember now.”
And:
“The full moon filled the entire room with such bright light, it was almost like dawn. Or maybe it actually was dawn.”
Meanwhile, a character is “…on a private plane high in the sky above the clouds…”
From early childhood, McNeil loved writing and music equally but publicizing bands “was my goal ever since I went to my very first concert. It was Neil Diamond, and I was completely enchanted.”
She started at DiCesare Engler Productions in Pittsburgh, where she grew up. The company later became Clear Channel and is now Live Nation, helping to promote acts touring Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. Co-owner Rich Engler later wrote Behind the Stage Door (about rock ’n’ roll escapades) that became a documentary in 2022 and today promotes concerts in Bradenton, Anna Maria, Palmetto, his native Pittsburgh and elsewhere.
McNeil promoted hundreds of bands and stadium tours, including Bon Jovi, Tim McGraw, NSYNC, Eagles, Steve Miller Band, Dave Matthews and the Lilith Fair.
“Most artists are larger than life on stage. But backstage they are very human, with a spouse and kids … celebrities and performers get dehumanized in a public way. They have the same needs and fears as the rest of us,” she says.
In Mayluna, McNeil convincingly portrays the guilt and self-loathing of a rock star.
“That’s a common trait among very successful artists,” she said. “Although you do find the ones that are full of themselves, but those types are very rare.”
McNeil left music to raise her two young daughters and moved to a “very beautiful property” in the rural Catskills. “I then had the mental bandwidth and space to open up and become an author.”
“I was not formally trained. I wrote stories and journals from a very young age and used writing to make sense of the world.”
Around 10 years ago, McNeill moved to Delray Beach when her husband became a vice president at the Broward Performing Arts Center in Fort Lauderdale.
“We heard a lot of great things about Delray before we came here … beaches, walking trails, nature preserves, downtown and an arts and entertainment community. Great access to schools and a smalltown vibe,” she said.
The only thing Delray is missing, (with the demise of Murder on the Beach) McNeil said, is “a great, independent bookstore. Someday, I’d like to open one that is as nice as the Beacon Hill bookstore in Boston, which would be an homage to old South Florida.”
Mayluna, by Kelley McNeil, Lake Union Publishing, 381 pp. $16.99.
Sharon Geltner is the author of Charity Bashed, a Palm Beach mystery and social satire, available on Amazon.